As a security dealer, you’re constantly fielding challenges that can get in the way of your long-term vision. After all, who has time for strategy when you’re busy putting out fires, responding to clients, hiring the right people, and coping with market fluctuations?
We know, because we’ve been there: your days can quickly get away from you, especially in this business! The worst is, when you’re constantly responding to whatever comes up in a given day, you can’t focus on the future. Your business can start controlling you, rather than you controlling it.
That’s no way to build a future. So let’s discuss the challenges that security dealers like you face. Can anything be done about this onslaught of to-dos and to-deal-withs? The answer is yes, and it starts with getting your time back. We’ll show you how.
How many of these challenges do YOU face in a given day?
There’s so much chaos in this industry, there is enough to go around for everyone. How many of these do you have to deal with in a given day, week, or month?
- Regulatory challenges – Security and privacy regulations are subject to frequent changes, and this can have an impact on your business operations as you attempt to stay up-to-date. Adapting to new compliance requirements can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
- Technological disruption – You’re constantly challenged to stay on top of new technological advances as they emerge–whether it’s to integrate them into your business or to protect against them when they’re used against you (or your customers). A few years ago, it was the IoT and making sure all devices were updated, secured, and safe on the network. Now it’s AI and machine learning, and that terrain is shifting day by day. This evolution, coupled by rapid advancements in security technology itself, require ongoing investment and training to stay competitive. One hint that you’re out of date, and your customers (and revenues) might be out the door!
- Market saturation – This industry is highly competitive, and there are well-established players as well as scrappy new upstarts vying for a limited customer base. Finding and retaining customers in this kind of market can be a constant struggle.
- Talent shortages – Do you have the right team in place, or are you still racing around filling gaps left by employees who’ve departed and haven’t been replaced? Skilled security professionals are in high demand, and finding and retaining the right people can be a challenge–especially if you have to spend time and money on recruiting, interviewing, and training new hires. This can take precious time away from other growth opportunities.
- Evolving customer expectations – Customers know that what you offered last year may no longer be a top-of-the-line solution, and with technology advancing as rapidly as it does, you may start to feel stuck in time if you just rely on what worked in the past. Customers are looking for more personalized, professional, integrated security solutions–and if you want their business, you have to adapt to those shifting expectations.
- Mergers and acquisitions – Consolidation in our industry, whether through mergers or acquisitions, can disrupt existing partnerships, contracts, and business strategies. You may find yourself navigating these often unpredictable changes while still trying to maintain client trust.
How can you transcend these challenges?
It’s time to think big. There may not be a way to head off a merger, or control market fluctuations, or predict what the next big security innovations will bring. There may not be a way to control the outside forces that can eat up your working days, but there are ways to get the most out of what you can control.
All of these outside factors will prompt you to think fast and adapt quickly, and there’s no way to know which will hit next. But in your day-to-day operations, you do have considerable power over your time. You can choose:
- How you handle billing and payment processing
- How you schedule service and repairs
- How you manage customer contracts
- How efficiently you run your operations
- How you manage cash flow
- How well you allocate your resources
- How you spend your time
- …And more
Let’s be honest: you can’t really make time for your long-term vision without first getting a handle on the day-to-day process inefficiencies that can suck up every last minute.
So if you want to regain control of your business and make time to think ahead, think big, and think smart, you’ll have to rein in unwieldy processes.
Our number one tip? We may be a little biased, but we’re not wrong: give Managely a try! We created this software specifically because we knew the headaches security dealers faced day in and day out. And we wanted to take those away, so they could focus on their long-term business success.
Managely may not be able to iron out market wrinkles or help you wrangle regulatory hurdles, but it can give you your time back. Here’s what it can help you do:
- Streamline billing and payment collection – No spreadsheets, no problems. Managely can handle all of your billing effortlessly and automatically, whether it’s a one-time customer payment or recurring monthly billing. No more chasing down payments or losing revenue due to misplaced invoices. Billing should be a seamless and pain-free part of your business operations, and Managely delivers just that.
- Ditch your clunky workflow – How many systems does it take to run your business? If you’re switching between several different business management software systems, documents, and spreadsheets just to get through the day, you’re already doing too much. Managely streamlines your workflow so practically everything you have to manage in a single day can be done from a unified dashboard: customer billing, proposals, work orders, contracts, customer information, and more.
- Schedule jobs quickly and easily – Get your time back when you use Managely to schedule and track technician work orders, automatically turning them into invoices when the job is done. It means you no longer have to switch back and forth between manually creating work orders, checking calendars, waiting for paper tickets, and remembering to create invoices.
- Get business intelligence and data visualization – What’s best for your business? It’s hard to know if you don’t have the data to back it up–and the ability to access it quickly and easily. Managely’s business intelligence and data visualization tools help you make sense of your business’s day-to-day operations as well as the bigger picture.
- Grow your profits – Our customers tell us that switching to Managely has saved them several hours each month. With it, they can streamline invoicing and billing, create better workflows, cut down on job scheduling hassles, easily increase overall rates, and schedule more tech visits. Those hours they get back each month give them the space they need to reclaim their vision and think strategically about the future. What would you do with a bit of extra time?
You may not be able to control outside forces, but you can take control of your business, using the extra time you gain to build your vision for the future: how will you grow, and how will you get there? Now that’s the kind of question worth spending your time on.
And if you’re interested in taking Managely for a spin, we’re here to help! Contact us today to see how it can help your business thrive from the inside, no matter what else is happening out in the world.