Last night Dan Triglia, Security Dealer's west coast sales manager, and I went to a dinner reception held by Criticom International at the Palms' Ghost Bar. The place had a comfortable atmosphere with a spectacular view (this bar is located 55 floors up).
Two of the people seated at our table were Benny and Emily Ying, who are security dealers who run Beta Security Systems in southern California. It was fun to chat with them about their business. Dan asked them a lot of good questions, and they seemed happy to answer.
I learned a little bit about Benny's background and it was rather interesting. As it turned out, Benny's degree is in electrical engineering and he began his career as an engineer in the aerospace industry. However, when he was in his mid 20's, his townhome was burglarized. So, he started looking through the phone book to see if he could find anyone to help set him up with a burglar alarm. He had trouble finding a dealer and spent much time researching how to do it himself. After he successfully installed his own alarm, he started getting inquiries from friends and associates. Finally, on the side, he set up an alarm for a dentist (his first customer). Once Benny built up 150 clients, he was able to quit his engineering job and run his own security dealership full time. Today he has over 1,800 clients (including that same dentist).
During the course of conversation, it was readily apparent that Benny and Emily make a great team, which obviously has contributed to their company's huge success. Benny jokes that he should go back to the guy who burglarized his townhome and say, Thank you!
-Greg
