Study Up to Give Your Business an Advantage

Lee Jones is the real deal — and he has a Big Idea!

He has done training, mergers and acquisitions, consulting throughout the industry and industry keynotes. Plus, as owner of Support Services Group, he has a list of corporate clients that would be the envy of anyone doing consulting work in the industry.

He is both a nice guy and a good friend — and he’s probably the only one reading this who actually knows my birthday!

Absolutely Brilliant

We do a lot of kidding and joking over the phone. Since he is not above pulling a prank on a friend, I really had to study what he wrote for his Big Idea. And, I must say, it’s brilliant!

Read what he has written, think about it and then do something about it. Although many people have thought about improving their business skills, Lee has taken it one step further and actually done it.

I would take this Big Idea and let the industry know that this is probably in the top 10 ideas that I’ve ever received over 20 years of publishing my column of Big Ideas.

Call me to get Lee’s e-mail address. If nothing else, write to him and let him know what you think of the Big Idea. He will probably return the e-mail with 10 more great ideas that popped into his mind.

Lee Jones’ Big Idea

OK, so here’s Lee’s Big Idea:

Yes, Ron is a really old guy. I know because I’m the same age. And, by “the same age,” I mean born within hours on the same day. I’m the younger. I have also spent my entire work history within this special industry. My launch pad can be attributed to my law degree. No, I am not an attorney, but I earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in corporate law via correspondence courses — now known as online courses.

That leads me to my Big Idea: Study corporate law — as much as you can absorb. You don’t need degrees. It’s guaranteed to provide valuable guidance throughout your career, often when you don’t know it. But do not make the mistake of assuming it will replace having a real attorney.

I share just one of my examples: After several years in outside sales of monitored alarm systems in Los Angeles County and Orange County in California, I was appointed sales manager for a typical regional Santa Ana, Calif., monitoring firm that was fully integrated with end-to-end responsibility for RMR subscribers. Soon thereafter, in 1966, Grinnell Corp., owner of ADT, AFA and Holmes, was hit with fed antitrust/monopolies — control of about 87% of the entire national market for remote monitoring.

My law training at that point included monopolies and federal antitrust. Our little team of two salespeople and seven technicians gained about 10 years of our normal revenue growth within about six months. Very little maintenance; just quick monthly tests. High RMR that never stops because fire systems are mandated.

My law training alerted me in advance to our ability to take over the entire system, upon customer approval, using most of the installed ADT equipment, without any resistance. We had it done before the competition knew what we were doing. Our little company got high visibility all across the country. Note: This is when Honeywell Protection Services (HPS) was born. They bought the local family monitoring business and asked me to move from California to Minneapolis to help them build the new division. I participated in their first 22 acquisitions within less than three years. More personal history for another time….

See you next month with more Big Ideas!

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