May 2, 2025 • 31 mins
Eric Benson shares the journey of Benson Systems, a family business that evolved from a garage startup in 1986 to a thriving 75-employee operation specializing in security, fire alarm, and sprinkler systems in Arizona.
• Father started Benson Systems in 1986 from his garage as a security contractor
• Expanded into fire alarm and suppression systems over the years
• Built a 55,000 square foot facility in 2004 that serves as their headquarters
• Company now employs 75 people including 40 field technicians
• Services major clients like Gilbert Public Schools and Arizona Cardinals
• Primarily focuses on commercial projects with 85-90% direct-to-owner business
• Access control systems have evolved from key fobs to mobile phone access
• Currently implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to structure business operations
• Shifted from reactive to proactive sales with dedicated outbound sales team
• Technology integration capabilities connect cameras, access control, security systems, and fire alarms
• Gilbert Public Schools project integrated 5,000+ devices into a central monitoring system
• Retail clients benefit from heat-sensing cameras that track customer movement patterns
• Multiple software systems create integration challenges both internally and for clients
Looking to elevate your security, fire, and life safety systems? Contact us to learn how our integrated solutions can protect your business while providing actionable insights through the latest technology.
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https://timelessci.com/
https://timelessco.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonytimeless/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony Johnson (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Timeless Business
and Building Strategies.
Today we are with Eric Bensonof Benson Inc.
They do security, fire and lifesafety.
Eric, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Thank you, excited to be on.
So, eric, can you give us alittle historical reference on
(00:22):
your company?
Eric Benson (00:24):
Sure, give us a little historical reference on
your company.
Sure, my father started it in1986 here locally in Gilbert
Arizona.
He started it out of his garage, grew up as a technician in the
field and decided that he coulddo it better and started Benson
Systems.
So back in 86, he wasoriginally just a security
(00:44):
contractor doing cameras, accesscontrol, integration, and over
the years he kind of morphedinto bringing on fire alarm
first and then eventuallybrought on all the suppression,
side sprinkler, special hazards,all that.
And then in 2004, we built thiscorporate building that I'm in
(01:05):
today still.
It's a 55,000 square footfacility that we house our
warehousing and our training andour office staff.
I mean, at one point he hadmultiple offices throughout the
country, but in 08, the crash,he kind of brought everything
back to Arizona and thenprobably around what was it?
(01:28):
When I was 21,?
So it was 2011,.
After college I've been workinghere full time since then.
I've been originally awarehouse manager, I've done
technician in the field, I'vedone our operations management,
I've done our service management, I've been our controller, I've
done our operations management,I've done our service
management, I've been ourcontroller, I've been our CFO.
(01:49):
So I've kind of done a littlebit of everything and as of what
.
Almost three years ago I tookover as CEO and I'm kind of
running the helm now.
So we've kind of just focusedin on our security and fire
protection since then Mainlycommercial way back in the early
days when he did someresidential, but we're mainly
(02:10):
commercial today.
So we have customers likeGilbert Public Schools, arizona
Cardinals, that that type ofsubset of customers.
Tony Johnson (02:21):
So that's a quick history.
Fantastic set of customers.
So that's a quick history,fantastic.
So people understand thataren't in tune all the way.
Eric, could you explain whataccess control covers?
Eric Benson (02:35):
Yeah, so usually for our customers access control
is entry and exit to theirbuilding through used to be key
fob, but nowadays we're evendoing it to where it's like
mobily on their cell phone.
They don't even need to pull itout, they just wave their hand.
Um, so why do they do it?
I think most of the time it'seither from a safety standpoint,
not allowing certain people toget in, sometimes it's a
(02:57):
convenience standpoint, uh.
Sometimes it's, uh, a kind of abottleneck to force people to
go through an entry and exit.
So they usually have camerasalso tied to it.
It's better for easy use.
Larger customers in the old dayswere having to give keys to
people that have access control,which they would lose the keys,
(03:19):
they would have to rekey thedoor.
It made a very slow and manualprocess that access control
fixed.
So there's a lot of integrationthat goes with it as well, tied
to other systems.
Usually when we install anaccess control you have to tie
it into the fire alarm becauseit needs to unlock when there's
a fire alarm, you know.
So it allows the firefightersto come in.
(03:42):
So that's kind of high-leveloverview of what access control
and what our customers use itfor.
Tony Johnson (03:49):
Perfect.
Yeah, you know.
Basically we get the accesscontrol, fire alarms and the
sprinklers all work inconjunction.
So you know you guys arerunning the full gamut.
A lot of times you'll have firealarm companies that handle the
security and fire alarms andthen sprinklers.
Only Do you guys still dosprinklers?
Eric Benson (04:11):
Yes, we do.
Tony Johnson (04:12):
So you guys are running the full gamut, so
that's quite an operation.
So how big is your team?
Eric Benson (04:21):
We're probably 75 people 75 people.
75 people 75 with, withprobably 40 of those being
technicians in the field and therest either office staff or
sales staff awesome, all right.
Tony Johnson (04:39):
So I I like to dig in a little bit on business
understanding, if that's okaywith you first, and then we'll
get a little more in there.
So you've bounced around.
As you stated right, you were acontroller, cfo, a technician
in the field, running differentdepartments.
So, as you got all of thatknowledge, where did you find
(05:05):
your strongest suit?
What were you best at in thoseareas?
Eric Benson (05:13):
You know I like to say I also have an older brother
in the business as well thatworks with me.
Him and I are a good fit.
I've always kind of not that Idislike the operations side side
, I just never found an interestin it right and more of a sales
business side of like strategic, you know, businesses.
There's some other things thatwe used to do, uh that since I
(05:37):
took over we kind of stoppeddoing and I kind of refocused.
At one point we were inCaliforniaifornia.
I brought us out of california.
So more of the strategicbusiness development.
Um, we're like where thecompany's going and I've always
loved the sales side.
Tony Johnson (05:52):
Uh, for sure so we what we call that, and I don't
know if you operate on eos, butso we would call you the
visionary and your brothersounds like the integrator,
right uh, brought on eos lastyear, by the way.
Eric Benson (06:07):
Oh, fantastic, so we're.
We're not quite through ourfirst year yet, but so far we're
loving it, and what you said isexactly right yeah, so you know
, and those are where you getthe synergy of a strong
partnership.
Tony Johnson (06:20):
So sounds like you and your brother are running
the ship and, you know, stayingin your lane, deferring all
technical questions to yourbrother Operational and process
questions would be handled byhis brother on where it's going,
(06:41):
the vision for the future, whatthey're pursuing, setting the
vision and the clarity foreveryone in the company on where
they're going.
So that is fantastic, eric.
So, being that you guys are oneyear in, that is awesome.
Are you guys self-implementingthis or do you have an
(07:02):
implementer working with you?
We have an implementer that Igot introduced to.
She's been fantastic, awesome,yeah.
So having an implementer reallyfast forwards the process
significantly.
So always if you can afford tohire one, it's well worth it.
(07:23):
So have you guys got your fullvision traction organizer
complete?
Eric Benson (07:28):
Yes.
Tony Johnson (07:30):
And do you guys hold weekly L10s?
We do.
Eric Benson (07:36):
Right now it's just the leadership team.
I have not got it out to therest of the company yet.
Just the leadership team.
Tony Johnson (07:45):
Sure, that's awesome.
And how big is your leadershipteam?
Eric Benson (07:51):
As I'm sure you're aware, eos kind of makes you go
through things that I think ishealthy but sometimes intense.
So we've had to work throughsome positions in the leadership
team and right now it's just mybrother and I right now.
Tony Johnson (08:11):
So Okay, and are you two meeting every week?
Eric Benson (08:16):
Yeah.
Tony Johnson (08:17):
Okay, all right, that's interesting.
So we've been running it mycompany four years.
So we, and yet the leadershipteam you know you don't want,
you want to keep it at the mostseven and below, what a lot of
times happens in a smallercompany and you want, you know,
to be very careful.
(08:37):
Eric's talking, they got 75people.
He's only at two and there'snothing wrong with that.
The most important factorwhenever you're starting with
the OS is you don't want tobring in too many people, and if
you're a company of 10 andyou're bringing in seven of them
as the leadership team, that'sa problem having to exit some of
(09:07):
these people and I think it'syou know it speaks that you guys
are very carefully consideringeverything as you're rolling
this out.
So that is, that is fantastic.
Now, have you, when you'resaying you guys have a VTO, have
you rolled out your VTO to yourcompany?
Not, yet you have not rolledthat out.
Okay, when do you plan on doingthat?
Eric Benson (09:34):
We have our first State of the Union, that address
to the company scheduled nextmonth, so everything's kind of
starting next month schedulednext month, so everything's kind
of starting next month.
Tony Johnson (09:48):
Oh, that's great.
Now, when you guys have donethis and I know you're saying
that, you know the leadershipteam is tricky Do you guys use
any trait profiling surveys foryour team member to establish
their strengths and weaknesses,to facilitate their position and
(10:09):
right person, right seat?
Eric Benson (10:12):
You know it's funny you bring that up.
I recently joined a groupcalled YPO last year as well
here locally in Arizona, part ofa chapter, and inside of YPO
they're known as forums.
So I'm with like seven otherpeople and we just had our forum
retreat and we did likebusiness presentations and they
all talked about this on howthey use these certain
(10:33):
personality tests.
We do not do that, but man, itopened my eyes with them
explaining it to me.
Like you are now, I would loveto implement it.
We do not today.
Tony Johnson (10:47):
Okay, yeah.
So one that we use is calledCulture Index.
Now there's Predictive Index,culture Index, myers-briggs
there's a large variety of them.
Culture Index is great, and whywe use it is it not only
predicts the person by theirtraits, but it also puts
(11:07):
something within it where youcan continually do it.
To existing employees it's gota secondary measurement which
will tell you how they'refeeling in their workplace, can
tell you if they're in alignmentor out of alignment, tells you
if they're stressed and they'rehappy and engaged with their job
, or disengaged, meaning thatthey might not be happy, overly
(11:29):
stressed, looking for anotherjob.
So it's a good thing to gaugeas you're moving forward.
But it sounds like you guys areon the right track and that's
great.
Eric, that's awesome.
So that is very interesting.
Now, size wise, you've got 75people, 40 in tech.
So what is your structure ofyour company?
Do you guys have a fullorganizational chart?
(11:51):
Accountability chart?
Eric Benson (11:53):
Yes.
Tony Johnson (11:54):
And does everybody have one role is for one person
, no overlap.
Have you guys got all that?
Yes, that is awesome.
Eric Benson (12:06):
My older brother's name Corey, so Corey and I are
wearing multiple seats, so himand I are in multiple seats, but
everyone else is in a singleseat.
Tony Johnson (12:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah, just to speak to whathe's saying.
So, even so, you've got oneperson, one role, and you want
to build out that org chart withall the roles and
responsibilities, and it mighthave 30, 40, 50 other seats that
you guys don't have anyone tofill, as you're a growing
company in any company reallyand so someone has to do those
(12:39):
roles.
And so, yes, as Eric's saying,you might be in multiple seats,
that's OK.
So, yes, as Eric's saying, youmight be in multiple seats,
that's okay.
You want to have everythingestablished for, when you grow,
to have those seats assigned andsomeone to be able to fill it
in eventually as you offloadthings that, as you grow, you
get overwhelmed with.
Well, eric, it sounds like youguys are rocking and rolling, so
(13:02):
let's go a little bit into yourbusiness and find out more
about your guys' business andwhat you're pursuing and what
you're doing.
So could you give us a quickrundown of the best project
you're working on right now?
Eric Benson (13:22):
Open projects.
Tony Johnson (13:25):
Or one up and coming or just finished.
Eric Benson (13:29):
We're working with.
I have not been given theliberty to say the company name
yet, but we are working with anational brand that we're
getting very close.
That is like a headquarteredhere in Phoenix.
That is like a headquarteredhere in Phoenix and if this
(13:53):
first project goes well, thenthe goal is to perform this
security work nationwide and alltheir satellite offices.
So that's a really amazing jobwe're working on.
One job that we actually arejust finishing is Gilbert Public
Schools did an RFP where like100 and some companies showed up
originally I think 35 submitteda proposal, then they went down
to 12 to do presentations andthen did the final three and we
(14:17):
made it all the way and gotawarded and that was a really
big statement job for us.
It was upgrading the wholeentire district and, for those
people that don't know, gilbertPublic Schools is one of the
larger districts in Arizona.
They have 45 schools with likeanother five or six facility
buildings.
So it was a very large projectthat they entrusted in us that
(14:40):
we pretty much designed on ourown and implemented over the
last three and a half years.
It took us to get done withthat project, but that was, you
know, 12 million right therealone.
So that was a really bigstatement job and you know, one
of the things that I've beenreally working on and and I'm
(15:00):
sure other people that have tohave a family business is taking
over trying to go to the nextlevel is, I think, is probably
understanding.
This is my father's been inbusiness here locally since 86.
Our name is out there.
He's very well known we're.
What I like to say which is Ihate saying but it's the truth
is that we're kind of successfuldespite ourself.
We get people that would callin and we're just handling
(15:23):
inbound.
That would call in and we'rejust handling inbound.
So one of the biggest thingsthat I've had to fix is more of
an outbound sales, businessdevelopment and marketing
structure that we're actuallygoing after stuff.
Before it was just kind of likewe would just handle inbound
and people would just call and Idid not have a company set up
and ready to actually do somereal outbound Like.
(15:45):
We have a sales staff, but mostof them has been account
managers that have just beenhandling accounts that we've had
and keeping up with them.
So that's been the biggestthing that I've been working on
is, you know, I hired a salesdevelopment rep and I split up
the sales team.
One account manager broughtanother one of my sales girls
(16:06):
over to be our account executiveto only focus on outbound, and
it's been interesting to getthat thing set up and do it
properly.
But we've had massive success.
Some of the more importantthings we're working on right
now has come from this groupthat I would not have had if I
didn't create this group.
So that would be the number onething that I had to fix is we
(16:26):
needed a more sustainable salesstaff and I also think in
today's environment, like youknow, I think companies are
going to have to do some form ofthis, or I don't know if
they're going to make it intoday's environment, with how
technology is and trying to findnew opportunities technology is
(16:51):
and trying to find newopportunities.
Tony Johnson (16:53):
Wow, Now is the majority of your work direct to
owner.
Or do you guys also work forGCs?
Eric Benson (16:57):
That's another unique thing.
I was just at a happy hour andmost of these other executives I
talked to said their businessthrough contractors is like 85%.
We're quite the opposite, Iwould argue we're probably 85 to
90% direct end user.
You know we have a largeservice department which is kind
of unique here With othercompetitors of ours we have a
(17:20):
big.
You know we're probably 250,000a month in reoccurring revenue
and that that all credit to myfather.
I mean that's what he's focusedon his whole career.
Is it's much, I don't want tosay easier, but if you know, and
it's it's easier for our worldbecause if, if you know, if
people know, like a lot of oursis deferred submittal anyways.
(17:40):
So even if we were working withcontractors, we're in a unique
position that they look to us tomake the fire protection
designs and the security designs.
A lot of the time security isnot even involved in the
contractor.
That's usually direct to owner.
So for us we have not goneafter new construction a ton.
From my standpoint we couldgrow fast if I said, oh, let's's
(18:05):
go out.
But that's not our core, that'snot our culture.
We want to be a company thatgoes direct in user and really a
lot of companies survive offthe jobs.
The jobs are a nice benefit forus, but really for us it's like
we want to service this companycustomer for the next 30 years.
Like I, have lots of customersmy dad originally cold called
(18:26):
back in early 90s that we stillhave today.
That, to me, is where the valueis, so that's what we focus on.
Tony Johnson (18:35):
Perfect.
So just to break this down alittle bit for what Eric is
saying in case you are not quiteunderstanding so when you get
the fire sprinkler, the securitysystem put into a building and
the building is complete, that'sthen monitored by a company,
which was where his reoccurringrevenue is.
(18:56):
So what he's saying is theyhave built up a large, so that's
where the direct to owner comesin.
He's built up a largecollection of people and they
have serviced their accountsvery well, which is why they've
been able to have a long-termrelationship built, because if
you don't service it, there's 10other people trying to come in
and take over your servicepackage.
(19:17):
So you have to be competitiveat that and you have to be
responsive, not overpricing andgouging people, and that's how
you maintain long relationships,and so building that up over
the years is great.
Another thing that you saidthat often happens, I know, in
our market is for sure.
(19:38):
The fire sprinkler designs arerarely thrown into a CD set from
an architect and engineer.
They'll do everything but thesprinklers.
So then you have to go tosomeone like Eric and they bid
the job as a basically a designbuild.
They'll do the design, they'llsubmit, and it's kind of a
(20:02):
anomaly in the project whereit's kind of it's included in
the scope but it's not in thedrawing and and everything is
put back on your type of company.
So just to break that down foreverybody a little bit more um,
that is great.
I want to get back.
(20:23):
I'm trying to go back to someof my notes here.
As you were going over so manycool tidbits, I wanted to catch
a couple of things.
One, if I could, just sosomeone else who's looking at
this would understand you knowyou're just in Arizona and you
said you were working on with anational brand, have satellite
offices, have satellite offices.
(20:49):
What would be your plan forbeing able to service and work
someone?
National satellite offices Areyou.
Could you go through that forus so someone would understand?
Eric Benson (20:56):
Sure, we have a couple of national accounts now
and most of the time it's on oursecurity side, not our fire
protection.
You know, we kind of look at it.
They're both valuable.
And if I had to look at ournext 10 years, I keep telling my
team our biggest opportunity isgoing to come from our fire
protection side.
Because if I ask the market,like people know us as a
(21:17):
security integrator, I'm tryingto fix that and make us into one
of the largest and best brandswhen it comes to fire protection
.
But we're just not quite thereyet.
But fire protection is kind oflike a commodity.
Nobody really loves to spendmoney on fire protection.
Obviously it's needed per code.
Nobody has an option.
So it's more of a commodity.
(21:38):
It's a different sales process.
It's a different sales cyclethan our security process.
It's a different sales cyclethan our security right,
security is very few times youhave to have it, very few.
So most of time it's an optionthat the owner, like we have to
go sell, like why they?
We think this is gonna helpyour business, make you money,
maybe help you with insurance,whatever the reason is.
(22:02):
So we we do a lot of and wedon't do a lot of like data
cabling, um, wire pulling, um.
We don't do a lot of that.
A lot of our competitors that'sa bulk of their business we
like to focus on, like theserver, the end, the end product
, the cameras and theintegration to make it work with
all the other systems in thebuilding.
So when companies come to us,they're they're taking our value
(22:25):
.
Like we have a bunch of guys wehave guys, have been here for
20 plus years.
I have all the certifications,so they're paying us to trust us
to make sure this integratesproperly.
So in that sense we have agreedthat hey, like we're going to
have travel and they value ourservices so much, we make an
agreement that they're payingfor these things, um, and we
(22:46):
travel.
That's usually what happens.
But there's also been sometimes where we've had a, a
national brand with like acouple hundred locations and it
was more of a service levelagreement and what we've done
there, which all the big boys do, like the biggest conglomerates
in our space.
They do some work but they subout to companies like Benson's
(23:08):
of the world and all the localmarkets.
We kind of done that in thepast too, where we've we've
hired on different brands andthe other markets.
So we've done a little bit ofboth, but most of the time it's
I'll pay for whatever, because Itrust you so much.
Just make sure this is doneproperly, and that's what we're
kind of talking about with thisopportunity.
Tony Johnson (23:28):
Oh, that's fantastic, Something I want to
touch on that you just broughtup, which I think is extremely
important.
When we talk about, you know,looking forward to the future
and business success, thetechnology is moving at such a
rapid pace.
At this moment, integration iscritical.
(23:49):
Understanding integrationbetween softwares and
communication between softwaresis, to me, one of the most
important facets, where I feellike a CTO is almost going to be
running companies here prettyshortly.
You know, the chief technologyofficer is probably going to be
(24:10):
one of the most important rolesin business in the next three to
five years, in my opinion, andit's based upon the crazy amount
of different technologies andhow these things communicate and
integrating them together andeven with AI's help.
It's it's a massive undertaking.
(24:31):
So could you tell us a littlebit about integration?
What are you guys integrating?
What are some of the componentsyou're putting together and
working and having them work andcommunicate?
Eric Benson (24:46):
Like Gilbert, for example, the original RFP was
just cameras and it led intoaccess control, which led into
security, which led into firealarm, which is kind of like an
amazing use case Not many peopleeven kind of understand, and I
can't fault them.
I mean, some of our competitorsdon't even truly understand
what is possible, let alone howdo we expect our customer to
(25:08):
understand it.
But, like Gilbert, we have ourcameras integrated with the
access control.
The access control isintegrated with the security and
the fire alarm monitoring andit's all.
On one day we built out asecurity operations center for
them, which they have multipleTVs in a room that we built out
that he has.
They have two security staffmonitoring and everything.
(25:29):
All these think of them as liketouch points, like devices come
up into the central pane thatone of our manufacturers called
a Vigilon does a really, reallygood job.
Could you imagine someonetrying to look at 5,000 devices?
It's kind of impossible.
So they have this system thatkind of turns red when you have
(25:51):
a alert that'll pop up a certaindevice and if a security alarm
goes off, then they have acamera tied to it that'll give
them a snippet video of wherethat device is is going off.
So that took a lot ofintegration from our programmers
at the end of the job lotsthat's that pulls in all these.
We can bring in the ems systemas well.
(26:12):
There's a you.
You could almost do anythingnowadays and, as my father said
back when he started, that wasvery difficult, it's almost
impossible, and a lot of it wasbeing done over phone line and
it was like very antiquated Intoday's environment.
You can almost connect anything.
You're talking thermostats, ems, you know anything and
(26:34):
everything that you can controland really bring it into a point
to where the end user canactually use it Right.
A lot of times what we say islike if we find that difficult
to work, how do we expect ourcustomers to work right?
A lot of times what we say islike, if we find that difficult
to work, how do we expect ourcustomers to work it right?
If we can't make it very simplefor them, then we almost can't
sell it.
We can't expect them to be theabsolute experts.
That's what they're paying usfor.
(26:55):
So some of these systems todaymake it quite amazing what they
can do and a lot of time isduring our sales process we're
having to educate people likereally you can do that Like all
the time.
Like the biggest one reallylately is retail, is like these
cameras can focus in on heatsensing to where people spend
(27:16):
the most time in these retailstores so they can put their
best product or whatever theywant to do in certain areas of
the store.
It's like pretty amazing whatthese things can do now.
Tony Johnson (27:28):
Oh gosh, that's amazing.
Yeah, that that is really youknow you're getting.
You're breaking it down to thefunctional reality of what these
people are using for, andthat's just it, to speak to what
you're saying.
When you're understanding thesetechnologies and how to take
advantage of them, that's howyou lead as the forefront of
your industry.
So it sounds like you guys aredoing a great job on that.
(27:52):
That's awesome.
Yeah, now what?
I would say?
Another piece of theintegration how me, as a general
contractor, looks at it.
We're using upwards of 11different softwares right now,
getting the different softwaresto communicate, integrate
together and, you know, pushpieces across different
(28:14):
platforms.
It is overwhelming, you know.
And then technology is movingso rapidly that it is hard to uh
, maintain one, because you getfar with one, then it's outdated
, you've got to upgrade to thenext one and it's going so
quickly it's just hard to keepup.
(28:35):
Now I wanted to go back to onething.
Now you've said you've gottenmore into outbound sales, into
outbound sales With youroutbound sales procedures.
Do you guys use CRMs?
Eric Benson (28:48):
We do.
We didn't before, right, but we, yes.
Before I put a bunch ofinvestment into this, I brought
in an outside consultant that Imet.
I really wanted to do it right,because everyone has ideas, uh,
but to actually deliver on itand get success from it is a
whole different other thing, uh.
(29:09):
So I brought, trust me, therewas a lot of things that I did
not know.
I just know this needed tohappen.
So, uh, yeah, I brought insomeone to kind of help set it
up.
And then eventually I'm at apoint to where my team
internally is at a point wherewe can run it, and eventually
I'm at a point to where my teaminternally is at a point where
we can run it.
But there's so many softwaresthat I'm learning over the last
year.
That makes things so mucheasier.
(29:31):
But, to your point, right nowI'm using three softwares that
don't really talk to each other.
So the SOP I had to puttogether is quite intensive.
So, to your point, like we havethe same same problems
internally obviously not withour cameras and access, but like
our business platforms, we'rehaving the same I don't want to
say problems, but the same um,challenges, concerns, and right
(29:55):
now ai is being thrown at all ofus like there's this for that,
there's this for that, and it'slike a little bit overwhelming,
to the point, to your point,like you almost have to have
someone internally that candigest all this and figure out,
cause there's also a lot ofthings that people say they can
do.
It doesn't really do it.
That's a lot.
There's a lot of that.
That's happening too.
Tony Johnson (30:15):
Right, yeah, well, that's what we're thrown in, so
you'll get one software.
You'll and then be told oh no,no, no, no, this software
integrates better, so you wouldneed to go to this one.
It communicates better with thesoftware.
And then you'll catch yourself.
Well, I just got to manually doit twice because none of them
work right, and to get them doneright.
(30:36):
So it does become overwhelming.
But I did love how you said youdidn't know what needed to
happen.
But you just know it needed tohappen, which is typical
visionary.
Right, You're bouncing allaround, you got 50 ideas.
Somebody's got to put thistogether.
I just know it'll work, sothat's fantastic, all right,
(30:56):
well, man, I'm so thankful thatyou were able to come on.
It sounds like you guys'business is doing great and I
always recommend for anyentrepreneur, any business owner
, getting involved in any typeof mentorship group or forums
that you can go.
I'm in GoBundance, I'm inVistage, you're in what was it?
(31:20):
Ypo, which is another one.
You're in what was it?
Ypo, which is another one.
There's tons of them out there.
There's Chief Executive Network, so I would always recommend
anyone getting involved in thosein order to get with other
entrepreneurs and businessleaders for ideas and different
ways to grow your business.
Eric, thanks so much forspending the time to come on
(31:43):
with us today.
We sincerely appreciate it.
Thank you All right.
Have a great afternoon, guys.
Thanks so much.
Welcome to another episode of Timeless Business
and Building Strategies.
Today we are with Eric Bensonof Benson Inc.
They do security, fire and lifesafety.
Eric, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Thank you, excited to be on.
So, eric, can you give us alittle historical reference on
(00:22):
your company?
Eric Benson (00:24):
Sure, give us a little historical reference on
your company.
Sure, my father started it in1986 here locally in Gilbert
Arizona.
He started it out of his garage, grew up as a technician in the
field and decided that he coulddo it better and started Benson
Systems.
So back in 86, he wasoriginally just a security
(00:44):
contractor doing cameras, accesscontrol, integration, and over
the years he kind of morphedinto bringing on fire alarm
first and then eventuallybrought on all the suppression,
side sprinkler, special hazards,all that.
And then in 2004, we built thiscorporate building that I'm in
(01:05):
today still.
It's a 55,000 square footfacility that we house our
warehousing and our training andour office staff.
I mean, at one point he hadmultiple offices throughout the
country, but in 08, the crash,he kind of brought everything
back to Arizona and thenprobably around what was it?
(01:28):
When I was 21,?
So it was 2011,.
After college I've been workinghere full time since then.
I've been originally awarehouse manager, I've done
technician in the field, I'vedone our operations management,
I've done our service management, I've been our controller, I've
done our operations management,I've done our service
management, I've been ourcontroller, I've been our CFO.
(01:49):
So I've kind of done a littlebit of everything and as of what
.
Almost three years ago I tookover as CEO and I'm kind of
running the helm now.
So we've kind of just focusedin on our security and fire
protection since then Mainlycommercial way back in the early
days when he did someresidential, but we're mainly
(02:10):
commercial today.
So we have customers likeGilbert Public Schools, arizona
Cardinals, that that type ofsubset of customers.
Tony Johnson (02:21):
So that's a quick history.
Fantastic set of customers.
So that's a quick history,fantastic.
So people understand thataren't in tune all the way.
Eric, could you explain whataccess control covers?
Eric Benson (02:35):
Yeah, so usually for our customers access control
is entry and exit to theirbuilding through used to be key
fob, but nowadays we're evendoing it to where it's like
mobily on their cell phone.
They don't even need to pull itout, they just wave their hand.
Um, so why do they do it?
I think most of the time it'seither from a safety standpoint,
not allowing certain people toget in, sometimes it's a
(02:57):
convenience standpoint, uh.
Sometimes it's, uh, a kind of abottleneck to force people to
go through an entry and exit.
So they usually have camerasalso tied to it.
It's better for easy use.
Larger customers in the old dayswere having to give keys to
people that have access control,which they would lose the keys,
(03:19):
they would have to rekey thedoor.
It made a very slow and manualprocess that access control
fixed.
So there's a lot of integrationthat goes with it as well, tied
to other systems.
Usually when we install anaccess control you have to tie
it into the fire alarm becauseit needs to unlock when there's
a fire alarm, you know.
So it allows the firefightersto come in.
(03:42):
So that's kind of high-leveloverview of what access control
and what our customers use itfor.
Tony Johnson (03:49):
Perfect.
Yeah, you know.
Basically we get the accesscontrol, fire alarms and the
sprinklers all work inconjunction.
So you know you guys arerunning the full gamut.
A lot of times you'll have firealarm companies that handle the
security and fire alarms andthen sprinklers.
Only Do you guys still dosprinklers?
Eric Benson (04:11):
Yes, we do.
Tony Johnson (04:12):
So you guys are running the full gamut, so
that's quite an operation.
So how big is your team?
Eric Benson (04:21):
We're probably 75 people 75 people.
75 people 75 with, withprobably 40 of those being
technicians in the field and therest either office staff or
sales staff awesome, all right.
Tony Johnson (04:39):
So I I like to dig in a little bit on business
understanding, if that's okaywith you first, and then we'll
get a little more in there.
So you've bounced around.
As you stated right, you were acontroller, cfo, a technician
in the field, running differentdepartments.
So, as you got all of thatknowledge, where did you find
(05:05):
your strongest suit?
What were you best at in thoseareas?
Eric Benson (05:13):
You know I like to say I also have an older brother
in the business as well thatworks with me.
Him and I are a good fit.
I've always kind of not that Idislike the operations side side
, I just never found an interestin it right and more of a sales
business side of like strategic, you know, businesses.
There's some other things thatwe used to do, uh that since I
(05:37):
took over we kind of stoppeddoing and I kind of refocused.
At one point we were inCaliforniaifornia.
I brought us out of california.
So more of the strategicbusiness development.
Um, we're like where thecompany's going and I've always
loved the sales side.
Tony Johnson (05:52):
Uh, for sure so we what we call that, and I don't
know if you operate on eos, butso we would call you the
visionary and your brothersounds like the integrator,
right uh, brought on eos lastyear, by the way.
Eric Benson (06:07):
Oh, fantastic, so we're.
We're not quite through ourfirst year yet, but so far we're
loving it, and what you said isexactly right yeah, so you know
, and those are where you getthe synergy of a strong
partnership.
Tony Johnson (06:20):
So sounds like you and your brother are running
the ship and, you know, stayingin your lane, deferring all
technical questions to yourbrother Operational and process
questions would be handled byhis brother on where it's going,
(06:41):
the vision for the future, whatthey're pursuing, setting the
vision and the clarity foreveryone in the company on where
they're going.
So that is fantastic, eric.
So, being that you guys are oneyear in, that is awesome.
Are you guys self-implementingthis or do you have an
(07:02):
implementer working with you?
We have an implementer that Igot introduced to.
She's been fantastic, awesome,yeah.
So having an implementer reallyfast forwards the process
significantly.
So always if you can afford tohire one, it's well worth it.
(07:23):
So have you guys got your fullvision traction organizer
complete?
Eric Benson (07:28):
Yes.
Tony Johnson (07:30):
And do you guys hold weekly L10s?
We do.
Eric Benson (07:36):
Right now it's just the leadership team.
I have not got it out to therest of the company yet.
Just the leadership team.
Tony Johnson (07:45):
Sure, that's awesome.
And how big is your leadershipteam?
Eric Benson (07:51):
As I'm sure you're aware, eos kind of makes you go
through things that I think ishealthy but sometimes intense.
So we've had to work throughsome positions in the leadership
team and right now it's just mybrother and I right now.
Tony Johnson (08:11):
So Okay, and are you two meeting every week?
Eric Benson (08:16):
Yeah.
Tony Johnson (08:17):
Okay, all right, that's interesting.
So we've been running it mycompany four years.
So we, and yet the leadershipteam you know you don't want,
you want to keep it at the mostseven and below, what a lot of
times happens in a smallercompany and you want, you know,
to be very careful.
(08:37):
Eric's talking, they got 75people.
He's only at two and there'snothing wrong with that.
The most important factorwhenever you're starting with
the OS is you don't want tobring in too many people, and if
you're a company of 10 andyou're bringing in seven of them
as the leadership team, that'sa problem having to exit some of
(09:07):
these people and I think it'syou know it speaks that you guys
are very carefully consideringeverything as you're rolling
this out.
So that is, that is fantastic.
Now, have you, when you'resaying you guys have a VTO, have
you rolled out your VTO to yourcompany?
Not, yet you have not rolledthat out.
Okay, when do you plan on doingthat?
Eric Benson (09:34):
We have our first State of the Union, that address
to the company scheduled nextmonth, so everything's kind of
starting next month schedulednext month, so everything's kind
of starting next month.
Tony Johnson (09:48):
Oh, that's great.
Now, when you guys have donethis and I know you're saying
that, you know the leadershipteam is tricky Do you guys use
any trait profiling surveys foryour team member to establish
their strengths and weaknesses,to facilitate their position and
(10:09):
right person, right seat?
Eric Benson (10:12):
You know it's funny you bring that up.
I recently joined a groupcalled YPO last year as well
here locally in Arizona, part ofa chapter, and inside of YPO
they're known as forums.
So I'm with like seven otherpeople and we just had our forum
retreat and we did likebusiness presentations and they
all talked about this on howthey use these certain
(10:33):
personality tests.
We do not do that, but man, itopened my eyes with them
explaining it to me.
Like you are now, I would loveto implement it.
We do not today.
Tony Johnson (10:47):
Okay, yeah.
So one that we use is calledCulture Index.
Now there's Predictive Index,culture Index, myers-briggs
there's a large variety of them.
Culture Index is great, and whywe use it is it not only
predicts the person by theirtraits, but it also puts
(11:07):
something within it where youcan continually do it.
To existing employees it's gota secondary measurement which
will tell you how they'refeeling in their workplace, can
tell you if they're in alignmentor out of alignment, tells you
if they're stressed and they'rehappy and engaged with their job
, or disengaged, meaning thatthey might not be happy, overly
(11:29):
stressed, looking for anotherjob.
So it's a good thing to gaugeas you're moving forward.
But it sounds like you guys areon the right track and that's
great.
Eric, that's awesome.
So that is very interesting.
Now, size wise, you've got 75people, 40 in tech.
So what is your structure ofyour company?
Do you guys have a fullorganizational chart?
(11:51):
Accountability chart?
Eric Benson (11:53):
Yes.
Tony Johnson (11:54):
And does everybody have one role is for one person
, no overlap.
Have you guys got all that?
Yes, that is awesome.
Eric Benson (12:06):
My older brother's name Corey, so Corey and I are
wearing multiple seats, so himand I are in multiple seats, but
everyone else is in a singleseat.
Tony Johnson (12:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah, just to speak to whathe's saying.
So, even so, you've got oneperson, one role, and you want
to build out that org chart withall the roles and
responsibilities, and it mighthave 30, 40, 50 other seats that
you guys don't have anyone tofill, as you're a growing
company in any company reallyand so someone has to do those
(12:39):
roles.
And so, yes, as Eric's saying,you might be in multiple seats,
that's OK.
So, yes, as Eric's saying, youmight be in multiple seats,
that's okay.
You want to have everythingestablished for, when you grow,
to have those seats assigned andsomeone to be able to fill it
in eventually as you offloadthings that, as you grow, you
get overwhelmed with.
Well, eric, it sounds like youguys are rocking and rolling, so
(13:02):
let's go a little bit into yourbusiness and find out more
about your guys' business andwhat you're pursuing and what
you're doing.
So could you give us a quickrundown of the best project
you're working on right now?
Eric Benson (13:22):
Open projects.
Tony Johnson (13:25):
Or one up and coming or just finished.
Eric Benson (13:29):
We're working with.
I have not been given theliberty to say the company name
yet, but we are working with anational brand that we're
getting very close.
That is like a headquarteredhere in Phoenix.
That is like a headquarteredhere in Phoenix and if this
(13:53):
first project goes well, thenthe goal is to perform this
security work nationwide and alltheir satellite offices.
So that's a really amazing jobwe're working on.
One job that we actually arejust finishing is Gilbert Public
Schools did an RFP where like100 and some companies showed up
originally I think 35 submitteda proposal, then they went down
to 12 to do presentations andthen did the final three and we
(14:17):
made it all the way and gotawarded and that was a really
big statement job for us.
It was upgrading the wholeentire district and, for those
people that don't know, gilbertPublic Schools is one of the
larger districts in Arizona.
They have 45 schools with likeanother five or six facility
buildings.
So it was a very large projectthat they entrusted in us that
(14:40):
we pretty much designed on ourown and implemented over the
last three and a half years.
It took us to get done withthat project, but that was, you
know, 12 million right therealone.
So that was a really bigstatement job and you know, one
of the things that I've beenreally working on and and I'm
(15:00):
sure other people that have tohave a family business is taking
over trying to go to the nextlevel is, I think, is probably
understanding.
This is my father's been inbusiness here locally since 86.
Our name is out there.
He's very well known we're.
What I like to say which is Ihate saying but it's the truth
is that we're kind of successfuldespite ourself.
We get people that would callin and we're just handling
(15:23):
inbound.
That would call in and we'rejust handling inbound.
So one of the biggest thingsthat I've had to fix is more of
an outbound sales, businessdevelopment and marketing
structure that we're actuallygoing after stuff.
Before it was just kind of likewe would just handle inbound
and people would just call and Idid not have a company set up
and ready to actually do somereal outbound Like.
(15:45):
We have a sales staff, but mostof them has been account
managers that have just beenhandling accounts that we've had
and keeping up with them.
So that's been the biggestthing that I've been working on
is, you know, I hired a salesdevelopment rep and I split up
the sales team.
One account manager broughtanother one of my sales girls
(16:06):
over to be our account executiveto only focus on outbound, and
it's been interesting to getthat thing set up and do it
properly.
But we've had massive success.
Some of the more importantthings we're working on right
now has come from this groupthat I would not have had if I
didn't create this group.
So that would be the number onething that I had to fix is we
(16:26):
needed a more sustainable salesstaff and I also think in
today's environment, like youknow, I think companies are
going to have to do some form ofthis, or I don't know if
they're going to make it intoday's environment, with how
technology is and trying to findnew opportunities technology is
(16:51):
and trying to find newopportunities.
Tony Johnson (16:53):
Wow, Now is the majority of your work direct to
owner.
Or do you guys also work forGCs?
Eric Benson (16:57):
That's another unique thing.
I was just at a happy hour andmost of these other executives I
talked to said their businessthrough contractors is like 85%.
We're quite the opposite, Iwould argue we're probably 85 to
90% direct end user.
You know we have a largeservice department which is kind
of unique here With othercompetitors of ours we have a
(17:20):
big.
You know we're probably 250,000a month in reoccurring revenue
and that that all credit to myfather.
I mean that's what he's focusedon his whole career.
Is it's much, I don't want tosay easier, but if you know, and
it's it's easier for our worldbecause if, if you know, if
people know, like a lot of oursis deferred submittal anyways.
(17:40):
So even if we were working withcontractors, we're in a unique
position that they look to us tomake the fire protection
designs and the security designs.
A lot of the time security isnot even involved in the
contractor.
That's usually direct to owner.
So for us we have not goneafter new construction a ton.
From my standpoint we couldgrow fast if I said, oh, let's's
(18:05):
go out.
But that's not our core, that'snot our culture.
We want to be a company thatgoes direct in user and really a
lot of companies survive offthe jobs.
The jobs are a nice benefit forus, but really for us it's like
we want to service this companycustomer for the next 30 years.
Like I, have lots of customersmy dad originally cold called
(18:26):
back in early 90s that we stillhave today.
That, to me, is where the valueis, so that's what we focus on.
Tony Johnson (18:35):
Perfect.
So just to break this down alittle bit for what Eric is
saying in case you are not quiteunderstanding so when you get
the fire sprinkler, the securitysystem put into a building and
the building is complete, that'sthen monitored by a company,
which was where his reoccurringrevenue is.
(18:56):
So what he's saying is theyhave built up a large, so that's
where the direct to owner comesin.
He's built up a largecollection of people and they
have serviced their accountsvery well, which is why they've
been able to have a long-termrelationship built, because if
you don't service it, there's 10other people trying to come in
and take over your servicepackage.
(19:17):
So you have to be competitiveat that and you have to be
responsive, not overpricing andgouging people, and that's how
you maintain long relationships,and so building that up over
the years is great.
Another thing that you saidthat often happens, I know, in
our market is for sure.
(19:38):
The fire sprinkler designs arerarely thrown into a CD set from
an architect and engineer.
They'll do everything but thesprinklers.
So then you have to go tosomeone like Eric and they bid
the job as a basically a designbuild.
They'll do the design, they'llsubmit, and it's kind of a
(20:02):
anomaly in the project whereit's kind of it's included in
the scope but it's not in thedrawing and and everything is
put back on your type of company.
So just to break that down foreverybody a little bit more um,
that is great.
I want to get back.
(20:23):
I'm trying to go back to someof my notes here.
As you were going over so manycool tidbits, I wanted to catch
a couple of things.
One, if I could, just sosomeone else who's looking at
this would understand you knowyou're just in Arizona and you
said you were working on with anational brand, have satellite
offices, have satellite offices.
(20:49):
What would be your plan forbeing able to service and work
someone?
National satellite offices Areyou.
Could you go through that forus so someone would understand?
Eric Benson (20:56):
Sure, we have a couple of national accounts now
and most of the time it's on oursecurity side, not our fire
protection.
You know, we kind of look at it.
They're both valuable.
And if I had to look at ournext 10 years, I keep telling my
team our biggest opportunity isgoing to come from our fire
protection side.
Because if I ask the market,like people know us as a
(21:17):
security integrator, I'm tryingto fix that and make us into one
of the largest and best brandswhen it comes to fire protection
.
But we're just not quite thereyet.
But fire protection is kind oflike a commodity.
Nobody really loves to spendmoney on fire protection.
Obviously it's needed per code.
Nobody has an option.
So it's more of a commodity.
(21:38):
It's a different sales process.
It's a different sales cyclethan our security process.
It's a different sales cyclethan our security right,
security is very few times youhave to have it, very few.
So most of time it's an optionthat the owner, like we have to
go sell, like why they?
We think this is gonna helpyour business, make you money,
maybe help you with insurance,whatever the reason is.
(22:02):
So we we do a lot of and wedon't do a lot of like data
cabling, um, wire pulling, um.
We don't do a lot of that.
A lot of our competitors that'sa bulk of their business we
like to focus on, like theserver, the end, the end product
, the cameras and theintegration to make it work with
all the other systems in thebuilding.
So when companies come to us,they're they're taking our value
(22:25):
.
Like we have a bunch of guys wehave guys, have been here for
20 plus years.
I have all the certifications,so they're paying us to trust us
to make sure this integratesproperly.
So in that sense we have agreedthat hey, like we're going to
have travel and they value ourservices so much, we make an
agreement that they're payingfor these things, um, and we
(22:46):
travel.
That's usually what happens.
But there's also been sometimes where we've had a, a
national brand with like acouple hundred locations and it
was more of a service levelagreement and what we've done
there, which all the big boys do, like the biggest conglomerates
in our space.
They do some work but they subout to companies like Benson's
(23:08):
of the world and all the localmarkets.
We kind of done that in thepast too, where we've we've
hired on different brands andthe other markets.
So we've done a little bit ofboth, but most of the time it's
I'll pay for whatever, because Itrust you so much.
Just make sure this is doneproperly, and that's what we're
kind of talking about with thisopportunity.
Tony Johnson (23:28):
Oh, that's fantastic, Something I want to
touch on that you just broughtup, which I think is extremely
important.
When we talk about, you know,looking forward to the future
and business success, thetechnology is moving at such a
rapid pace.
At this moment, integration iscritical.
(23:49):
Understanding integrationbetween softwares and
communication between softwaresis, to me, one of the most
important facets, where I feellike a CTO is almost going to be
running companies here prettyshortly.
You know, the chief technologyofficer is probably going to be
(24:10):
one of the most important rolesin business in the next three to
five years, in my opinion, andit's based upon the crazy amount
of different technologies andhow these things communicate and
integrating them together andeven with AI's help.
It's it's a massive undertaking.
(24:31):
So could you tell us a littlebit about integration?
What are you guys integrating?
What are some of the componentsyou're putting together and
working and having them work andcommunicate?
Eric Benson (24:46):
Like Gilbert, for example, the original RFP was
just cameras and it led intoaccess control, which led into
security, which led into firealarm, which is kind of like an
amazing use case Not many peopleeven kind of understand, and I
can't fault them.
I mean, some of our competitorsdon't even truly understand
what is possible, let alone howdo we expect our customer to
(25:08):
understand it.
But, like Gilbert, we have ourcameras integrated with the
access control.
The access control isintegrated with the security and
the fire alarm monitoring andit's all.
On one day we built out asecurity operations center for
them, which they have multipleTVs in a room that we built out
that he has.
They have two security staffmonitoring and everything.
(25:29):
All these think of them as liketouch points, like devices come
up into the central pane thatone of our manufacturers called
a Vigilon does a really, reallygood job.
Could you imagine someonetrying to look at 5,000 devices?
It's kind of impossible.
So they have this system thatkind of turns red when you have
(25:51):
a alert that'll pop up a certaindevice and if a security alarm
goes off, then they have acamera tied to it that'll give
them a snippet video of wherethat device is is going off.
So that took a lot ofintegration from our programmers
at the end of the job lotsthat's that pulls in all these.
We can bring in the ems systemas well.
(26:12):
There's a you.
You could almost do anythingnowadays and, as my father said
back when he started, that wasvery difficult, it's almost
impossible, and a lot of it wasbeing done over phone line and
it was like very antiquated Intoday's environment.
You can almost connect anything.
You're talking thermostats, ems, you know anything and
(26:34):
everything that you can controland really bring it into a point
to where the end user canactually use it Right.
A lot of times what we say islike if we find that difficult
to work, how do we expect ourcustomers to work right?
A lot of times what we say islike, if we find that difficult
to work, how do we expect ourcustomers to work it right?
If we can't make it very simplefor them, then we almost can't
sell it.
We can't expect them to be theabsolute experts.
That's what they're paying usfor.
(26:55):
So some of these systems todaymake it quite amazing what they
can do and a lot of time isduring our sales process we're
having to educate people likereally you can do that Like all
the time.
Like the biggest one reallylately is retail, is like these
cameras can focus in on heatsensing to where people spend
(27:16):
the most time in these retailstores so they can put their
best product or whatever theywant to do in certain areas of
the store.
It's like pretty amazing whatthese things can do now.
Tony Johnson (27:28):
Oh gosh, that's amazing.
Yeah, that that is really youknow you're getting.
You're breaking it down to thefunctional reality of what these
people are using for, andthat's just it, to speak to what
you're saying.
When you're understanding thesetechnologies and how to take
advantage of them, that's howyou lead as the forefront of
your industry.
So it sounds like you guys aredoing a great job on that.
(27:52):
That's awesome.
Yeah, now what?
I would say?
Another piece of theintegration how me, as a general
contractor, looks at it.
We're using upwards of 11different softwares right now,
getting the different softwaresto communicate, integrate
together and, you know, pushpieces across different
(28:14):
platforms.
It is overwhelming, you know.
And then technology is movingso rapidly that it is hard to uh
, maintain one, because you getfar with one, then it's outdated
, you've got to upgrade to thenext one and it's going so
quickly it's just hard to keepup.
(28:35):
Now I wanted to go back to onething.
Now you've said you've gottenmore into outbound sales, into
outbound sales With youroutbound sales procedures.
Do you guys use CRMs?
Eric Benson (28:48):
We do.
We didn't before, right, but we, yes.
Before I put a bunch ofinvestment into this, I brought
in an outside consultant that Imet.
I really wanted to do it right,because everyone has ideas, uh,
but to actually deliver on itand get success from it is a
whole different other thing, uh.
(29:09):
So I brought, trust me, therewas a lot of things that I did
not know.
I just know this needed tohappen.
So, uh, yeah, I brought insomeone to kind of help set it
up.
And then eventually I'm at apoint to where my team
internally is at a point wherewe can run it, and eventually
I'm at a point to where my teaminternally is at a point where
we can run it.
But there's so many softwaresthat I'm learning over the last
year.
That makes things so mucheasier.
(29:31):
But, to your point, right nowI'm using three softwares that
don't really talk to each other.
So the SOP I had to puttogether is quite intensive.
So, to your point, like we havethe same same problems
internally obviously not withour cameras and access, but like
our business platforms, we'rehaving the same I don't want to
say problems, but the same um,challenges, concerns, and right
(29:55):
now ai is being thrown at all ofus like there's this for that,
there's this for that, and it'slike a little bit overwhelming,
to the point, to your point,like you almost have to have
someone internally that candigest all this and figure out,
cause there's also a lot ofthings that people say they can
do.
It doesn't really do it.
That's a lot.
There's a lot of that.
That's happening too.
Tony Johnson (30:15):
Right, yeah, well, that's what we're thrown in, so
you'll get one software.
You'll and then be told oh no,no, no, no, this software
integrates better, so you wouldneed to go to this one.
It communicates better with thesoftware.
And then you'll catch yourself.
Well, I just got to manually doit twice because none of them
work right, and to get them doneright.
(30:36):
So it does become overwhelming.
But I did love how you said youdidn't know what needed to
happen.
But you just know it needed tohappen, which is typical
visionary.
Right, You're bouncing allaround, you got 50 ideas.
Somebody's got to put thistogether.
I just know it'll work, sothat's fantastic, all right,
(30:56):
well, man, I'm so thankful thatyou were able to come on.
It sounds like you guys'business is doing great and I
always recommend for anyentrepreneur, any business owner
, getting involved in any typeof mentorship group or forums
that you can go.
I'm in GoBundance, I'm inVistage, you're in what was it?
(31:20):
Ypo, which is another one.
You're in what was it?
Ypo, which is another one.
There's tons of them out there.
There's Chief Executive Network, so I would always recommend
anyone getting involved in thosein order to get with other
entrepreneurs and businessleaders for ideas and different
ways to grow your business.
Eric, thanks so much forspending the time to come on
(31:43):
with us today.
We sincerely appreciate it.
Thank you All right.
Have a great afternoon, guys.
Thanks so much.
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