Success as a Professional Bodyguard

By Doug Belton

As it is with any field, success as a professional bodyguard is a matter of choice not chance.  If it is your choice to succeed the rewards are exceptional, but success will require your active engagement.  There is an old saying that if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time but here are 10 action words laid out in the acronym, BODYGUARDS, you can use to ensure that as you aim for the bullseye of success, like an expert marksman, you will hit your mark every time.
Build a solid legal foundation.  Like any structure the foundation of your business is paramount to success.  This means you have to determine how your business will be set up.  The type of business entity you set up will determine your tax advantages and the laws governing how you pay yourself, your employees, and your creditors.  Setting up your business correctly will shield you from major problems down the line so it makes sense to do it right from the start. Remember, financial success in the business world does not depend on how much money you earn, it is a matter of how much money you keep.  To that end, seek the advice of a good attorney and a good accountant.

Organize your priorities.  Whether you own the service or whether you are someone’s employee, executive protection is a business.  Decide right away which end of the business you want to be on.  Here are some things to consider when answering this question.  Are you an entrepreneur at heart?  Were you the kid on the block who was always trying to figure out how to sell more lemonade with fewer lemons? Do you embrace risks that send other people running for more secure means of supporting themselves?  Or, do you enjoy providing executive protection services but hate the thought of having to market, sell, or balance a check register?  It is imperative that you decide which end of the business you want to be on in order to make sense of the other 9 points of success.

Determine your marketing strategy.  Marketing and sales are very different.  Sales often depend upon the marketing strategy you have put in place.  Marketing is a matter of taking a look at the service you provide, figuring out who your potential customers are, and how you will convince potential customers to hire you rather than your competition. Sales is the conversation that takes place between you and your potential customer in an effort to clinch the deal.  In order to be successful you need to know who you are as a service provider and what distinguishes you from the competition.  Once you figure that out, a good marketing strategy lays out specific action items you will complete to accomplish your overall sales goals.  Without a strong marketing strategy your skills as a professional bodyguard are worthless.

Yell to sell.  One of the things that sets successful business people apart from unsuccessful ones is their ability to generate excitement about what they are doing.  Once you have established a strong marketing strategy it is time to sell yourself and your service.  You must find a way to become the person you probably hate right now; you must become that person who finds a way to talk about what they do and how well they do it in every setting. When you are in social settings, on vacation, with friends, or family, you have to have an infections enthusiasm about your executive protection business, and that enthusiasm has to somehow be transferred to everyone you come in contact with. One way to assess whether or not you are yelling to sell, is if you have left an impression with everyone you come into contact with which leaves no question as to what you do for a living regardless of whether or not they wish to use your services.  If you go out in the morning without a packet of business cards you should feel as naked as if you had forgotten to put on your pants. Yell to sell, wherever you go and whatever you are doing.
Guard your reputation. Your business will live or die by your reputation.  In executive protection people entrust their lives and in some cases the lives of their families to the person they call, Bodyguard.  As such, it is not you but your reputation they are investing in when they hire your services. Long after your assignment is over your reputation remains, and that reputation will determine if you ever work for the same client twice.

Utilize and invest in technology.  The days of reliance on a well tuned physique and a firearm are long gone.  Your survival in today’s world will depend on your ability to have and to use technology to get leads on new clients and to keep them safe. The internet is full of free information that will help you develop a winning marketing strategy and if you are not using this tool you are already way behind the 8 ball.  GPS, laptops, Blackberrys, satellite imaging, and other tools of technology can keep both you and your client safe in a dangerous world. Invest in these tools, upgrade them when it is feasible, and more than anything, use them.  There is nothing more tragic then the unused piece of technology that could have saved lives.

Acquire a sound business education.  A sound business education does not necessarily mean a two or four year college degree in management.  There are a number of free resources available that are designed to help you succeed in business without a huge financial or time investment. A good business plan and a good strategic plan can help you discover things about yourself and your business that you may not otherwise have known, but you have to know how to craft these documents.  The SBA, SCORE or the Chamber of Commerce are great places to start.  You can also find good resources through community education, but get the help you need to structure your business for success. These tools will help you define your business vision and in many cases assist you in securing business financing.

Rely on a strong contract.  Once you have set up your business and executed your marketing and sales strategy, the clients will begin to come which can present an interesting problem.  The problem is how to secure your agreement so that you are protected. Being a professional bodyguard is a high risk occupation with high exposure to liability. Therefore, before you can protect your client, you need a strong, binding, legal contract to protect your own interests.   There is too much at stake for a “Do it yourself” contract from Office Max.  The money you invest in having an attorney draft a good boiler plate contract for you will pay off substantially in the long run.

Drop the deadwood.   Once you are in business, you will find there is one client who occupies 90% of your productive time and who only contributes about 10% of your income.  For that 10% you will have to put up with constant complaining, late payments, and incessant attempts to get you to lower your fees. When you figure out who that deadwood client is, drop him immediately and without hesitation.  From a business standpoint you cannot afford to continue providing services for this client.  The time you spend trying to appease this client is time lost cultivating other clients who pay better, on time, and who appreciate the service you provide. It is a detriment to your overall success to keep a deadwood client.

Start small but think big.  Begin with assignments that build your portfolio of experience even if it means subcontracting.  When you are just starting off everything helps to get you in the door and to gain valuable experience, but as you are doing those seemingly insignificant detail like chauffeuring, or standing in an airfield guarding a clients private jet , use the time to cast a vision of greatness.  Learn from the people who have been in the business a long time and enjoy fruitful conversations that add to your acumen of knowledge.  But never allow yourself to become comfortable with being small, always dream big.