A former installer himself, Manveer is now running a training academy aimed at installers looking to grow their business.
IFSEC Global: What are your plans for the show? Have you exhibited before?
Manveer Singh: This is the first time we’re exhibiting. Our plan is to showcase our academy targeted towards installers looking to grow their business. We’ll be handing out some useful marketing information and will be doing a demo on some powerful software solutions.
IG: What’s your background?
MS: I was bought up in a family run security business and watched my father grow his company in the late 80s. I would spend weekends onsite watching him wire and install security systems. As expected with any family run business, I eventually became his part-time (unpaid!) trainee.
Fast forward 15 years, I left university with a degree in business but couldn’t’ find a job due to the recession and so began life as an installer. I did this for about three years until I began importing surveillance equipment from the far east and setup as a distributor supplying to the trade.
One of my customers is claiming our tool is saving them over £6,000 a year
We were supplying around 1,500 installers throughout the UK and this gave me a great insight into the industry. I found many installers would cut themselves short due to a lack of basic business skills.
My time as an installer meant I could relate to their day to day business so we were helping installers with their websites, sales strategies and branding; things that I used to grow my own installation business. It paid off and I watched many of my customers grow over the years.
IG: What challenges do you feel the industry is facing?
The internet has undoubtedly opened the market and made things more transparent. This has impacted the industry’s profitability and you’ll now find major brands selling on Amazon and eBay.
However, I truly believe we will see a power shift back to the professional installer. Consumer’s now learn online but need someone to take on the responsibility of designing and implementing a solution that works for them and gives them peace of mind, and this is something the internet cannot offer.
As I learnt through my distribution business, it’s up to the installer to learn how to sell their services properly. And that’s what our academy does. We take the business knowledge and combine it with powerful software tools to help the installer grow.
One software tool we now implement has been tested on about 80 security companies and has had a profound impact (one of my customers is claiming it is saving them over £6,000 a year). We’ll be demonstrating this powerful cloud-based software at IFSEC 2017.
IG: Please tell me about the things you have to offer the market…
MS: Our primary product is a training course which anyone from the trade can register and attend. The courses are specifically targeted towards business skills such as:
We also have a solutions division which has successfully completed a number of business solutions since January. Our solution offers Web Design, Branding and implementation of CRM software.
We have our business course on 14 July and are offering a £100 discount to all IFSEC attendees from the normal price of £299.
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