Buying a security guard company in South Florida

• Many contracts, with no single client dominating hours billed.
• Long-standing clients that stayed through rebids, which shows they value the service and not just the price.
• Contracts that allow rate increases when wages rise, since officer pay is most of the cost.
• Reliable scheduling and a bench of fill-in officers, so posts are rarely left uncovered.
• Supervisors and a licensed manager who run daily operations without the owner.
• A low claims history for liability and workers' compensation.
• Every officer's license, renewal date and training tracked in one system.
• Armed posts only where the price covers the extra risk and insurance.
• Software that logs patrols and incidents, lets clients see them, and helps defend claims.

• Contracts: term, notice period, rate increase rights, and whether they can be assigned or end when ownership changes.
• Gross margin by contract after wages, payroll taxes, workers' compensation and overtime.
• Overtime: round-the-clock posts create it easily, and clients often won't pay for it.
• Liability claims and lawsuits, including incidents at posts, use of force and negligent security claims.
• Insurance premiums, and whether coverage for armed posts is getting harder to buy.
• License status: every working security officer should hold a current Class D license, and their hires and departures should have been reported to FDACS within 15 days, as the law requires.
• Officer turnover, what it costs to recruit and train each new officer, and how many officers are close to license renewal.
• Payroll tax filings and compliance with wage and hour rules.

• What are your largest contracts, and when do they come up for renewal or rebid?
• How do you cover a post when an officer doesn't show up?
• What share of your hours are at armed posts?
• Who is the licensed manager, and will they stay?
• Have incidents at any post led to claims or lawsuits?
• When did you last raise rates, and how did clients take it?
• How long does a typical officer stay?

South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.

Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.

Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.

Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.