RMR: The 8th Wonder of the Security Business (Here’s Why Buyers Pay More)

Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble go deep on recurring monthly revenue (RMR) in the security and fire-alarm industry—why it’s the heartbeat of the business, the biggest driver of valuation confidence, and the single most stabilizing force for operators trying to scale without cash-flow whiplash. They unpack how RMR smooths payroll, fuels growth investments, and answers the only question buyers ultimately care about: where is the next dollar coming from?From there, the Alarm Masters partners get specific on what “great” actually looks like. They lay out the RMR-to-topline ratios they see across company sizes, explain why big projects can quietly distort your mix if you’re not squeezing every available recurring dollar, and clarify that even EBITDA-based deals live or die on the quality and density of RMR.They also walk through the five major buckets of RMR—monitoring, software subscriptions, hardware-as-a-service, maintenance plans, and managed services—plus the real tradeoffs between margin and stickiness. Burg monitoring might throw off 65–75% gross profit but churns more. Cloud access/video subscriptions run lower margin yet can be sub-1% attrition because the hardware and software are inseparable. Their core message: win by being multi-service per account, stacking recurring layers until switching costs make churn irrational.Finally, they bring it home with an operator’s playbook: your back office must be built to bill and offboard RMR cleanly, your techs must be trained so installs stay profitable, and your salespeople must be comped like RMR is the main product—because it is. If you want to hit the “mature business” benchmark, they give you the homework to map your current base, model your path to 50% RMR, and tighten your execution over the next 12–24 months.✨ What You’ll LearnWhy contracted RMR creates stability and higher valuation confidenceThe “golden” RMR mix by company size—and why 50% topline RMR is the maturity markerHow big projects can tank your RMR ratio if you don’t engineer recurring dollars into every jobThe five buckets of RMR and how to prioritize them by margin vs. attrition🔗 Connect Stephen Olmon — http://x.com/stephenolmon Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy More Entry & Exit — https://www.entryandexit.co/Owned and Operated New Episodes Every Wednesday!Subscribe For More