I have been working in the home theater/phone system business now for about 7 years. I have a great client base that would love it if I offered alarm systems and video systems. Can anyone tell me where to go and find information out about getting the licenses necessary to be able to install alarms etc. What kind of license do I need to have to install alarms etc?

HELP! HELP!!!

In depends on the area. Some cities just want you money and prove of insurance.
Some want to do back ground checks on you and your employees and issue ID Cards.
Some States have a state license.
For Fire alarms you need a state license everywhere.

Make that MOST states require a license.

In NC it's:

A low voltage electical license.

2 years (verified) in the industry asan installer.

Sit for a licensing exam.

Liabilty and Workers Comp insurance.

Annual CEU's.

Have you checked with your insurance company and the effect of security systems on your business's insurance rates.

My business insurance would double ! That's a lot of security systems.

Heed what FRR has to say along with the fact that you are dealing with Life and death. I security is not something you should just get into. It is a whored out industry. Now video can be very profitable and does not require the insurance hassle that Security does.

We make a very nice profit from security. We charge full boat for all the gear and our insurance was fairly inexpensive for some thing like a 10mill rider. however our monitoring contract basicly states that we have no responsibilty for equipment malfunction and accept no reponsibility for system performance. Also if the customer wants it monitored we charge by the year upfront . If the customer wants to pay monthly we will allow it but it cost 6 dollars more a month(never had a cust do this)

The Big downside to security is the service calls can truly be emergancys that need to be addressed right now.

For added comfort we formed a seperate company that sells all of our security work.
all of the agreements between us and the homeowner are through this company which then "hires" our main company to perform the work. its just one added layer of protection so if the sh!t hits the fan they are not coming after my main companys assests, my security company does not have any assests to go after. we also did this when we bought our building, again just for some legal padding against lawsuits

Proggieus you make some great points. We install systems, have always charged for them, but do not do monitoring at this time. Actually when I first got setup my insurance agent had me classified as an alarm company because it was the only category they had that covered what we do. Our only other option was electrician. We switched companies a while back, and the alarm was actually less expensive then the home electricics specialist or whatever we went with.

Security systems can be profitable if it is run correctly.