This business plan offers an excellent consideration of factors involved in starting an investigative practice. Unlike many other entrepreneurial ventures, this field needs to keep abreast of the changing legal climate. Changing regulations reform the marketplace, making it necessary for investigators to be aware of each new peice of legislation that impacts their clients and industry practices.
Barr Detective Agency has been in business in various formats since October of 1990. The business name has changed several times to reflect the incorporation of the business and its partners The name reverted back to Barr Detective Agency in 1995 and is currently operated as a sole proprietorship with the exclusive owner of the business being Glenn A Barr. The business has been largely inactive for the last couple of years and is DOW undergoing retooling of its sales efforts in order to become more active and profitable.
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The current owner of Barr Detective Agency is Glenn A Barr. Mr. Barr is licensed as both a private investigator and security guard director in the State of Michigan. His background includes two years as a U.S. Army Military Police officer, three years as a practice investigator and district manager for Pinkerton's, Inc. and eight years of private practice investigation. His education includes graduating with honors from Central Michigan University and extensive graduate level training in both psychology and legal studies.
The Big Con By Mariana Mazzucato, Rosie Collington: 9780593492673
The mission of Barr Detective Agency is to offer first class corporate investigative and security services to the private sector in accordance with all applicable provisions of state law and the licensure authority of the Michigan State Police. The business is currently licensed and licensure itself is a valuable commodity within the state. The strategy of Barr Detective Agency will be to outsell its investigative counterparts through an innovative sales process that will be revealed in the marketing section of this plan.
In addition to the thorough screening that is required of all potential applicants, each business is required by statute to be bonded. The bonding for Barr Detective Agency currently exceeds the state mandated minimum and is set at $10, 000.00 a piece. Liability insurance is also easily obtainable and affordable for this business because of the low exposure to litigation in the industry. Them is one exception to this rule; however, and that is in loss prevention. Physically detaining shoplifters carries a high degree of risk and injury and lawsuits are more common in this one investigative service than in all others combined. Invasion of privacy lawsuits are minimal and are usually easily defeated if the investigator stays within prescribed guidelines The granting of weapons permits is a significant factor in driving up the costs of liability insurance cod should be avoided except for the most outstanding and reliable personnel in the organization. Even then, weapons training and restricted use will prevent a large number of liability problems down the road. Armed accounts only account for a small fraction of the investigative market and therefore should not be considered a significant weighting factor in terns of coverage.
The competition among licensed private investigators is less than in many other businesses. The rigorous licensing and approval process is slow and arduous. Therefore, a dearth of wouldbe private investigators are kept from the market. Only the more serious individuals stand a realistic chance of surviving the screening process, which focuses heavily on provable experience dealing with the investigative laws in this state. The Private Investigator Licensing Act of 1963 erects a formidable barrier to licensing by requiring that each individual is separately licensed for either security or investigations, and not both. That means that each process is separate from the other and requires a completely different set of qualifications and experience. The man prerequisite for becoming a licensed private investigator is to have three years of investigative experience in the field prior to application. The same prerequisite applies to the security process as well. After this is accomplished, a thorough background check is performed on the individual seeking to become licensed. Very high standards al applied. In fact, the process is so stringent that a majority of licensed private investigators are exlaw enforcement officers of varying degrees. This is an advantage that I shall address more fully in the next section.
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The competitive advantage alluded to in the previous section is simple. Since so manyapplicants and licensees in this state are exlaw enforcement officers, there is an utter lack of experienced business personnel in this field. Most law enforcement training is not geared towards business and the amount of inexperience in this aspect of the field is shocking. Since my skills were learned in a business environment, there is a decided edge in my favor in regard to business planning and development. Another distinct advantage is that because so much of the competition has already served in a career capacity, many of the investigators in the field are only parttime at best and do not take either the cases or the business seriously. There are other investigators in the field who come from either a loss prevention or private security background, and these competitors are more difficult to challenge.
The Knoll Group of New York City and Business Risk International the two premier investigative companies in the United States. Other national companies such as Pinkerton and Burns International provide investigative services to their manufacturing clients, but mostly on an ad hoc basis and not with investigative services being the beneficiary, but more as a peripheral service that helps them sell security services. There is surprisingly little in the way of national competition because the laws are so complex and difficult to apply on a broad scope. Further, there is the notion that the field of private investigation should be a small one, similar to a law firm. As such, most companies tend to be local and regional, covering three or fewer states. Here in Grand Haven, there are currently 52 agencies licensed to do business. Although that number appears quite high, there are very few agencies doing high volume work. With the exception of one agency, none of the other agencies are noteworthy. The one agency that is noteworthy is Fatmans. He has a well-run agency with an international reputation. He specializes primarily in marital investigations and is not considered a keen competitor.
Any private investigative company will usually offer a mix of services. Developing a portfolio of different services is especially helpful when laws change and enhance or eliminate the need for certain types of investigations. The field of private investigation offers a large array of possible services, which are explained in detail in the section that follows.
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The bread and butter of investigators throughout the United States. Barr Detective Agency is no exception. Worker's Compensation fraud referrals are the most common form of investigation that insurance companies request; however, there is still a great need for liability, fire and accident reinvestigation cases as well. My agency is most experienced in the injury fraud type of case and it is so commonly requested that it should be considered a specialization.
Commonly only requested by corporations looking to hire applicants without a strong sense of who they are besides what is listed on their resume, background investigations can be lucrative assignments if obtained in volume. They are virtually useless sources of revenue as stand alone cases. The reason for this is that a background check has a natural component of cost. To do a national criminal search requires an up front cost as well as several other forms of credential verification. For this reason, only large background volume will produce decent net profile. The companies using background checks, to a large degree, also perform them inhouse via their human resources department.
Commonly known as store detective work. Many companies hire their own inhouse investigator to perform this task, but there are still large chains that subcontract out this type of work From the client's view, this is an advantageous relationship because the liability for a false arrest can be significantly shifted to a properly insured vendor private investigation company. The work tends to be on an hourly basis, therefore earnings are limited. A large account, however, can generate sufficient revenue to allow for decent profit margins.
How To Conduct An Investigation
These accounts are accounts of opportunity. When developed, these are high paying accounts that can make up a significant portion of revenue in a short period of time. What is so appealing is that the person being protected needs a high degree of protection usually around the clock. Therefore, the rate of pay is high and is continuous as long as the individual needs protection. Some positions are fulltime, as with a celebrity, but most often personal protection assignments are short lived and deal with a specific threat by some individual that provides a period of uncertainty that the target must endure. After the threat has been ended or minimized, the assignment is usually ended or phased out and the revenue stream is terminated. Sometimes, the perpetrator is apprehended immediately and no significant revenue is obtained. In either situation
The bread and butter of investigators throughout the United States. Barr Detective Agency is no exception. Worker's Compensation fraud referrals are the most common form of investigation that insurance companies request; however, there is still a great need for liability, fire and accident reinvestigation cases as well. My agency is most experienced in the injury fraud type of case and it is so commonly requested that it should be considered a specialization.
Commonly only requested by corporations looking to hire applicants without a strong sense of who they are besides what is listed on their resume, background investigations can be lucrative assignments if obtained in volume. They are virtually useless sources of revenue as stand alone cases. The reason for this is that a background check has a natural component of cost. To do a national criminal search requires an up front cost as well as several other forms of credential verification. For this reason, only large background volume will produce decent net profile. The companies using background checks, to a large degree, also perform them inhouse via their human resources department.
Commonly known as store detective work. Many companies hire their own inhouse investigator to perform this task, but there are still large chains that subcontract out this type of work From the client's view, this is an advantageous relationship because the liability for a false arrest can be significantly shifted to a properly insured vendor private investigation company. The work tends to be on an hourly basis, therefore earnings are limited. A large account, however, can generate sufficient revenue to allow for decent profit margins.
How To Conduct An Investigation
These accounts are accounts of opportunity. When developed, these are high paying accounts that can make up a significant portion of revenue in a short period of time. What is so appealing is that the person being protected needs a high degree of protection usually around the clock. Therefore, the rate of pay is high and is continuous as long as the individual needs protection. Some positions are fulltime, as with a celebrity, but most often personal protection assignments are short lived and deal with a specific threat by some individual that provides a period of uncertainty that the target must endure. After the threat has been ended or minimized, the assignment is usually ended or phased out and the revenue stream is terminated. Sometimes, the perpetrator is apprehended immediately and no significant revenue is obtained. In either situation
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