Total Security Solutions: Reflections on 20 Years

By Jim Richards

This October marks 20 years since my dad and I started Total Security Solutions. The most surprising thing about a 20th anniversary is just how quickly it comes. I was never the sort of person who was actively looking to start a business. TSS was the result of a series of decisions, day by day. On day one, TSS had a total of 10 people, including my dad and me. As of day 7,300, we have 111 employees—and we’re still growing.

Rather than list our milestones and awards from the past 20 years, I’d like to use this opportunity to share four lessons I’ve learned over the past two decades—more than 7,000 days I spent doing my best to make sure the worst doesn’t happen to anyone who puts their trust in us.

Lesson 1: Be Proactive

Being proactive isn’t just about racing to be the leader of the pack. If you’re sprinting that hard, you don’t have to worry about being reactive—you don’t even have time to react. What’s more important is to keep your eye on what’s coming down the road. Be ready for what’s coming, instead of having to react to what’s already happening to you.

Twenty years ago, my parents and I were all working in a related small business. That company was the subject of an acquisition by an enormous global corporation—the biggest of the big.  That acquisition turned out to be a case study on how not to do an acquisition. It was a complete disaster. 

Within a year, they’d squandered almost all of the human talent they’d theoretically been trying to acquire. They rolled senior-level people out the door in favor of younger insiders, losing institutional knowledge. They chased out the company’s promising younger people by not moving them into roles where they could grow into their potential. It didn’t take long for my family to read the writing on the wall—it wasn’t going to be a happy ending for us there.

My dad had invaluable experience, and wanted to work a few more years. I had that youth and vigor to dive into every part of this business, from the production floor to the boardroom (if we ever got a boardroom).

The whole saga is a long and winding story, too much to share here. But in the end, my father and I agreed: We were better off getting out ahead of the changes on our own, rather than staying put and reacting to one thing after another. We created TSS as a result.

Lesson 2: Understand Yourself, Your Team, and Your Industry

You need to be really honest about yourself and your team. 

I’ve always argued that in our industry, you need to be the jack of all trades and the masters of none. What makes our team great is that we’re pretty good at acrylic, aluminum, steel, wood doors, millwork, logistics, installation, and a dozen other disciplines, and can bring them together to create systems that solve problems for our customers. We can pack that solution in a box and ship it to a customer, who can then assemble it because we prefab as much as possible. Or we can go anywhere in the country and install it for them. Our team can handle every step of the process, because that’s our mindset.

Understanding your team and your industry is a never-ending task. Your team is maturing, as is your industry, as are you. The person you hired three years ago? They’ve been learning all that time as they worked, and are probably ready for more. That big project you shied away from 10 years ago? Maybe you’re ready for it now. The bread-and-butter work in your industry? It is not going to stay the same. Take the time to understand yourself and you’ll only get better as time goes on.

Lesson 3: Start with What You Know and Build Out From There

Today, we build ballistic barriers for everyone, from the corner store to the federal government. We’ve installed complex, interior-exterior systems for multinational corporations, and engineered one-of-a-kind mobile barrier systems for visiting dignitaries. We’ve made totally-custom package passers for hospitals, and developed pizza passers for quick-serve restaurants.

We didn’t start out this way. Twenty years ago, we were just serving banks. We were only doing UL Levels 1 through 3. At that time, we focused on making interior acrylic barriers, aluminum framing, and ballistic wood or acrylic doors. The 10 of us who worked at TSS knew bank barriers like the backs of our hands. We had the equipment, expertise, skills, business relationships, and sales channels to keep everyone busy and happy.

Periodically, we’d explore a new opportunity, something just beyond our comfort zone. Maybe something that called for exterior windows, or needed slightly higher security, and so we tried our hand at GCP—a material I avoided like the plague for years, because it can be such a pain to work with.

When an opportunity like that popped up, we took a hard look at the maturity of our team. If we knew we had the technical capabilities and could tackle that job, we’d go for it. 

With every job we got a little bit better, matured a little bit more. That’s how we grew the business over time: standing on our solid foundation to build out into new areas and new products. Then we’d build that new area up until we were comfortable enough to stand on that new foundation, and reach even further. 

20 Years Later and More Determined than Ever

When we started this business 20 years ago, it was basically about protecting money. That’s how everyone thought about ballistic barriers: you put them in banks and pawn shops and stores in “bad neighborhoods” to keep money safe. Probably a lot of people in the business still think that way.

But around 2012, that changed for us at TSS. It became abundantly clear that the job of a ballistic barrier—our job—wasn’t just about protecting money anymore. No one has ever taken a gun into a school or a house of worship or a government building or a corporate office because they needed the money.

Our barriers protect people. TSS protects people. I protect people. We don’t take this lightly. And everything we do is in service of protecting people, now and in the future.

Something I’ve always said is growth is about not knowing what the end result will be but doing it anyway. Over the last 20 years of growing this business, I never would have thought that we’d end up where we are today. I’ve never been more grateful, more humbled, or more determined. 

I’m so incredibly grateful for everyone who has been part of the past 20 years at TSS. Now, let’s see what the next 20 have in store. 

Jim Richards is the CEO and co-founder of Total Security Solutions, an industry leader in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom bulletproof barriers. Jim has nearly 30 years of experience in the bullet-resistant glass and physical security industries.