Is a security business profitable? What 200+ security businesses for sale and a per-guard model show
Most answers to this question come from guard-management software vendors and security firms selling guards. We read every US security business for sale instead, split guard companies from locksmiths and alarm installers, and built the per-guard math with every assumption shown.
Is a security business profitable?
Yes, but guarding is a thin-margin business, and the big margins are somewhere else. In our worked example a guard company keeps about 12% of revenue before the owner’s own pay, and published guides quote 6% to 15% net. Of 10 US guard companies for sale that state revenue and owner earnings, the median keeps 24.9% as owner earnings (SDE), which adds the owner’s pay back (Main Street Index, October 2026).
The 50% margins belong to locksmiths and alarm and camera installers: 10 of 76 US security listings with stated figures reach 50%, and none is a guard firm. Owners do well on size, though. 74 of 88 listings with stated earnings show $100K or more, and guard firms ask a median 3.8x earnings, more than double commercial cleaning.
The pages that rank for this question are written by guard-scheduling software vendors, security staffing firms, a business-funding blog and a trade magazine, with one owner forum thread at the top. They agree on two numbers: a gross margin of roughly 20% to 40% and a net margin of 6% to 15%. None looks at real businesses for sale. The Main Street Index is BigIdeasDB’s census of 84,900+ businesses-for-sale listings across 29 marketplace sources, de-duplicated so each business counts once. It holds 200+ security-industry listings; 127 are US listings priced in dollars, and that is what this page reads. Every figure is an asking price or a stated number, not a closed deal.
Owner earnings here means seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE): profit plus the owner’s own pay, before debt. Margin means SDE divided by revenue. Many groups below have fewer than 30 listings, so we show sample sizes next to every figure and counts or ranges instead of medians where a group is very small.
Security businesses for sale at a glance
| Metric | Value | n | What it means for a buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| US listings priced in USD | 127 | 127 | Guards, systems, locksmiths, fire |
| Median asking price | $500K | 99 | Guard firms alone: $1.34M (n=13) |
| Median stated owner earnings (SDE) | $232K | 88 | 74 of 88 show $100K+ |
| Median margin (SDE / revenue) | 30.0% | 76 | Guard firms: 24.9% (n=10) |
| Median asking multiple | 2.96x | 68 | Guard firms: 3.8x (n=9) |
| Median revenue per employee | $169K | 63 | Guard firms: $45K (n=8) |
| Listings with a price cut | About 6% | 200+ | 13 of 222, all countries |
| Guard-firm listings that cite retirement | 3 of 12 | 12 | All security: 45 of 80 reasons |
How profitable is owning a security company?
A guard company is profitable in the way a staffing firm is: a small margin on a large number of billed hours. The published ranges are a gross margin of about 20% to 40% and a net margin of 6% to 15%. Our listings sit above that net range because they report owner earnings, which add back the owner’s pay.
Three margins get mixed up on this topic, and most of the confusion comes from that.
- Gross margin per guard hour. Bill rate minus the guard’s fully loaded cost. In our worked example below it is 24.9% at a $30 bill rate.
- Net margin. Gross margin minus overhead and unpaid hours, with the owner or manager paid a salary. Our example gives 11.9%, inside the published 6% to 15%.
- SDE margin. Net margin plus whatever the owner pays themselves. The 24.9% median for guard firms in our listings is this one. A 20-guard firm with a $100,000 owner salary adds about 8 points to an 11.9% net margin, which lands near 20%.
So the sellers are not exaggerating when they quote 25%. They are quoting a different margin than a trade guide does. A buyer who plans to hire a manager should use the net margin. A buyer who plans to run it should use SDE and still subtract a salary for the job.
The thin margin comes from one fact: labour is most of the bill. Guard wages and employer costs run around 55% to 65% of revenue in published breakdowns, and our example puts total direct cost at 75% before overhead. That leaves little room for error, which is why operators talk about the split so often.
“Ive never seen it go 80/20 in favor of the company but 65/35 is about average.”A security operator
Guards, locks, alarms and fire: where the margin lives
“Security” on a business-for-sale marketplace is not one industry. Of 127 US listings, 42 are alarm, camera, access control and low-voltage companies, 29 are locksmiths, 14 are fire protection, and the rest are guard companies, patrol and event security firms, and a few investigators (Main Street Index, October 2026). Their economics differ.
| Segment | Listings | Median margin (n) | Median ask / SDE (n) | Median SDE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guard and patrol firms | 18 | 24.9% (10) | 3.8x (9) | $373K (10) |
| Security systems, alarm, cameras | 42 | 29.4% (29) | 3.6x (23) | $236K (34) |
| Locksmith | 29 | 35.6% (15) | 2.1x (19) | $134K (19) |
| Fire protection | 14 | 23.6% (12) | 2.8x (7) | $569K (12) |
Locksmiths keep the most of each dollar and sell for the least: a median 2.1x, with an owner doing the work. Systems businesses earn more in total and ask 3.6x. Guard firms keep the least of each dollar and ask the most, because they have more revenue, more recurring contracts and, in the larger ones, more than one site. Ten of the 18 guard listings mention recurring revenue or contracts.
Two things to know about the guard group. First, five more listings are the same package: five US cities, each asking $225,000 for $1,457,580 of revenue with the same wording. We left them out of every guard figure, the same way we separated copy-paste packages in junk removal. Second, six security-services listings are resale offers from one franchise brand. Ask for the franchise terms, including royalties and territory, before comparing them with an independent company.
Which business has a 50% profit margin?
In this industry, locksmiths, alarm installers and monitoring businesses. 10 of 76 US security listings with stated revenue and owner earnings show a margin of 50% or more, and every one is a locksmith, installer or monitoring business (Main Street Index, October 2026). No guard company reaches it. The highest guard margin among the 10 we could measure is 42%.
Treat those margins with care. They are owner earnings, so the owner’s pay is in the 50%, and the businesses are small. The top margin, 77%, is a locksmith with $175,000 of revenue, and most of the group has one to three staff or none stated. That is a job, not a company. For margins across all industries, see our ranking of the most profitable small businesses.
Is a 40% profit margin bad?
No, it is good. Across the 76 US security listings with stated figures, the 75th percentile margin is 40.5%, so a 40% margin beats roughly three in four. The 25th percentile is 18.7%; 25 of 76 sit below 20%, 30 sit between 20% and 40%, and 21 reach 40% or more.
What matters is which margin the number describes. A 40% gross margin on guard labour is the top of the published range and is hard to hold once overhead arrives. A 40% SDE margin on a locksmith is ordinary. A 40% net margin on a guard firm would be extraordinary, and a buyer should ask what is missing from the costs.
How much does a security company make per guard?
About $3.56 of profit per billed hour, or around $7,400 a year per full-time guard, before the owner’s pay, in the model below. We built it from public wage data and the cost lines operators describe. Every input marked “assumption” is ours, so change it for your market.
| Line (per billed hour) | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Bill rate to client | $30.00 | Assumption (1.64x the wage) |
| Guard wage | $18.28 | Public wage data, national median, May 2025 |
| Employer Social Security and Medicare | $1.40 | 7.65% of wage, statutory rate |
| Unemployment and workers’ compensation | $1.46 | Assumption: 8% of wage |
| General liability insurance | $0.80 | Assumption |
| Uniform, training, licence card | $0.60 | Assumption |
| Direct cost | $22.54 | 75.1% of bill rate |
| Gross margin | $7.46 (24.9%) | Before overhead |
| Overhead (supervisor, scheduling, office, vehicle) | $3.00 | Assumption |
| Unpaid or lost hours, late payers, bad debt | $0.90 | Assumption: 3% of revenue |
| Profit before owner pay | $3.56 (11.9%) | About $7,400 a year per guard |
Annual revenue per full-time guard is $62,400 (2,080 hours at $30). A published industry guide puts a single officer at $40,000 to $60,000 of revenue, and our listings show a median of $45,000 of revenue per employee (n=8, range $15,000 to $77,000). The gap between $62,400 and $45,000 is probably part-time headcount: a listing that reports 35 employees may be running 20 full-time equivalents. That is an inference from the headcount field, not a stated fact.
The result is very sensitive to the bill rate. Hold everything else and change only what the client pays:
| Bill rate | Gross margin | Profit per hour | Net margin | Per guard per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $26 | 13.3% | -$0.32 | -1.2% | -$670 |
| $30 | 24.9% | $3.56 | 11.9% | $7,400 |
| $34 | 33.7% | $7.44 | 21.9% | $15,500 |
Four dollars an hour more takes the same guard from an 11.9% to a 21.9% net margin, and four dollars less turns the profit into a small loss. That is why the operators who write about this care more about contract pricing than about anything else, and why “win the contract at any price” is the failure mode. One operator describes the formula:
“The best thing to do is to take your hourly pay and multiply it between 1.6 and 1.7.”A security operator
The same thread adds the exceptions. Large, high-hour contracts squeeze the margin to $3 or $4 an hour; temporary and emergency assignments carry the most. Overtime that is paid to the guard but not billed to the client comes out of your 12%. To see how many guards it takes to pay you: at $3.56 an hour, about 14 full-time guards generate $100,000 before the owner’s pay, and 20 guards generate about $148,000 on $1.25 million of revenue. Overhead does not grow in step with headcount, so profit per guard improves as a firm grows. One published guide says the first 15 or so guards just cover the operating costs.
How much do security companies charge clients?
Usually 1.6 to 1.7 times the guard’s hourly wage, which is $29 to $31 an hour for a guard paid $18.28. Published guides put unarmed guards at about $20 to $40 an hour and armed guards at $30 to $60, and executive protection can be much higher. Location, contract length and hours per week move the number.
Operators give real examples from several countries: guards paid $15.50 to $17 billed at about $30; a taser-certified post billed at $42 for a guard paid $21; mall guards paid $15 billed in the high $30s. One writes that below 400 billed hours a week the margin has to be higher to cover the effort of the contract. For a buyer, the bill-rate sheet by client is the first document to request.
How much do owners of security companies make? Private security company owner salary
Among 88 US security listings that state owner earnings, the median is $232K, and for the 10 guard companies it is $373K (Main Street Index, October 2026). Those are owner earnings: the owner’s salary plus the profit, before debt payments. A typical small company owner takes a salary and leaves the rest in the business, so the “salary” on its own is lower.
Published guides put small-company owners at $50,000 to $120,000 a year after expenses. Both can be true: the guides describe the typical firm of a few sites, the listings describe the ones large enough to sell. The listings skew large. The median listing has 65 employees for guard firms where headcount is stated (n=9), and asks $1.34 million (n=13). The path from one guard post to that size is long, and the trade-magazine piece that ranks for this question, written by a small-firm owner, argues that one regular contract is not worth much on its own: the value is in holding several.
Can you make 100k a year in security?
As an owner, yes. As a guard, rarely. The median guard earns $18.28 an hour, about $38,000 a year, and the 90th percentile earns about $58,840 (public wage data, May 2025). An owner needs about 14 full-time guards in our model, or fewer high-margin contracts, to clear $100,000. In our listings 74 of 88 show $100K or more, and 9 of the 10 guard firms with stated earnings do.
For a guard, the honest route to $100K is to move up: supervisor, operations manager, or owner of a small patrol company with one or two clients. For someone who wants to own, buying a firm that already has contracts is faster than winning the first ones, which is the main reason to read our how to buy a business guide before you start a guard company from scratch.
How much does it cost to run a security company?
Per guard hour, $22.54 of direct cost plus $3.00 of overhead plus $0.90 of lost hours, or 88% of a $30 bill rate, in our model. At the company level, published guides put the cost of starting at $50,000 to $150,000 in the first year, plus four to six months of payroll as working capital because clients pay after 30 days or more.
| Cost line | Per hour | Share of bill |
|---|---|---|
| Wage | $18.28 | 60.9% |
| Payroll tax, unemployment, workers’ compensation | $2.86 | 9.5% |
| Insurance, uniform, training | $1.40 | 4.7% |
| Overhead | $3.00 | 10.0% |
| Unpaid or lost hours | $0.90 | 3.0% |
| Profit before owner pay | $3.56 | 11.9% |
The cash timing is the part that breaks new firms. Guards are paid weekly or every two weeks; clients pay in 30 days, sometimes much later. One operator writes it plainly:
“For most new contracts you are on the hook for a months costs/wages before they pay the bill, and that’s if they pay on time.”A security operator
Add insurance and compliance. Guard firms that classify guards as contractors to save payroll tax take on back-tax and workers’ compensation exposure; guides are blunt that guards should be employees. If you buy a firm, this is the first thing to check. See the hidden costs of buying a business for the general list.
Is a security company a good business to start?
It is a good business if you can win recurring contracts and fund the payroll gap, and a poor one if you are starting with little cash and no client list. Demand is steady, with about 1.28 million guards employed in the US and roughly 157,200 openings a year, mostly from turnover (public wage data, May 2025). Margins are thin and pricing is competitive, so the owner who wins is the one who prices every contract against its cost.
Starting and buying each solve a different problem. Starting is cheap in capital but slow: you need a licence, insurance, guards and a first client before any revenue arrives. Buying costs more, about $1.34 million asked for the median guard firm in our listings, but you start with contracts and a workforce. Compare the two in buying vs starting a business. If you are weighing it against other service trades, our list of the best businesses to buy shows where security sits.
What licenses do I need to start a security company? Private patrol operator licence
It depends on the state, and the rules are the main barrier to entry. Expect three layers: a company licence, a licence or card for each guard, and a firearms permit if any guard is armed. Insurance is usually a condition of the company licence.
California is a clear example, and its regulator publishes the rules. A private patrol operator licence requires that the owner or a qualified manager has two years and 4,000 hours of paid experience as a patrolperson, guard or watchman and one year and 2,000 hours in a management role with a licensed operator, then passes a written exam and a criminal history review. The licence carries at least $1 million of general liability insurance, lasts two years, and the regulator says a company application takes about four months if complete.
The point for a buyer is a different one: licences cannot be transferred or reassigned to a new entity. A change of ownership counts as a new entity and needs a new application. So buying a licensed firm there does not buy you the licence. You need a qualified manager, a new application and a plan for the months in between. Rules in other states differ, so ask a local lawyer before you sign. This is not legal advice.
Security vs commercial cleaning and building maintenance
Cleaning and maintenance are the closest labour-heavy cousins. They have similar margins but much lower prices, which is the interesting part.
| Industry | Listings | Median margin (n) | Median multiple (n) | Median ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security services | 129 | 30.0% (76) | 2.96x (68) | $500K |
| Commercial cleaning | 620 | 29.6% (405) | 1.71x (432) | $255K |
| Building maintenance | 531 | 27.0% (410) | 1.39x (423) | $253K |
The margins are within three points of each other, yet security asks almost twice the earnings multiple of cleaning. Two reasons are visible in the listings. Security earnings are larger and rest on contracts, and the licence and insurance requirements keep new competitors out, which buyers pay for. The other reason is less comfortable: the margin you buy is the margin the seller reports, and a guard firm’s margin depends on pricing discipline and turnover that listings do not show. Read the cleaning side in is a cleaning business profitable.
Why owners sell security businesses
Retirement leads: 45 of the 80 US security listings with a stated reason cite it, followed by other business interests (11), relocation (9) and health (2) (Main Street Index, October 2026). Among the 12 guard firms with a stated reason, 3 say retirement.
A retiring owner is often the licence holder, the qualified manager and the person every client calls. That is the transition risk to price, and the reason to ask for a long handover and for the seller to stay available. Our guide to buying from a retiring owner and the study of why owners sell their businesses cover it in more depth.
Before you buy a security business: eight checks
Security listings are a mixed group, so the first check is whether the business is what the headline says. Then:
- Confirm it is a guard firm. Security listings mix guard companies, locksmiths, alarm installers and fire protection. Their margins and multiples differ. Ask what share of revenue is billed guard hours.
- Check the licence path. Ask whether the company licence transfers or whether you must apply as a new entity. In at least one state it does not, and the application takes about four months.
- Rebuild margin per guard hour. Ask for 24 months of billed hours, bill rates and payroll by site. Compute bill rate minus wage, tax, insurance and uniforms for every contract.
- Rank contracts by margin. Sort sites by margin per hour and by hours per week. Small, low-hour sites and emergency fill work usually carry the margin. Large sites carry the volume.
- Test customer concentration. Ask what share of revenue comes from the top three clients and when each contract renews. One lost post can be a large share of a small firm.
- Check workforce records. Ask for guard turnover, overtime hours, workers' compensation claims and any misclassified contractor guards. These are the hidden margin and liability items.
- Age the receivables. Ask for an aged receivables report. Payroll goes out weekly while clients pay in 30 days or more, so late payers are a cash problem you inherit.
- Price it against its peers. Compare the ask with other guard firms and with owner earnings after a manager's salary. Guard firms in our listings ask a median 3.8x owner earnings (n=9).
For the full process, use the due diligence checklist for buying a business, how to value a small business and the SBA loan guide. Only 17 of the 129 listings say how the business is run (15 owner-operated, 2 absentee), so ask directly who holds the licence and who manages the guards. For the franchise question, see franchise vs independent business.
What this data cannot tell you
- Asking, not closing. Every price is a listing’s ask. Businesses sold privately never appear.
- Stated, not verified. Revenue and earnings are what the listing says, and SDE includes the owner’s pay.
- Small guard sample. 18 guard-company listings, 10 with margins and 9 with multiples: enough for ranges and rough medians, not for precision.
- A mixed industry. We split segments by headline keywords and read the descriptions of the guard group. A guard firm described only as “security” may sit in another group.
- The worked example is a model. Only the wage is a measured figure. The bill rate, insurance, overhead and unpaid-hours lines are our assumptions.
- Missing fields. The listings do not give us customer concentration, guard turnover or licence status, so we could not measure them.
Methodology
All queries ran read-only against the Main Street Index on October 13, 2026. We took listings classified in the security services industry, removed cross-site duplicates, and kept US listings priced in USD: 127. Segments were assigned from headline keywords (locksmith; fire and sprinkler; alarm, camera, access control and low-voltage) and the guard group was selected from headlines and confirmed by reading descriptions for armed, unarmed, patrol, officer or event security work: 18. Five listings sharing one price, one revenue figure and one wording were excluded from guard statistics.
Margin is stated SDE divided by stated revenue for listings with both positive. Multiples use the index’s deal table (asking price over stated SDE). Comparison industries use the same method on the same day. Wage and workforce figures come from public federal wage statistics for May 2025. Operator quotes are from the thread Google ranks first for this question and are anonymized.
Data sources and limitations
| Source | Used for | Size | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Street Index, security services | Margins, multiples, SDE, headcount, reasons for selling, segments | 127 US USD listings | Asking prices; stated figures; small guard sample |
| Main Street Index, cleaning and maintenance | Comparison margin and multiple | 1,100+ US listings | Asking, not closing |
| Public wage data (federal), May 2025 | Guard median wage and percentiles, headcount, openings | National, 1 occupation | National median; local wages differ |
| State regulator guidance (California) | Patrol operator licence rules and transfer limit | 1 state | Rules differ by state |
| Published industry guides | Margin, bill-rate and start-up ranges tested | 6 pages ranking for the query | Commercial interest; mostly no sample sizes |
| Owner and guard forum threads | Operator quotes on bill rates and cash flow | The thread Google ranks #1 | Self-selected; anonymized; unverified |
| Google SERP and People Also Ask | Questions answered | 3 SERPs | US, one day |
How BigIdeasDB helps you buy a security business
Ranked by how much they help a buyer:
- BigIdeasDB Main Street Index: every listing beside its peers, with its multiple, margin, seller terms and stated reason, across 120+ industries. Browse the live listings, the industry benchmarks and the buyer view, or query it from Claude with the Main Street Index MCP tools.
- ChatGPT or Claude: useful for turning a seller’s payroll and billing export into margin per site, as long as you check it against bank deposits.
- A spreadsheet: rebuild the per-guard table above with the seller’s real bill rates and wages, one row per contract.
Need a cut we did not publish? Request custom data. Compare plans on pricing, or start with the deal snapshot.
If you are weighing security against other trades, our guide to what a good profit margin is for a small business shows where a 25% to 30% owner margin sits across 70+ industries, and is a pool service business profitable shows how a solo route business reports very different numbers.
Check a security listing before you call the seller
See every listing beside its peers and compare real margins and multiples by segment. Get 20% off Pro Lifetime with code SAVE20, a one-time payment on the pricing page.
Check a listing's price →Frequently asked questions
How profitable is owning a security company?
Guarding is a thin-margin, high-volume business. In our per-guard model (every assumption shown on this page) a company billing $30 an hour for a guard it pays $18.28 an hour keeps about 12% of revenue before the owner's own pay. Of 10 US guard companies for sale that state revenue and owner earnings, the median keeps 24.9% as owner earnings (SDE), which adds the owner's pay back (Main Street Index, October 2026). Published guides quote 6% to 15% net.
How much do owners of security companies make?
Of 88 US security-industry listings that state owner earnings, 74 show $100K or more, with a median of $232K. For the 10 guard-company listings with stated earnings the median is $372K (Main Street Index, October 2026). Those figures include the owner's own pay and usually the owner's own work. Smaller guard firms with a handful of sites earn far less, and listings skew toward businesses big enough to sell.
Is a security company a good business to start?
It is a good business to run if you can win contracts and fund payroll, and a poor one to start with little cash. Guards are paid every week or two while clients pay in 30 days or more, and in some states the company licence takes months. Buying an existing firm removes the contract-winning problem but in at least one state the licence cannot be transferred, so a buyer applies for a new one.
How much does it cost to run a security company?
Labour dominates. In our model, direct cost is $22.54 for every guard hour billed ($18.28 wage plus payroll tax, unemployment, workers' compensation, insurance and uniforms) before $3.00 an hour of overhead and 3% for lost or unpaid hours. That is 88% of a $30 bill rate. Published guides put start-up cost at $50,000 to $150,000 plus four to six months of payroll as working capital.
Can you make 100k a year in security?
Yes, as an owner, not as a guard. Median guard pay is $18.28 an hour, about $38,000 a year (public wage data, May 2025). An owner needs roughly 14 full-time guards billed at $30 an hour in our model to clear $100,000 before the owner's pay is deducted. 74 of 88 US security-industry listings with stated earnings show $100K or more (Main Street Index, October 2026).
Which business has 50% profit margin?
In security, the 50% margins are locksmith and security-system installers, not guard companies. 10 of 76 US security-industry listings that state revenue and owner earnings show 50% or more, and every one is a locksmith, installer or monitoring business (Main Street Index, October 2026). The highest guard-company margin we found is 42%. Owner earnings include the owner's pay, so a 50% margin is not a 50% net profit.
Is a 40% profit margin bad?
No. A 40% margin on owner earnings (SDE) is better than 3 in 4 US security listings: the 75th percentile is 40.5% (n=76, Main Street Index, October 2026). As a gross margin on guard labour, 30% to 40% is what published guides call normal, and it shrinks to 6% to 15% after overhead. Always ask which margin is being quoted.
How much does a security company make per guard?
In our worked example, about $3.56 of profit per billed hour, or roughly $7,400 a year per full-time guard, before the owner's pay. That assumes a $30 bill rate, $18.28 wage, 7.65% payroll tax, 8% unemployment and workers' compensation, $0.80 insurance, $0.60 uniforms and training, $3.00 overhead and 3% unpaid hours. At a $26 bill rate the same guard loses about $0.32 an hour. Every assumption is labeled and you can change them.
How much do security companies charge clients?
Guard company operators say the bill rate is the guard's wage multiplied by 1.6 to 1.7, and that large contracts can run as low as $3 to $4 an hour of margin. Published guides put unarmed guards at about $20 to $40 an hour and armed guards at $30 to $60. Our worked example uses $30 an hour for an unarmed guard paid $18.28, a 1.64x markup.
What licenses do I need to start a security company?
It depends on the state. Expect a company licence, a licence or registration card for each guard, and a separate firearms permit for armed work. California requires a private patrol operator licence: the owner or a qualified manager needs two years and 4,000 hours as a guard or patrolperson plus one year and 2,000 hours in management, a written exam and a criminal history check, and the state says a company application takes about four months. Licences cannot be transferred to a new entity. Check your own state.
BigIdeasDB Research. (2026). Is a security business profitable? What 200+ security businesses for sale and a per-guard model show. BigIdeasDB. Retrieved from https://bigideasdb.com/is-a-security-business-profitable