Securing Success Firm is not starry-eyed over celebrity clients.
By Paula Peters
If you ask Norman Smith how exciting it is to provide personal risk management services—including 24-hour personal security—to world-class musicians like Christina Aguilera, Blink 182 and the Eagles, you might be surprised by the answer.
“Our friends think it’s glamorous,” said Smith, one of the three founding partners of NPB Companies Inc. “They see us on MTV with Christina or another client. But it’s hard work. You are responsible for the well-being of that person, 24 hours a day.”
NPB Companies, based in Kansas City, Kan., specializes in providing personal risk management, event staffing, event safety and consultation services to both national and local venues. But the firm’s celebrity clientele does not leave stars in their eyes. The realities of the road are challenging. Personal client attention translates to a lot of travel time. While travelling on tour with celebrity clients, they put in 12- to 18-hour days, seven days a week. Founding partner Perrin “Big Pete” Beattle said that he travels up to 10 months a year.
“For me personally, travelling so much has taken a toll,” said Perrin. “Recently, I had a single day off. So I flew home to Kansas City, just for that one day. It was great. The break really helped me get focused, and improved my attitude.”
When handling personal risk management for their high-profile clients, NPB Companies’ staff are required to follow the grueling personal schedules kept by the celebrities, accompanying them to work, press engagements and back to the hotel. They are even required occasionally to handle money and medical care for their clients.
“You work when they work, and you rest when they rest,” said Smith. “If your client wants to get up at 2:30 a.m. to have an ice-cream, then you have to go with them.”
Welcome to the world of NPB Companies.
No Major Incidents Since they founded their company six years ago, in January 1998, NPB Companies has performed personal risk management and venue safety services for national clients as diverse as Martin Lawrence, Marilyn Manson and Linkin Park. Locally, they count Kansas Speedway, Starlight Theatre and Midland Theatre as regular clients. In recent years, they have even worked with major national music festivals, such as the Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans, which annually draws a crowd of 85,000 people, and the Viva Latina music festival in Mexico City, Mexico, the largest music festival in Mexico, with more than 100,000 attendees.
For large tours and music festivals such as Viva Latina, NPB Companies performs venue safety evaluations, creates plans for event safety and consults on event staffing, making sure the sites have adequate police, medical and T-shirt vendor staff. They act as a liaison between the security personnel, the event producer, the bands and the staffers. Their goal is to avoid injuries or situations of any kind, for the bands or the attendees, at all costs—what they call a “major incident.”
“Everybody goes home safe, without incident—period,” said Smith. “That’s our goal. In five years of working event safety planning at Voodoo Music Festival, we have not had one major incident.”
They can also provide complete staffing for major events. On race day at the Kansas Speedway, NPB Companies regularly has more than 250 staff on hand, taking tickets, handling gating operations, seating attendees and managing crowd control.
“It’s a lot of worries,” admits founding partner Brian Butner. “You always have to have a plan in place, in case things don’t work out. You want to prepare for any situation.”
A Formula for Success Regardless of the worries, the NPB formula is working. They started out six years ago with just the three partners—Smith, Beattle and Butner. “When we first started this business, people didn’t give us six months,” said Smith, remembering the trying times of their first year. “What’s helped us is persistence, belief in ourselves and family support. Family support has been very important to us.”
He means that literally. Less than three weeks after incorporating their company, they landed a deal working their very first event for the St. Joseph Civic Arena—and they were not prepared.
“We said, ‘Great, we got a deal! What do we do?’” recalls Smith. “So Brian, Pete and I called up our families, our old frat brothers, and my girlfriend—who is now my wife—to help out.”
Six years later, their gross annual revenue has increased by more than 200 percent per year. They now have a regular staff of 160 local and 16 national employees.
“Do I consider us successful? Yes,” said Butner. “We started our company with $800, no office space and no computers. Now we have 20 national clients and five regular local venues.”
A Hardworking Staff The threesome credits their success to their hardworking staff. Smith said, “Our staff is what made us. We are here today because we have a great staff, with excellent customer service skills and dedication.”
Because their business is built largely on the quality of staff, Smith, Beattle and Butner have taken great care to hire the right people. In fact, until recently, they hired only people who were personally recommended by one of the original 30 staff members.
Once they hire someone, they invest a lot of time and energy in treating employees well. All three partners at NPB Companies consider staff to be family. It’s part of their founding philosophy of treating people the way they want to be treated. Each new team member is given one-on-one training in NPB processes and philosophy. Employees also are elgibile to receive regular awards, such as Associate of the Month.
Beattle says that because the staff is really the heart of the company, he stands behind each and every one of them 110 percent. “You’ve got to treat employees right,” he said. “We can’t do this business ourselves, there’s only three of us. We need their help. But if they feel like a number, then they’ll act like a number.”
NPB Senior Manager John Williams agrees. He has worked for NPB Companies since the beginning, six years ago. In his role, he oversees the management of the event staff and the training of new recruits. When the three partners are out of town, he steps in to make the day-to-day decisions.
“They’ve always made me feel like family,” he said. “There’s an open door policy here, and I’ve always felt comfortable.”
It’s this kind of loyalty that Smith, Beattle and Butner depend on, especially when they are out on the road.
“We still have 14 of our original 30 staff,” said Smith, with satisfaction. “Some of our ‘family’ has passed away, some have moved on. But we’re still proud of that fact.”
Overcoming Challenges It hasn’t always been easy for NPB Companies. Besides the personal challenge of the constant travel, growing the business at the level and pace they wanted has often been frustrating. Smith said that finding clients is a constant challenge, especially with local venues.
“It’s a hustle,” he said. “You have to go out and sell your business. We do a lot of one-on-one sales.”
On a national level, NPB Companies gets plenty of business in personal risk management and venue safety consulting through referrals from their first client, the band Pearl Jam. But on the local level, it is more competitive. They compete directly with established service providers in event staffing and crowd management.
Despite all of these challenges, Butner admits there are perks. “This job is a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun,” he said. “We get to meet so many people. I’ve met a lot of actors, singers, artists.”
Today, they have more time to share their success with the community. Charitable service is very important to NPB Companies; two of the three founding partners grew up in less-than-ideal urban environments. As a result, the staff participates in a variety of community service functions each year, including the Wyandotte County United Way “Day of Caring,” the Crosslines Ministries Holiday Adopt-a-Family, the U.S. Marine Corps Scholarship Fund and several local charity golf tournaments.
“We have always believed in giving back to the community,” said Smith. “All three of us are the same way. We just think that if you help someone, maybe some day, they’ll turn around and do the same thing for someone else.”
A Dream Come True And where do they see themselves in 10 years? For all three partners, owning the business is a dream come true.
“I have always wanted to own a business, since I was a kid,” said Butner. “I enjoy everything about it. As long as we continue to grow, I’m happy.” Butner believes the business could be a viable franchise. He would like to see it expand into multiple cities across the country. However, if they do, NPB Companies will continue its policy of financing its own growth. Beattle says that the business has never borrowed money, and does not owe anything to anyone, a point of pride for the team.
“As long as we still have the excitement and drive, we’ll keep doing it,” said Beattle. “The good thing about it is we’ve got a challenging industry, and that’s fun for us. When we get bored, we’ll stop.”
Paula Peters is a freelance writer and the owner of Peters Writing Services, Inc., which specializes in writing technical and marketing materials. She can be reached at (913) 485-4537 or . Success Summary Entrepreneurs: Perrin “Big Pete” Beattle, Brian Butner and Norman Smith Company Name: NPB Companies, Inc. 77 S. Seventh St. Kansas City, KS 66101 (913) 281-2887 www.npbmanagement.com Type of Business: Event staffing, personal risk management, venue risk management and event safety planning services Year Founded: 1998 Number of Employees: 160 local staff, 16 national Keys to Success: “We have a great staff. Our staff is what made us as a business.” —Norman Smith
