May 6—An overweight security guard chain-smoking cigarettes in the South Valley in 2014 gave Chris Sweetin an idea for a company.

Sweetin, who had just retired from the Air Force, said the man was sitting in his car and there was a pile of cigarettes on the ground under the window.

"I said to my buddy, 'That dude can't even deter a heart attack,'" Sweetin said.

Sweetin is the president and CEO of the Triskelion Group of New Mexico. It started as 3D Security Training Solutions, which offered training for security professionals. In the last 10 years it has become a corporation that provides security, private investigations and teaches concealed carry and personal protection courses.

The company now has 80 employees and is on pace to make about $4.8 million this year, including close to $1 million in profit, he said. It was recently licensed to work in Arizona and has a contract transporting migrants for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Sweetin was recently named the 2024 New Mexico Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration New Mexico District Office.

Sweetin, when he was transitioning back to civilian life from the military, took a Boots to Business course through the SBA and then started taking advantage of other resources.

"That's where the journey really started. It gave me the idea of wanting to be an entrepreneur," he said.

The Sweetin family tree is full of entrepreneurs. Sweetin's uncle owned a landscaping business. His other uncle was a law enforcement officer by day and had side jobs at night, including at one point running a hotdog cart. His father started a life insurance and financial management business and ran it until he died in 2021. His sisters and relatives on his mother's side of the family also own and operate businesses.

"Triskelion, in Gaelic, means continually in motion," Sweetin said. "Because we're always moving, we're always finding new ways of doing things."

Can you tell me about your company's journey in the last decade?

"3D Security Training Solutions is what started everything. We started security training, personal protection and concealed carry. ... We opened July 1, 2014, as a training company and in six months we broke even. A year later, we were in Money magazine for entrepreneurial success as a startup. By the end of about a year and a half, we started getting asked to provide security guards. And from there it just took off. When people started realizing we were the same company that was training other companies, they came to us and we started getting more traction, and we're very, very busy."

What resources helped you grow your business?

"I did the Boots to Business class, and the Boots to Business reboot class, to pick up on stuff I didn't know or missed the first time. Then I did the eight-week Boots to Business program to get help learning how to run the business and how to manage it. I talked with my counterparts at the Veterans Business Outreach Center, the (Small Business Development Center) I mean, I was hitting them all.

"You want me to teach you how to do combat search and rescue, that's what I can do. My business partner, John Hughes, was a sergeant major in the Army Ranger Regiment. You want to kick in doors and clear houses, he can tell you what to do. So using all those SBA resources was easy because I didn't have to try to learn or relearn everything. I could just go to the people who have already been there and done that and listen to them and use them. I've ended up with a lot of mentors."

You've been active in state government in terms of private security regulations.

"In the 2016, 2017 time frame, the state asked us to help redo the Private Investigation Act and standardize curriculum for all security in New Mexico. I helped, with another training company in town, and we created what's called the New Mexico Professional Security Association. And (the association) is the one that actively goes to the Roundhouse. ... We've been at the forefront of changing the security community in New Mexico and making security more professionalized."

How did your company respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?

"We shifted. We lost about $15,000 a week in business because all the mom-and-pop stuff that we were doing was 'non-essential.' So we didn't have standing posts anymore. So what we did was we shifted to more patrol work. We took all of our ... full-timers and we dropped their work down to 32 hours, then we brought our part-timers up in hours. And we got the (Paycheck Protection Program) money. We had three owners at the time — me, my ex-wife and John — and we didn't take a salary during that time. So we took all of that PPP money, devoted it directly to payroll, and (the security officers) would work four days a week at a post, and then we'd bring them in one day for training."

You come from a family of entrepreneurs. What traits do you share?

"My dad said this to his brothers, he said it to me and he said it to my sister, 'Life is going to put walls in front of you. You either find a way around it or you go through it. You never quit. Ever.' And that's literally everything."

What is something difficult that you've had to overcome in your life?

"My father passing away in November 2021. I talked with my dad literally every day. ... When I talked to him the morning he passed away, he said he was going back to the hospital because he figured he had pneumonia ... and that was the last time I talked to him. So that was extremely hard to try and fill that void with my dad. My uncle Robert stepped up huge and he started trying to fill that gap. And then, unfortunately, he passed away last year."

What's the most difficult thing about balancing being a business owner and a father?

"Clients don't know that I'm a dad. And my kids see me, when my clients call, that I always answer the phone. They understand now, they haven't in the past. But they're getting to the point where they understand it. Because I make them (work). If you come back out here in the summer, you will see a lemonade stand. They understand the process behind it. They've been running a lemonade stand for the past five years every day during the summer.

"They're learning how to be entrepreneurs, and they understand that I'm working my butt off to make them have a better life than I did growing up."

Crime has become such a political hot-button issue in Albuquerque. How has that affected your business?

"Let's put it this way, I'm not blue, I'm not red, I'm green. I don't care what the policies are, as long as we can help somebody. I go to the Roundhouse every session. I talk to all of our representatives, all of our senators. They all know who my pain-in-the-ass is. Especially on security bills. I've sat down and watched the governor sign veterans bills. I'm actively involved in the politics side, but I'm making sure (policies) meet the industry's needs."