Although glamorous, personal protection – for rocks stars, professional athletes and other celebrities – only accounts for about five per cent of Source’s business. The bulk of the company’s projected $9.5-million revenue for 2010 will come from corporate and event security. The client list in these areas is equally impressive, including Bell Aliant, TD Canada Trust, GAP, Olympics 2010, Juno 2010 and the upcoming 2011 Canada Games.

It’s been eight years since Lovett started the company — a long way from those early days when he recruited a couple of friends and two-way radios from Radio Shack, and began peddling his wares to nightclubs in downtown Halifax.

“Until we came along, most of the security at nightclubs was done in-house,” explains Lovett. “And lots of people told me it couldn’t be done – that’s kind of the mentality on the east coast – if it’s never been done, you just can’t do it.”

This kind of unconventional thinking has served Lovett well. He has spent the last eight years challenging the status quo in the security business – on everything from mandatory training of guards to portable licensing. A few years ago, for example, the government and the security industry were exploring the idea of mandatory training for security guards, but it didn’t make sense to Lovett.

“How can you have the same training for the guard who’s working the Justin Bieber concert and the one who’s working at the mall? It requires a different skill set,” says Lovett. The idea died before it was born.

Lovett has expanded Source’s footprint across the country with more than 2,000 part-time and full-time employees. In addition to offices in all four Atlantic provinces, Source has three locations in B.C., and has recently opened up shop in Toronto.

The pace of growth has translated into big opportunities for staff. Jack Tobin started working for Source as a part-time security guard in 2007 while he was finishing a degree in political science at Halifax’s Dalhousie University. In August of that year, he and four other security guards were stabbed while on-duty. Tobin admits he had mixed feeling about returning to work, and against his mother’s wishes, he “got back on the horse.

“I really enjoyed the work in Halifax and the people I was working with, so it was part of my healing and recovery process to go back to work,” he says.

Three years later, Tobin’s determination has been rewarded. He was promoted to operations manager of Source’s new office in Toronto. Tobin’s first order of business was providing personal security for celebrities at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of this year. The company has also been awarded the contract to provide security and management services for the Hazelton Hotel in Toronto, a luxury hotel frequented by celebrities.

“It’s been exciting to watch the company grow over the last three years. It’s a new and exciting chapter in our history,” says Tobin.