Mark Lehman founded Power Access Control in 2019 with no venture capital and no advertising budget, and the Atlanta-based commercial security firm is now pacing toward $8 million to $10 million in annual revenue for 2027. The company’s growth, built entirely on reputation and referrals, offers a counterpoint to the marketing-heavy strategies common in the security industry and suggests that service quality can still drive scale in a sector increasingly dominated by paid lead generation.
Lehman left a secure job at an established security company out of frustration with what he described as delayed service calls, unreturned phone calls and indifferent customer care. He argued that in commercial access control, a broken gate or failed entry system is not merely an inconvenience but a significant security vulnerability and an operational disruption for a business. With technical expertise and a refusal to compromise on quality, he set out to build his own firm from the ground up.
The early years were defined by hands-on work, from early morning site surveys to late-night wiring and troubleshooting in the Atlanta heat. While competitors spent thousands on paid advertising, Lehman made a decision that many considered reckless for a startup: Power Access Control would spend zero dollars on advertising. Instead, he staked the business on over-delivering on every contract and letting the work speak for itself.
Lehman also chose to focus exclusively on the commercial sector, stepping away from residential work to concentrate on high-security, high-throughput infrastructure. That focus led to the launch of Atlanta Turnstiles, a specialized division for complex turnstile security, optical speed gates, biometric access and perimeter security integration. Word of the company’s standards spread through Atlanta’s general contracting and facility management circles, and the commercial giants soon came calling.
Today, Power Access Control’s client list includes Choate Construction, Tyler Perry Studios, Peachtree-DeKalb Airport (PDK) and Fortune-Johnson. These accounts span major commercial security infrastructure, high-profile media and studio facilities, high-security perimeter access control for active aviation operations and complex multi-building installations. The company’s website, https://poweraccesscontrol.com, presents the firm as a specialist in commercial access control and turnstile security.
The projected $8 million to $10 million revenue for 2027 reflects a meteoric trajectory for a firm that began as a one-man mission six years earlier. For Lehman, the target is less about financial success than validation of the philosophy that started it all: trust the process, treat every customer like your only customer, and never settle for anything less than excellence. As metro Atlanta’s commercial landscape continues its rapid boom, Power Access Control stands as a textbook example of organic, reputation-driven growth built on standard-setting service, zero ad spend and a founder who believed in doing things right.
