How to Operate a Successful Pest Control Business

If you want to run a successful pest control business, you’ll need to start by doing a few things first. If you follow these steps, you’ll have a good foundation for your business, and you’ll be able to start growing and serving more people in your area.

What Kind of Pest Control Services Will You Offer?

Different areas have problems with different types of pests. You don’t want to primarily focus on ant control when your customers’ biggest pests are cockroaches and fleas. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take care of ants, as well, but you’ll do better if you do some research and figure out which types of pests are most prevalent in your area at any given time of the year. Then you can create pest control door hangers that specifically mention problem pests that you handle when you start marketing your business.

Get Your Business License

For your business license, you’ll likely have to go to the county clerk’s office or the small business administration in your area. As a pest control business, you’ll also likely have to go to your state’s pesticide regulation office or agriculture department to ensure that you’re operating within EPA standards for your area.

Get Insured

After this, you’ll need to invest in business insurance to ensure that you will not be held personally liable for any issues or accidents that occur on the job. This will keep you from getting in a lot of financial and/or legal trouble.

Decide Between a Retail Space or Home Office

Some pest control businesses operate out of retail spaces where people can come and schedule house calls or buy pest control products in person. Others operate out of their homes and rely on print and online marketing and advertising (things like pest control door hangers and online ads) to get the word out about their businesses. There are advantages to both, but it largely depends on your current budget for your business and whether or not you think that foot traffic in a retail space will really help your business grow.

Get Your Branding Together

Now, you want all of your branding to be uniform. You don’t want the pest control invoice you give your customers to look drastically different from the pest control door hangers you place on their doorknobs to let them know you’re doing work in the area. You want all of your printed and online media to look uniform and to have your logo and brand colors displayed prominently. You should personalize and brand things such as Invoices, work orders/invoices, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, etc.

Follow Up With Customers

Finally, don’t forget to follow up with your customers after you finish a job. If they’re still having pest problems or they’re doing something that will negate your work, you want to know to ensure that they’re happy and that your work stands up. Happy customers will recommend you to their friends, but unhappy customers will tell the world that you did a bad job. So follow up and create as many happy customer experiences as you can.

Take these steps, and you’ll be on your way to operating a successful pest control business.

Sources:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/run-pest-control-business-3140.html

http://designsnprint.com/printing/forms-by-service/66-pest-control-invoice-forms.html