Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
With her genuinely good heart and a wealth of experience behind her, Susannah works to connect local business and non-profit leaders to their neighbors. In a community like ours in which so many have invested their lives, there are fantastic stories all around us that motivate and inspire, often right next door. She hopes to share some of those here, on the Good Neighbor Podcast. Book an interview today at GNPAuburn.com
Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep.#22: Entrepreneurial Spirit with Scott Ballard and Ballard Pest Management
Prepare to have your misconceptions squashed as Scott talks termite tactics, moisture mitigation, and the season-specific strategies for outsmarting mosquitoes and Japanese beetles. Whether you're dealing with unwanted critters or just curious about the field, Scott's transformation from job hunter to business owner serves as a beacon of professionalism and dedication.
Founded in 2020, Ballard Pest Management has a team with over 30 years of experience. Proudly serving Alabama and Georgia communities, striving to take care of families and businesses with superior quality treatments to keep customers happy and coming back to BPM.
Ballard Pest Management
(334) 502-6049
Email: scott@ballardpestmanagement.com
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. With me is Scott Ballard with Ballard Pest Management. Welcome, scott. Thank you for joining me today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:So tell me a little bit about your business. What kind of services do you provide?
Speaker 3:Well, I am the owner of Ballard Pest Management and it's kind of self-explanatory, I think, but we do pest control, termite control, we do crawl space Encapsulations, we do moisture mitigation, french trains, sump pumps. We also do real estate Closing letters. We call them termite letters, but we also do that. Got mosquito service as well. Um.
Speaker 2:That's, that's about it in the south. Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, what? The mosquitoes start to come out again in the spring, or they wait till the summer.
Speaker 3:I've forgotten spring our mosquito service goes from. We start in March and it goes through October, but this year, because you know we had spring weather until almost Christmas day, we had some mosquito services that we still did through November, which was weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a warm fall.
Speaker 3:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:Yes, so tell me a little bit about some of the common pest problems that people might have. That Gets them to pick up the phone and call you. What are? What are they experiencing?
Speaker 3:um, one of, or some of, the biggest things is, uh well, mosquitoes is one of them German roaches?
Speaker 3:uh, those are the little bitty roaches that you get in the kitchen. Um, they'll say, well, I just see a few every now and then. Um, that's one of the biggest misconceptions. Is those guys? If you see 10, there's probably hundreds of them behind the walls that you don't see. But uh, those, those are. That's a pretty big one. Um, and termite uh, our termite season starts at the end of March, uh, first part of february. We call it swarm season because that's when termites usually swarm um, coming out of uh walls and uh, they'll swarm, start new colonies. That's uh, they're uh, that's the time of year they usually do that. Um, we'll get calls for that. Um, a lot, a lot of people are wanting to protect their home from termite Infestation and things like that.
Speaker 2:Now some of the things I experience is um japanese beetles eating my rosebushes. I hate them. Yes, yes we, we.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of encasional invaders like, uh, japanese beetles, ladybugs, boxelder bugs. Right after thanksgiving we got a huge influx of calls. They're these little black, probably half inch no, about about to inch to two inch Black bugs that's got like a red Outline all the way around them. Um, they're called boxelder bugs. Uh, man, they were. We're getting calls. They're like I got these things all on my windows. They're mostly outside, but what happens is is that sometimes the windows don't seal and they'll come out from up underneath and get into the house, but they're mainly controlled from an outside service. Um, so, but japanese beetles, same way. Um, you know, we usually do a good Uh treatment around the. There are some product that you can treat on the roses so it doesn't burn the roses um and mess with the, the, the growth, the growth of the roses. Uh, we usually treat those um to to eradicate them, but man, they that sometimes they come back with the vengeance.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they really do a bad job on your rose bushes. They just eat the leaves. They look terrible. Well, tell me how you got into the pest control business well, um, I've been in the business for about 25 years.
Speaker 3:Um in 99, uh, I met my beautiful wife. Well, we got married um and um in 99, and I had to figure out when I went to ask for her hand in marriage. Uh, my father-in-law. Well, he wasn't. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:He wasn't my father-in-law at the time, but uh, he said I said you know, I'd like to have uh Permission to marry your daughter. And he was like, well, um, what are you gonna do to a supporter? And I said, uh, well, I've got this job. Um, but, um, you know, I'm looking for other things and I was. I worked for a carpet cleaning company and I was a disaster coordinator. It sounds a lot more Glamorous than what it was, Uh.
Speaker 3:I worked very sporadic Um and um so as a wedding present, a guy that worked at Terminex came in and did us a free pest control man. It stunk.
Speaker 1:He used orythene man.
Speaker 3:It was horrible and I looked at my wife and I said I feel like I could do this, and so he said we're looking for people, so you should put an application. I put an application and 25 years later I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2:And now you own your own business here. So you put your way up into ownership, that's right. What are some of the misconceptions that people have about pest control that you come across a lot?
Speaker 3:Well, there's a couple of things If you look at. Think about all of the TV shows that depict pest control guys. They're usually dumb fat and just very unkept. I think back to arachnophobia, john Goodman's character.
Speaker 2:Yes, and arachnophobia. Remember that movie. Yes.
Speaker 3:Big guy, just burly beard, just very unkept. There was a TV show that was on for, I think, 11 or 12 years called Modern Family. There was a guy that came in Again. He was a skinny guy but he was very, just, very unkept, very, and it was. You know. That's the misconception is is that what we do is not glamorous, and it's not. But I will tell you that pest control is probably one of the most. Everybody needs pest control. Everybody does. Yes. I mean cockroach can survive a nuclear blast.
Speaker 3:So, if that's not job security, I don't know what is Right. Second misconception is that what we spray will kill you. Oh yeah, that you know. If I had a nickel for every time somebody said is this going to hurt me? If I'm standing in here, I would. I wouldn't need to, I wouldn't need to be continuing my. I'd be a bazillionaire at this point in time, but that's you know. Everything we do, if you do it properly, is safe. Think about if, if I overeat mashed potatoes, that'll probably kill me.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I love mashed potatoes.
Speaker 2:So if I overeat, them it's going to hurt me.
Speaker 3:But the same thing with, with, uh, with pest control and the products that we use. If you overuse them and you don't follow the label and you don't follow the instructions, then it can't hurt you. But for the most part, what we put out we're trying to eradicate above the size of an ant or a roach. We're pretty big, you know. Humans are a lot bigger than a roach in our ant, so you got to be careful.
Speaker 2:You know we're going after that versus you know, you got to have the quantities that it would take to hurt a human. Yeah, that's right. Well, what about our pits?
Speaker 3:Hmm, Same thing you think of a big dog or even a little dog. They need to. They need to get a lot of that product in them for it to hurt them. But a lot of the ways we do our services stuff is is communication, education, you know, letting the customer know hey, this is where I've I've treated. You know you might want to keep your dog off. You know, just kind of watch because they're, they're curious, so they'll get over and start sniffing and start doing that.
Speaker 3:You know as long as they're not, as long as we don't leave it in puddles for them to wrap up. Yeah, puddles, yeah, but a lot of that's on the applicator as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So part of the reason I do this podcast is for other for listeners who maybe are thinking about going into business or maybe they're a new business owner Just to kind of hear from business owners about some of the challenges that they've had, either when you first got started or maybe even now. Oh yeah, you have to overcome and how that made your business stronger and maybe you personally stronger.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, that is a as a 10 step question. Yes, we started in 2020, you know, 2020 was a great year.
Speaker 1:Oh yes it was.
Speaker 3:It was interesting. I mean, we started in the middle of the pandemic, so when I started in 2020, I felt like I could probably do this with my eyes closed.
Speaker 1:Because I've been doing it for at that point in time.
Speaker 3:You know I've been doing it almost 25 years now, so it was 20 years, yeah, 20, 21, 22 years at that point in time. So I felt like, oh man, yeah, this is not a problem. You know, I got this. There is so much Back-end stuff that I had no idea what I was getting into and To have. If you're gonna start a business, you need to have a network of business men and women that you can go and bounce ideas off of and talk like mentors mentors, think tanks, stuff like that, because I will tell you in the there there were times.
Speaker 3:I mean, there are times even now.
Speaker 1:Then I feel like I'm barely hanging on.
Speaker 3:And I'm like I look like I've got it all together, but on the inside I am screaming. Why did I get into this? You know why?
Speaker 2:did I decide we all go through that yes?
Speaker 3:But it's probably one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. You know, because you're really taking a chance on yourself. You know because when you step out, it's a lot easier to spend somebody else's money. Yes, it is, it is a lot easier to to say well, you know, we're doing this for you know, I'm with ABC pest control and Joe Smith is the owner, but I'm the director of operations and you know I can. I do that all day, but, man, when you're, when the buck stops with you and you gotta make all of decisions when you're the HR when
Speaker 3:you're the, when you're the. I'm very thankful that my wife is, is a partner with me. She, she is my listening board, she, she helps me. You know we talk things out. She does my font, does the finances of the business and and I could not have done this if it had not been for her she was really this, our first scheduler when we got started and man it, just it. It took off a lot faster than I thought it was going to.
Speaker 3:But having that, that, that core, having somebody you can say hey man, what would you do in this instance, in this instance or in this circumstance? And and having that, that give and take, I've got. I've got four or five guys that I talked to that are in the industry or that are in, are not in the in this industry, because you know you need to get different perspectives. But really management of people and management of time management and things like that is really the same across the board. But it's Cheap bet on yourself, yeah, you know, because Taking that risk on yourself is always worth it, isn't?
Speaker 3:it, it's, it's, it's worth it's. I should have done it a long time ago, but I was scared. I was really scared to do it.
Speaker 2:Well it is, yeah, just it's almost like jumping off a cliff to go into business for yourself yeah really is. So what is one thing you wish people knew about your business that Maybe they don't. You know. See on the surface.
Speaker 3:The biggest misconception in our business right now is You've got a lot of these big companies, the Termin X of the world, the renegiel actually renegiel just bought Termin X, which they're like a multi-billion dollar company now but you've got cooks, which is a nationally known company. You've got all these nationally known companies that are out there. The misconception about that is that you have to start over For termite control, pest control and everything like that. You don't. You know there are, there are companies out there that can, that can help you. There used to be a mom-and-pop company that was in in town that got sold to a bigger company and there's been a void in our community For that, that mom-and-pop company.
Speaker 3:And and I'm doing my dead level best to fill that void I want to be the gold standard of the locally owned and operated. You know our our logo is is ballot pest management, but our Saying is our family protecting your family. You know I don't. I'm not trying to retire on people, I'm trying to make a living and I want the customer, I want to be able to take care of the customer. When you call Ballard pest management, you get somebody that is local you don't have. You don't get somebody from Kalamazoo Michigan. That can't say the word Opelika, you're born and raised.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like her right yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, Pelica, Are you calling from Opelica? You know, if anybody says Opelica, I know right. But I was born and raised here in Al Opelica. You know I I went to high graduate high school in Opelica.
Speaker 3:This is my this is my town you know this is my, my roots are here and and and that's what I want the listeners to know that you know you've got a termite warranty that you're not happy with, reach out to ballot pest management. We could, we might, could help you, we might could help you. And it's not as expensive as you think it is because, like I said, I'm not trying to retire on you, I just want to make a living and people Want to deal, they want to know that they can pick up the phone and say, hey, what about this, or what about that, or I?
Speaker 2:think it's about your local. Yeah, that's right, your guys are great, you know.
Speaker 3:Or or I see your signs everywhere. I see your trucks everywhere. That's a good, you know. I love Talking to people out in the community and hearing that you know. But that's that's really what I want the people that listen to this podcast To know is, hey, you're not stuck in something that you can't get out of. And you know, give ballot pest management a call. We'd love to help you. Well, speaking of that, what is your?
Speaker 2:phone number and how do people get in touch with you?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm gonna give you two numbers. You can call our office. It's 3, 3, 4, 5, 0, 2, 6, 0, 4, 9. You can talk to. You'll be either talk to Tasha or Caitlin, and you may even get my, my beautiful daughter Madison, or my beautiful wife Jennifer. They all work at different times or you can call my cell phone. My personal cell is 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 6 and you can also text me and you can also text that 5, that 5 0 2 number. We have texting futures on both numbers. We, you know we'll never come out to your house without you knowing we're gonna be there. And you know we, just we love this community, we love being a part of it. We just want to, we just want to help people Be bug free.
Speaker 2:Yes, bug free. That's awesome, I love that.
Speaker 3:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:Thank you, scott, for joining us today. I've really enjoyed.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Auburn comm. That's GNP Auburn comm. Or call 334 429 7404.