The Pest Files | A Pest Control Podcast

The Good and Bad of the Pest Control Industry | A Pest Control Podcast

• Anthony • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Anthony and Donavan sit and talk about what they love and dislike in the pest control industry. Get the perspective from a seasoned veteran and a pest control rookie. Want to be on the show or want to share feedback? Contact us at: ascendallent@gmail.com For business inquiries, advertising, and professional questions, please send an email over to ascendallent@gmail.com

SPEAKER_00

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Pest Files, everybody. I'm your host, Anthony.

SPEAKER_03

And this is my co-host uh Donovan once again.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Welcome back to the show. Thank you, Donovan. Glad to have you on. Thank you very much. I'm excited for today's episode because you don't even know what it is yet.

SPEAKER_03

I do not.

SPEAKER_00

I just came here uninformed. Yep, he's just sitting here. Um let me introduce myself as always. Uh, I am a business owner and operator of a pest control company out of the state of California. Have about eight years experience. And Mr. Donovan.

SPEAKER_03

I'm Donovan. I'm newer to this company. Um, and I'm reaching about 12 days of experience.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. About yeah, 12 to 13 days experience. And he's not just new to the company, he's new to the industry. Yes, the pest control industry. And that's actually what we're talking about today. Today's episode is why the pest control industry is so awesome, why we love it, and why everyone should understand what it is, and why you should respect it. So the cool thing, like I said, our listeners, they're gonna be ranging from experience. Some guys are gonna have about what 14 days experience like you. Yeah, other guys are gonna have about six months, a year, um, some guys have 15 years, 20 years. There's gonna be business owners, operators, managers, technicians, everything that are listening to the show. So, real quick, from someone like you, with the experience you have, what is the pest control industry to you? What does that even mean to you?

SPEAKER_03

Um, the pest control industry. How much experience do you have again? Uh 15 days, yeah. So go on. Well, after today, 15 days.

SPEAKER_00

Of course, because you're doing some jobs today. Yes, that's correct.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, go on. Uh, the pest control industry to me, I would look at it as um a business first and foremost, but also an important business that's required for a lot of establishments and other businesses. Um, I look at it as a a good company that gets rid of the bad things for you. And um, you don't want those little creepy crawlers running around your restaurants scaring your customers because you lose money. Uh you give us money too, but we also get rid of your problems, so then you get more money in your company.

SPEAKER_00

Well, look, let's address that. So essentially, what can happen? Because I know you're still learning uh the pest control. So essentially what happens is let's say an inspector, uh, so we're a smaller family-owned company, about half of our stops are restaurants. Um, so we have a lot of experience with restaurants, we've seen it all. But essentially, an inspector is going to shut down a restaurant, give them a red tag if they find live cockroaches, mice droppings, things like that. So the money that they will lose for being shut down is far more than the fee they pay to have us come out there and treat and monitor the situation, right? So sorry to cut you off, but if you had more, please continue.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, I've completely forgot where I was going with that. Yeah, let's just move on, man.

SPEAKER_00

We're moving on, and that's and that's what we're all about in this show. We're professional, but not really profess. We're gonna make this entertaining. All right. Do you think this is entertaining, Mr. Don?

SPEAKER_03

Uh yeah, and I think it not only just for people in the pest control industry, I think it's entertaining just for the the average Joe watching right now.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Well, they're not watching, they're listening. Of course, listening, man. But watching is a good way to do. In fact, you've overdressed for the podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, um, I was uninformed again. Um you thought there was recording or a video. Yeah, maybe like a a video recording, you know. So I wanted to come like dress to impress.

SPEAKER_00

This is how you would dress for a what is this, like a culture war podcast? You would know pest control podcast.

SPEAKER_03

I was uh running errands beforehand, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So well, let's get back to the show. Um, the pest control industry. Okay, I love the pest control industry. I've been in it for about eight years now. Okay, it it's how I feed my family. I am a business owner, as I said earlier, and this is my life, this is my career, and I'm going to be doing this until I retire. There's a lot of people listening to this right now that are in the same mindset. This is who I am, this is what I'm going to do, this is my livelihood. I'm doing this until I retire. There's also other people that are on the fence. Maybe they don't want to do it that long. Maybe this is a stepping stone job to their next, you know, career path. Then there's people that say, I need to get out of here. Now, I want to address all three of those today. Why would people want to get out of the pest control industry? Right? How can it be so bad? Is it the industry itself? Is it the company? Is it working with pesticides? Is it the amount of work you have to do? So we're going to address it. We're going to attack it on two sides here. Okay. We're going to get your experience with about what 16 days? Yeah. Of experience total, like, which is pretty crazy. Um, so he's a rookie. Uh, so there's gonna be a lot of guys that are gonna say, Oh, I remember when I was I didn't think about pesticides.

SPEAKER_03

I'm speaking for them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you are you're speaking for the rookies, and you're speaking for the nostalgia of of the more veteran guys. I remember when I was, you know, I had what I think 15, 16 days. 15, 16 days, and um, so let's we'll start with you because I like to bounce you know topics to you and then kind of reiterate it with more experience in certain aspects. But why what are some things since you've been doing pest control where you could see, oh this isn't for me. I gotta get out of here now. Real quick, let's think about it. So we are so for those listening, we're a family-owned company, we're pretty small, we're gonna keep it that way. We're gonna grow to the point to where we're busy, where we we can't really grow too much more because I don't want to become a giant corporation. That's not what I want. I love the family-owned feel, I love the intimacy that you can experience with like building relationships with your clients, right? I like the smaller homegrown feel. Um, but again, the question for you, sorry to cut you off. I know you're thinking about it. But the question for you is why would someone want to leave the pest control industry, do you think so far?

SPEAKER_03

Um, well, a few things come to my mind, and I believe there's multiple reasons. Um, for anyone or for me personally, I think um a big turnoff would be to go corporate. Um, because I know corporate handles things a lot differently. And uh I have another job, and uh I see how corporate works, and it's kind of just like profit, profit, profit comes first.

SPEAKER_00

It's like the pure numbers and and numbers and procedures and profit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and like they just come in, do their job, they don't build a relationship with you.

SPEAKER_00

Now tell me what you don't have to name where you work or anything, but tell me when you're doing a meeting because you're trying to become a manager there, right? Yes, tell me what they said in the meeting. Do you remember that? What what comes first?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. So I and like I don't have nothing against that, I get it's business, but we were going over, I was in like a Zoom meeting with all the managers, the trainers, and um they were just going over the importance of certain things, and they had like a pyramid. It's just it is funny. Uh the very top of the pyramid was profit, like above all else. And then next was like people, like people were under the profit. So it just goes to show you the mindset of uh how the people operate in the corporation. It's like the people come after the money, and it's like me who's serving the people, I'm like I it just doesn't make sense from my point of view, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, in in in our business, in our our family-owned company here, um people come first, and I I've lost money at certain uh accounts because of that, because I do put people first now. Obviously, I won't do it to the detriment of being able to live and pay my bills, but people come first always. That's just that's my philosophy, right? And that's why you're part of the company, because if you share that mindset, then that's what it is. Like you don't have to become this giant, and listen, if you're an owner of a giant company, look, you're you're feeding people, you're getting people jobs, just bear with us here, right? I'm not bashing larger companies at all. Okay. You're you're feeding, you're getting people experience, you're feeding people's families, you're getting them work. You got about 15, 20, 30 guys. I get it. Okay. We're not attacking though those businesses at all. In fact, I love all of the pest control industry, right? So um, but yeah, the the corporate feeling, and guess what? That turns a lot of clients away. A lot of clients do not want to work with large corporations in the pest control industry. There is a huge market. So I sold five clients just these past two days. I had and it's just they're falling in my lap, right? So it's like I'm not even trying to sell them, right? Like, hey, when can you come out here? I got answered. Hey, when can you come out here and either? I've had a client where and I'm not gonna go too much into numbers, but you know, I quoted them a certain price and she said, That's too low, I'm gonna pay you this.

SPEAKER_03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00

Straight up. I'll take it. Yeah, I'm just like, Oh, thank you. She's like, Yeah, that's too low, I'm paying you this. So I'm just right, and it's like that is what family-owned, that's the that that's the community feel. So, you know, this client. So, for those of you to know, we are in the Sacramento area, our company is based out of it. We're all around Sacramento surrounding area, and you know, she lives near where you live in the Arden Arcade. Yeah, and then it's funny because like I'm talking about, like, oh no way, you know, I I've lived there for because I lived there for a while, right? Too around the uh How Park area, and and yeah, I'm just like that's the and that's the connection I want with clients. See, because what happens is when a client calls into a company, they're talking to the office personnel, and like, hey, I need a quote for cockroaches or ants, right? And then they say, Okay, well on, let me, they're either gonna pass that client on to a salesman, a manager, or a technician, right? Then that person's gonna say, Okay, well, let me schedule a time and place for you. Let's meet. Then they're gonna sell it. And then if it's a salesman, they're going to sell the job, and then a technician's gonna come out there. Already they've dealt with three or four people already, right? As to where they call me, they're gonna hear my kids in the background. I'm gonna say, Hey, how you doing? What can I? Oh, I'm seeing ads. Okay, cool. Well, hey, let me check. You want to do Tuesday? Yeah, okay, I will be there, me, right? So that's the thing. It's it's you know, I'm the hey, I'm the salesman, I'm the person doing your job, and I'm the person that's gonna do all the accounting after it in the notes, right? So it people want that family feel, okay. So, what are some other things to you that are that will turn people away for working with the pest control industry? Not necessarily client, but I want you to think of it as if you're a technician, right? What which you are, but what are some other things like as a technician where you'd want to leave the pest control industry?

SPEAKER_03

Well, well, uh typically I I really enjoy it, but if I were to say something, I would say maybe like doing some really dirty jobs, like getting real into like some very like dead like animals, or like just like what you dealt with with yeah, the rats and how that smell. Yeah, it was very disgusting. Fresh is fresh too, fresh too. So uh it like I can manage it, but I can see how to some people it would give them like an ick and it could kind of turn them away from an industry. But I'd say like just kind of doing jobs when it comes to like dead animals or like a big swarm of insects, or even like um hornet uh oh yeah, hornet hives and beehives. Yep. I even me myself personally, I am terrified of those kind of things.

SPEAKER_00

So so just real quick, just so people don't jump, you cannot treat beehives unless they are a danger to someone's life. It is illegal to treat beehives. Oh, beehives, yeah. These are good, they're pollinators. Wasps pollinate too, just a little bit, but uh that is at least in California, I know other people can be listening from all over the country, but you cannot treat a bee's nest unless it is a threat to someone's life that lives there or around, right? So that's just because I have I did have to treat a bee's nest, and I was trying my best not to treat it. And I was like, Well, are you allergic to bees? The client just straight up said, Yes, I am. And so I'm like, Well, I have to treat now. I didn't want to do it, so another alternative is to call a beekeeper, right? But I there's not too many beekeepers around here. I gotta I tried calling and I'm a little busy, yeah. Oh whatever. But um okay, I get that. So so the the dirtiness of the job is is another thing that you feel like can turn people away. I agree because you have even started poking your head up into attics, hot attics, and getting insulation on your hat, you know, things like that, and dealing with rat traps in there, and then and then setting the rat traps in the attics or the little crawl spaces, things like that, and and just seeing how dirty some of these restaurants can get and just how nasty it is dealing with a decomposing rodent, you know, it's it's disgusting. So I get that 100%. Let's do one more topic about why you'd want to leave the pest control industry if you're a worker. Um, and so uh let's do one more for you. And I have one huge one that a lot of people experience with this, then we'll move on to the next one, okay? The next uh topic of the pest control industry. Yeah, for sure. So, what's one more thing that you can think of off the bat?

SPEAKER_03

Um I think another thing is maybe overworking. Like maybe that's huge. Uh, because it is a family uh owned business. So maybe like since there's less workers, maybe someone could be jammed with a huge routine like schedule, yeah, and like maybe less time for their family, less time for like to relax.

SPEAKER_00

Let's let's talk about sorry to cut you off, but let's talk about us real quick. So remember when I twisted my ankle and I was in the boot, yes, and I straight up said, I need you to come help me out. I'll I'll pay you a lot, you know. I was like, I'll pay you the production as well. And so because I need the help, you know. I I I don't have backup, essentially, you're the backup, Bryce is the backup, which he'll be on the show. And I think he'll he'll talk. He might not talk on the show, though, he might just kind of sit there, but we'll stay in the background, yeah. But he might talk. I don't know, who cares? Anyways, so yeah, and then you helped me out because that workload was just too much because that was already two days that people had to reschedule on top of a couple other, and then we had to go out there and knock out a full day on a Saturday, and it was a lot of work, like we didn't, and we didn't even finish the day. I even said, Hey, I'm just gonna do it later, we'll figure it out, you know, we'll figure it out later. But imagine do that on your own. What's like kind of like you're not a hundred percent, you know? It's so a hundred. I agree with you that the stress of the work can definitely add up. I agree 100%. One thing I want to add to, so on the topic of why would someone want to leave the industry? Business. What kind of business are you working for? What kind of employer are you working for? You kind of know my experience. I had a bad you know, run-in for a company where it just felt like I got betrayed. Um a lot of times that could completely get you out of the industry. You're lucky because this is just family owned, yeah, right. Worst case scenario, you just walk away, do something else, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I have another job, so it's yeah, you're not right.

SPEAKER_00

You you're already doing something else, and you're just this is we're you know working on it. But yeah, that is a big one. A lot of people listening here, if you're a technician run route, and hey, if you're a manager, business owner, please, please, please, especially in the California Sacramento area, a lot of these technicians are not too happy with their routes or with how things are ran. And there's just things that you can change as a manager to where you make it better for everybody, right? I'm not saying pay everyone 95% of their route or change everything around. No, I understand this is a business, things have to get ran the proper way, but yeah, a lot of people they get burnt out, like what you're saying, just the amount of work. You know, imagine just being packed, jam-packed every day, and there's no rest in sight, you know. So I agree that you know, not only would the sanitation work or the workload and concern someone away from the industry, but also who you are working for can do it as well. I agree, right? So just things like that will all add up to turn people off. So let's take a quick break, then we're gonna move on to our next topic, which will be uh why people love the pest control industry.

SPEAKER_03

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00

All right, yep. All right, and we are back. So why would people love the pest control pest control industry? Why would they want to stay in it? Um, so let's do it the opposite this time. I'm gonna give my points, then you could kind of give me feedback, then you could give some points after.

SPEAKER_03

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so as a business owner of a pest control company, um, there's a lot of things to love about pest control. The ease of access to your job, the scheduling, the flexibility of most of your clients, things like that. So um, for those of you that don't know, what I do is, you know, I'm the salesman of my company. I've built myself a route, essentially. Um, I have a clientele, I work with a couple property managers, a couple apartments. I have I work with a ton of restaurants, almost too much. Um, I'm I'm just being honest. I've kind of overstepped my restaurant boundary here. I'm starting to run out of space for these. Uh now, obviously, I could work Saturdays, but my thing is I have a family, I have kids. I don't want to work six to seven days a week, anything like that. But you know, it's gonna happen. Um, so the biggest thing is that the ease of and of access and the flexibility of the pest control industry is awesome. You know, if it's raining too hard, guess what? Yeah, let's reschedule. Yeah, you know, a lot of clients are gonna argue. Obviously, if you have like uh, you know, restaurants, you have to go out there, but then you're inside, right? But yeah, I I I do not want treating the rain. I know you can, I know a lot of bigger companies do. Heck, even I do as well. You know, there's products you can use in the rain, um, like you know, the granules, the essential granules, things like that. Um, but essentially, um, it's just the convenience of the industry is is a huge thing why I think everyone loves it. So let's let's just talk about each level real quick. Let's go and go down to a technician. Um, I know a lot of them call PMPs, pest management professionals. I think that's kind of like a general term for everybody, but uh people who run a route, right? Like, so let's say tonight, uh, how much experience you have again? About 19 days?

SPEAKER_03

Uh I think it would be 19 days if you count today.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, cool. Yeah, so yeah, you're gonna be running like a little route tonight, right? Doing some doing some services, things like that for restaurants, right? So it's just that's to me, it's it's easy, right? Yeah, it's hard work.

SPEAKER_03

Definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's definitely hard work, but the flexibility of that is huge, right? I mean, we've all worked, I've worked at a warehouse restaurants, I've worked at court, you know, Target, things like that. And it's just like I don't like the monotony of you know showing up to the same spot, being stuck in there. You know, I'm not knocking it, but that's just not who I am, right? And even you've said it when we're riding around together, running a route, you said, dude, this is crazy, this is awesome.

SPEAKER_03

It's like freedom because I I work in a company where I'm in the same spot, same place, same departments every day. So it's like a it's like feels so free to just drive around, go to all types of restaurants and places.

SPEAKER_00

So it's definitely swing by like a little gas station or liquor store, get an energy drink or a snack, you know. It's just it's awesome. So I think that that that's one huge thing why people love it. So again, let's talk about the technician. You know, you get your route, right? Let's say, so again, we're in the Sacramento area. Let's say for you, like Art and Arcade area. Hey, I got all these clients in this area. I just need you to take care of them every month. Cool, easy, yeah. Easy, right? So so it's just it, it's that's the beauty of the industry, is that that's where it can go, right? Now, given since we're family owned one, unfortunately, I'm all over the place. I'm driving everywhere, I'm filling up gas every two to three days. It's tough, but it's still profitable, right? But as what I was saying is that then you start developing those routes. Like there is a day where I do about nine stops in downtown Sacramento, and I'm all done with nine of them by 11 o'clock, and I start at around seven. So if you do the math there, that's four hours where I knock out nine stops. It's about I don't want to get too much to the numbers, but it's good money. Yeah, it definitely sounds like and then I still have the whole day to go do sales or even fit more accounts in there, you know, and it's literally like seven restaurants all within four blocks of each other. Can't beat that, and then yeah, and I yeah, so it's just like, dude, when when you start getting your routes like that, it gets amazing. You know, it's just like wow, I'm already like I could call it a day, I've already made more than enough of a living wage to call it a day then. But I don't do that, I'm a salesman, I'm gonna go get to get out there and build more. Like I said, sold five, just fell on my lap just next the last two days is like crazy, you know. And we'll go over the number. I'll show you what what I just sold too, and we could go over the numbers where you're like, wow, that's that much more a year, that's that much a month.

SPEAKER_03

So I'll take a stop as well. Oh easy there.

SPEAKER_00

All right. I need I need to eat two. Yeah, maybe you might get one, maybe. We'll see. We'll see. So that is the best thing about when you're a technician is like the ease of access, run of the route, being able to get done early is huge too. You know, a lot of companies will let you do that. Um, you know, you go out, get your route done, you're done in six hours, cool, head home. You know, and you're still making enough money to compensate for eight hours because a lot of times you have little production in there, or companies will pay you comp time, things like that. Um, now let's jump up to the managerial level. Why uh, you know, honestly, there's not much positive I can say about being a manager in pest control. Kind of sucks. I wouldn't know. Yeah, uh I do know. Um, no, there's there's some positives about um management. There's a lot of fulfillment there. There's you know, um, the freedom. You're not, I guess you could say, tied to a route anymore.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Because running a route can get a little taxing. It could get a little monotonous at the end of the day, but you kind of have that freedom of like being a quality control guy, doing customer service, things like that. But yeah, management, you know, that's definitely something that you could get addicted to, where it's like, okay, clone out tight to your route. I I'm in charge of like eight routes. I need to make sure they're all running smooth. You know, when I was a manager, I was over about seven routes. Okay. Yeah, and seven different guys. And uh yeah, they hated me. Yeah. Badly too. It was like pretty weird how much they hated me. But um, but that's another story, you know. But anyways, so management, yeah, they could be cool, you know, but you're kind of like the middleman, unfortunately. What happens is you kind of you have the owner above you, and he's like, ah, ah, you do better. Then you have the technicians here like, hey, we're unhappy. And you're just like, well, what the hell? You know, what do I do? But um, anyways, no, this is the positive part. We're already past the negative part. I'm just letting some of my experiences seep in here. Um, so um, then we'll go to the owner part, which you know, I'm an owner owner, and then you know, you maybe someday will own your own company, whatever that be, or just you know, continue to work under the family owned business, whatever. Um, being an owner of pest control company is awesome, but it comes with a lot of responsibility. There's a lot of things you don't even know about that I have to do behind the scenes. There's a lot of money that's going around. Oh you know, is your company insured? Is it bonded? Do you have your monthly pesticide report stamps? Have you registered in your county? On and on and on the it could get overwhelming because, especially for me, I'm running a full route, I'm the salesman, I'm the customer service person, and also the owner and administrator of the company.

SPEAKER_03

I think you need to hire some people, man.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm not there yet, but that's where you're coming. You're helping out a lot. You're doing the nighttime, you're the night guy.

SPEAKER_03

Night guy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You got about what 20 days experience now?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's just I don't mean I'm just trying to get as much experience as I can.

SPEAKER_00

And that's and that's the beauty of that. We have a guy here with 20 days of experience, and the beauty of it is that people out there, whether you have a month, a year, five years, or whatever. I wonder if people are gonna get tired of that joke. Honestly, man, uh so for the for we're gonna go behind the scenes real quick. Look, look, we're trying to make this entertaining. Okay. Um we're we've done two episodes. The first episode, he started that episode three days experience.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, three, four days.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, 24 minutes into this episode here, he's at 20 days' experience. He hasn't left that seat. I've been, yeah, he's been here the whole time, so somehow he's accumulated about 17 days of experience.

SPEAKER_03

Well, but that's what the pest files does for you. I was just gonna bring that up, man. I was gonna say, like, even though I'm not outworking getting that experience, all the notes and the papers, and I think gaining all this knowledge has increased my days of experience without going out to service anything.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's what the pest files is here for to help educate people. Maybe you learn something new, maybe you'll refresh your memory on something, or maybe you'll take something and implement it into your company. That's what we're all about. And we try to be professional, but we're not gonna be that professional. You know, that that's not who we are at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong, we're very professional for our clients, but at the end of the day, this is just unwinding. We're here to unwind, we're here to help the industry. I love the pest control industry, okay? So I just want to kind of wrap it up here with how how the industry has helped me out a lot. Um, like I said, I've been doing it for about eight years, and it's it's how I feed my family. So I have a lot of respect for it. I love the pest control industry, and it it is needed. It is needed because if you just let cockroaches run rampant, rodents run rap, you know, it's you're gonna have issues. You know, every restaurant's gonna get shut down. You know, I'm sorry, yeah. It's just things are gonna get be terrible. So listen, everyone out there who's listening, if you're in if you're running around a manager, it doesn't matter, office personnel, the pest control industry is needed. You are needed. I'll say, and and I I mean this 100%. We're as important as firefighters and EMS people.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no way.

SPEAKER_00

I could 100%. We are needed, okay. So sometimes you could get into a slump or you're like, does this stuff even work? Or this isn't this is a boring, or people think we're just no, you're not. You are needed, right? You keep out there, keep your community clean, help your community out, and that's the whole purpose of our business, right? Our family business is that we're here for the community. I'm tied to this area, I'm gonna help everyone out, you know? Oh, people are terrified of spiders, arachnophobia.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's a very big thing.

SPEAKER_00

They don't want to see a spider, and so they their life actually is altered if they see spiders. In fact, a client I just sold said, I do not want ants. And she told me this horror story how she was swarmed by ants when she was a kid, got all bit up, and ever since then she she sees an ant, she freaks out. Oh, and so to me, I want to go help her because she says, I'm always in my front yard. Now ants are all over my front yard, and I live in my front yard. Guess what? I'm gonna be out there, I'm gonna help you out. I'm gonna get rid of your ants, right? And that's what I'm gonna do. And now you're gonna enjoy your home that you're paying for, you're paying a mortgage for, you're renting, you're gonna enjoy your home where you live. I'm gonna protect your property, right? I'm gonna make sure you're pest free. And if they come back, I'll be out here for free, too. Yeah, you know, and that's how you build that client. Tell us how you build that trust, you know. That that's just who who we are, right? And the the pest control industry to me is just it's awesome. It's my favorite thing, you know. Yeah, and and it's a career I'm gonna be in for a while, you know. Podcasting's cool, but at the end of the day, I'm a pest control person. You know, I'm here to get rid of bugs and rodents, things like that. What about like for you? That's you're dipping your toe into the pest control industry. What what what do you feel about it? Like, do you feel like this is something you can do as a career or more of a side thing? Like from your heart, like what do you feel?

SPEAKER_03

Um, well, I'd personally say, like I mentioned before, I do work a full-time job aside from pest control. Um, and there I'm I'm due for promotion, so I'm kind of trying to work my way up there. But uh honestly speaking, I wouldn't mind trading that for a full-time pest control job. Uh, one thing, like I said, I where I work at, I'm just always in the same spot. I do customer service, so I'm always dealing with people. I'm really good at it, so that's why I tend to be the one to do it. But sometimes it can become very draining being in the same spot, kind of mentally draining. So I think the freedom of pest control has really showed me a different kind of um just world, you know. I've done a like moving jobs, a few construction jobs. So I've had that freedom, but now having like my own routine, it's very like free. And I like going to certain places. And since I work in the food industry, uh from the inside, you know, serving customers, uh, now I'm going in as a pest control serve uh service guy and just really understanding how how things work, like the sanitizers, uh, where where things need to be. I can kind of look at a kitchen and I know all the departments are ready. So it's really like I can take my experience from where I work at, and I can even apply that to the pest control services. So I I think um, and I also love insects. It's kind of hurts because I love insects, but now I've got to kind of get rid of them.

SPEAKER_00

Right, you gotta hand handle them.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so even like as a kid growing up, you know, you catch them in jars, you play with them, watch them fight all this stuff. So it I've always been interested in, and and to this day, like I I'm terrified to let a spider crawl on me. So like it it's like it hurts to exterminate them, but it kind of fuels you to kind of get rid of these things.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and but little things like like I go above and beyond when it's like black widow webs, things like that, especially if a client has children. Uh I the last thing I ever want is my kid got bit by black widow, and you've been doing my pest control, you know. And so it's like if it's a play structure, I am like looking in there, leaning, knocking webs down, making sure like a little bench, I am there's not gonna be one black widow biting any of my clients. And that's how you know that's that's my motto. Because you know, you know how embarrassing, first of all, not even worrying about me, but the the the torment that I would be in knowing that a kid got bit by a black widow spider, right? On top of that, I was responsible to get rid of that spider. Oh man, so I would quit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean, like you said earlier, the the ways people would be turned off to do pest control. Yeah, I think that's something that would kind of just like send you into retirement. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Our cousin got bit by a black widow, and he's still here, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know what it is, it's kind of here, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Anyway, um, but yeah, no, we've we've kind of gone over the goods and the bads of the pest control industry. That's what the whole point of this podcast was today, is just kind of touching why would you want to stay in the industry, why would you want to leave. Um, let's talk about real, you know, let's let's go and speak about the um money behind the industry, the profit margins, the monetary value that the industry has. Um, it is not the most profitable business to be in. There's a lot of checks and balances, products are very expensive, the technicians are very expensive. You know, um, and what a lot of people don't understand is that when you're in pest control, you have two employees no matter what. You you're paying for the employee running the route and you're paying for the vehicle. People forget about that.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, you gotta fill up that vehicle's gas, you gotta rotate the tires, you gotta change the tires, you gotta change the oil. Anything goes wrong, you gotta drop money to fix the vehicle because without that vehicle, you you're not gonna find out. No routes, and products are so expensive, even as a have you seen some of these invoices I go through, and it's we're just a small family-owned company. Like, I'm I'm constantly like going and spending three, four, five hundred dollars on products, and I'm just like, what is going on here? This is not yeah, this is not cool, you know. I'm just like, dude, this is like crazy. Um, but it's still profitable. Yep. Well, it is profitable from from us, it's very profitable. Um, but it's not your get rich quick scheme business. It is not.

SPEAKER_03

Nope.

SPEAKER_00

You have to have a passion to want to do this. You're not gonna say, you know, I'm gonna get rich, I'm gonna take out ants and cockroaches, I'm gonna wipe them all out. Good luck. You're not getting rich. In fact, there's gonna be times you're gonna lose some money.

SPEAKER_03

It's a slow process, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like for me, there's certain thick times when you know I have clients like um I did a one-time uh well, it was supposed to be monthly service for a client, and uh, they were right next door to one of my regular stops, and it was just a quick little service. I wouldn't put mice traps, um, sprayed, everything like that. And then the client never paid me and started ignoring me. And so no, yeah, and so I was like, okay, so I text the client and said, Hey, I just want to let you know I credited the the charge, you don't owe any more money. Um, good luck to you, and I will never do business with them. Yeah, you know, definitely stay away from it. So I I take the loss, right? Then there's other times where the client's been uh in you know with me for a while, and then uh an issue pops up, and it was the perfect storm. It just I don't know if they received a shipment that had cockroaches in it, but they got hit with an inspection a week after I found the cockroaches. And I was supposed to start their service, but they got shut down.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's unfortunate.

SPEAKER_00

And so I I went out there for free to fix the issue for a few weeks because I felt so bad. It was like the worst. It was like within a week, I'm like, oh no way, like we just found them because I I've been servicing for a year, they haven't been there in any of the traps. The glue bars I put out. You actually serviced it. Which one? The the one remember where you sent me a picture of the the traps, and you're like, are these our one? That's that's what happened to it. Oh yeah, yeah. Sorry, we have to like navigate around saying names, street names because yeah, yeah, we want to keep the anonymous uh anonymous. Um, what word was I even trying to say there? Yeah, I don't know, it doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't even think you knew what you were gonna say either. But we want to make sure it's anonymous for our restaurants because it's like a client discretion thing, you know. So great. Anything you want to add? Any questions?

SPEAKER_03

No, that's all. I mean, um, it's it's a great business to get into. And I think if you're very passionate about this kind of work, it's a very good uh job to get started. Uh, you know, just get out there and and get to it, man. It's it's fun. I really like it being free, going to different uh parts of the city, different kinds of establishments, and just seeing a lot of how these uh restaurants and places operate. So I I really enjoy it, so I would recommend it.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, and and thank you again for listening. Unfortunately, because our little inside joke about your days of experience, this has to release after the first episode.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, or it won't make any sense. I was under the impression like uh you're gonna release these apart, so they'll kind of think I got those.

SPEAKER_00

They are so I'm gonna release the first. So we did we record the IPM episode. If you haven't listened to that one, please go listen to it. Um, and then this is the pest control industry, you know, kind of like the good and the bad of it. Like, why would you want to leave it? Why would you want to stay in it, type of thing? Yeah. Um, but I just realized that since we were doing that little joke about your experience, we have to release the IPM one first and then release this one. Oh, definitely, yeah. And listen, this is professional enough, right? We we try to make pest control entertaining and educational. You're not entertaining if you're just talking about bugs the whole time. So there has to be certain, you know, we'll we'll joke about a little bit. A little joke here and there, you know, but we'll never joke about the quality of service and and the the success rate we'll have. We'll never joke about that. There you go. Um, but yeah, thank you so much for listening. Um, as always, if you've made it this far, please, please reach out to us. The email will be in the description. Send an email if you want to come on talk, you want to do an interview. That's what this is all about. I want to talk to people all across the country, all across the world about pest control. This is the industry I love. This is my career. I'm doing this until I retire. I love pest control. So please send us an email. It's in the description down below. Um, reach out, come on the show, come talk.

SPEAKER_03

Let's do it, man.

SPEAKER_00

All right, and maybe Bryce will be here one day.

SPEAKER_03

If he can talk.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He might talk.

SPEAKER_03

You you need to figure you have like a uh you know, like when they have those sheets. Teleprompter? Yeah, we maybe we should get one of those for him.

SPEAKER_00

Although I am Bryce today. Like kind of like that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he's just reading it like where I'm looking, like back there, I can read it and talk.

SPEAKER_00

So and for those of you that know, Bryce is another business partner in our family owned business. We're we're based out of California. Um, and yeah. Thank you for listening, everybody. Thank you, everyone again. Have a good day. Yes, have a great day.