Why is pest control the best industry? Each tech can service >$400k in a year Quarterly services cost $125 and take 20 minutes to complete Compare it to trash pickup where they charge $40 a month and service weekly. Labor is cheap Products are cheap Margins are insane

We’ve acquired 4 companies and plan to do exactly this. Multiples on SDE we’ve paid: 2x, 1.5x, 1.4x, 1x Two of them didn’t have a CRM at all. No systems in place anywhere. Our playbook is to keep prices the same for 6-12 months. Make sure customers see they are getting a better service. Then raise prices and crosses more services. We anticipate an exit at a minimum of 10x EBITDA. I’m not a hardware MBA grad. I am extremely bad with anything in tech. The only job I had before this was minimum wage at McDonald’s for 6 weeks. I stumbled into something cool that will bless my family for generations.

My wife and I went on our city’s parade of homes tour today. I wore my King Pest hat to represent. Almost two dozen people recognized me or my brand and had some really good conversations. Friends, builders, and realtors. Really cool to see that we are noticed in the community and people not only know who we are but believe we do good work and refer us to their neighbors. Side note: parade of homes is dangerous. Wife expects a $2 million home now.

Mira Home is a pest control company that started 2 years ago. They’re in 15 states and doing $60 million in revenue this year. You can anything if you have enough money!

That payroll monster keeps getting bigger. $60k going out tomorrow. I love taking care of my team.

We’ve have decided to implement AI into our business. Signing on with two vendors in the coming weeks. Vendor 1- scheduling software. Customer algorithm to cut our mileage on bulk scheduling will save thousands a year in gas, oil changes and wear and tear Vendor 2- basically a ChatGPT agent that plugs in via api to our CRM and will win any report I ask for, auto email recurring reports, predict customer churn, recommend upsell opportunities to specific customers etc. This is going to boost revenue significantly, cut attrition, give me more reliable faster data, and most importantly save me 10+ hours a month. Once we’ve got things locked down and the problems worked out I’ll give updates!

One tech called in sick this morning. One techs wife got in a car crash taking her kids to daycare at 8 am and he took the day off. One got back from a 2 week vacation yesterday that lasted 2 days longer than he had requested PTO for and had non communication and didn’t know if he was coming in today. I am also feeling pretty sick but I don’t call off. This comes after several other staff called out on Monday and Tuesday. Some days we have more labor than we need and just eat payroll. Some days we’re understaffed. Owning a business definitely has its perks.

My business partner is a cheap bastard. I can’t tell you how much money we have saved on products, equipment, uniforms, etc. because he will just negotiate until he’s satisfied. I’m happy to look for a good deal and get it done. He finds pleasure in getting a good deal. We never buy cheap, low quality stuff. Always the good stuff at a great price. Unreal savings every time we get a new vendor for anything.

We sell our company handbook, SOPs, sales manual, inventory list, instructions on how to get licensed, etc. for anyone who wants to start their own pest control business. Since we are expanding to more markets soon, we are going to stop selling this “business in a box” product. The last thing we want to do is sell the program to someone then start up in their city. With that being said, we plan to discontinue it on December 31st. If you’ve been on the fence, last chance!

There’s never a perfect time to start a business. I do think the sweet spot is 25-30 years old. Younger than that and you don’t have any experience or money. After that and you start to have family and settled into a career. Both of which can make it seem like so much more risk. If you’re too young you might spin your wheels and get nowhere because you lack resources. If you’re too old you might just be too tired. Pros and cons at every age but I think the 25-30 is a good balance and the best time in my opinion.

I had lunch this week with a high school friend that recently got promoted to a manager position at Vivint. I can’t stop thinking about the convo we had. I figured a a $2.5 billion dollar company would put him in a box and tell him to follow a strict set of rules. No! He has a ton of power. He manages from Denver to Albuquerque. He handles hiring in his area. I actually tried to get him to be a manager for us this spring. The compensation was very similar but we would have asked way way less of him. He took the role with his company since he felt that he had worked his way up into it and I am happy for him. I am not asking enough of my managers. I have made their lives way too easy. That 30 minute meetup for pizza has dramatically changed how our company is going to look in the future. You never know where you might find the wisdom you need.

This is essentially what we are piloting at King Pest with our first equity partner in the spring. - $50k buy in - 20% equity (at that location) - 8% shared services fee covers HQ office staff, admin, any other shared services that can’t be split at the location level - real ownership - actual local company - tag along for high multiple at exit You get way more support than a franchise because we own a lot of it and want it to succeed. Way cheaper to buy. Way easier to exit. Should be profitable almost right away. Proven model. Basically all the good things about a franchise while removing all of the bad ones.

This is funny to me. I don’t care what gas prices are. I have no idea what they are today. Around $5? If I owned a trucking company this would be big news. What am I gonna do, just not buy gas? I don’t know, this has always seemed like a non issue. Gas prices haven’t changed at all in like 20+ years. Sometimes they spike. Sometimes they drop. I still have fill up my tank and go to work.

I received an email today from an M&A firm that specials in pest control deals. They had a lot of industry data and dumbed down one section for valuations. In their opinion, the biggest factors for valuations are revenue and gross margins. (see chart below). We will do north of $3 million in revenue this year at 66% gross margin. I think we're flirting 8 figures.

I love the things people flex. “Exited 3 different service companies.” Ya, did you make any money? Hell I sold a vibe coded website tool thing for $4000 but it’s not in my bio. “Scaled x company to $2 million in revenue” Ok did it turn a profit? Did you exit? “I own 32 business” is this even real? I own hundreds through the stock market lol The unfortunate thing is people will see that stuff and a rented Ferrari and worship them.

Our first office lady had been working in a very similar role for several years at an hvac company. She kept asking who our “mvp customers” were. Said they should get priority scheduling and free stuff if needed. We kept telling her we didn’t have those and she just didn’t understand it. We treat every customer the exact same. If you are dirt poor on our cheapest plan or have a multimillion dollar home and 25 rental properties you get treated the exact same. You get exceptional customer service, a warranty, licensed technicians, and a company who cares about your problems no matter how big or how small. We genuinely aim to treat every customer as an “MVP.” I think that’s what makes our business different and why so many people are thrilled to have us come out every quarter for years on end.

I go to work every week and look at numbers on the screen like it’s a video game. I measure my wealth by how much quality time I have with my family. Looking forward to more of this with baby number two on the way in March! These are the moments that make me feel rich.

The best use I have had for AI came this week. A customer was “formally disputing” the invoice we sent her and demanded I send it as an itemized invoice. We don’t itemize invoices ever. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. I loaded my P&L into ChatGPT and explained the service we provided. I ask for an egregiously long and overly detailed itemized invoice based on the chart of accounts on our income statement. It gave 34 line items and was attributing less than a dollar to some overhead items like annual licensing upkeep. She didn’t respond to the email yet but life really is all about enjoy these small moments. Also, I hate customer service.

I was in our CRM and saw a lead come in. Called within 4 seconds. Did not answer. Did not text back. Some of these people must submit forms then throw their phone into a lake.

Ya so I’m pretty sure this goes for most trades. If I win a pest control bid and sub it out, both me and the sub have to be licensed and we BOTH have to keep records of all services. One insurance claim or lawsuit can wreck an unlicensed contractor like this. There’s a million ways to make a million bucks. Generally, you can do it legally! Aside from this being reckless and Todd rightfully calling them out, I don’t like to do business with marketing companies like this. You aren’t a legitimate business but you’re just driving up my ad spend competing with me then trying to sell me these leads. We do our best to see through these types of schemes and rank and rent type stuff to the best of our ability.

People ask this and also ask how door to door sales can be worth the effort in the middle of the day. People work all or of shifts and are home. Graveyard, 3 12s, 4 10s, part time, etc. Of course 5-9 pm and saturdays are the best times to knock because even more people are home but people are home A LOT. Then you consider households where only one spouse works, retired people, and people taking a day off or a few hours off for personal reasons or to catch the delivery guy or whatever and you realize people are home. Apply the same concepts to Costco or the mall or whatever. Theres just a lot of people everywhere. Some days it seems like they all want pest control and it’s cool.