my husband came up with a good idea but it's kinda off the wall. i don't know if people would go for it.

my husband works in pest control killing bugs all day. he likes the bug part of it just not the labor part. so he came up with the idea of being a bug consultant. what is a bug consultant you ask? nothing it doesn't exist yet!! lol ok so what would be a bug consultant?

lets say you have ants in your kitchen but you don't want to call pest control because you don't want to get set up on a quarterly service or you know they overcharge. or maybe you have called pest control but the problem still isn't gone. so what do you do now? call the bug consultant!! he will come into your house and assess your problem. he will tell you why the ants keep coming inside. maybe they are attracted to your trashcan that doesn't have a lid or maybe you keep leaving food on the counter by the door. maybe it's too cold outside and you have cracks all around the doors and windows (easy access). he will carry over the counter chemicals, cleaning products and home improvement products you can buy from him on site. he will sell these to you and show you how to use them to fix the problem. calk around the doors and windows, put a bit of chemicals here and there and tidy up. he wouldn't be doing these things he would show you how to do it yourself in case you have problems in the future and once again don't want to get stuck in a contract.

also maybe you're a pack rat and keep a ton of stuff. when you move it around you see bugs! that's where i come in. i love organizing! i don't know why but i do lol. so if the problem is that you have stuff all over the place making a good home for bugs i will fix you up. i will organize all your stuff not only getting rid of the homes for bugs but also making it look nice and making it to where you can find stuff much easier.

once again this would be a one time deal. NO CONTRACTS!! get all the stuff you need material wise and mental knowledge all in the comfort of your home for a one time fee and learn how to do it yourself for future problems!


so what do you think? is this something you would do? how much would you pay for something like this?

the only thing i really see a problem with is advertising and getting it out. oh the other problem is my husband it 28 almost 29 but he looks 20. when someone is this field looks so young it's hard to be taken seriously. he has been in pest control for over 7 years so he knows what he's doing. any tip[s.suggestions would be great! i would love to know what you all think!
thanks

Sounds interesting. I kinda like the idea. Good luck with it.

I think this would be a very valuable service. I would have killed for this when I still lived in Texas and had severe ant problems every summer.

Starting any kind of business is difficult. You have to know your market. Is your area big enough for there to be a demand for this sort of thing? Seems like your clients would probably be mostly middle-class; is it a large suburban area, where many homeowners need this kind of service?

Also, advertise, advertise, advertise. Create a good name for your service. Get some good fliers and business cards. Call local papers and publications about their advertising rates. Also, once you have your first few customers, emphasize that you want them to tell their friends and neighbors and give them something with your number (one of the best ideas for this is a fridge magnet. It's something you don't lose, like a business card, and it's right on your fridge and on your mind!)

I think this is a very good idea. Call your local small business union and get some input from them as well as information about licensing. I'd definitely go somewhere with this if I were you!

(Oh, and I just noticed that you're from Fredericksburg! My partner grew up there!)

Edit: Keep in mind that some people actually LIKE contracts for this sort of thing, like having follow-ups once or twice a year. I'd offer it to people as an option, but not require it.

Sounds like a valuable service/services.
Save up to apply for a LLC.
Save up, advertising is insanely expensive.
(I'd suggest business insurance, being able to say you're fully insured reassures people that you are serious about your business and protects you, can also get you jobs over other companies.)

My husband has his own garage door business... it's tough to start and even tougher to keep afloat.
I highly suggest you save save save.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

thank you all for the support. we live in fredericksburg which is getting bigger everyday! pretty much all middle class suburban housing. i think it would do well. I love the magnet idea! thats something people will never get rid of. also im pretty sure that you don't have to have a business licence or insurance or report taxes until you make a certain amount of money, is this right?? the problem is we don't have much money at the moment. maybe we can just start doing it on the side like weekends and stuff.

im open to contracts but there may be a problem with that. to apply chemicals at someone elses house you have to have your commercial applicator license which my hubby doesn't have. he works under his current bosses but if he worked alone he would have to get his own. so in this case he wouldn't actually be applying anything just showing you how to do it yourself. the only reason i could going back to the same house would be if they had a different pest problem.

First... what is the labor part of the job? Like carrying the sprayers or something? It seems like being a consultant might be more work as you would have a new situation in each house and may have to be crawling around in basements, under porches, in attics, etc to find out where the issues lie.

To make money at this you are still going to have to charge a decent amount and most "pet control" companies will come out and spray for like $45-$60 which people don't mind as a quick fix to get rid of the problem. You don't have to have a contract or anything, sometimes you get a discount if you do it quarterly or something but normal companies will come out and do a one-time deal.

The no contracts part might sound good but what about the customer, are you going to give them some type of guarantee if the methods don't work for keeping bugs away? Like most companies will come out again no-charge within like 14-30 days if the bugs reappear. Will you be offering free follow-up visits? What will happen if people are just not smart enough to follow the suggested methods of pest control and they keep screwing up? Most people want easy and quick which is what the one-time spray provides. To have a lengthy appointment, have to buy products and execute the applications themselves may not be of interest to as many people as you hope.

You might be able to jump on the *green* wagon if you have alternative chemical-free methods of bug control. Like using cinnamon to keep ants away... but then you can just get that information off Google like I did for the ants that kept getting in our mailbox.

The organizational thing I have heard of people/companies offering those services before and I think that is definitely something people need.

For either job idea I would say start with friends and family. That way you can get an idea of issues you might run into out in the real world and if they are satisfied they are good word of mouth to get other clients.

Advertising you can do a lot for free. Make a Facebook page, use Craigslist, any free online classifieds in your area, bulletin boards at grocery stores, if you're good with computers you can print your own business cards and flyers.

Just some things to think about.

well he knows that he will still have to crawl in crawlspaces and whatnot but it won't be nearly as bad as now. at his current job they also do insulation jobs and my hubby has had a lot of those lately and that requires being under a house for days on end that's what killing him. he is doing it today so i expect him to come home late, tired and hurting. if he did this thing then yes he still may have to go into crawl spaces and whatnot but not for a long period of time like now.

i understand the thing about people not wanting to do it themselves. it's just easier to have someone else do it for you. BUT with the way the economy is right now i know I would much rather be educated and do it myself and know that i can do it in the future. it's a long term fix.

yes im sure there will be people who won't listen and/or slip up. if there is still a problem after we leave and the person has done everything suggested then yes we will come back for free. however if the problem goes away or migrates to elsewhere in the home and we are called back out there will be a charge because at that point especially if it is the same pests and you havn't fixed it yourself then it will be a new charge.

there are some "green" ways of doing things. i was thinking about that earlier. there are also cheap ways to get rid of bugs with the stuff you have at home like windex. you got ants? spray them with windex, they die quick, then sweep them up. it won't stop them from coming back but it's a quick fix. peppermint is good too. we moved into a new house in september and learned AFTER we moved in that the kitchen was infested with roaches!! a couple bottles of bait and some deep cleaning later they were gone. i learned in the process that if you put chemical down and then do a deep cleaning that you DON'T use cleaners! using cleaners with screw up the bait process and then the time you put into will be wasted. there are lots of good tips my hubbys has that no one knows and no pest control company will tell you because they want the repeat business. thats what we're here for.

my husband does everything from ants to bed bugs to termites. we have kids and he knows how to apply the chemicals so that they are no harm to anyone but the bugs.

I'm scared of bugs.. badly. There is no posoneous spiders nor bugs in Finland but I fear them all grately. Thou.. I respect life and I don't want to kill them at all. Nor would I want to call pest control over my house to kill them.. Thus. If I would have an apartment and an bug problem I would prefer to call to someone like this suggested "bug concultant" to drive them away instead of killing them. Because..I can cope a bug outside but if it is inside I would die in paranoiah.

Also knowing what bugs they are, what they do and so on would be a grate deal of help to people like me. I would use your service no questions about it.

But as I live in a rent apartment and in Finland where bugs die in winter.. can't do that now. You got my support thou. Wish you the best

What you are describing, though, is what most pest control companies do as part of their service. They come, assess the situation and make recommendations as to how to proceed and why the infestation is occurring. Then they deal with the issue for you, as part of the one deal.

What you are describing here seems to be that your husband only fulfils the identification part of the job (and he will still need to do all the crawling around that he was doing in his initial position), then tells the owner what's going on and why, then recommends how to fix it, without actually fixing it himself. So you're asking clients to essentially pay for a service they get when they call pest control anyway. Think of it like this. Your husband is an iPod shuffle, the pest control is a full functioning iPod. Your husband is only providing a small slice of the service (shuffle feature) whereas pest control provides that service as well as all other services.

Furthermore, most issues that only need minor home-based treatment, are easily available via Google.

Now, think about it for yourselves. Would you pay for an extra step in the process?

Consultancy is great in a lot of aspects of the business world, but I don't think it carries over well into that of pest control. For example, my Dad is a business consultant. Businesses in trouble contact my Dad, they agree on a contract period that he works for them, and then assesses what the issues are. He draws up a plan for fixing the issue, then stays on with the company until the fix is made. Even though it is consultancy, he is very, very hands on with it and doesn't leave until things are fixed.

And this works fine in the business world. There's a niche for it, especially for someone with a good business and commerce education (lots of night school, but he says it was well worth it). And my Dad made it work because he had contacts in the business world. It still took a lot of money to set up (a lot) and for a long time we had it rough.

My concerns here, are, that there really isn't a huge market. What you're describing (identifying bins with lids off, etc.) are things that you can Google, or a pest control company will do themselves as part of their preventative measures. I think there's a long list of questions you guys are going to have to consider:

-Is there really a market for this small aspect of pest control?
-Why would people come to your husband rather than Googling these rather more simple issues (using Windex, etc.)?
-How are you expecting to promote yourselves and do you have the money to do so?
-How viable is the business? Is it likely a bank will give you a loan to start up?
-Are you a safe investment for a bank/loan company?
-How are you getting the over counter chemicals to sell?
-Are you buying the chemicals in store?
-If yes to the above, how much of a mark up will you charge the client?
-If you sell for a mark up, why would they buy from you and not simply go buy for themselves?
-If you sell for price, or below, how are you going to justify those costs?
-Can you buy the chemicals, in bulk, from a supplier?
-If so, can you afford to offer competitive prices to store prices?
-You say your husband will come back, for free, if the problem continues...how many times? Every free hour is an hour less of pay, so what if the issue is larger than he assumed and may take days/weeks/months to fix? Can you afford that kind of offer?
-Do you have enough money to register for a business licence? You will need one to work legitimately and to be covered legally.
-Can you afford liability insurance? You will need this, as well, to be covered legally.

Now, the no contracts thing really scares me. A few years ago, a fellow editor decided he didn't like the idea of contracts, either. He'd just set up his own business (similar to mine) and used up all his savings. He landed a big client and the job was going to get him back to even. He was delighted. He threw himself into the work. He never wrote up a contract.

And what did the client do? After a months hard work, they took the finished manuscript to a publisher. They never paid the freelance editor because he hadn't written a firm, legal contract saying that on the completion of the work, the client was required to pay him. Morally, of course they should have paid him, but legally they was no requirement. His business folded and he very nearly had to file for bankruptcy.

All because he didn't think to have a contract.

Now, what is to stop the same thing happening with your husband? He comes into the home, tells them what products to use (possibly that they already own) and then they say "well, thank you, off you go"? It might sound impossible, but people are, well, jerks. If they can find that legal loophole that means they don't have to pay, you better believe they won't.

Or what if something goes wrong in the home? What if, unbeknownst to your husband, someone in the home is allergic to one of his recommendations? Without a contract that clearly states where his responsibility in the issue begins and ends, they could sue you guys for damages. Again, with public liability issues as they are, people are very quick to sue these days. What if one of the remedies he suggests is used wrongly by the client and ends up hurting them or damaging their home? While it is not your husband's fault that it happened, because he suggested it as part of a legal business, he is legally responsible.

And example of this was the dog trainer we've hired to help us with our new German Shepherd pup. His contract we had to sign stated that he was not responsible for any injuries/deaths/damages that occurred during his time with us (including the time between his visits). So, for example, if the neighbourhood cat jumped the fence and Sam (as unlikely as it was) killed it, he could not be held responsible. Or, if we don't follow his instructions for training Sam, properly, and something goes wrong, then the contract stated that that was OUR fault, not his.

And, logically, of course it is. But, legally, without the contract, it can be argued that he is the one responsible, since he was the one giving us the advice.

You guys really do have a lot to think about, here. Do you have the finances to cover ALL your expenses? Are you a viable enough business for a loan? Are you covered for any legal issues? Is there actually a market for your business, that isn't covered by other businesses or simple things like Google?

It goes on and on, unfortunately.

ok the no contract thing means no long term contracts. legally we have to have the customer sign something saying my hubby didn't apply anything himself or else he'd be in deep crap. have you ever had pest control? they come in, ask you where the problem is, take care of it, and leave. you learn nothing.

puzzle i gotta say it, lately you have been bumming me out big time. every time im feeling good you just shoot me back down. i know you are being realistic and all but can't you leave me with a little bit of faith? im gonna stop now before i say something i'll regret. thanks anyways.

Looks like you've got some great feedback here.

I think it definitely sounds like a neat idea - quite often we'll Google for whatever remedy we're looking for (not just bugs), just to have that "how can we fix it at home aspect" but search results aren't personalized. It's nice having that person touch to look at all aspects.

TwistedRainbow wrote:

ok the no contract thing means no long term contracts. legally we have to have the customer sign something saying my hubby didn't apply anything himself or else he'd be in deep crap. have you ever had pest control? they come in, ask you where the problem is, take care of it, and leave. you learn nothing.

I have. The service you're describing is what comes standard with my pest control company, and they also include the chemicals and the application. And if the bugs come back, so does the exterminator, for free. Any questions I have are answered right then, or are Googled after. Honestly, I don't see why I would pay someone to come out and tell me what my exterminator can tell me if I'd still have to call the exterminator anyway to take care of the problem. It's much more convenient to only have to make one phone call and take one day off work to let the guy in the yard.

Quote::

i gotta say it, lately you have been bumming me out big time. every time im feeling good you just shoot me back down. i know you are being realistic and all but can't you leave me with a little bit of faith? im gonna stop now before i say something i'll regret. thanks anyways.

I don't understand. Puzzle is giving you some really good issues to think about. That she has personal experience with what you're asking about only makes it more valuable. If the reality is too difficult to deal with, it's probably not a good idea. Better to have potential problems listed beforehand than after you've sunk a LOT of money into this. Honestly it sounds like Puzzle has your best interests at heart.

Skeen wrote:

TwistedRainbow wrote: ok the no contract thing means no long term contracts. legally we have to have the customer sign something saying my hubby didn't apply anything himself or else he'd be in deep crap. have you ever had pest control? they come in, ask you where the problem is, take care of it, and leave. you learn nothing. I have. The service you're describing is what comes standard with my pest control company, and they also include the chemicals and the application. And if the bugs come back, so does the exterminator, for free. Any questions I have are answered right then, or are Googled after. Honestly, I don't see why I would pay someone to come out and tell me what my exterminator can tell me if I'd still have to call the exterminator anyway to take care of the problem. It's much more convenient to only have to make one phone call and take one day off work to let the guy in the yard. Quote:: i gotta say it, lately you have been bumming me out big time. every time im feeling good you just shoot me back down. i know you are being realistic and all but can't you leave me with a little bit of faith? im gonna stop now before i say something i'll regret. thanks anyways. I don't understand. Puzzle is giving you some really good issues to think about. That she has personal experience with what you're asking about only makes it more valuable. If the reality is too difficult to deal with, it's probably not a good idea. Better to have potential problems listed beforehand than after you've sunk a LOT of money into this. Honestly it sounds like Puzzle has your best interests at heart.

Thank you, Skeen

I'm sorry if my post was upsetting for you. It was never my intent to get you to the point you were tempted to say "regretful" things. As you were asking for advice, and I hve the relevant personal experience, I was hoping to give you information that you could think about so that you and your husband could protect yourselves should anything go wrong.

Unfortunately, it seems that maybe you aren't wanting actual advice so much as compliments and congratulations. So I shall bow out before I risk further offending you by trying to help. =)

puzzle it's nothing against you. i was upset yesterday. im not having a good time right now. your right though. i agree with everything you said it makes total sense. im sorry for being stupid. i've just been really irritated lately. i'm trying so hard to come up with something to do. i'm so stressed right now. i'm sorry.

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