Chris knew he wanted to work for himself. He worked in log cabin restoration, often dealing with termites, carpenter ants, and other pests, and thought he could find a solution. I was driving home from work one day when I heard an interview with a pest control business owner discussing the number of calls he gets daily. It got me thinking about the barriers to entry for pest control. What do insurance and licensing costs? What’s the average cost-per-acquisition and lifetime value of customers? Eventually, we just said, ‘What the heck?’ and went for it. I kept my job to pay the bills and the start-up costs like licensing and exams. My husband studied his butt off, we got the licenses, and we were off to the races.

The legal stuff, specifically licensing, will differ in every state. Some states require nothing, but you have to take exams and do a bunch of paperwork in other states. That can be intimidating for people.

Then there’s a work vehicle. You need a vehicle to carry your equipment; you can’t do this from your family minivan. We had an old Toyota that we traded in for an even older and shittier cargo van. When we drove that off the lot, I said, “Oh God, I hope this is the right move,” because the car was not in great shape.

The other thing I recommend is decaling or wrapping your vehicle. Your vehicle is a great way to advertise. Wrapping a whole van costs around $2,000, which is a lot. I bought some vinyl for our first van, used an X-acto knife to cut out our logo, and did all the decals by hand on our dining room table. It took forever, but it cost about $30, and we got so many calls from it.

Before starting Parker Eco, I worked in brand marketing at an agency in Seattle, so I had a solid understanding of creating a good brand. I built our website to communicate what we offer, and it still converts well today. A website is critical because most people find businesses online today. Your personal network will only get you so far. The website is probably the most significant barrier to entry for most people who don’t have any marketing experience. You can hire people, but do you trust them? Did you find them on the internet? Are they going to steal your money? It can be challenging to find someone good at an affordable price.

Completely stocking your van is probably going to cost you about $3,000, but you can start with the basics: ladders, dusters, sprayers, respirators, and an apiary suit if you’re doing wasp work. You can pick up the other bits and pieces as you go.

The most significant difference is our focus on environmentally-friendly solutions and poison-free alternatives to rodent problems. Most pest control businesses will sign customers up for a recurring plan so they can bill you under the radar while setting out poison on a regular basis. We do things that don’t have as many adverse effects on the environment, like sealing entry points and physically trapping rodents while solving the customers’ issues.

Most pest control businesses are super focused on recurring revenue and have salespeople who go door-to-door to sign up customers for recurring plans, whether they need them or not. We don't have a sales team, and we don't pay commissions to our staff. We structure the business so that our only incentive is to do what's right for the customer. We’re not trying to build a business, sell it, or go live on a yacht. We live here. Our philosophy at Parker Eco starts with "Can we solve this problem for the customer?" not "How can we make as much money from this customer?" We want to serve our community. We treat out customers well. Ants aren't going anywhere, so we'll continue to find business, even if it's from a different customer every month.

Pest control is a volume game. You’re doing $100 jobs here and $200 jobs here, and it’s hard to pay the bills on that. You need to take advantage of the internet to be successful. You can figure out what kind of pest problems people in your area are having and then use that to inform your services. If most people have carpenter ants, then you can buy products to handle that.

Number one: be a good boss. People quit bosses, not jobs. You need to look in the mirror, figure out what your faults are, and how you can fix them to be a better boss.

Number two: Pay people as much as you possibly can. I know that is easy to say and hard to do because you don’t have any money when you're starting out. But you have to be willing to go without to pay your staff more. I firmly believe this is the best way to go. You might think you can pay people less, but if you do, they might not stick around as long, and there are a lot of hidden costs to hiring and training new people. It’s costly, and just because you don’t see it on your payroll every month doesn’t mean you’re not spending money. I tell my team I refuse to spend money on anything except for them. If something will make their job easier, faster, or safer - I’ll pay it. Some companies have big Christmas parties to boost morale, but I don’t see it this way. I think people would rather have good healthcare.

Every quarter, I go through every expense line item by line item, see where we’re spending the most money, and try to figure out how to do it cheaper. For example, we used to get the sizes of each new employee and then order uniforms for them. This meant we placed several uniform orders for under twenty pieces multiple times yearly. We saved $3,000 annually by averaging the count of each size uniform we would order each year and placing one big order annually.

My husband is my business partner and my life partner. He’s my favorite part of my job. Entrepreneurship is tough to do alone. I often think about how privileged we are to be able to do this as a couple. We can support each other. The fact that I could keep working a nine-to-five to pay the bills while we grew the business was huge. If you don’t have a partner who can do that, investing your time and energy into growing your business will be much more difficult. Don’t partner with someone who thinks like you do; partner with someone who will tell you when you're wrong. This way, you can debate and develop a better end product. Having a business partner you can sympathize with and bounce ideas off of is a real privilege.