Hey wiggler, the fact that you're doing better than ever is because of YOU. You are getting the calls and making your customers happy and don't think I don't applaud that.
Obama never worked like you do so he had no idea what to do about the failing economy and instead of improving things, he now has a greater percentage of male workers unemployed than we've had since 1948!

Muddawg, I feel just the opposite. After all these years the animals are still pretty much the same. But the customers keep constantly changing. We all get our share of "Pains in the Tush" but the over-all majority of customers are a pretty decent bunch!

Muddawd, if you have an ADC business then your business is part of the "service industry" which means you HAVE to deal with the public. I think it takes more skills to work with the customers than it does to catch the critters! Personally, I love working with the people. No two people are ever the same and it facinates me to see all the diverse personalites I come across every day.

When I started I charged hesitantly. Now I charge confidently.

you would still have to deal with people directly in most programs i know.

Granted, but when I worked for the other man, I got paid every week, like clock work, whether he collected for that week or not. I had nothing to do with the billing and no one to complain to me that it was too much. Many times I did the job having never met the people who hired us. I never had to threaten anyone with court to receive payment for a job. And my telephone wasn't ringing off the hook every night with calls that mean nothing to start with. Not to mention, working for some one else allows you to stop and relax when the day is done and not have to worry about how to scheduled tomorrow.

In my own business, I find myself having to explain why the price is what it is. At times I have had to get ugly to collect what was rightfully mine. Once I threatened a lady with small claims court to have her get snooty with me and fuss, "You would take me to court over a measly 117 dollars?!"

I answered politely "Yes, Mam."

Then she reminds me that I would loose more money than it's worth to which I answered, "Yes, Mam. I would. But I have to or it's not fair to the customers who DO pay me."

I'm just getting tired of arguing with some of these brain dead people who haven't a clue as to what it takes to do what I do.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not gonna stop what I'm doing.... I'm just saying, I wish I could do something different. Ya know?

When I started out it was April 1999 and I was still working in the computer field. One of the first items we did was look through the yellow pages and see how many others in our determined service area did wildlife control. According to the ads, it was 78 other companies. We then called each company asking if they did certain species other than what they had listed (snakes, moles, bats, birds, etc.) and found that only 3 of the 78 did bat calls. It was at that time that I decided we'd specialize in bat work taking other jobs only as filler.

I created a plan on how to go full time due to issues at the computer company and took the leap Oct 1, 2000. This is probably the absolute worse times of the year to try and make a go of it. I had my chart with how much I needed to work, how many calls per species I would receive based on my previous experience, figured out how much expenses were going to be and set my pricing based on how much I needed to make.

Like I said, October just isn't the right time to try and do this so I got my first expensive lesson very early on. Thanks to my wife, I didn't have to immediately hang up my company and was able to tough it out until spring when calls started coming in. Things were going great that first year of 2011 until September 9 when I got my second expensive lesson on running a business. That lesson lasted about 2 years where I was taking everything I could, thinking I was making money until I really looked over the books realizing that even though it looked like I was making money according to the bank account balance, the expenses and time requirements had me actually loosing money which dictated a change. So I went through several pricing options that included yearly membership rate with discounted service rate, five day flat fee trapping programs, inspection fee, setting trap fee, animal fee, euthanasia fee, travel fee, and more before finally deciding on a service fee and per animal fee which has now been changed to a service fee and trap fee.

The next change to the business came when our exclusion projects increased in volume to the point that we couldn't afford to be running animal traps because we needed to be working on exclusion projects much farther away. We began adding more and more employees and independent contractors to make sure our customers in our expanding service base were being serviced until the fall of 2008 happened. That was our third expensive business lesson. We had pulled all our advertising because we couldn’t keep up with all the referrals from clients, fellow wcos and pest control companies. Unlike other areas of the country and at the same time like others, our referrals were gone overnight and it has taken years for our service area to recover; however, the lessons I've learned because of what has happened has changed my business thoughts on pricing.

For anyone starting out or thinking of starting out look for the best time of year to start based on the services you want to provide. Don't feel that you have to do everything, rather decide what you want to do and don't. If you want to specialize in exclusion do so. If you want to do everything, do so. When setting prices it is imperative that you know what your expenses are going to be to the best of your ability. Include monthly payments for anything related to the business including personal payments for credit cards, vehicles, mortgages, food, etc. as well as business only expenses such as advertising, phone, and gas. You need to include the personal amounts as the business is going to provide your paycheck and you need to know how much you are spending. Next, figure out how many hours you want to actually work and get paid for. The accepted average is 2,000 hours per year which translates in to 40 hours a week for 50 weeks. The less amount of time you want to work means you need to charge more than if you work longer.

So if your expenses are $50,000 and you will work 2,000 hours a year, then your hourly rate needs to be at least $25 an hour just to cover expenses. If you only want to work 1,000 hours it increases to $50 yet if you want to work 3,500 hours then the rate drops to a little over $14 an hour. Note that these amounts do not include additional expenses for equipment, unknown expenses, or company profit.

When setting prices be realistic with how much work you can actually do and get hired for. It is unrealistic to think that you will have a client base where you have to work 10 hours a day for 365 days in most service areas but especially the northern climates. Instead, shoot for 500 - 1,000 hours of paid work when starting off and look at what fees you need to charge accordingly.

Regardless of how you charge, per job, linear footage, square footage, service call with per animal, per animal only or whatever you want, you need to look at the hourly rate to make sure you are covering yourself. If it takes 30 minutes to drive to the job site, 30 minutes on site and 30 minutes back then each day you service this job you have at least 1 1/2 hours vested. Do this for 5 days and now you have 7.5 hours vested. If your hourly rate is $50 you needed to charge $375 to cover expenses for this job.

So if you charged a flat fee of $250 you lost money. If you did a service call of $50 and $40 per animal with a total number of 5 animals caught you lost money. If you charged $100 service call and $50 per animal with 5 animals you lost money. Again, you need to charge at least $375 to break even and what if you only caught 1 animal instead? For this example, you needed to catch at least 6 animals to turn a profit. In real life you can increase your service fee, per animal fee, add additional fees and/or reduce the amount to time required for the job to make it work but you still need a base to go off of.

Making or loosing money is all about how you use your time. In other words, the only way to make money is to know your hourly worth and make sure your pricing method covers the amount of time required to perform the job.

I agree with many of Eric's points and there is a learning curve to finding the right fee structure. Another one to consider is your actual cost of windshield time. Knowing this will help you quickly determine part of the cost of a prospective job. Get out a sheet of paper and jot down the following (basics): How many miles do you average per year, annual vehicle payment (monthly x 12), annual insurance costs, cost of oil change every 3-4000 miles, cost of tires at current prices and divide by 70% of the mileage rating (60,000 x .70 = 42,000)as you will never get the maximum, and an average of $600 for brakes, muffler, sensors, air filters, alternator, battery etc. (Your actual costs will differ) So based on a $350 vehicle payment you get the following:

Annual mileage (25,000)
Vehicle payment = $4200.00
Insurance = 900.00
8 Oil changes $40.00 = 320.00
Tires (4 x $125 = $500) = 250.00 (60,000 x 70% = 42,000/2 years 21,000 ea)
Misc maintenance = 600.00 if you're lucky
______________________________________________________________________________
Total $6270.00
So it is costing you approximately .26 per mile just to be on the road. Now factor in the current cost of fuel. Based on $3.60/gal and 18 mpg your annual cost is $5000 making your cost per mile .46. Now add in your hourly rate of $30(?) and you just added .50 per minute to your drive time. So if you did a free inspection 20 miles away and it took you 20 minutes to get there the trip cost you, not the customer, $19.20, not including the free inspection. Now consider a job 40 miles away and you can see the bigger picture. Also, if you have nothing else lined up it becomes a round trip at double the cost! Now look back and see how many dead runs or free inspections you did over the past week or month and learn to price your service fairly, competitvely and profitably. Keep in mind that this doesn't include depreciation, taxes, license and lots of other variables as well as your investment in the proper equipment and other overhead. Hope this helps a bit...

A buck a mile is just about right. Of course that's in the midwest; I'm sure the coasts are way more expensive.

Eric,

Thanks for taking the time to explain your pricing and your start-up experiences. You've helped me greatly in the past with county and city contracts, and your expertise is truly appreciated.

Wow Metro you opened my eyes! Thanks!

I figure about a buck a mile here too Paul.

I thought about doing this as another side job...but my only problem is that I can't stand snakes!!!! and it seemed as if, down here, that would be the majority of my calls... I don't mind alligators or any of the others...but i only have bullets for snakes... anyhow... after reading on here a bit, i am really interested in the possibility of making a few extra dollars doing something that I would consider fun... I didn't realize that people specify the animals that they take care of... don't know why, i just didn't realize that...

Marshwalker, one of our guys is petrified of bats. That has not kept us from becoming a really good bat exclusion company. I'm assuming that there are people in your area that aren't afraid of snakes, right? ( And maybe one of them is not particularly fond of alligators ) Do you see where I'm going with this?

Yes sir I do. Yes I do... do most people ask for you to release the animal somewhere? or do you guys keep the furry ones for pelts?

We do release better than half and when pelts start bringing more than I get for the animal itself, I will hire a skinner. ( But that will probably be never )

understood... maybe i'll give it a go.. we'll see

I FOUND SOME OLE=D BUSINESS PLAN IDEA THE OTHER DAY ( ABOUT A CENTURY AGO) THAT SHOWED MY PRICING FLAN OF 55 SERVICE FEE AND 5.00 DOLLARS PER MOLE, so glad I did not ever go with that. we started out with 65 service fee and 25 per animal , LOL our first job was a Raccoon job and we had no idea what we where up against. Now we charge a flat rate of 295.00 in the spring for Raccoons ( we use Vanish and remove all animals and temp seal the hole. For GENERAL TRAPPING WE CHARGE 165.00 PLUS 6500 PER ANIMAL AS A COMPASSION.

You should always follow the law in your given jurisdiction. I get the relocate question almost on every job but the simple fact is that certain species can not be relocated period and one can be BUT it can not be transported alive, go figure.
I used to try to be all warm and fuzzy on this and cutely quip "don't ask and I won't tell" but I'm to old and tired to play games any more. I just bluntly say the state of Georgia has regulations regarding the dispostion of wildlife and I always follow the law. If they press me on it I put my index finger to the back of my head and say bang.

ha ha.. i can about imagine the questions you must get...being i'm jobless now for the first time in a very long time, i might give it a go as a supplement to the other trades I currently do. I might be one of the ones asking you all those questions.. ha ha... no bang though just advice ok?

California is has a "release or dispatch ON SITE rule". As well as cant sell the raw furs.