http://www.veteranfranchiseopportunity.com/

Please keep in mind that I have little knowledge of ADC, but am extremely interested. I am looking for an after the military career and came across this while searching for employment...

I guess my question is, how did you guys get started in ADC. Probably at the top of my list for job preference, however I have little knowledge to know the ins and outs...

Anyone want to shoot the breeze with a guy about your career?

If you have no experience at all it will be a long steady learning curve. Without any training at all you will need to go as you grow and learn on the run which isnt an easy ladder to climb. But it can be done.

It will take time and expense to get all the tools together that you will need and then learn the ropes for various work areas.Working for an experienced individual who does this type of service who can mentor you would be a possible start. Realistically speaking it will take a minimum of several years to get a profitable business up and running which will also be determined a great deal by your demographics of your service area.

There are so many areas and things to learn I cant imagine looking back now how long it took me to learn what I have over the years collectively. If you can pay the bills while you learn and make mistakes along the way that would be good. Or if you have a wife that can support you until you get on your feet that would be good also.

I put the experience of a good ADC operator up there with a good ER doctor. You have to be skilled in so many areas from inspection/ identification skills,determing the problem thru experience and having the equipment and knowledge to resolve the problem.

From 0 to 80 speed in proficiency of this work can cost anywhere initially from 5-7 years time and more for some, and upwards of $45,000-$100,000 or more for your investment of time,equipment, vested on the job training time and advertising.And that is based on having enough work to get exposure time to all the areas of this business based on how fast you learn and all the needed equipment plus your vehicle and all applicable insurances.

If you dont have a reasonably good business sense,some basic accounting and people skills you will find that you likely wont do very well in this field.

Start up costs will make you dig pretty deep into your pockets to have even the basics. Then you will need to be buying and finding things you dont have all the time until you hit a plateau of where you find you have what you need to get by for a while. Just until the next circumstance that shows you what else you need etc.

This topic has been discussed many times on this forum. I suggest you get to reading the comments in the archives to get some insight to the field and if it is for you.

Hey Bob, very much thanks to you... I was searching for someone in my area that does this kind of work and it is pretty limited... I would certainly decide to work for someone who is willing to hire a guy that can learn the ropes for a couple years... I am currently deployed and have a little time on my hands, so i will continue to research on here... If in the meantime you know of someone in Indiana looking for full or part time help, I'd be the guy to take the job...

Bob
That is an excellent post with good facts. I don't think I have seen it all written out like this before. I think this is something anyone interested in joining our industry should see. Many of us went to the school of hard knocks and even with a business back ground it was a big learning curve. Thank you for this I plan to keep a copy for everyone that calls me looking for information about getting into this business.
Good Post
Don LaFountain CWCP

I recently figured startup costs of over 50k to get started right. Excluding labor.

Oh, and it included very used trucks.

I may have missed a few areas involved in our business as I kind of put the reply together between jobs.

I have many individuals call me, email or ask me on the road about getting into my line of work. I usually just say you probably are too old to start out in this line of work. Or you probably dont have enough $$$ to get going, and the experience is priceless and costly. The total training and residency time is more than any PHD Degree would cost someone to obtain the skill and knowledge someone would need to excell in this business.

I am sure many think I am just blowing smoke when they get that kind of reply.You fellas with 20 - 30 years on the road can appreciate my comments. Some just have to walk the walk for a while to get a good wake up call.

Cash, ambition, and a good eye for putting the right people together. It is easy to underestimate how expensive growth is...

that seems a little steep to me, but maybe not IDK

Go back to the thread about tools you can not live without. Someone posted all their tools. Add it up...add truck, ladders, ladder rack, truck tool box, insurance, marketing cost.....

Hey guys, thanks for posting, even had some PM's that helped a lot... I would say for me, it is best to start small and then build. Part time at first, website and accept calls and try to schedule around school maybe... would it work...

Worked for me.

Nothing better than showing up for class with the scent of skunk juice on your shoes. Classmates LOVE that.

The hardest part for me was the phone ringing. I hated getting up out of class to run to the hall to answer my phone. I did let all my instructors know on the first day that I had a business to run and would be needing to excuse myself for phone calls. They appreciated the warning and never made a stink about it. Actually had a couple professors become clients and one still refers me jobs regularly.

Sure it would. I'm in my forth year doing this work part-time. It's a great part-time business.

Start small and work your way up to whatever sized business you want.

Go as you grow is probably one of the best ways to learn the ropes on your own time. It certainly will take more time but the rewards and lessons learned will last you a lifetime. Sort of like a snowball effect. The more you roll the more knowledge and skill set you will acquire.

The positive side of the "Go as you Grow" approach is the wealth of satisfaction and the sturdy foundation that will grow for you forgeing the way for all the other things to come.

The mind set now a days for todays generation is that they want the fast track to success with not having to pay their dues. The problem with that approach is the lack of depth in the learned skills and experience foundation that gives you the knowledge needed for things that will confront you down the road.

The same with young aspiring fur trappers with all the teaching videos out these days.They are shown so much of what and how to do things but lack the field application time to make sense of it all.

You cant beat time served skill too many times in this game by taking short cuts. As is true with most successful professions.

Quick update on what I've done so far I suppose will help you guys help me... Like I said, I recieved a few PM's and I have attempted to find all the info they suggested and follow the links they gave me... So so far I know that I will need a permit in the state of indiana, and read the regulation based on ADC and animal removal/relocation. I also managed to follow a link to the ADC guide, which i'm sure most of you are very familiar with. It includes everything from characteristics of the target animal all the way to capture and relocation methods... i read on this for some time last night... Today, I picked another fellows brain, whom is a buisness major, and helps ppl set up new buisness. He seems to have his ducks in a row, and I believe I could have most of the legalities set up by the time I get home (LLC, Ins., etc.)... I also searched the site for pricing and tool requirements. Found some interesting stuff there and jotted a few notes.

All of these things have been a great help, and i'm only one day into this research (which means, I have much more to do), but here is a question that no one other than experienced guys can answer straight out... And please, humor me, because i have searched for this answer, here and google...lol...

1. Can a guy start out part time and attend school and ever expect to grow? (I know of one that says yes, and has done it)
2. What are the major failure points of new guys in this business? (spend to much, not good with ppl, etc.) I guess i'm asking, If you have seen ppl fail in this industry, what was the leading factor?

The longer winded you are the better for this guy...lol... I'm a picture guy, so paint me one that is easy to understand...

Thanks again everybody,
Jered

Nate great thanks to you buddy...

Growth will be relative to time available and time vested. Is going to and pursuing a school completed curriculum your primary goal of your career profession? Or is it a fail safe decision on your part in the event your wildlife control field falls short?

You can do all the research you can in theory to explore a business venture but you must still walk the walk at some point and get dirty as they say.

Success and failure can be a fine line to walk at times. That is all relative to who you are as a person and how determined you are to reach a goal.

Goals can be reached by anyone but you cant make a diamond from a potato if the potential and sincere effort isnt there.Your goals may or may not be reached as quickly as your monetary lifestyle needs may require. Or your income may not support the expenditures required to build a business. All these factors will impact your growth potential and ultimate continuing success or interest in the field.

Looking too hard into such a demanding and skill dependent field can be overwhelming and yet to some seem like anyone can do it just because it sounds like fun or is interesting. But the harsh reality is only a small percentage that jump into the water leave the field to pursue other forms of employment.

As they say dont quit your day job before you have a handle on another good venture.

I'd buy into A All Animal control... Beats the learning curve, easily make all start up money back within a couple months

I guess I'd have to agree with Jordan. While I'm not a big fan of franchises, I'm even less a fan of untrained competitors. Every time that you have to be honest and tell a customer that they hired a moron, you're giving our business a black eye. There are just not very many of us to go around.

When I started out, I was good with people and had trapped for decades. My accounting and billing and collecting skills, not so great. I'm lucky I made it through those first few years. There are a lot of things to consider when going into business for yourself. I, fortunately had friends like Al Krier, Rob Erickson, Eric Arnold, and others that I could talk to when I had a problem.

You new guys have no idea how lucky you are to have people like Bob Jameson, for one, to be very candid with you about getting started. And the list of animal specialists goes on forever. If you guys apply yourselves and are truly interested in this line of work, you can get more great information in a day than I could in a month, when I started.

There is definitely a place for franchises. Mistakes are expensive...

Do search about those franchises before you buy.
I started out part time, when I was loosing money at my day job I had to quit and pursue this full time.
As of right now I am not running a ppc campaign and I need to hire a full time employee. I really hate truck shopping.
Good luck how ever you do it. One last thing a construction background is very helpful in this business.
I say go for it without a buy in. If you make mistakes, you pay for them not the customer.

We are starting to get a 50/50 split here franchise/no franchise...lol... I've continued to research, as well as downloaded some ebooks and talked to my wife. But I pretty much gave up on the franchise idea just BC in the beginning I had several say "no way"... Maybe a fresh start at square one is in order to figure out how this franchise thing works.

Are there any courses around mid October going on for ADC guys? Id sure hate to leave home w trapping season starting, but I'm gonna guess I'm not gonna have much time for trapping and a new biz... Then again, maybe I will...

1. Jared, for what it's worth, I would tell you it is highly preferable if you planned to start out part-time. I don't think there are many small businesses where you can plan to go full time immediately and pay the bills, unless you have a ton of capital and previous knowledge.
My wealthiest buddy started out as a concrete laborer in high school. He worked steadily for others to pay the bills, but started doing his own stuff part time. As his knowledge and reputation grew, so did his full time status and income. Twenty years later, he is a small business success.
You definitely can start small and expect to grow. It is all about being good at what you do and marketing. You have to have a good product AND people need to know about that product. Balancing commitments as you grow is no easy task for sure.
So learn as much as you can about the industry (maybe some of the big guys on here will let you intern for a couple weeks)and get a marketing strategy. Skills like making a repeater set-up on a soffit AND learning how to create a web site are both hugely important in your success or failure.
2. The leading cause of failure is expecting too much too soon (needing a successful business right now to feed a family and pay bills), not offering a quality product (being a hack), and not having all the non-trapping business skills needed for a 21st century business.
If you have some financial breathing room to start, are dedicated and passionate about learning, and figure out how to let people know you are out there without breaking the bank- you are well on your way to growth. The limits and rate of growth depend upon the size of your market, the foothold of the competition in that market, and whether you can develop trapping, repair, and business skills necessary.

Good luck. Thanks for your service.

While this may not be the main reason people fail, this certainly caught my eye with a number of people in Wisconsin. They were either disappointed in what their idea of this business was going to be or were completely turned off by it. I know of a handful of guys that just quit and went into another small business completely. Personally, I went into this business very late in life (45) and I think that's one of the reason we became successful. No misplaced expectations and no expenses that weren't necessary.

I'm going out on a limb here.........I'm consider myself selfish in certain aspects, I figure if I had 20,30, or even $50,000 I would want to invest all that money (saved or borrowed) in myself and not a franchise. Don't get me wrong I see the benefits of a franchise, but then again, when I'm working and putting forth the effort I want to be in complete control. Like I told some people before "The reason why I want to own my own business is: I want my successes or failures to be my own and nobody elses"

I'm not trying to fuel an argument of what a person should do or which is better, just throwing myself out there

Sure....but there may be more risk of complete loss. Depends on the person.

If you already have better than average people skills, business skills like accounting, and are maybe a college grad, that likes the idea of this business, but has no real animal skills, a franchise might be for you. ( I say this because even if your training is incomplete, you can usually call another franchisee for good advise.

On the other hand, if you know quite a bit about trapping, hunting, and nature, but are not very good with people, I have my doubts that a franchise will help very much. Some of us are just not real good with customers. That does not mean we can't succeed at this business. If you're good at taking care of the customer's problem, they usually don't care if your Albert Einstein or Homer Simpson.

I'm not to keen on franchises, but a franchise can give you some sort of protection if the bottom of your business falls out for whatever reason?

I would love to see some guys build a business that was worth buying someday. One fur trapper and a truck will not do..not big enough. I think business skill are more necessary than wildlife experience....you can hire trappers. Of course, a trapper can hire a business man too.

Hey guys, reading your posts here... Glad to see the thoughts and ideas... I would like to think my ppl skills are sufficient, however we all view ourselves through a narrow window of what we'd desire to be...lol...

The best thing i've done so far is start this thread... I have spent more time researching the things everyone here has directed me to, and I wouldn't have considered a lot of them...

I am currently waiting to hear back from Mark at A All Animal Control, as i want to have 100% complete info and all questions answered before deciding against it or for it... However, I see starting slow and making mistakes while still small/part time a value... If you are that small, just learning, odds are you will have little affect on the market, ppl probably wont remember a small mistake as long as you make it right with them, and last but not least, I would like my name to be on a product well done, not someone elses name that I helped...

This also scares me, I searched several franchises yesterday for reviews just to see what popped up for diff cities... I found quick that A All and Critter Control pop up frequent... However from one city to the next the Rating and Reviews are vastly different... Obviously the operators are the cause of this, but I would hate to think someone may put a search word in google, and a different cities franchise pop up and provide them with a less than adequate impression of my business just because I use there logo and name... I think if I wanted to be in a franchise, I would have went to business school and started my own...

With that said, I will let Mark discuss his view points, and maybe bc of my current position it is the better opportunity... I will continue to update everbody

And thanks to each one of you for all the help...
Jered