Dear lord, I'm gonna have to do the darn job for free just to keep that FAKE photo from reappearing lol

Don’t work for free.


Fight fire with Fire if he wants to post that picture.


Don’t let pride get in the way of profits!(<—— joking)

Lol.

In your first post you say you are not much of a rat trapper, but have caught them in the past. You don't have enough experience to evaluate or price the job. So where is the value to the prospective customer? Are you gaining experience at his expense? How is that a value to the customer? If you go in and trap rats and leave a breeding pair, they will be right back where they started in short order less the money they spent on you.

They are trusting you to handle a problem that they are willing to pay to solve. Would you feeling comfortable letting them read this thread before they make the decision to hire you? IMO you need to be very up front about your lack of experience. Maybe do the job at cost (meaning gas money) and let the experience be your compensation. Or waive off on this job and get more experience fur trapping before taking big ADC jobs. Or find a mentor to do this as a paid job and let you tag along through the whole process.

The first ones caught are the easy ones, but catching them doesn't really do the customer any good.

You make valid points PT and I appreciate the response. I will try to answer them as honestly and respectfully as I can:

So where is the value to the prospective customer? IF there was none, I would not take his money

Are you gaining experience at his expense? Hopefully not. IF it the customer was not happy, I would make it right.

How is that a value to the customer? If I could not complete the job to my customers satisfaction, I would not accept payment.

Would you feeling comfortable letting them read this thread before they make the decision to hire you? Yes. I believe seeking help is not a weakness, that is why I am here, I came here for help, I would have no issues in telling anyone that.

I am not trying to make a quick buck or take advantage of anyone, I am slowly becoming known in my community as "the trapper" so as people reach out, I have no issues trying to help them, but I have no experience with ADC, and very little with rats, that is why I made my comment about "Not being much of a rat trapper" because in my opinion, I am not. IF I get the call and look at the job and feel it is above my skill level, simple fix, I won't do it. BUT if I feel I can do it, I will give it the ole college try, if it is not a staifactory job, I won't accept payment. I hate to say "I will do it for free" then I knock it out of the park and the next time or the next guy wants the same price. Even though my skills may be minimal, I do believe they have some value, that is why I came here, I wanted to know the low end and the high end, so if I look at the job I can make an offer that is fair to everyone involved

I understand my reputation would be on the line, and I have done a lot in my life to have a good reputation in my community, I know a bad reputation can be built a lot quicker, I would make sure when I was done that my reputation was in tact. This job may lead to more jobs, so I would want everyone involved to be happy.

Again, thanks to eveyone for the responses, pms, phone calls, texts, yall are a great group

I believe that people should get their money's worth. If I don't produce promised results, I don't get paid. I don't want people to dread hiring me. I want them to know that when they have a problem, one call to me, and I'm going to take care of it. I am honest, I work hard, and I do my best to make people glad that they hired me. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to get more business in my opinion, because people talk. They talk about good experiences, and they dang sure talk about bad experiences.


Know how many beavers I’d caught before my first beaver job? One. I wanted to catch a beaver, so I set a beaver trap near my house on the bayou just to catch one. I caught one, a friend of mine saw a picture of my beaver, and he hired me to catch his beavers. I was upfront with him. I told him that this would be my first beaver job, and I would catch every beaver, or he wouldn't pay. I told him that I WOULD learn and I WOULD catch every beaver, and I did. He was thrilled, because he had been having beaver problems for over a year. Turns out, his landlord had a bunch of beaver work that needed to be done. He told my buddy that he wanted to talk to me about doing a lot more work, and that he wanted to meet with me.

When I showed up to this meeting, there were several other people there. They handed me a map, and asked if I was interested in getting serious catching beavers for them. I told them that I was interested, and we agreed on pricing. When I left that meeting, I went straight to one of their beaver colonies and got to work. They were pleased with the results, and they recommended me to others. Many doors have opened for me since then, and I couldn't be happier.


The point is, it would have taken years to get experience beaver trapping on my own. What motivation would I have had to become better?

Instead, I chose to set a goal and went after it. I studied and learned everything that I could about beaver trapping, put what I learned into practice, and here I am, many beaver jobs later--an experienced beaver trapper. I'd rather get paid to learn something, and work is no different. I'd rather be paid for my work, rather than solve someone else's problems for free. There's no two ways about it---beaver trapping is work. If I am going to solve someone else's problem, I am going to be paid for it, or I am going to spend my time doing something that I want to do. No, I didn't know that I would get as many beaver trapping opportunities as I have when I started. I just did my best, worked hard, made sure I delivered a service that was worth what I was asking to be paid and went after it. Glad I did.


Hog snaring: I'd shot a few hogs, but I'd never snared one before. A farmer told me he wanted me to get rid of his hogs, if I wanted the work. I told him that I'd never snared hogs before, but that I knew I could do it. I read what I could, ordered some cable, locks, and components, and I got started. I improved my methods and equipment as I went along, always trying to become better and better. After about 10,000 lbs of snared hogs, I figured I'd gotten the hog snaring thing down fairly well. I can guarantee you that if I wouldn't have been getting paid to solve hog problems, I wouldn't have been so interested in improving my methods and snares. I would have made a few basic non-swiveled snares, caught a few hogs, and then moved on to something else.

Knowing that success will bring a paycheck and failure will not is a heck of a motivator. You gain experience rather quickly in my opinion, as long as you’re taking steps to get there. If someone waits until they have “enough” experience then they may be waiting their entire life for something that may never happen. When opportunity knocks, jump right in, give them the honesty, work, and results that they would gladly pay for and strike while the iron is hot!

^^^^^^^^ great read

That is very well written, tells a great story, and tells anyone what they need to know to succeed in the nuisance trapping business.

I believe that many of us have answered the original questions in general and provided details, but not specifics. However, we cannot and should not answer the specific questions because we cannot. That is to be determined by the specific person.

Please keep us informed about this trapping job and your progress in the business.

best wishes.

Very well said Aix I appreciate you and your friendship

Again, thanks for all the replies, I have gathered what I came for, information, I aprreciate all of you who have shared here, or in other ways. I have yet to recieve a phone call, but if one comes I am prepared

Thanks again