thinking very seriously about starting an adc...

business... so I have some questions.
1- what are your thoughts on getting certified through the nwcoa. (nation wildlife control operators assoc.? looked into it some. looks like a very drawn out and expensive deal. (gas money)
2- what kind of exact insurance is required. always see guys on here saying "get insurance" but never seen anyone say what insurance.
3- as far as getting licensed to start an adc business. who would I get ahold of to get a license...dnr?
4- how much advertising does a guy need to do to get a good toehold in the business

if anyone sees anything Im not thinking of please feel free to hammer away. really looking for off-season work. im a furbuyer but need the summertime filled up. already running a small gopher and mole business, but can't seem to get enough customers to stay busy.

1. We will not get started on that one. M ost on here already know my feelings on that.
2.There are special insurance polices for ADC work. One thatcomes to mind is Bob & Sons out of IN. Phone 260-726-3718. also others, but I don't have their phone # handy.
3. Every state is different. Get in touch with your DNR.
4. I get a lot of my referals from the law enforcement and the bug guys. At least a place to start.
There is alot more to it than just setting a few cage traps. Read on here for the last year or two. Lots of how to info here.

That old guy wouldn't be Mike Tucker would he?
Be very careful poking an animal that can hardly move they may surprise you. I would contact the person who can hardly move and he may even help you if not it will at least make it psychologically harder to push your head under water. Net work with colleagues, get as much training as u can which includes NWCOA training.
Join NWCOA if I didn't have a personal issue I would and it looks good on your business cards and other oaper work. Your state probably has an economic developement cabinet that has much to offer small and micro businesses. You are probably like ost of us catching and excluding are not the problem the business side is where you need help. Your state can help u. WCT magazine subscribe.
If I was real ambitious I'd get Mike Hurley to do a web page. Don't skimp on your business cards, get a logo and make them magnetic.
20 years ago you neeeded to be in the yellow pages now its which yellow pages I think I'd stay away from them. Make a power point and offer to present to your local rotory, kiwanis,landlord asso. etc.

Search on here and you will find several options for insurance. Get it it is the right thing to do. I'm out of thoughts for now

Absolutely Paul, don't overlook the old guys or any other guys in your area. In most cases they will help you, esspecially if you go to them and ask. Insurance is important...very important. Insurance keeps you out of the poor house in case of mistakes or accidents. Appearance and proffesionalism are very important as well. You need to be knowledgable about the animals in your area and their habbits. Experience is the best teacher for this but gaining knowledge from others experience speeds up the process. Stay tuned in here and attend any training you can. Take it slow and do it the right way and you will be successful.

great info guys! im gonna look into the nwcoa thing some more. just trying to figure out how I can get 200 hours of training and seminars. that is a ton of miles to go to all these things. as said before, the trapping and exclusion isn't the problem I have. its all the rest of the paperwork and business end of it im getting hung up on. thank you for all the feedback guys. very much appreciated

I belive you are confused with the 200+ hrs. That is to become a CWCP, I cannot imagine going through all of that before starting buisness. I'm pretty sure that was designed to be something over time as on the job experience and continuing education is part of it. What has been reffered to here is the beginers NWCOA class and becoming a member of NWCOA. Starting a WCO career as a CWCP is like starting a teaching career with a DR in your title.

Okay, so how much does it cost for proper training? I think I may have gone at this whole thing backwards. I'm paying my grandsons

& their friends for working for me, when actually I should be paid handsomely for training them, right? There are just a couple of

problems; First off, my oldest grandson ( High school senior this year ) scored higher in the pest control test than anyone in our

company. ( We have four college graduates in our employ ) ( Quite obviously, I am not one of them ) Perhaps the biggest problem is

the fact that Grampa is five feet, eight and one half inches tall, ( Don't forget that half inch ) while the grandsons tend to be

approximately six foot, four inches tall. Have you ever tried to extort money from people while looking almost straight up?

as travis mentioned above it looks like I have more research to do on the nwcoa stuff, I got off track someplace. thanks for the info guys

skunker,

1. Training is good but your future customers have never heard of and know nothing about nwcoa.

2. You need regular contractors liability insurance tailored to the wco business. Most insurance agents can provide you with this.

3. dnr.

4. You need as much as you need... ... word of mouth is your best advertisement, one happy customer leads to another. Your F&G department might have a call list. Get on it.

Identify your customer base first and advertise to them.

And speaking of customers, figure out the population density of your work area. It takes quite a few people to support a full time wco.

steve, thank you very much. awesome info! how large of an area does a wco usually cover. my home town is only 2500 but there are cities within 40 miles all the way around with 100,000+. looking to do this as a one man deal so getting too busy too fast could be a problem if I did too much advertising. oh and very good thinking on the call list with the dnr. hadn't even thought of that. how much insurance is normal to get? just to have an idea when I go to get some bids for insurance

The class is only 300 dollars and is totally on line. Me and my son will both have it completed in 2 weeks. They also offer insurance at a very good rate. Great to have the endorsement on your cards too.

I have no fight with NWCOA any longer so this is not about them. The truth of the matter is exactly what Steve said: "Your future

customers have never heard of and know nothing about NWCOA." The next customer that has heard of NWCOA will be my first. ( And we

have thousands ) I am not saying "Don't take the course." What I am saying is that their endorsement on your card, basically means

nothing. This is not my fault. Until someone from NWCOA takes a shot at the president, marries a gay guy and a wife at the same time,

or does something else extremely newsworthy, NWCOA is just another abbreviation that nobody knows what it stands for.

Hopefully if they take a shot its a prescise one. Hate for it to be shot at and missed....oh wait a minute your talking about making a run for the office!!! I still vote for the first.

$300,000 is the base, $1,000,000 is recommended. It will cost between $500 and $1,200 depending on the company and coverage.



Population density is always a limiting factor. Do you really want to drive for two hours to catch a $50 squirrel? Do you really want to charge your customer $200 just for the drive?

A town of 2500 isn't going to provide a lot of work.

I think the most important thing to consider is your specialty. In a high population, urban and suburban environment you can certainly take care of "everything" but as the population thins out a specialty becomes more important. "Your" specific area will determine what kind of animals you will pursue.

Don't forget building repair and exclusion as a way to improve a marginal customer base.



Yep.

The down side to a franchise is that they can set the rules and and their ways may not be the best for where you are. And in many cases if it fails you lose the franchise and they can sell it, and the customer list if there is one, to someone else. That and those no compete clauses can keep you sidelined for a good while.

The personal views of many posters here notwithstanding, joining NWCOA should be a very high priority for someone such as yourself who wants to make a living at WC. You can get many types of training thru them - that's "certified" training (to which I can personally attest: look very good to your well-heeled customers), and it's not just for members. Check 'em out: gonwcoa.com.

Funny how, although politics are explicitly banned from these discussions, a great deal of space is given to just that. Bob?...LA?...

I'm only responding to number 4. The best way you're going to get new customers is by doing a high quality job and being a honest, respectful, friendly, nice, etc, guy to your current customers. I (and my brother did when he started the lawn care business) run an ad in the local paper for a month every spring. So far I've gotten one customer, and I think my brother got 3 or 4 customers from those ads. In contrast, me and my brother have gotten dozens of new customers through word of mouth advertising.

This could vary though because of the size of the city your working in. If you're doing a good job and putting the customer first, you'll get referrals anywhere, especially in a small town, but you'll probably want to do a lot more advertising if you're in a bigger city for obvious reasons.

Dave, so let me get this straight. If someone from NWCOA who has caught hundreds of raccoons, shows you how it's done, that's

CERTIFIED training. But if some non-member, who has caught thousands of raccoons, shows you how, that doesn't count=not CERTIFIED.

So because I have given a seminar presentation for NWCOA in the past, does that mean that any of my guys that I have trained

are SEMI-CERTIFIED? ( Not to be confused with my son-in-law, who has an 18 wheeler license. He would be semi-SEMI-CERTIFIED )


P.S. Don't get me wrong; I'm really impressed by the fact that some of your customers know what NWCOA Certification is!


P.P.S. Since you seem to take offense at the very few political posts, here is something to think about: If the political party of

your choice has given you a lot of business and the opposition would cut you off completely, don't you think that's important? We

are not, for the most part, hobbyists. This IS our lifeblood. I can understand why politics would not be allowed for hobby

trappers, ( I was one for 30 years ) but as long as we do not get carried away, this is as much a business as anything else and

should be treated as such.

I myself choose to pay the money to the BBB everyone of my customers know that brand. I have gotten jobs just because I am a BBB member. As long as the return is larger than the investment I will be a member. I have no grudge against NWCOA, if they become a recognized authority in the public eye I will also join them. The course in Goose Damage Management was really good taken through NWCOA as a non-member I paid a little more is all.

Its my own personal opinion that politics play a huge role in our lives personally and professonally and have at least a small roll in our day to day lives wether we want to admit it or not. Of course nobody of sound mind is interested in the liberal media's twist on so called "news", they refuse to let facts get in their way. They wake up every morning bound and determined to convince their readers/watchers that 2+2 is 6 while simultainiously urinating on their heads and telling them its raining. With that being said what tiny ammount of political stuff I see on here is to do with news from the day or week usually. The most heated debates are typically NWCOA related...also political (association politics). (BTW I know my spelling is awful). So I say politics have a place at a reasonable ammount and frankly there's no way to be politic free no matter how bad its wanted. As far as the NWCOA thing, yes I have my opinion but I choose to go make a living and let you guys fight it out lol. I also have opinions about the BBB but same thing there. So IMO a politic free forum can not exist.

1- what are your thoughts on getting certified through the nwcoa. (nation wildlife control operators assoc.? looked into it some. looks like a very drawn out and expensive deal. (gas money)

Collage degree would look better to me

2- what kind of exact insurance is required. always see guys on here saying "get insurance" but never seen anyone say what insurance.

Very little to none in most states

3- as far as getting licensed to start an adc business. who would I get ahold of to get a license...dnr?

???????
4- how much advertising does a guy need to do to get a good toehold in the business

More is better