slow summer months?

Are summer months supposed to be slow for ADC work? Can't seem to generate any business at all right now. Is that normal?

Right now lots of youn of the year moving, skunks, raccoons, woodchuck and bat calls are coming in biggest issue if your business is only a couple years old. Is how will people find you? THINK INTERNET that's where most go and if you have a major player in your are their SEO is probably got them on top of search engines

i am just starting out, have a facebook page and website for my business, not very well developed and SEO probably sucks. did some adds and promotions on facebook, but nothing. trying to generate business, finding it really tough to get it off the ground.

Comes in waves for me, with my schedule I can't complain. I'm getting hammered with squirrel jobs right now. First time I ever ran out of traps to do jobs. Had to buy another 2dzn squirrel traps for a total of 5dzn.

The majority of my calls right now are coming from referrals. Websites and social media are important but sometimes you have to do a lot of the leg work on your own to get your card and site address out there to the people in your area.

It should come and when it does stay humble and try not to get greedy with pricing. A lot will go against under pricing jobs or doing them pretty much for nothing, sometimes it beats sitting around with idle traps. I've done it in the past when I started. Now I'm going into jobs after these big pest/wildlife companies and solving their failed attempts.

Your area will determine the amount of revenue you generate. If you live in an area where most can and do handle their nuisance issues, good luck.

Thanks for the good feedback.

Your problem is that you live in Wisconsin. Us Wisconsinites are famous for screwing things up ourselves before even thinking about calling in a professional. What part of Wisconsin do you work in? We'll send you referrals if we get any.

Paul, thank you very much! That is very kind of you and I appreciate it.
I live in Pewaukee and would cover most of Waukesha County.
Here is my trapping facebook page, it has all of my contact information on it.

https://www.facebook.com/callamebob4trapping/

Almost all word of mouth and I'm swamped to the point of turning it away.

Im at just over 120 mole stops a week and my new company with a partner is also rocking. Midwestbirdcontrol.com

Marketing is the key to maintaining a constant call flow. Understanding your market and the service needs at the different times of the year and addressing your marketing to those needs. when you first start off it will be hit and miss but as you understand your market better the jobs will for the most part stay even with small highs and lows. Unless economy crashes. Do not price to sell the job, price the job to make money and then sell your service.

"Do not price to sell the job, price the job to make money and then sell your service."

Dont sell yourself short...exactly the way it should of been said...when i first started i was just tryin to get work and i did but barely made anything

Thanks Ron, you guys are awesome and very encouraging!
If I see any of you at the NTA, I'll buy you a beer!

Don't know about the beer, but you can stop by our booth and say HI.

Should definitely be your busier time right now! Like others said don't be afraid to go knocking and pass out business cards people associate a face with a name. Real estate agents, golf courses, churches al good places to start. Word of mouth in this business is huge once you get a good reputation people will begin talking.

guess I shouldn't have complained, calls are coming in now, slowly but surely.
Thanks to some people referring to me. Looks like I need to buy some traps at the nta tomorrow and my nice quite summer may be over?

TDHP - what traps do you prefer for squirrel jobs? I have only a bit of experience with them. Thanks, Matt

I like the two door home depot special 5x5 traps. I guess its preference though. For preventative maintenance I hit all the moving parts with a light coating of vaseline to keep the pan, trigger and doors operating smoothly because the elements start to wear on them.

Some may frown on vaseline because the odor this and that. I smear my bait on the pan and set the traps then move on to the next and haven't had any issues getting greys, reds and flyers to commit.

For the one way door or squirrel controllers. Everyone calls them something different these days. I use spring loaded. If I need to make a one way door for a smaller opening I just make them out of hardware cloth. If the trap is too big to place in an area I funnel them to the trap with hardware cloth as well. If needed I smear a little bait at the begining, middle and on the pan to get them to commit to the hardware cloth. For a hair trigger I file down the edges of the rod attached to the pan, very easy and effective.