Everybody’s a guru nowadays aren’t they? You got your blog masters, sales enhancers, personal well being experts and the motivational wizards to name but a few. One thing they all have in common in their bios is that they have risen to the top of the heap and claim to be the unequivocal champion of their field and for a small investment, they can mentor you right on up to their ranks. Hmm, well if that’s what you thought you were clicking on when you landed here you might be better served to check out a real guru like Donald Trump or Tony Robbins.
Oh hey, you’re still here? Wow, I’m flattered. Oh & I’m sure you’re here for me and not the price right? Can’t beat FREE!
It’s difficult to start a pest control business and attract customers and I’ll give you no illusion that it will be easy but the beauty of running your own company is that it is YOURS and you determine what direction you want to go. The part that’s hard to control is just how fast you get there so here’s a few simple ways that perhaps will help you get the message out and get new clients and speed things up.
#1 Business Cards
You’re already going to get them so make sure you get the message right. Most cards end up in drawers somewhere or used as a toothpick no matter what you do. Take your time, design the thing so that it screams look at me and perhaps put a coupon or referral reward on the back side. People hate throwing away coupons or a chance at a bonus. Here’s a great article on business card ideas.
#2 Get On The Net
A web site is crucial and a place where you can look just like the ‘big boys’. Too many people go to their computers today looking for validation of a company they might want to have do service for them to ignore. Expensive? Sure you can go that way but for less than $10 bucks you can set up a blog that you can update, change, add videos you name it. If you don’t know computers it’s worth the time and effort. Speaking about the world wide web you can and should do Facebook or some other type of site. I have literally hundreds of friends that read my blog that would have never even have heard of me if not for social sites. Nice thing is, it’s FREE. When you get to the point you want to raise your local web presence at a reasonable price check out theschappertfamily.com. You might recognize the name and yep that’s my boy’. He’s what you’d refer to as a guru and took my company site from zero to 1st spot on yahoo and to 6th on google in a very short amount of time. Nice thing for me-FREE! You? uh– no. 🙂
#3 Think Outside Your Sprayer
I hate the cliche “Thinking outside the box” but if that works for you great, however I think my version hits more to the point because I’m sure you’re a great technician but if you don’t have any clients, who’ll ever know?. It’s real simple, you can do things the tried, true and tested way or you can get a little creative. My friend Keith Birkemeyer A.C.E. from Probest Pest Management in Arizona actually has a contract post office within his pest control office. Countless companies I’m friends with on Facebook run specials and contests all the time, hundreds if not thousands see it and it’s all for FREE. A buddy here in Florida bought a termite sniffing dog and when the realtors dropped him like a hot potato because they feared lost commissions, he turned that pup into a marketing machine. He does 80% lawns and yet everybody wants to have Todd the termite dog come for a visit. In my early days I set up a booth at a local flea market, I had a black widow in a jar, termites eating a cardboard house in a fish tank and a stack of cards. For $14 bucks a week I was getting an average of 27 leads. Anything gelling here? 
Simple ideas that don’t need to cost very much (except Todd, he was expensive but he’s so cute) and you can literally STAND OUT and growth is almost as sure to come as a retreat for fleas for an animal shelter.
Well now that I’ve proven I’m no guru I’ll let you get back to some quality reading on the web. Maybe before you click away though, check out my articles How I started my pest control business and Single operator setbacks and keeping the faith. Neither one will probably ever win a pulitzer but from the feed back I’ve received they just might help you take that next step and and simply grow and that’s something we all would love!
