PRESENTED BY CETANE ASSOCIATES | Bob Williamson answers your questions about the landscape of acquisitions in today’s pest control space. For more than 30 years Bob worked with a large Mid-Atlantic residential service provider. His experience as a leading PCO and former buyer offers a unique perspective. Barrett Conway moderates the webinar including Q&A.

When and How to Say NO —

Most entrepreneurs start their businesses by saying YES to every opportunity that comes their way. They know how expensive advertising is to generate leads and how important it is to be in front of customers as much as possible. They also understand the importance of sustaining themselves and supporting their investment. Eventually, they either create enough income to survive or fail.

As PCOs start to grow their businesses and gain efficiencies required to attain net income after they pay themselves, they need to assess all the time they took on work that they should no longer be doing, This self-examination could uncover a service offered or an account they took that their competition was happy to give up.

I have a client who was selling a gutter product designed to keep gutters from ever clogging—ever! They bought ladders, trained staff, and advertised to get leads. This business grew but not without the normal number of issues that any new product or service can bring. After three years of offering this life-changing product, they consistently spend about a third of every staff meeting on the innovative gutter product. It now represents less than 3% of their total sales and zero income. They carry about $10k of inventory. Their company (like most) also deals with staff shortages.

After some brief intervention and review of the numbers they stopped the gutter offering and wrote off the inventory. The pest control operations benefitted from the immediate labor infusion. The customers were notified and all warranties were honored. Customer response was crickets.

With all the issues PCOs deal with—labor being the biggest—they need to focus on what they do best, do it well, and steadfastly watch their margins. Sometimes saying NO to a new sale may be the best sales you don’t make.

Bob Williamson

Pest & Lawn Director, Cetane Associates

June 2023

PRESENTED BY CETANE ASSOCIATES | Steve Everley presented on the current discussion around gas stoves, including the national policy landscape; the history of how this issue went from relative obscurity to front page news; and what the current state of scientific research is on gas cooking and indoor air quality. Barrett Conway moderates the webinar including Q&A.

PRESENTED BY NPGA | This webinar will focus on how the corporate structure impacts a transition, how an effective governance strategy formalizes decision-making for a family business, and how the transaction’s structure influences both parties.

PRESENTED BY NPGA | Whether transitioning your family business from one generation to the next or preparing your company for acquisition outside the family, the transition of operations requires being ready for the process. Jeff Brunner and Barrett Conway highlight items to prepare prior to closing the deal, discuss the impact of various acquisition types (tuck-in vs. stand-alone), and talk about how to prepare for the two cultures (two different generations or two separate company cultures) to successfully make the changeover.