Pest Management Professional, October 2016

PMP Business Planner 2017 7 business builders Excerpts from From Technician to CEO show how paying attention to simple areas of everyday business can help your company grow By Daniel gordon Cpa Contributor W hat defines success How does one achieve it as an owner or manager of a pest management company In my book From Technician to CEO The Evolution of a High Growth Pest Control and Lawn Care Company published by Pest Management Professional magazines parent company North Coast Media we explore the journey of the Halls a fictional family that owns a pest control company that is transitioning to the second generation The son Peter has grown up in the industry watching his mother and father work diligently to build a moderately successful firm Peter goes off to business school and returns home with a college degree and a working knowledge of some of the strategies that are employed at many of the most profitable and best run companies in the world Upon his return he is eager to show his dad what he has learned and implement many of those strategies With the information age well under way business is more sophisticated and competitive than ever The next generation of pest management professionals PMPs who are different from their parents are engaged in creating and implementing strategies conceived to move quickly into larger more profitable enterprises Theyre using technology as their beacon My book was written to share the thought processes and business tools turning the industry into a wellrespected market segment of the economy by those inside and outside of the industry who ask the question Is there money in bugs Well Wall Street has recognized the power of our recurring revenue model and has pooled money to create portfolios of high growth pest companies during the past several years Clearly much of the smart money that used to look past our industry is flowing in The book catalogs several of the following functional areas of business explaining how they work and how successful PMPs use them as tools to build their firms Here are some excerpts from the various chapters 1 The core of your business What are you going to do and how will you do it Most services are intangible and cant be packaged or put on a shelf The customer cant hold or touch it So heres the most effective approach to marketing your companys services Sell them based on perceived value and the end result you offer Focus your marketing efforts on the results of the delivered service If you can convince prospective clients that you can ease their worries then youre on your way to making the sale You might think youre offering a service but youre really offering something much more important and extremely valuable peace of mind Focus on areas in which you excel Set up a service program based on your companys core competencies Spend most of your time playing the games youre good at so youre better positioned to dominate them 2 Pricing for ProfiT Staying successful by employing an effective pricing policy means increasing profit beating the competition and creating wealth Price increases or decreases have a magnification effect on profit The reason is simple Price increases usually reach the bottom line in one piece while the advantages of lower unit costs or higher sales are diluted Once breakeven is achieved price increases are extremely powerful and affect the bottom line significantly illustration istock com PinkyPills Continued on page 86 84 october 2016 pest Management professional mypmp net