Pest Geek Podcast

Stephen Vantassel here wildlife control consultant bringing you another podcast here about doing wildlife control as part of your pest control business. Wanted to talk today about pricing. This is one of the most difficult elements for people getting involved in wildlife control. And I also think in terms of business in general particularly when you’re in a service business what do you charge and how do you price yourselves that you’re not out of the market but that you make sure you’re not hurting yourself in the long run because one of the things that a lot of people who are starting a business or don’t understand is that. Running Pest Control Wildlife Business Is Expensive How expensive it is to run a business. A lot of people think oh you’re a business owner you’re making all this money and people really don’t understand until they do it. How much it cost to run a company that’s legitimate. I mean there’s a lot of illegitimate companies out there that want things on the table. I’m talking about a legitimate company where you are abiding by the laws and regulations of the land and. Paying your taxes. All right so let’s talk about how do you go about structuring your pricing schedule so let me give you some principles here and how to move forward with this. Number one you need to kind of figure out what you think you’re worth on an hourly basis. So if you think you’re worth twenty five dollars an hour then you’re going to be earning a 40 hour week basis 50 weeks a year you’re going to be making around 50000 dollars a year. But understand that that’s a that’s your hourly rage after taxes and expenses not how much you need to charge. So the rule of thumb that I give people when you factor in. Your your benefits your retirement your you know your insurances you’re going to need to be charging a lot more than that. My rule of thumb is 50 percent 50 percent more. So you would need to charge at a rate of around 50 dollars an hour to achieve a twenty five dollar an hour rate because there’s if there’s some overhead involved. So when you’re when your employer pays you twenty five dollars an hour or 15 dollars an hour or whatever it is.Understand it it’s costing your employer social security tax yes to pay half of that. He has to pay for the liability insurance for you he has to pay. Sometimes you pay for licenses you have to pay for equipment advertising costs yada yada yada all that all that ultimately is paid by you. You just don’t think it’s paid by you because you just see your salary. But he’s actually built in building all that in to his pricing of the customers. You have to do the same thing. So again the rule of thumb and you can tweak this a little bit more when you start getting to more competitive areas. But your rule of thumb should be whatever hourly rate you want to make double it. And that’s what you need to kind of. Your operating charge for a customer. So that’s all that gives us an hourly rate. The problem is when we’re in the service business people really get scared when you charge an hourly rate it’s not like hiring a plumber. People want to get a price of what it’s going to cost because they don’t they don’t want to be paying forev...

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Zoonotic Diseases Of Opossum in wildlife control and why personal protection is vital to prevent the contraction of disease when handling opossums Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP Lewistown, MT 59457 WildlifeControlConsultant.com https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel 402-489-1042 Mtn Time Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation

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Two training events where WCO;’ can obtain quality wildlife control training from National Wildlife Control Operators Association February 6-8 2019 in Myrtle Beach, SC.  Links http://nwcoa.com and Facebook.com/PNWildlifeTraining Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCPLewistown, MT 59457 WildlifeControlConsultant.comhttps://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel 402-489-1042 Mtn Time Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation

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Categories of baits and lures for capturing vertebrate pests. Understanding visual, taste, odor, audible, territorial, sexual, food and curiosity attractants. PestGeek fans Stephen Vantassel wildlife control consultant bringing you another podcast here on some items related to wildlife control. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about understanding baits you know the food that you often throw in the back of a cage trap or a box trap. To lure that animal into it so you can capture it. So baits are kind of an interesting thing within Wildlife Control. Kind of has that sort of alchemy. Secretive hocus pocus element. People are always wondering what is that magic bait and sort of like a quest for the Holy Grail or something from Alchemy where you’re trying to transition the mundane metals into gold and that’s kind of taken on a mysterious element to it. Well you know the old trapper inside of his lab. You know concocting some magical bait or lure to draw that and we’ll just sort of magically works. Well I’m here to tell you flat out that while there are better baits than others to be sure the reality of the reality of the situation is is that baits are often used as an excuse for poor trapping but that’s for another topic. But we’re going to be discussing today an overview of baiting theory and concepts that you can understand how to categorize baits so that when you’re working in the field you are knowing when you can transition from one bait to another because you should be keeping a record something more than just simply your own had something on paper to determine what works in your area and you have to have a way of understanding how to categorize baits. To do that. So let’s get into some of the details because I’m really big on definitions because professionals use professional language and that means professionals need terms and concepts that are precise so that we’re all communicating the same way. I mean if your doctor talk to you and said Yeah I know you have a bump. On that thingamabob over there on that part of your limb you’d look at him and you’d say hoo hoo by hiring here. Is that what kind of a quack is by dealing with. So I think sometimes wildlife control operators I can’t speak as much for PCOS but WCCO sometimes have an attitude to that if we’re using Highfalutin language we’re sort of above it all and I’m saying no professionals use technical language so that we’re all speaking the same way. And so that’s one of my pet one of my pet peeves one of my pet desires is for people when we talk about things in our industry that we begin to talk with precision that doesn’t mean you overwhelm your client with this information but that you need to know this information so that when we communicate with one another we’re talking with the same with the same meaning rather than just saying you know gopher I don’t know what a gopher is I don’t go for could be a woodchuck it could be a ground squirrel. It could be a prairie dog hole could be a pocket gopher could be a host of things. I don’t know what a gopher is so but if you tell me I’m dealing with a northern pocket gopher. Well then I know what you’re talking about it’s technical language so that we make sure we’re talking the same thing.

The use of pest control tools like extension poles to remove spiders, apply dusts in high places and to make observations with a camera for inspection. Contact Jeff (770) 331-4348 jeff@jeffmcgovern.com Welcome https://jeffmcgovern.com

Set types. Discusses the three main types Odle sets used with cage/box traps, baited, blind, and positive. Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP Lewistown, MT 59457 WildlifeControlConsultant.com https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel 402-489-1042 Mtn Time Helping people responsibly and effectively resolve wildlife conflicts by teaching, writing, research & consultation  

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