 Hey, good afternoon everybody time steward here smart business moves got Liz Trotter with us. Hello Liz No Yeah, hello Two of my most favorite people in the cleaning business world Diana and Chad Henley from nature care cleaning and pest control Houston, Texas. Hey guys Yeah Way back we're drive vapor steam cleaning buddies Yes, we are we were on the bleeding edge of that Still are And actually you know in a COVID-19 world or something to be said for Killing germs with dry steam vapor and I guess you know with Tanks and all the technology that that that we probably know more about than we should you can kill them in like four seconds, right? Oh, yeah Seven seconds, maybe tops that we still use our dry vapor steam machines still still out there telling things with them Yeah, we do too. We do too Along with a big suite of other stuff Yes Liz what's going on here? Same old same old Just say same stuff. I told you before the show nothing Nothing fresh. I glitchy or are you guys a glitchy? You're glitchy. It's you. It's all you Liz Yeah, yeah You know nothing personal I have a ring central meeting in the background that is trying to Render Are you doing a MMA group in the middle of our Facebook live? No, it's the recording of the this morning's call. It's trying to render. Oh Okay, so that could take a long Yeah, it was He did a site visit and so it was really a long call was like I think two and a half hours today So it's gonna take a while. Sorry Dang sorry y'all Still be rendering Right Well We wanted to take today as an opportunity to let Diana and Chad share a little bit about their businesses and how they evolved over the years and you know, I guess it's a it's a really good example of how You can be in the home service world and leverage a lot of The resources you have to provide multiple services and you guys have kind of taken it to a new level So you guys want to share a little bit about what you're doing Sure, so you have natural care cleaning service and we've been in business almost 12 years, I believe it'll be 12 years in August and Let's see how long ago did we do this we you know, we Once we got into it cleaning and became more comfortable we started looking around at other industries That we wanted to explore possibly for some reason windows have always been okay. We really want to do windows But we don't do windows. Yeah So I'm not sure when this happened Three so three years ago. Sorry. Um, I'm not good Blurs doesn't really spend a lot of my mind I'll be thinking about something from 1985 and thought it was you know last month Okay, so three years ago We actually I became friends with a guy in the pest control industry here in town And he and I would see each other at vendor shows and I really became interested in his business mostly because his revenue was bigger with Your employees that seems like attractive to me to have you know these things that brought him more revenue and so Then I'll tell you about how we how we started our natural care pest control Of course, we're not our campus. She's our she's our operations manager She married a guy that was in test control and we're actually for that company that China mentioned That's how they met. Yeah. And so he was kind of the Did you like make the introduction is that Business marriage I didn't even know they were dating. She just That guy that on the clean the pest control. I met one of his employees and That's all they got married The rest is history But yeah, so to marry him and he was going to I think he was going to move to Austin they offered him, you know, they were going to open up an office and bring Houston Start a division there and he's going to be kind of part owner and move over there But this whole time, you know, they had him working, you know Yeah, seven days a week, you know, 70 hours eight hours a week salary. So Yeah, and of course that would have meant Candice would have moved kids and all that I am a started finagling like she does About you know, why don't we do past here? And that's how we got started So our son-in-law helped us start natural care pest control So how long ago was it was it three years ago? Now, okay full disclosure He only stayed with natural care pest control for a couple of months We just couldn't ramp up fast enough for him and he started doing other things on the side that took his attention And so because this is a family business You know, my son works with us my daughter works with us Chad and I My son came over from he did natural care quality control type work Came over and started training to be pest control. So he actually is our pest control technician Okay, one of them. Yeah, I did not know Nick actually work Doing that. I don't know why how I miss that piece. Yeah, okay. That's cool Year One year ago exactly because our second pest and just celebrated his one year anniversary last week He's one of my son's buddies from high school who work for a pest control company here in town And they didn't really pay very much. He didn't work very many hours. So we brought him on a year ago So we really do like All about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, bring them on so when you You know when you start a business you go in with with with some ideas some performance on expectations of this is how the numbers are going to work and Once you get into it, it never works out that way. So what? What did you learn through this whole process? You start wherever you want Let me help you. You said the thing that made this attractive to you is I Guess the fancy term for it is return on human capital house cleaning, you know, if you're lucky You know, you might be able to get two three hundred dollars of revenue a day I have a cleaning technician of a cleaning professional Which is kind of a low-end scale in terms of human capital people you can pick your flavor in terms of field service work and Most technicians are getting billed out of a higher higher hourly, right? Were you able to see that higher return on human capital that you were expecting to see in pest control? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean cuz Which say 250 a day Yeah, so 1250 I mean a pest Thousand by himself a day not a day a week Has a thousand a day so where you might expect to get you know, I did this country number 65,000 for one cleaner One technician brings in a quarter of a million dollars Yeah, so that's why it's a lot I mean it's but it's flips so we don't you know, like we have 2530 employees for cleaning You know the same size pest control business would be four or five guys, but but then the flip is you have to have a lot of Clients, you know a nice big cleaning business is five or six hundred Where a nice big test businesses, you know starts at five six thousand and goes up So you have a thousand of clients So that's the end you really have to work on Wow, yeah So I hate the lag Okay, so I was really curious about you guys going into COVID right with the pandemic Did having these two different businesses did did that help how how did that play out? Was it a good thing a bad thing? challenges How did it? Well with cleaning, you know, we I think I forget the percentage We looked close to numbers during the middle of it 50% or at that time the middle of it we thought was yeah So I think 50% was it down that much? Yeah, yeah 40 to 50% lost Yeah, you know in this in that one really intense time when the city shut down right and People stop test issues. They're still gonna get taken care of now. We did lose just a few people That didn't want to service or they canceled maybe because of job issues or financial But we were lucky and that test is mainly exterior You know, we have to go inside occasionally, but it's all really exterior services So we're you know, we put a lot of emails out Especially, you know for cleaning how the safety precautions we're doing that But you can't help it, you know You're bringing two or three people and some people's homes for hours Where pest technicians out there in minutes out of the interior of a home So yeah, we didn't take it as big of a hit now I am at some pest control groups and there was a guy that he's actually in New York and Of course, that's all apartments and you know big buildings and he took a big hit initially because You know because the New York was you know epicenter there for a while, too. So depending on your area, but For most part everybody's kind of just booming with pest control now. It's a big pest season Yeah, so it's kind of helped offset some of the cleaning the client we've seen So is there seasonality in the pest control business? Oh for sure. Yeah, I mean it starts in March winds down about October The real high band is you know, probably between May June July You know, you get pest issues all year round. That's when I mean, that's when all the calls are and you got That And they hire all these door-to-door knockers. You've probably seen these guys if they come up to your door Most of them are out of Utah They hire a lot of Mormons because they're used to knocking on doors and getting rejections Themselves, so they bring them in and they make phenomenal money I mean in the summer in the summer, which is three months. They make twenty five thirty thousand dollars. They actually pay these guys They pay them like 80% of the annual revenue from a pest so if they sign something on a contract They get an 80% of that and they get trips and they get housing paid for it's a whole industry So as a personal company, you don't actually make any money for three three and a half years Yeah, so in you know, you know, you're gonna be if you're 60% But it's a whole different thing because it's you know, I'm like cleaning there's some big players and pests you know, you've got terminics and Orkin and The numbers are just crazier right now is to give you an idea. They pay out based on revenue So if you're a three million dollar pest control business, they're seeing numbers in the one dollar to dollar fifty dollar seventy five So if you're what I say three million So if you're three million you could expect to get three million for your business It's one of these big companies come along and buy you up So that's why these other companies come along and they try to build their business up With all these door knockers and then they try to turn around sell them and then they and then they do it again There's these build-up businesses and then they flip them to the big companies. So that's back to the business in itself, right? so they give away 80% of our annual contract to the salesperson Thinking that they're gonna make money in year two maybe and in beyond yeah three Yeah, or they're trying to build up to You know build the numbers up because they're gonna sell so they want to have because like I said, you're making a dollar You're making dollar for dollar or dollar fifty on revenue We can show three million in revenue for that year Four forty five million dollars Wow We need some big companies and cleaning that can come along and buy It's interesting A lot of it gets back to that return on human capital though, you know Would you say you can get like a quarter of a million dollars a year off of a technician? Yeah, optimal. I mean 200 to 250,000 for a technician So, I mean that changes everything that changes what wages you're able to pay that The whole economic structure of the business changes. That's a much more attractive Business to grow and to package and Wow But what I like about it is you could pay people a lot more, you know You can offer benefits all these things are just kind of because you're at a you know When you're at that price point you can offer a lot more to them, you know Versus, you know, we're always every year like how can we you know, how can we offer medical? What can we you know, how we keep trying to like what can we add on and what can we do for the technician to clean? So, you know, we kind of cap out What we can do See Ernie's with us here and he had a pest control company that sold out to Termin X did Is he said Ernie are you saying that that you you read a pest control business for a while That's what it says Renaissance man everything from DJ to I had no idea no, yeah, oh story the stories I think he was asking is that a viable Probably on our radar But I mean, I don't know. I don't know what makes us different, you know We're not our company service. So we're not for pest control. So we're a green company They're green companies out there That's I don't know enough about it to know. I mean these companies are getting bought up, you know I'm assuming it would be a better fit for An Orkin or Termin X if they were buying a similar company that was just using synthetic chemicals and they could transition over You know over easily Yeah, it's not something we're looking at but that's a bit back in the head. I mean, maybe somebody somebody would buy us We actually had our competitor on offer offer to buy us until that told us maybe we should focus on cleaning Yeah, he did This is just Some of your customers. Yeah, thank you The company that was he was getting service from was bought out by by Termin X Yeah, yeah, yeah, that happens a lot. I think that's kind of the idea for a lot of these small Yeah, I think it's going to crash but uh, I was just on a conference call last week And I think the numbers I gave you reading going up higher, you know So if you've structured your business right and everything's in place, you know, especially if you're bigger Um, I mean you can get a lot of return on On a pest control business Yeah, and you see the same What Liz Is your plan to like run this business for a long time? What what is the plan for the pest control? Um, yeah, I mean we don't have any plans to sell or we're not trying to grow to sell We're just trying to grow A second business to a point And structure the same as a cleaning the cleaning can pretty much run on the phone now I mean we can leave We can we can be gone. You know, we still like to do our daily calls to see what's going on, but we don't have to be there So it kind of runs on its own. So we'd like to build the pest up You know and sky's kind of the the limit, you know, so You know as far as how big you want to build it how aggressive you want to be So yeah, it goes just kind of grow and and you know just kind of live off of it And then if something happens, you know, you know, you know, I never know if you're going to get an offer But uh, if you're asking which one we would sell first it would probably be Well It's kind of nice because the cleaning business goes into a pretty busy season as the pest control business lines down And actually our pest control our second pest technician We didn't need him last year because it was getting slow and we really only had work for one technician in the winter time And so we just offered him the opportunity to clean So he switched so our second technician he cleaned or does pest control whatever's So of course, he's super busy right now with pest control But I heard the other day he they they had some cancellations because of rain or something And so he came into the office at one o'clock asked you needed help and went out and helped clean for the rest of the day Yeah, he's pretty He's really easy going Yeah, he wants to work. He just wants to work So uh, we work really hard to make sure that everybody gets enough hours Dan I I know your house cleaning business you kind of put a focus on Using natural products, environmentally, you know, responsible safe, you know, we talked about the address team vapor earlier and um Is there like an analogy to that or is there a way of attacking the pest control side of the business with that that same set of Values, if you will you know, uh, interesting when I started cleaning our cleaning business it was totally based on my own Wishes, this is how I clean my home. How can I scale that? And so with the pest control actually the company that my son law worked for um, I called him because we have really bad mosquitoes here like you guys do and But I also garden a lot We have a big garden in the backyard. We have a koi pond I love my garden and so he came and they did a fog a natural fog for mosquitoes and I didn't have like I had all these, you know, 12 tomato plants with blooms No tomatoes And so Yes, and so that felt like I My animal or something it was I felt so horribly irresponsible and guilty And my son-in-law too because he was taking care of not only my car, but also his grandparents Who the same thing and so I started doing more research on the product that the company was using and found out That it does indeed kill pollinators, which devastated me I had no idea and I really did feel irresponsible And so when we started talking about this The whole idea was we have got to find a way to do this where we can look at that all the mosquitoes and enjoy our backyard but also Not kill our bees. We actually have a beehive In the backyard Now we didn't then thank goodness, but uh, yeah, I we definitely don't want to kill the bees We want to take care of the homes today We don't want to worry about our children or our pets our koi fish are very sensitive to Pesticides in the backyard. So we So we we we take care of it accordingly. Okay Go ahead les I figure I better just raise my hand. It's a really long lag All right, so My question is around the pandemic. Have you guys gotten any pushback on the natural That that aspect of things in either the cleaning or in the pest control Are people wanting like more death more killing or anything nothing, huh? Uh, I mean, we've had people ask. I mean, it's not like overwhelming, but I actually took a call even recently and they said I know you're natural But what are you doing? And I said, well because of this we've you know, we've incorporated a product called in by rocks. It's peroxide based it's the you know, it's the It's the most low impact product we can find but it's still a by our side and a Sanitizer and she goes. Oh good. Good. Good. So, you know, we had to change it We did change everything because of that even though we do the same Uh, not all our clients are on the same and so and we send emails out to all our clients letting We're know if I don't let me let me know that step We didn't get any pushback based on that which is what we were thinking because a lot of people like Low impact products. So, uh, but I don't think anybody complained about a switching to this for right now But yeah, we we did some changes on our own before anybody's Well, and we had we had before this started a disinfecting fall That we had we had started working with last Fall before this started it just happened to be I just happened to be that You know, we I thought okay. I want to incorporate this into our business And so we had that we were able to offer that so I mean we're still very effective I think that the pest control you guys and I don't I'm not super involved in the pest control They have levels too where there's a real bad infestation of something They will go up a level they can go up a level to If they need to Yeah, yeah, so there's uh, you know, there's a thing called P for us if I are a I'm drawing a blank of which one I think it's the epa the same people who do disinfectants and control These products, you know, and there's certain These are required, you know, especially in pests control where you've got to be wearing long sleeves So it didn't get on your skin You have to wear goggles. Sometimes you have to wear breathing respirators. So you don't get it in your lungs So I mean they're pretty pretty Corrosive chemicals if they're using on your body So a lot of our baseline products that are just default for us are called thief for exempt So they're they have no pp requirements. They're exempt from any of that labeling You know using the word safe is not really allowed or a good thing to say because the magistrate assumes You know, you know, it's still a product You know, it's very we call it low impact So that's kind of all our kind of our default products and then and then we step up to kind of a you know, plant-based products and then Maybe some synthetic based on plant-based. So we can go heavier, but for 95 percent of our cases We're kind of managing it with all other stuff and it's Uh Integrated test management because you know, it's you know, if they're getting beetles Like well, you know, maybe turn off your light Help anyways, so there's things you can do not even using chemicals. So it's just a matter You know getting those things out of the way first. Yes uh So actually if you're using like disinfectants on the cleaning side, that's controlled by fee for us So in some regards you might be more Safer on the on the pest control side than on the cleaning side What products you're using? Yeah Wow I've got we've got a question here from from dana who wants to know which envirox product you use Good question Yeah, I I don't I bought it and then I walked away It's at the office. We bought it handed it to the staff trained him and left. Let me see. I think there's two there I think they're actually the same one is just Is it the hydrogen peroxide based product? the peroxide based It's like the one that's floor I was trying to look real quick. I think it's like the 117 It's called the 117. So but the two products they have basically I think one's even more concentrated the others the same thing And then we bought the special dispenser from them. So it dilutes it out. So you don't have to buy as much product, right? Right Yeah, which is good because uh You know smaller carbon footprint, you know shipping lots of water across the country Right, right. Yeah um as far as uh Starting the business though, I'd say we've been pretty lucky that we have kandis And we're thankful that we have nick It's taken a lot of load off because I I trust nick, you know, you have issues with technicians with pest control Did they do the route? Did they do the job? You know, did they do everything on the on the house? They're supposed to So I don't ever worry about any of that. There's no any issues. There's no Collins You know, so it makes that part easier And you know when you're starting a business and you have you hire your first cleaner And you try to get jobs and that cleaner quits, you know, you really Feel it, you know compared to when you have 20 and you can kind of absorb Yeah, it doesn't walk come in so when you first It really rough. So we're lucky in that way, but uh, our kids are very conscientious But I would definitely recommend making sure your first business is You know profitable and established and smooth running It's not like what we're just gonna bring this in. It's a whole other Business, you know, you've got a, you know, you build a campaign with With cleaning to market to them then you've got to build a whole other campaign for pest Or it's a whole it's a separate business really. There's no way to really integrate it as far as the workload Fred Liz. Liz you had your hand Yeah, so I'm curious. I know you guys only have two kids So I'm thinking that means maybe you can only have two companies, but Four kids Well But they're little Oh, I guess Like a couple more years then are you guys thinking about you're going to do something else or I mean I know you really are interested in doing other stuff all the time. So are you looking at other Devification Other than these two Windows handyman I don't know. I mean, I guess we'll see It just so happened and it worked out this way for us I mean can't just do here And got mad at her boss and I told her to come clean houses for a while while she's on the next path Uh, so we really just got lucky and we are very attached to our kids too. They live in the neighborhood. So I guess we'll just see what ellie and alex Are drawn to and see if that's something that they're interested in. Sometimes I think alex has um, I really just want kandace's job I just want to do what kandace does Okay, well kandace has kandace's job Well years years ago. I mean when this book at now thing kind of exploded, you know and And there was all this wet-sourced businesses. Can you apply that to I mean I I kind of I started moving forward on lawn care, right? I was going to add the website and the name and and uh I actually know somebody that was pretty successful growing a lawn care like a booking But uh, you know, we just kind of let that go because we get so busy with cleaning so That's the only one I was really excited about but I actually like test better The other thing I liked about test was You have to be certified you have to have a license so at my my naive mind that was thinking Oh, well, that's it's a harder level. You can't just buy a mop And put it in your trunk and go clean, right? We don't have all those competitors But once I started post control business, I've never you know, once you're in something you see it I've never seen so many different pesto trucks running around town And every day I see a new one. I'm like, well, I've never even I saw a new one What happens is these these are guys that uh, you know, they got trained They have a little more gumption, you know, and and then they don't like their job And so they can they start their own company. It's a one-man job and they make good money So there's a thousand pesto companies. So so it's not as there is a threshold that It's met with people that can meet, you know, there's a lot of people who meet that threshold So what I just heard I know that you guys have, you know, the two really solid employees, but do you I do you have any concern about it sounds like that's a really A big problem like people worry about that It's cleaning that I hire people and then they're gonna take my customers and they're gonna go off on their own Is that a real worry with pest control kind of sounds like it And it's not I mean, I'm not worried about it with these guys Uh, I'm in some groups with different owners I'm in groups with just pest control guys and it's funny because when the pest control guys leave You know, there's a reason that they feel like they've left and they were wrong or they weren't treated right And and so they take customers and then they're they're missing in the groups and they're saying The owner's gonna say he's gonna sue me because I signed a Non-compete or whatever and then everybody in the group says don't worry about it. They can't take your life Get away and it's meaningless. So so I get to see both sides, right? And then I have the pest control groups so the owners where they're like, oh my gosh He just took all our clients but we have the same thing in place For cleaning as we passed and then we got that from matt ricketts, which is not a legacy A Kind of clause where they can't use customers information And so if they take that that it's easier to go after them So and we've lost a lot of clients a lot, but we've lost clients with cleaning Yeah over over 12 years or so maybe five or six times where somebody is they've taken small Last and take taken a handful and you know It's very near waiting for a minute and then I move on to the next But if one person in one truck can do a quarter of a million dollars a year in revenue one rogue employee Could do a lot more financial damage. Yes. Yes. That's why that you have to have really good Talk with them. I think when you're signing them up and let them know what you're signing up for I mean, I don't care Take the customers, you know that we paid thousands of dollars to get so We'd probably be definitely be a lot more aggressive if they were taking customers from us Do you hire people to knock on doors Uh, no, that's kind of a big debate. Um, you kind of have to know what you're doing Now there's companies that you can bot that you can pay to do it for you. I actually talked to a guy Um, and he claims he was working for a company in town here And he claimed he added four or five thousand customers and one summer to them Um, but he kind of laid those numbers out to me. I mean for to pay him Um, it was 90 95 percent. So he takes a little bit, you know, and he pays the other guy's 70 or 80 percent or whatever Right, and I'm like, okay. So he as he's telling me it's like an onion. He kept giving me these layers Of bad Like I give away my whole year worth of revenue and he's like, oh, and by the way, you've got to pay for the And we do these trips. You're gonna have to pay for these trips. I'm like, oh my gosh But he told me it's over three years to get me payback And he actually emailed me afterwards goes you're not in a position and you have to have a lot of Financial revenue to to weather that through your storm as you especially want to grow And to just do door knocking without any sales training Uh, it's I mean it's hard for the best of my things. So to just go out there raw We try to do referrals. We have the signs we put in the yard which we try to do is in other ways I'm not I'm not really confident of the door knocking. We do the five around but they're around the company Or they'll do some door hangers a bit slow But these guys, you know, they're running on the segways Knock on doors. I mean, they're highly efficient selling machines Yeah, and you get mixed reviews in the in the local groups, you know, a lot of people hate them Pest control companies really hate them. But uh, you know, just the locally local residential groups people You know comment. I like this guy's knocking on the door, especially during covid. They don't like that How sticky are pest control clients? What type of turnover do you get? I mean, they're signing up for like Recurring service. I would think for the most part How what type of turnover do you see from a from a client standpoint? That's a great question. I personally I have not even looked at that number because we're so small That that the churn is not affected us like it does with cleaning because you know when you get big Uh, you fill it with cleaning, you know, because you add 30 clients and you're feeling pretty good that you forgot about the 30 that went up the door because of your size, right? so and we're not there yet and I we haven't been doing it long enough but uh We've kept most of our clients, you know, it's really low monthly and we were at $35 a month so It's a very minimal expense I mean pest control for according service is four to five hundred dollars a year We bill monthly. It's um I'm still going to say So it's really low expense for them. So let's say move We have a few unhappy customers that you know You know, they have that thing with the green, you know, like oh, it's green doesn't work So we're just going to ban in it, right? So we've lost a few because of that But they're very nice about it You know, that's like they it's like they knew that they were signing up for this and they're kind of knew that they might not work Which was not paced but that's just in their head, right? So, uh, Part of me for that. So we had to change our spiel a little bit to let them know, you know How it does work and it's effective and that we do have other products if needed. So Well, I think some people too, which was a surprise for me um Some people never want to see a single bug in their home ever And they will call you if there is a single silver fish or you know, whatever. I there is a spider in my house um You need to come back a spider and so I mean so setting expectations like with anything you have to set really good expectations I have to tell you though We chad used to uh Answer the phone on the weekends, you know, like the calls And he had a woman call him sobbing because there was a bug But she wasn't from this area And there was a american roach, you know, like a palm palm metal bug, you know, they're pretty big and they fly the tree Which you see those funny memes on facebook Why Very popular here Yeah, so He was like and I was like I can't I mean by the time I get there The bug's gonna walk away. I'm not gonna find it Do you want to get caught she wasn't one of the treatment do you want to that Order heaven don't let him out of your sight. I'll fear it We've had he has had people call a man called him Wednesday Sunday at nine o'clock because there was a snake under his car Oh And he wanted him to come get it in God's like well, I'm gonna have to charge you this much money and Whether that snake is still up to your car or not. So higher country folks, so to us we're like, huh okay That was interesting though. Yeah flying roaches that that'll bring tears to your eyes Liz you got a question Yeah, I did actually I was wondering um Because you guys run both of the companies and it's all family How much do you guys borrow from each other like borrow pop processes and policies and and systems and Do you think that that had an impact on being able to grow the pest control quicker or Past control doesn't borrow in years much as I want them to borrow From cleaning I mean, we're lucky that we have our base clients So that's helpful And then the space and the office staff all of that is nicely shared right so When we started pest control the the people that answer our phone And they actually have some sales training tomorrow, but they we just started working with them on that and the processes Has been slower, you know because pest control started with with chad and one person And so we have these big Uh extravagant meetings every week with lots of huha and bells and whistles And trying to kind of push this guy over into our meetings and stuff was a little challenging Uh, but what what have you all what have you all done? Well, like we talked about the non-compete so the privacy, you know the scientists we we took that Um, we're going to obviously split off. That's the goal into a separate company But you know, it's just easier right now. So they run all our pay everything's running even through the same software We run everything through the same thing The software does support Some pests because pest has different the liability and reporting requirements that are needed Um, so yeah, a lot of it is and like she said, we actually have these big Disemployee boards in the in the eating rooms where shows our quality score for the week It ranks everybody shows them what their bonuses are going to be for the week There's a tip tip screen shows them their tips. And so, you know, when you have You know 25 30 cleaners and you got one or two pest guys It's really, you know hard to integrate those two together the meetings But you know, they don't get the same they might set up the same, right? Uh, but a lot of it, you know, like the step it's nice because we are we're able to borrow from the staff It does it's a little bit taxing because like I said, you have a lot more clients than you do tax So, uh, you know, they got a lot more calls. They have to feel so we'll probably have to start adding More office staff to help with sales and stuff If you're trying to like boot, you know bootstrap it It's nice because you can just kind of just kind of slid it in and try to grow it that way in the first year, you know, I wasn't as involved And like some nick was half and half So he would be in the office fixing steamers or vacuums or good quality checks And then he would go out and do two three pest shops So we were able to really, you know, it wasn't like, okay We've got to commit all this money and we have to start growing and we have to hire full-time technician We already had Nick. So we were pretty lucky We almost treated it like an add-on service. Yeah, that's like natural care add-on service pest control And you know, is there much crossover to your residential clients also use your pest control? Not as much as I'd like. Uh, we're actually doing a big push this month Offering free initials for all our clients one thing I'm going to integrate into our Nurture campaign for our new clients this after 30 days or something maybe offer that When they book they can choose pest control We get a few people that choose one time or recurring when they book But again, it's not a whole lot and it's not as much as I ever thought really Um I think percentage-wise I think it's uh 10% Package deal with some type of discount and it's like we're coming and kill the bugs and then we'll come clean them up There you go. There you go. Well, it's one of those add-on too at the end of our booking form Oh, by the way, would you like to add on pest control? You know, so we do some that way we do get some recurring clients that way but We have two separate sites, you know two separate everything And I don't think we've done as good a job as we could on in integrating them So we need to we're working on that right now. We actually have some web web design work going on What you got Liz you said you guys are going to separate why why is that sounds like it's working pretty well Keeping them with them together. Why are you going to separate? Uh, what's nice now, but um, like I said if we want to sell one of them They're stuck together. So You want to keep them separate and You know and like I said once we grow we'll have to maybe use a different software We'll have to do some different things with them because it's like this is completely completely different. They're all solos. They all have their own trucks And um, what else? Yeah, I mean the big it's just beneficial to stay together now But once they get the right size, you know, I don't you eventually going to want a separate Field manager office manager You know because um, you might have somebody that over he's both of them You know, maybe a kandace does that or something but you still want somebody in charge of each company That's that's their focus on right Yeah You know, we're talking about like a headless I was just thinking it would be a good idea to put Um kandace over everything because that way your son would have a Available there you go when he's 18 or I mean he's only 14 now, but we'll keep that in mind less You need to get a segue and get him out knocking on doors. There you go. Mr. Personality would do it Yeah, he would and it's funny those those door knockers We I love it when they knock on our door and they are And they did knock on our door a couple of months ago before all this COVID started and just the smoothest and and I told him right away Well, we own a pest control company tell me all about your job I want to know what's going on here He was very friendly tell me all about it Yeah, if you youtube pest control door to door sales and stuff you'll see these companies They actually broadcast their their sales techniques on youtube. I think some of this private, but you know like, you know They're pretty interesting. Yeah, it's it's a it's a brutal thing Like says a lot of money to be made for people that can Handle a lot of rejection. Yes A lot of what we talk about here on smart business moves Ties into you know, COVID-19 crisis. I mean, it's it's an unprecedented event that we're trying to figure out How to manage and go through But you guys This isn't the first unprecedented event you guys have been dealing with in the last few years. You guys like had a 100 year flood I'm going to do the whole thing. It just seems like it was yesterday, but how when was it? I think it was two years three years ago. It was a 500 year flood 500 year flood let's hope so um Did were you guys doing the pest control at that time? No, we weren't I don't think so If we were it was no, I don't think so because uh, no, we must have been Because we had a pivot really quickly and we were drying out houses for a while Chad was A lot of our clients were underwater. So we lost In every sense of the word They were underwater they were I mean, it was our neighborhood that our area of town that was really hit Bad by not just the storm but the flood uh the dam when they released the water from the dam Yeah, it wasn't like a normal flood. It wasn't bad enough where it floods and it kind of drains I mean people were underwater for weeks. Yes, and the city was cut in half So because the bayou runs through the middle of the city So all of the roads that go between I you know, I tend to west east And then all the all the roads going north south All of them, but like, you know one town and went out of town you could cross And so to get from one town to the other you had to drive you had to drive around to the middle of the city So just for us So we lost a bunch of clients that were along that band where flooded and then for the ones that we didn't lose I mean we spent hours driving to get to them. Yeah 20 minute drive took three hours So every day trying to make the decision when they were going to open roads and stuff. It was a hard time. Uh, I mean This is harder. This has been harder. I think That now it's really hard because it was just all at once and and You know, there was a lot of drownings and stuff. So it was pretty it was hard on our city Did you learn anything from that experience that led you to start a pest control business to to diversify to Did the flood shape your strategy moving forward? Uh, I don't think so. I can't think of anything. I mean, I feel like we said the pest control just kind of came to us, right? um you know We not always looking for a business, but you know, you always hear about a business like wow, that sounds interesting or that Sounds different or exciting. So we hear different things all the time. So that just kind of came to us. Uh, but you know, we were just, uh We learned we just have to be very flexible, right? So we were pretty successful shifting the advertising for You know tearouts because everybody's homes had to be tore out to the amsteris and then you had to bring in specialized equipment that Fans and dryers and you have to you know, seal the house and dry them for weeks So, you know, we did a lot of business for that. So and it's the same with this one So when the covid hit where you know, we tried to shift but we tried to do more disinfecting pods That was successful. I would say as I've heard of some people being I don't know. Maybe they already had commercial contracts with government contracts if we dealt with mostly residential So we would get residential people calling us and then you know, we'd quote them It'd be pretty expensive for us to go out and try to try to help them retreat if they wanted to disinfecting pods Versus like I said, I've seen some people talking about government contracts that done them better. Yeah I think just you know what we've been hit more than a few times And I don't know about you guys, but when we first started this And you know, I get up at five in the morning when we have bad weather which we have bad weather every year So I get up at five and I'm monitoring and I'm shifting and I'm trying to make the decision And do we need to close? Do we need to open late? I mean it can be it's stressful. And so It's been When you get it So much It's not as stressful. It's just a fact. Okay, so we're gonna make a call Okay, that call was wrong. All right. Okay. Well, that's okay First keep moving forward. Sorry. I made the wrong call. We actually one day we weren't expecting a flood and Everybody goes to their first house and get in half my staff is flooded in the homes Could not leave the homes. They were flooded in parking lots This was last year. I mean we really do have these issues every year. And so You know, I think employees sometimes their instinct is to get angry that you weren't taking care of them You know, I didn't predict that this was going to happen But in our case because we're so used to this type of behavior canister on our suv With a bunch of donuts and pizzas and she was rescuing people and taking food to people Yeah Anyway, so we're it's like we can turn on a dime and we do often Something happened. Boom. Don't get stuck and rush You have to turn on a dime and and I think we're good at that We're good at turning on a dime after a couple of years of this. You better learn to go Yeah, I mean I'm in some regards. I'm sorry that you've gotten so good at that Me too It's it's it's awesome that you you you take it as an opportunity and Make something good out of it. Yes. Yes. I mean, we have very little You know, we were we're really lucky to have our kids there So we have very little complaining and stuff amongst staff Because you know kandace is quick when she hears something or something something like Okay, I'm flooded at the client's house Uh, she acts fast You know, we get little fender benders or something like you said you had You know did she yesterday with a car? Uh, we have bender bender. She's there in a minute You know hugging pat and she'll oh Yes So what why do you guys think that or what what do you think that you do that is unique That you are so good at working with family because you know Everybody says don't hire family. Don't work with family. It's so bad. It's so terrible It goes bad every time you guys have been doing this for years upon years upon years. What's different Do you have any advice? I think we have good boundaries is one thing pretty good boundaries We have we have our different areas That we're in charge of um is one thing Sometimes like kandace will make a decision on a direction to go with the company that I don't agree with and I will But I still have to keep quiet kind of and let her Direction because that's her job and I don't always love it, but I have I just have to let that happen without a whole lot of input now That being said, we do know Even say this, uh, he's looking at me funny. Um, we have meetings together at the end of the day Uh, we can't if we both strongly disagree on something at the end of the day one person have to make the decision Yeah You see that the Is diana. I mean her her focus is always family. So no matter what she wants to be able to See her this frame with people too. She she wants to deal with her She sees them on the street. She's not hiding right a good way to be so she always wants to be upfront honest Um, all that being said it wasn't easy, you know, you bring and you bring in kandace You know and uh, kandace 12 years ago She's not a manager She's doesn't I mean, she doesn't know any How many of that skill and you got her in that position and it was a struggle it was a struggle and there was uh, you know, some arguing and and some debates and some hurt feelings and and Quitting or firing conversations, you know, we had a therapist a couple of blocks down the street From the office and it kind of you know But I think just be able to and everybody has to be a little flexible, right? So everybody's forgiving. So, you know, kandace gets your feelings hurt But she's forgiving diana gets her feelings hurt or diana's upset. She has to so everybody has to have a little flexibility And then diana just kind of in charge of making sure everybody's heard um and then you know now it's awesome because kandace is I mean is how she's grown And uh, she just does everything. I don't have to worry about it. She has all these great ideas She just runs it. So she's you know, she's kind of on the job training learned Like how to do it. Uh, you know, now we have nick, you know, he has his own He has his own thing he wants to do Yeah, so it's I'm very grateful that he's with us But you know, he has his own things. Like I said, he may not want to do pest control So but he's not it's not any different than employee. I would say it's better and that I can trust him and And uh, we should focus down, but he still has his issues, you know, that we have to talk about so You know, it's still an employee and that that regard too Ernie's got it to get before you you can start a consulting business on teaching people how to work with family That is I would tell you that is a strength that we have we have made it I Okay, so We're against the hour here. So real quick if you haven't subscribed to cleaning business today. You really need to do this Uh email first name last name couldn't be simpler We're going to be rolling out some new stuff for CBT next week at uh, you know, we're really excited about this going to be adding value for for cleaning business owners in a new way and um This just just stay tuned next week. You're going to be hearing some awesome stuff coming from Uh cleaning business today Our download page. I'll uh, take this and post it in our chat the way that we always do Liz, what are we doing tomorrow? What is tomorrow? Friday Um Sorry, I'm trying to ignore this call that's coming in right now I'm trying really hard to ignore it. Okay. Um, so we have our Secret guest tomorrow and I know at least a couple people have guessed who she is tomorrow Uh, but I'll give you my last Clue and if you can't figure out who she is when I give you this clue You don't know her so you will all figure her out because you all know her She lives and operates her businesses in texas Oh So on the spot tomorrow five o'clock our rapid fire q&a session you guys need to uh be working on this question bring them tomorrow because uh You're gonna be getting some awesome answers. Um Jed diana you guys rock. Thank you for uh for joining today. Um I love what you guys are doing. Thanks you guys And uh, I know These are heroes I don't know Yeah, so you guys take care Thank you. Thanks a lot. We'll see you guys tomorrow at five easter. Bye. Bye