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For anyone who knows me, I am a pretty “chatty” person. Picture Kevin Hart on caffeine or a taller Joe Pesci. Networking is easy for me. Years ago, I was in a grocery store parking lot and noticed a tricked-out wildlife truck. I started to leave the owner of the vehicle a quick note saying how much I appreciated his clean, attractive vehicle when he walked up to me. We shook hands and started referring work to each other. We continued transferring leads to each other’s companies for 16 years. I literally made tens of thousands of dollars from that one handshake.
The work whisperer
This month’s “Start-Up Journeys” takes us to Paw Paw, Mich., home of Boone Wildlife and Pest Solutions. Owner Josh Boone has built an incredible business in a shockingly short amount of time. What’s his secret? Networking. Many companies get caught up in the whole search engine optimization (SEO) quagmire and lose track of the most important aspect of gathering leads, which is making contacts at the grass-roots level (Editor’s Note: See “Free marketing is infectious).
Boone has done a wonderful job at building relationships via networking with property managers, mold remediators, roofing and siding companies, and contractors. But he is very picky about who he teams up with. “If I’m putting my name on it and vouching for someone, they have to have the same values that I do,” he maintains.
The 40-year-old got into the industry because, as a teenager, he watched a pest control company manipulate and lie to his grandma. “Pest control found me,” he told me. He wanted to help his grandma, so at 18, he learned about exterminating. “My first-ever ant job was for my grandma,” Boone says, then adds with a laugh, “My first bat job was also for my grandma.”
Boone realized he enjoyed pest and lawn work, so he took a job with TruGreen and stayed there five years, eventually being promoted to horticulture manager. At 23, he switched to residential pest control at Griffin Pest Solutions before moving to Chicago, Ill., and working at Smithereen Pest Management Solutions for three years. He eventually worked his way back to the Wolverine state, taking jobs at both Creature Control and Pest Pros of Michigan.
In February 2024, with the blessing of his wife, Renee, Boone took a chance and started up Boone Wildlife and Pest. His years of experience paid off in a big way as he skyrocketed up to $500,000 in year one and finished at $828,000 in year two. He is aiming for $1 million and five employees by the end of 2026.
Playing it cool
Networking should be easy for pest management professionals (PMPs), because we are always the coolest people in the room. Bankers? Yawn. Accountants? Borrrinng. Backup quarterbacks for the Chiefs? Puhleeez. PMPs have pics of giant rats, stories of bloodthirsty bed bugs, battles with out-of-control cockroaches and, of course, Dr. Austin Frishman! No other industry has as many ice-breaking topics as we do. We are almost as cool to talk about as Dr. Pimple Popper.
Boone has done a nice job sharing insights on numerous Facebook community pages and networking with people who have questions about pest control. He also has joined the Paw Paw Area Chamber of Commerce and created his own networking group with business friends who are, as he puts it, “fans of one another.”
But where he really shines is with property managers. The crown jewel account of Boone Wildlife and Pest is a giant apartment complex in Grand Rapids, Mich., in large part because of Boone’s relationship with his property manager friends. One subdivision is so large that there are 11 different African languages spoken inside the community.
Of course, you can network as hard as a freshman at a frat house and still get nowhere if you don’t have a great team behind you. Boone is blessed to have Renee and his 19-year-old daughter, Madison, in his corner. He points out that his love for pest control and customer service bleeds over to his employees.
“We are fortunate that the people we employ are worth their weight in gold,” he says, backing up that statement by giving a $25 bonus for every 5-star review.
Boone wants to widen a path to success for his team members even further. One thing I’d like to see him do is set goals for his employees and his company. They currently have a great program where the team gets together for Monday meetings, where they go over wins and losses.
I know networking can be as terrifying for some people as public speaking or rooting for the Mets. There is no quick cure for you, but I have a suggestion: Smile, be nice and ask questions. Be interested, then be interesting. The rest will take care of itself.
