Pest Management Professional • November 2022 • ABCs of Growth

What is your plan for growth? We’ve all heard the saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The goal of a business plan is to know and understand where you’re going and create the roadmap on how to get there. Like most businesses, we, too, are currently working on a business plan.

Our team started the process by looking at our goals at five-, three-, and one-year intervals. For the first-year goals, we looked at the financials and created a projected budget with revenues and expenses for residential and commercial service lines of the business. It’s important for your team to determine what kind of growth you want for your business, and how realistically it can be achieved.

Once we agreed on the percentage of growth, we mathematically created the three- and five-year budgets for revenues. With a lot of collaboration, we narrowed it down to three major goals with measurable priorities and strategic plans to achieve those priorities. Team “buy-in” is critical for a company’s success, and operations need to have a clear understanding of the objectives.

Also, consider a marketing plan that will drive your financial plan. Are you willing to increase your marketing budget, or do you need to shift your marketing spend to other marketing opportunities you previously had not considered?

We are all aware that mergers and acquisitions can be a part of a growth plan, but that may depend on the market you are in and the type of growth rate you are trying to achieve. Are you looking at aggressive growth, or are you OK with steady, consistent growth?

Consider if and when you may need outside financing. Will you need help funding that growth? Banks and other financial institutions will want to see your plan, and they want as much advance notice as possible. One option for an acquisition is to use 25 percent cash, get 25 percent from a bank loan, and have the remaining 50 percent be seller-financed over a five-year period with interest. There are creative ways to finance a company purchase.

A growth plan also can be made by going outside of your current line of business. There are many companies in our industry that have extended their services beyond pest control.

We are in a time where finding good talent is sometimes difficult. A growth plan also requires more employees, so staffing needs to be projected as well. Along with your one-, three- and five-year budgets, creating an organizational chart that will support your growth plan should be a part of your process. This is actually a bonus activity, as it organically creates career path opportunities, which is a great recruiting tool.

The new year is right in front of us. Consider what type of growth you want for 2023. Make a plan. Work can be fun when we can look at it like a game. Growing a business is strategic and not accidental.

JENKINS, who rotates this column with his brothers Bobby and Dennis, is president of ABC Home & Commercial Services, Houston, Texas. He can be reached at rjenkins@goanteater.com.