My Franchise Journey…It’s About the Weather
Note: Post #30. Imagine being 61 years old with a Ph. D. and 35+ years of non-profit administration experience, most as Vice President or Assistant Vice President of Institutional Advancement in colleges and universities. Now I am in my first few months of small business franchise ownership. This is my story.
The old political adage states, “It’s the economy, stupid” (or some variation of this). The point being that you can predict election winners based on the state of the economy. If things are good the incumbents or the party of the incumbents stays in office. If not, the opposition gets their chance. In the mosquito control business a similar statement can be made. “It’s about the weather.”
With evening temperatures finally staying warm enough for people to want to be outdoors and weekend temps predicted in the 90’s the number of new clients and inquiries has jumped considerably. Prior to yesterday the most new business activity I could measure resulted in 2 new clients and 1–2 inquiries. Yesterday we added 5 new clients and had 5 inquiries from potential new clients. As I write at 2:00 PM today we have already added 2 new clients. Here’s hoping that increased pace continues.
To be fair, it really isn’t all about the weather, it just feels that way. We are a week away from Memorial Day weekend. It is also graduation party season. Pools are being opened. In short, summer is coming (which is all about the weather) and more and more people are making plans to be outdoors. And they want to be outdoors without the annoyance and disease risk of mosquitos and ticks. Inevitably, this means they are thinking, or will soon be thinking about mosquito and tick control.
These factors along with stepped up marketing efforts will hopefully lead people to seek us out. The last two weeks has seen increased digital exposure, distribution of nearly 2000 door hanger advertisements and 60 lawn signs at strategic intersections and roadways. More of the same will continue next week as well as some display booth activity. And of course, we will be treating the properties of existing clients and hoping to pick up more referrals and Google reviews.
This week’s story of strong customer feedback comes from an elderly client whose yard I treated for the first time this past week. She has a lovely landscaped yard with some beautiful mature trees. The most intriguing is this American Snowbell. We started talking about the tree when I asked her if I could take some pictures. She referred to it as a Southern Snowbell and mentioned that we were a little farther north than is usually good for this tree. Someone forgot to tell this specimen that it was not supposed to grow in NJ! My client told me that she planted the tree about 25 years ago. She is understandably proud of it. If you look closely at the picture of the canopy you will see small white flowers hanging all over the tree.
My client told me the tree would be in full bloom in about a week. She called today to tell me the blooms were fully open and invited me to come by and take a look. I may just stop by! Another client texted me this week to tell me she saw the “Hunter-mobile” van drive by in the other direction on a major thoroughfare. I’m guessing most mosquito control companies don’t get calls like this. I’m proud to say that we do. Taking a genuine interest in clients is our differentiating factor. It takes more time, but it forms the bedrock on which lasting companies are built.