FOR MEMBERS ONLY OF THE NATIONAL PEST MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION WWW.NPMAPESTWORLD.ORG

JULY AUGUST 2011

ALSO INSIDE: » Leveraging Technology to Grow Your Business » Managing Your Office and Using Technology to

Create a Successful Pest Management Company

The Technology Issue

I N S E R T

FOR MEMBERS ONLY OF THE NATIONAL PEST MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

WWW.NPMAPESTWORLD.ORG

JULY AUGUST 2011

contents

D E PA R T M E N T S «2 Executive Vice President’s Message

14 Pest Focus

18 Marketing Corner

22 Operations Management

24 Calendar of Events

F E AT U R E S «

8 MANAGING YOUR OFFICE AND USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL PEST MANAGEMENT COMPANY By Daniel S. Gordon, CPA As the information age matures, information moves more quickly, the quantity has increased and it needs to be dealt with in a much more efficient manner. Setting up an office in a correct and efficient way is paramount to succeeding in the Pest Control business. So, where do you start?

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4 LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS Tips and tricks for PMPs on the cutting edge By Paula L. Yoho Forward-looking PMPs are capitalizing on existing and emerging technologies to increase their efficiency and effectiveness, and even to help grow their business. This month, we look at just a few ways you can do precisely that for your own pest management company.

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The way you go about setting up your office is vital to enabling your organization. Everything from filing systems to intercom configurations can make your company’s workforce efficient and productive. Think through every minute detail, from the flow of traffic through the office to the positioning of phone and data jacks.

When you’re a small company, what you do is pest control. Maybe you’re a one-man show, so you organize yourself and your truck and your route and the world is pretty simple from the office prospective.

BY DANIEL S. GORDON, CPA

and Using Technology to Create a Successful Pest Management Company

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As you get bigger, you need to think about how

you organize your office. Think about the workflow

of your business and how that impacts your office.

Remember, there are two areas of consideration in

office set up:

1. It’s the physical setup, meaning office space, desks,

chairs, water coolers, phones, faxes, computers, etc.

2. The other aspect of office set up is the dynamic

flow of information. This means incoming calls,

voicemails, emails, instant messaging, intercoms,

escalating and filing paperwork, and other such

activity driven facets of the office.

As the information age matures, what we’ve noticed

is that information moves quickly, the quantity has

increased and it needs to be dealt with in a much more

efficient manner.

Setting up an office in a correct and efficient way is

paramount to succeeding in the pest control business.

So, where do you start? Ask yourself some questions

about how your business operates: ! When the phone calls come in, whom do they go to

and how are they answered? ! How is the technician or salesperson that goes out

to the customer informed? ! How is work posted? ! What paperwork (or paperless information) comes

back to the office after the service is performed? ! How do you file that paperwork (or paperless

information)? ! How do you bill the customer? ! How do you process payments?

This is merely a small sampling of the activities that

needs to be considered. Think through your company’s

specific workflow and plan your office accordingly.

What’s all this about the Cloud?Everybody is talking about the cloud. What does it

mean and what can it do for you? In the simplest of

terms the cloud refers to computer programs that are

available on the Internet. It allows small companies

to utilize programs that were once available to only

larger companies who could afford the purchase of the

software and an IT professional to deploy the software

on local computers. Usually these software programs

are used to manage workflow, perform accounting and

mange your customers as well as other aspects of your

business. They are usually purchased on a subscrip-

tion basis paid monthly. Price is usually based on the

complexity of the program and the number of users.

What about backups, security and maintenance? If

purchased from a reputable software as a service (Saas)

provider, your data is safer than if you kept it in your

office as it is usually hosted in a professionally man-

aged server farm using data encryption. Remember

though, as with any computer program, the weakest

link in terms of security is sharing passwords.

Cloud computing is the next chapter in the infor-

mation age. Just look at some of the most popular

software. Microsoft offers their office products online

using the remote hosting model and bills usage

monthly. The most popular accounting software for

small businesses, Quickbooks has developed a browser

based program call Quickbooks Online. At first it

only appealed to techies. Now many small businesses

subscribe and in a few short years more that half of my

accounting clients use this platform. If you are still us-

ing local versions of Quickbooks watch out. My guess

is that within five or so years, the online version will be

the Intuit’s primary accounting package.

Technology can be Your BEST Friend or Your WORST Enemy!Cell phones, PDAs, GPS devices, laptops… you name

it. There are all sorts of technology tools available that

can increase productivity and enable your business.

On the other hand, poor planning, lack of knowledge,

or improper application of technology can sink your

business. The key is finding the right places to imple-

ment technology solutions and determine the best way

to implement it.

If you can increase productivity with technology,

then it is worth it. There are many great nice-to-have

If you can increase productivity with technology, then it is worth it. There are many great nice-to-have technologies out there. The key is to make sure costs are under control and you don’t spend a ton of time getting the technology to work. Don’t be fooled because the price is right.

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technologies out there. The key is to make sure costs

are under control and you don’t spend a ton of time

getting the technology to work. This is an important

point. Don’t be fooled because the price is right for the

software or hardware. Keep in mind that there may be

hidden costs coming down the road when you have to

hire a tech guru to install the system and maintain it.

You can’t have technology run your business. If you

don’t have will power and discipline, then you may

just find yourself implementing technology for the

sake of implementing technology. This is not what you

want to do.

Technological solutions must be deployed to serve

a business need. The ONLY reason to use technology

should be to help improve upon your business. If the

technology doesn’t move you closer to your business

goal, then perhaps you should hold off on the initiative.

Develop Checklists to Cover All Your BasesChecklists are a business’ best friend! This is how you

ensure that oversights and errors are eliminated. All

systems need the proper controls in place in order to

make them airtight and dependable.

It’s not enough to just cross your tasks off a list. You

have to have a spot where someone initials it so you

know who did it. You need to record the date when the

task was completed. And then make note of any follow

up that’s necessary.

Here’s an example of the items listed on a checklist

used to do a closeout at the end of each month:

1. Run a sales report that shows revenue by service.

2. Print out a payment report with all the deposits

made.

3. Print a sales tax report to show which jurisdictions

you have collected sales tax in and who you have

to remit to.

4. Take all that information and journalize it into

your general ledger system.

5. Look through each account step by step to make

sure everything was coded correctly.

6. Once you know that all the work has been posted,

create customer statements and send them out.

7. Make sure the renewals for the upcoming months

get sent out.

8. After the close is done, produce all the reports that

tell you exactly what you’ve produced, how much

money you have, who owes you money and who

you owe money to.

Checklists can be used for many of your processes.

For instance, a valuable checklist in the pest control

business is an end-of-day checklist for technicians to

submit when they come in at night. This will deter-

mine if everything that was supposed to be covered

WAS actually covered. This will also point out any

follow-ups that are necessary on the part of the techni-

cian, a manager, or anyone else.

Checklists are a great way to take a lot of the stress

out of the day. Any structure you can provide is help-

ful to both the individual and the organization. You

want to make the day boring. Today has to be just like

yesterday and the day before so that you don’t have to

reinvent your business everyday. Boring is good when

it comes to processing repetitive tasks.

The information age is well under way, it’s those

companies that embrace it and figure out how to use

it efficiently to make more money that will prosper in

the years to come. «Daniel S. Gordon is a CPA in New Jersey and owns

an accounting firm that caters to PCOs throughout

the United States. Visit www.pcobookkeepers.com for

information about his firm, PCO Bookkeepers. He can

be reached at dan@pcobookkeepers.com

The ONLY reason to use technology should be to help improve upon your business. If the technology doesn’t move you closer to your business goal, then perhaps you should hold off on the initiative.