Executive Summary
The executive summary is the first part of your business plan, but you usually write it last because it is a summary of all the important parts of your plan.
Your executive summary should quickly catch the attention of the reader. Tell them what kind of business you have and how things are going. For example, are you a new business, do you have a pest control company that you want to grow, or do you own a chain of pest control companies?
Then, give an overview of each part of your plan that comes after this one.
- Tell us a little bit about the business of getting rid of pests.
- Talk about what kind of business you have that deals with pests.
- Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of the people you’d like to buy from you.
- Give a quick summary of your plan for marketing. Find out who on your team is the most important.
- Tell what you want to do with your money.
Company Overview
In your business summary, you will explain what kind of pest control business you have.
For example, you could focus on one of the following kinds of businesses that deal with pests:
- Biological pest control is a type of business that gets rid of pests with the help of living things.
- Chemical pest control is a business that kills or keeps pests away by using chemicals. Chemicals are often used to get rid of pests through fumigation.
- Pest control for businesses: This kind of business has the resources to handle large pest control jobs for corporations.
- Organic pest control is a type of pest control business that uses natural ways to keep small animals or insects from causing damage.
- Residential pest control is a business that helps people get rid of bugs and other pests in their homes.
- In the company overview, you need to say what kind of pest control business you will run and give some history of the business.
Include answers to things like:
- When and why did you start your business?
- What big steps have you taken so far? Some examples of milestones are the number of customers served, the number of successful pest control treatments, making X dollars in sales, etc.
- The law is all about you. Do you have an S-Corp set up for your business? An LLC? A one-person company? Tell us about your justice system.
Industry Analysis
In your industry or market analysis, you need to give an overview of the pest control industry.
This might seem useless, but there are more than one way to use it.
First of all, learning about the business of pest control gives you information. It helps you understand the market better.
Second, doing market research can help you make a better marketing plan, especially if you look for trends in the market.
The third reason is to prove that you know what you’re talking about. This is what you do by doing your research and putting it in your plan.
For the industry analysis part of your business plan for a pest control company, you should answer the following questions:
- How much does the business that gets rid of pests make?
- Is the market getting smaller or bigger?
- Who are your biggest market competitors?
- Who are the most important suppliers in the market?
- What kinds of changes are happening in business?
- How do you think the business will grow over the next 5–10 years?
- How large should the market be? That is, how many people could your pest control business serve? You can get this number by figuring out how big the market is in the whole country and then applying that number to the people in your area.
Customer Analysis
In the “Customer Analysis” section of your business plan, you must describe the customers you serve or expect to serve.
Different types of customers include people, schools, families, and corporations.
As you might guess, the type of pest control business you run will depend a lot on the type(s) of customers you choose. People would react differently to marketing campaigns than, say, corporations.
Try to figure out who your ideal customers are by looking at their demographics and how they think and feel. In terms of demographics, you should talk about the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the people you want to help.
Psychographic profiles can tell you what your customers want and need. The more you can figure out what these needs are and how to meet them, the easier it will be to get new customers and keep the ones you already have.
Competitive Analysis
In your competitive analysis, you should find out who your direct competitors are and then focus on them.
Other businesses that get rid of pests are their main competitors.
Indirect competitors are other things that customers can buy besides your product or service that aren’t in direct competition with it. This includes other companies that take care of pests and information for people who want to take care of pests on their own. You should also talk about competitions like this.
For each of these competitors, give an overview of their business and a list of their strengths and weaknesses. You won’t know everything about your competitors unless you have worked for one of them. But you should be able to learn important facts about them, such as
- What kind of clients do they work with?
- How do they make money getting rid of pests?
- What is the price range (high, low, etc.)?
- What are their strengths?
- What do they not do well?
Try to answer the last two questions from the point of view of your customers. Don’t be afraid to ask customers of your competitors what they like and dislike about them.
The last part of your competitive analysis is to list the ways you are better than your competitors. For example:
- Will you make it easier for your customers to buy your service?
- Will you sell or do things that your rivals don’t?
- Will you give your customers better service?
- Your prices will be better, right?
In this part of your plan, you should think of ways you can do better than your competitors and write them down.
Marketing Plan
Usually, a marketing plan has four parts: the product, its price, where it will be sold, and how it will be promoted. In your pest control business plan’s marketing plan, you should do the following:
Product: In the “Products” section, you should repeat what kind of pest control business you talked about in the “About Your Business” section. Then, describe the goods or services you’ll be selling. Do you, for example, offer natural pest control, fumigation, or termite control?
Price: List your prices and how they compare to those of your competitors. In your plan, the product and price sections are basically where you list the products or services you offer and how much they cost.
Place: Here is where the office of your pest control company is. Write down the location of your business and how it will affect how well it does. For example, is your pest control business in a busy shopping area, a business district, a stand-alone office, or is it only online? Talk about why your website might be the best place for your customers.
Promotions: In the last part of your pest control marketing plan, you’ll write down how you’ll get potential customers to come to your place of business (s). Here are some ideas for how to promote your business:
- Put ads in local newspapers, magazines, or radio stations.
- Reach out to websites.
- Distribute flyers
- Engage in email marketing
- Put up ads on social media websites
- Improve your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) for the keywords you want to rank for.
Operations Plan
You wrote about your goals in other parts of your business plan. In the operations plan, you talk about how you’ll reach those goals. There should be two different parts to your operations plan.
Everyday short-term processes include everything you need to do to run your pest control business, like answering calls, scheduling fumigations, billing customers and collecting payments, etc.
Long-term goals are the steps you plan to take to get there. These could be dates like when you expect to get your Xth customer or when you hope to make $X. It could also be when you want to start your pest control business in a new city.
Management Team
To show how successful your pest control business could be, you’ll need a strong management team. Show the backgrounds of your key players, focusing on the skills and experiences that prove they can help a business grow.
You and/or your team members should have experience running businesses that get rid of pests. If so, talk about your knowledge and experience. But you should also talk about any experiences you have that you think will help your business do well.
If your team isn’t strong enough, you might want to get an advisory board together. A group of two to eight people would be on an advisory board. These people could help your business by giving advice. They’d help answer questions and give advice about how to plan. If you need to, try to find people on your advisory board who have run a pest control business before.
Financial Plan
Your 5-year financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement. For the first year, it should be broken down monthly or quarterlyly, and after that, it should be done annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, your balance sheet, and your cash flow statement.
Income Statement
Most people call an income statement a P&L, which stands for Profit and Loss. It shows how much money you made and how much it cost you, so you can see if you made a profit.
When making your income statement, you have to make some assumptions. For example, will you hire five people to do pest control, and will each of them visit two customers per day? How much will sales increase each year? 2% or 10%? As you might expect, the assumptions you make will have a big impact on your business’s financial projections. Do as much research as you can to try to find facts that support what you think.
Sheet of Balances
Balance sheets show you what you own and what you owe. Balance sheets may have a lot of information on them, but try to focus on the most important parts. For example, if you spend $50,000 building up your pest control business, you won’t make money right away. Instead, it’s an asset that you hope will bring in money for years to come. In the same way, you don’t have to pay back a $50,000 check right away if someone gives it to you. You’ll have to pay that back over time instead.
Flow of Cash Report
Your cash flow statement will help you figure out how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure that you never run out of money. Most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t know that you can make money and still go bankrupt if you run out of cash.
Make sure to include some of the most important costs of starting or growing a pest control business on your Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
- Cost of office tools and supplies
- Payroll or salaries paid to employees
- Commercial insurance
- Taxes
- When you’re starting a new business, you’ll also have to pay for things like legal fees, permits, software, and equipment.