We were lucky to catch up with Shane Loftin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shane, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
I’ve been a risk taker many times in my life. From high school sports to joining the United States Marine Corps and fighting during the initial invasion of Iraq 2003 to leaving a multi-million dollar company with a 6 figure income and starting my own company with customer 1.
After getting out of the Marine Corps in 2005, I was lost and needed a job. The only experiences I felt I had was some sales experience and artillery (which doesn’t translate to much in the civilian sector!). Some friends of mine encouraged me to look into the pest industry and even helped me schedule some interviews. So, in April 2005 I joined a local pest company in an outside sales position. From the very beginning I was aware of how I could grow within the industry through CE classes and by holding different licenses. Ways to make myself valuable. So, every chance I had I was educating myself. In 2010, I went back to college and completed my BS in Business Administration in 2013. As early as, 2007 I realized that the pest industry was a good place to have a business. Provided you are doing things correctly, customer retention is very high and the industry (especially in the south) is very resilient even during a recession.
I held various positions within the industry, but primarily in operations management and sales development/growth. However, I just became another micro-managed number. A very high producing, very capable, micro-managed number. I had consistently made over 6 figures the last 3 years prior to me launching my own company. My income in 2005 was about $65k and that was the lowest amount I’d ever made in the industry, until I started my company!
In the beginning of 2016 I was miserable and felt like I had so much more to offer. Since I could not find a place that I felt like I fit in within the industry, I began working on my business plan. The thought of doing this on my own was terrifying. I felt like I needed a “partner”. I talked to so many friends, family, and other business professionals about partnering with me but no one would commit. So, it looked like if was going to do this, I would be doing it solo. Which in all honesty, turned out to be the best thing ever!
June 30th, 2016, I dropped of the keys to my company truck and peaced out! Haven’t looked back or regretted my decision yet! When I left, I had a little bit of money in a 401k (still there today) and one paycheck coming from my last employer. On company credit cards, I bought the necessary equipment and products for me to get started and I got after it! I began with customer one and dollar one. We’ve been through many trials and I’ve certainly learned many things we should’ve, and shouldn’t have, done. But we are blessed with loyal customers, a great team of 4 plus myself and my wife. We finished up this last year with a 10% growth and an annual revenue of $575,000.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
When I started my business, I learned very quickly (within the first month) that people desire high quality service, will pay a fair price for that service, and prefer to keep their business local provided the business does what they say they’re going to do, admits when they are wrong and looks to remediate the issue, and is responsive.
As an individual, I’m ok with stepping out of my comfort zone for the most part. I’m not afraid to admit my faults. My talents are different that those around me. When we all let our egos go and come together with our best talents and abilities we can create beautiful things. In 2019 I found a therapist that gave me probably one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. He told me to write (journal)! And once I started I wrote almost daily for a little over 2 years! It was the beginning of my healing process, which I’m still on.
I enjoyed creating and learning new things. I designed this simple table to fit under a double window using a version of shou sugi ban (japanese burning/preserving technique on wood). Currently I’m taking piano lessons and am coming along nicely. This was something my grandmother always wanted me to do because she thought I’d be good at it. Turns out I’m doing pretty dang good!
I believe in high quality over quantity. We live in a small town and my last name is about all that I have. I want to be able to go out in town and not be afraid to face people because my products and services are sub-par.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I had to pivot from operating out of fear. Fear can be a great motivator but it can also destroy you! I sacrificed a lot of my sanity trying to make sure my team was “happy” and allowed boundaries to be crossed that should not be crossed in a business/work environment. I did this out of fear of losing, losing employees I thought I “could not” lose because it would hurt the business too bad, fear of failure, fear that I wouldn’t be able to find someone else “that good” ( and just dealing with the baggage that came with said employees). I stopped operating out of fear in the summer of 2021. In 2022, our company had a 10% growth in revenue, In January 2023, we had a 45% increase in sales over January 2022 and experienced the fewest amount of customer cancellations in one month then we’ve had for at least 5 years. I got to the point that I knew how I wanted our company to perform (and what our customers deserved!) and I was no longer willing to accept anything less. I recently lost my longest tenured employee (5 1/2 years) because he saw the writing on the wall that I was no longer playing and boundaries were up and would no longer be crossed. Moral is, you set the expectations, it is your company, and do not compromise.
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
In 2019 I purchased another local small pest control business. At the time, I was very driven on revenue alone. I was 3 years into our business and my goal was to be at $1,000,000 in annual revenue by the end of year 5. I knew that if I purchased this company it would launch me years ahead of doing it organically and I would certainly hit my goal. However, there were many other things I did not consider! I did not do my due diligence. Partly, because I didn’t want to. I “trusted” what I was being told was accurate. It was not! I did not have the policies and procedures in place that I needed to have for our core business much less for bringing in and merging another company into ours. Our two companies operated completed different! From level of service, pricing, agreements, involvement in the community, etc. We began losing money from the first month we bought this other company! And the entire company felt the strains. Everything was so chaotic! Not once in the first 6 months did we receive more than 70% of the revenue that this company was reportedly doing prior to our purchase. In January 2020, my wife and I met with the previous owner and his wife, and we asked them to work with us to restructure the deal. He was not open to that and left the meeting and lawyered up. The amount we were looking to restructure was around $200,000. We ended up settling for $14,000 and he was given his customer list back. There was a lot of bad mouthing of our company by him to people in our community to the point that we had to ask our lawyers to send him a cease and desist letter. It was very taxing on me and my wife, the business, etc. I’m thankful for the experience because it certainly makes me appreciate what we have and how we operate our business. I’ve also learned just how difficult it is to merge cultures. When you’re dealing with a customer base like you are in the pest control industry, it is not as simple as just purchasing a list of customers. You must think about all the things that go into how your company operates.
Contact Info:
- Website: shanespestsolutions.com
- Instagram: thebestpestwrangler
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shanespestsolutions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-loftin-b9380453/
Image Credits
Shane Loftin