Video Transcription
I've been in the business, making money and growing businesses for 27 years for other people. It's just time to do it for myself. My name is George Bond. I've been in the pest control industry almost 28 years. I started as a branch manager trainee with Orkin back in December of 1992. I was with Orkin for 6 and a half years. I got recruited to go to Home Team Pest Defense, stayed there 13 and a half years. In 2013, I left there, went to Terminix of the Triad in North Carolina. Ran into the owner of Manning's Pest Control, Joe Manning, at a trade show back in November of 2015. And he asked me to come down and run his operation for him.
When I first joined Manning's Pest Control as a general manager. The end goal in mind was always eventually to own the company, but there was a lot of problems, a lot of issues from a previous manager that had to be corrected first. If I were advising a seller, I would make sure the books are as clean as possible, that everything is transparent as possible, so that when you're asked for a piece of information, you can go get it right then. You don't have to go, “Oh, I'm not sure about that. Let me get with my accountant,” where you need to be able to react very quickly to make that buyer feel more comfortable that you understand what's going on with your business.
How I purchased Manning's Pest Control was an SBA loan and then also a 401(k) rollover. I would recommend the SBA program, especially if you don't have cash to pay for a business. It was a very tedious process, as the banks are required to do a lot of things that seemed very repetitive. But MidStreet was very helpful. I called them because they understand the ins and outs of SBA loan processes, as well as just, you know, connecting with the emotional experiences of both the owners and the buyers. So, I think it was as streamlined a process I've ever seen.
Looking back, I should have done this probably 15 or 20 years ago and I could be retired by now. But for some reason, I didn't want to take the risk, and shame on me for that.
