PMP INDUSTRY INSIDERS
Pest Business Practices

This week on PMP Industry Insiders, Dan and Donnie welcome Finn Forshaw, Strategic Business Manager for Forshaw, to discuss inventory challenges for pest control operators and how to overcome them. Finn covers common pain points — cash being tied up in inventory, shrinkage and waste, and emergency buys due to stockouts — and inventory management strategies. He also explains Forshaw's ForeSight system, including its data visibility and forecasting capabilities.

In this episode, Dan and Donnie break down why estate planning matters for pest and lawn business owners. With successful pest control companies potentially valued at 10 to 14 times EBITDA, the business can create a significant estate—and significant tax and succession challenges. The conversation covers federal estate tax exemptions, gifting strategies, trusts, asset protection, probate, and ways business owners can structure their estates to protect their families.

This week, Dan and Donnie interview Dean Burnside, owner of Good News Pest Solutions, a faith-based pest control firm in Florida. They discuss Dean's journey to ownership, his decision to operate the business as a platform for ministry, how the company's values integrate into its culture, and the concepts, systems, and primary metric Good News Pest relies on to achieve its goals.

This week, Dan and Donnie talk with analyst Tim Mulroney about the current state and future prospects of the pest control industry. Tim shares insights about the long-term strength of the industry and near-term headwinds, such as weather, consumer behavior, and digital marketing costs. He also discusses the K-shaped economy and its potential effects on the industry.

In this episode, Donnie and Dan discuss how the traditional customer journey—web searching, reviewing multiple companies, and contacting businesses directly—is going away due to AI, comparing it to the shift from Yellow Pages to Google. Donnie also does a live demo of an AI agent researching and recommending local services, and he explains how business owners should respond to this shift in consumer behavior.