Some have, some haven't.

I knew nothing about trapping when I got started. I actually was doing nuisance work for a few years before I ever gave fur trapping a try.

I have had a few guys work for me who eventually went off to work for themselves and have since already closed up shop.

Anyone can catch an animal and being able to catch an animal is not going to keep you afloat. It is everything else that you need to be good at. The two biggest ones in my opinion are:

- Saving money. Gotta have a good saving ability so you have money for unexpected items or the slow times.

and

- Customer Service. You have to be able to talk to customers and make the sale.

A lot of other things are important but those are the two I think are most important.

Ok. Like I said if I do end up doing this it'll be on a part time basis while I work full time at my regular job. I just enjoy trapping and trying to figure animals out. Wouldn't be looking to make money, I'd prolly be happy just makin my money back. Thanx for all the input guys

That's what I do. I have a second shift job and work as a wco mornings. I'm just starting my fifth year and think it's a great part-time business.

I think you'll find that most wco's work the business part-time or started out that way.

50Gs???? I had $1500 left in an old bank account and that's what the wife agreed to for start up money. After buying insurance, business cards, invoices and 6 cages I had about $600 left. For the first two years I took no wages and reinvested all my income on more equipment. 50K maybe if you're in a huge market and going 100mph right out of the barn but other wise don't risk the farm.

I was involved with partners In a dairy operation. They forced me out with nothing. Bought three conibear traps when I learned the county had a new bounty system. Caught 17 beaver with the three traps that week. Got 350$ for the beaver. Next week I charged 800$ worth of traps at the hardware store. My father law and my sister said I was crazy, Wasn,t thinking of my family. Told them I was going to trap beaver, pour concrete, and be an order buyer of dairy cattle.

It worked.

What Dave & Nate said; DO NOT get yourself deep into debt. Other than a truck, you can get started for a few G's, and upgrade as you go.

Insurance is $1500 these days. A used truck is 15-20k. Ladder rack and tool boxes add another 3k.

I didn't spend anywhere near those figures to get started. If you think you'll need a $15,000 truck to get started in WC, I've got a bridge to sell you.
I'm not one of those guys whose truck is his manhood. It's a truck. A piece of equipment. Only value to me is what it can do to make me money.

Here are some summarized points from our DVD on running a wildlife business.

1. Decide if you want to be a business owner or not. If you don't want to own a business, there are a lot of wildlife control companies looking for weekend and emergency response technicians.

(The rest of this is for those that want to be business owners.)

2. Establish a business plan. You have to have a roadmap to get to where you want to go.

3. Register your business with all appropriate entities and get any licenses, bank accounts, credit card processing, etc. required for performing services. If you're going to run a business, run it as business not a hobby.

4. Determine your market area, what services will be offered, and what equipment will be required. You need to know what you're willing to do and where you're willing to go.

5. Determine the cost to provide each service along with the desired profit margin to set prices. How you present those numbers to clients is sales, not pricing.

6. Establish a marketing campaign and implement it. If prospects can't find you how will you sell products or services?

7. Develop customer relation skills for yourself and your technicians. If you can't sell a job, it doesn't matter how good you are at the service you're offering.

8. Develop service skills for your technicians (and yourself if doing any of the technical work). Learn how to perform a service to the best of your ability and always strive to improve upon it.

9. Learn how to collect payments. You need to have constant cash flow for the business to stay alive unless you've got enough money to personally finance all of your customers until they get around to paying your bill.

10. Review steps 2 - 9 and make adjustments as needed. Change is the only constant there is. Businesses that survive are constantly reviewing their policies, services, market area, expenses, goals, and more and making adjustments to increase, add, or remove items as needed.

Everyone must take their own path.

"I didn't spend anywhere near those figures to get started. If you think you'll need a $15,000 truck to get started in WC, I've got a bridge to sell you. I'm not one of those guys whose truck is his manhood. It's a truck. A piece of equipment. Only value to me is what it can do to make me money."

Ditto Dave! Besides, used equipment is cheaper to buy to start with and easier to unload if these things don't work out. Once you start making money then you can start buying better equipment.

Who doesn't own a pickup already, I have four of them plus a '57 CJ5. My first service truck was/is a '88 1WD Ranger that is still in the fleet as a backup vehicle and carcass hauler, she's got 205K. I know MtADC you don't have a truck yet but you're working on it. I've watched many start up businesses here and it seems the first thing they think they need is a $70K dually diesel smoke belching monster that has payments larger then my mortgage. And they wonder why they fail.
And WCT you are right about a business plan, mine was simple. "MAKE MONEY"

Every year, we see new guys come and go. Part of the problem is that they do not anticipate the cost. Everyone thinks all you need is a pickup, a ladder and a handful of traps.

Sure, one could use their existing pickup and a few thousand bucks to get started. However, you can not expect to make a profit for quite some time....as you would need to continually invest back into the company at a high rate. I stand by $50K...assuming that you needed a truck that would last awhile and did not want to get a loan.

Besides the cash, one needs to have the skills of a trapper, business man, computer geek, advertising rep.

3 out of 4 ain't bad, I'll give you one guess as to which one I ain't.

The most important one is probably the least had. But, at least you can outsource it.

I was the trapper, my wife was the businessman, my son-in-law was the computer geek, and my son is the advertising reptile.

LOL ya caught me reading Dave. An SUV is what I have and By the Good Lord it is going to work until I find a truck. Whether it likes it or not. From my point of view if you want "It" bad enough you will make it work with what you have to work with. With in reason ofcourse.