I have had a few jobs ,few skunks and beaver jobs , BUT I also have a day job I would rather work a ADC JOB cause aspects of my real job stink, But where im from people don't REALLY want to PAY FOR REMOVAL so how do I figure my time gas money and not lose , I FEEL THE LAST JOB I LOST . how do you guys figure out rates on your animal removal jobs? BEAVERS , SKUNKS , COONS,?

keep raising your prices till you don't loose money........

most sites i look on to figure on what most companies charge IS CALL FOR QOUTES how do i learn what others charge Im not new to trapping IM NEW TO CHARGING PEOPLE.

It all depends on what your customer base will allow. I would say try to keep your service call/inspection in the 129.00-189.00 range and the per animal price in the 50.00-75.00 range. Beaver and Coyote 275.00 set up and 200.00 per beaver. Remember seal ups, repairs and clean ups make the money, service calls and animals just pay the bills and break you even. Try that for a range and see if you can make money, adjust as needed.

The info you need is generally not going to be found here. Business classes or some serious time with someone advising you on what it costs to operate a business is in order. The animal removal portion of the job is the easy part.

Understanding recurring costs, insurance, advertising, taxes, liability issues, maintenance costs, vehicle replacement costs, and other unavoidable expenses is very important. Having a urban or semi-urban population is practically mandatory to survive. A large population base is typically a common factor for those who operate successful wildlife control businesses.

Basically, your fees should be similar (or higher) than any of the other service businesses. HVAC, painters, auto repair, masonry, etc. We offer the same degree of service and typically at a much higher safety risk. The exceptions may be if you specialize in one animal, for instance mole trapping or other service that doesn't require major equipment costs.

In a thread about 3 years ago the general consensus was that a break-even fee for the average wildlife control business was around $75 an hour. That's just break-even amount, and that was 3 years ago. You must figure on PROFIT for the business to grow. There are many ways to set up your pricing schedule, and you will constantly adjust as time goes on.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of adjustment to fees, which is why there are so many WCO's who fade away within a couple years. It's a business, not a hobby, and treating as a business is mandatory. Treat is as a hobby and you'll be gone before you know it, especially doing it full-time. You have to be able to pay for all your health insurance, business insurance, support your family, replace/repair all equipment and vehicles, and grow the business while contributing ALL of your own retirement. That's a lot to consider, and it's serious stuff.

Just ask your wife how much life insurance she has on you.

There ya go Ron, scare some sense into em lol. Listen to him though guys he's not lying.

Sometimes the truth IS scary. Took me 10 years of making mistakes as a part-timer (1990-2000) before I learned. I sure don't want everyone else to have to learn the hard way!

The hard way is really the best way sometimes. You can listen to other guys warn you over and over but as soon as you make that mistake once you got it and it will never happen again. Lesson learned hard are lessons learned forever.

I think the area my calls are coming from hurts me , for serious money I think go where the people are NOT SELF SUFFICIENT, my area has an interspersed population willing to pay for removal but on average most will figure out how to take care of th problem them self without Paying.

Raise prices.

I've covered this topic multiple times in WCT, Buckeye Trapper, the WCT DVD, and here. First and foremost, forget about everyone else here and what we need to charge. You need to figure out what ALL of your EXPENSES are to RUN a business in your proposed service area. Next, decide how much money you want to make offering these services. Now figure out how many hours you want to work to get these results. The basic formula is:

Expenses + Salary + Profit / Billable Hours

So if your expenses for a raccoon job are $250, your payment will be $100, the company profit should be $100 and you want all this done in 5 billable hours the rate would be $90/hr. This is your benchmark. With this you can make money, break even, or loose money. For instance, if you charge a flat rate of $450 and complete the job in 2 hours, you've made additional money. If the job takes you the full 5 hours, you broke even with the pricing structure, but if it takes 10 hours you've lost (which I like to phrase as invested in training) money on the job. If you charge per hour, you should never loose money but you may not sell any jobs saying it will cost the client $90/hr or $450 flat. This means that once you've figured out pricing, you next need to work on how you market your rates to prospects so you can get hired as pricing and marketing are not the same thing.

Finally, based on what you discover with your rates don't be surprised if they are higher than what the area can support. When this happens you either have to widen your service area (which also means adding to your expenses) or move to another area. If you start paying clients for the privilege of solving their wildlife conflicts, you'd be better off just writing them a check instead of wasting your time with them.

Also, remember that in Ohio we now have a Commercial Nuisance Wild Animal Control license ($40) you'd need to get as well as your Commercial Nuisance Wild Animal Operator Certification (free online). I just spoke to someone over the weekend about this and they weren't aware of these changes. You can find more information about Ohio licensing at www.owcoa.com.

This may not be exactly helpful for the question you asked but it can be helpful as you look forward to doing this type of work as your sole source of income.

You could use a replacement income evaluation.

Take how much you earn at your current job. Add in benefits, health insurance, retirement plans, bonuses etc. Multiply that by a factor of 3.5. This will give you a ROUGH estimate of how much you will need to make to replace your current income.

Lets use an income of $35000, Health benefit of $6000, Retirement contribution of 4% or $1400 and a $600 bonus.

You get $35000+$6000+$1400+$600= $43000. I would determine a required gross income of $150,500 to replace your current earnings and ensure you do not have to change your lifestyle or spending habits.

If you work 365 days a year you are going to need to earn $412.33 per day. Working every day is obviously not realistic, so lets knock that down to 256 (lopping off 104 days for week ends and 5 holidays). Now you are at 256 days or $588 per day. If you work 8 hours per day it comes to $73.50 per hour.

This is real close to what Ron stated was the consensus break even point. But keep in mind, not every hour is billable. That is why I price our jobs based on performance and not hourly. I am limited in the number of hours in a day. I am not limited in the number of tasks I can perform or the prices I charge for each individual task.

Now come up with a plan to do that and you are all set!

This is just another way to look at it and determine your worth. It is by no means appropriate for all instances and is meant to give you insight to help with your decisions.

You already know why you don't make money - read the sentence in red. If the people in your service area are poor, and want you to work cheap, and you do work cheap, then you are setting youself up to fail.
You have to find customers who have money, and will pay well for your service. If you can do this you will make money. If you cannot, keep your day job.

Just because Phil moved, doesn't mean he can no longer read or write. His answer to snare1 may not have been the kindest but it certainly was the best! ( Now if only he would send me some of that red ink! )

....so DO IT!

Call from a friends or pay phone and ask for a quote.

Next week, do it again, but use a different phone and a different animal needing removed.

If you want to find what others charge in your state call a company in a comparable area outside the area you would service. Be honest with the person who answers the phone. If they are not busy you will learn more than what to charge. You will inevitably get a call in that area and have someone to refer the customer to. Good to have friends in your state that you can ask a question when you get a head scratcher of a job.

I am liscensed in Ohio, and yep all what you guys said i have considered and yes Phil is probaly correct, I probaly just need to go to work for an ADC agency that may have it all figured out. Its A passion I like being helpful but right now I ve gotta keep on workin at it and quit losin money.

...I think it's some a that secret IRS red ink that does not officially exist...

Good point... I am NOT suggesting a charge-by-the-hour approach. I'm just tossing out that figure as a starting point to determine a pricing structure. I charge by the job, not by the animal or visit. Taking into consideration the number of trips "likely" to be required (learned through time in business), travel time (distance to site), access, and other variables all get tossed into the mix when determining a price for a job. It takes some time before you figure it all out (actually you never will, as none of us do), and you'll make plenty of pricing mistakes in the process.

The examples from Eric and Dirk are both very helpful. Pricing structures require a business-minded approach, which means step one is to forget you ever sold an animal to the fur buyer. Most customers (at least in the areas where people will PAY for wildlife control) don't even know fur trapping exists, so do not make the mistake of basing a business on the "If I catch more I'll make more" premise. You are paid to solve problems, not catch animals. Catching animals just happens to be included in providing a solution.

Sorry Ron, I have always based our business on the "Catch more, Make more," system. I just can't come up with a fairer method of

charging my customers! If the customer that had 60 raccoons on her property in a year, calls the customer who had 6 raccoons on her

property, I want those invoices to be correct, right down to the penny. I realize that you're talking about trenching decks, cutting

limbs, and a host of other remedies. We often do jobs just to please the customer and no real remedies are available. Hey, if "You've

got the money, honey, I've got the time."

I hope that this thread provides the ultimate answer to the question.... which would be there is no ultimate answer! I get what you are saying, Paul. I think it has a lot to do with how WE look at it, not the customer.

For instance, my mole pricing is very straight forward. Either a one week or two week program, depending on size of property and amount of activity. Then it is priced by distance to site. I'm going to set extremely heavy on the initial visit, and the first check (a day or 2 later) will have a high catch number. My cost is determined by travel time/cost, set-up, and number of visits (mole trapping doesn't require daily checks). To me, it makes no difference if I catch 2 or 10 moles the first check, as my cost to provide the service is the same either way. Whether I carry 2 moles or 10 moles in my bucket, no difference. My pricing insures my business does well, but does not "penalize" the property owner for having a few extra young moles at the site. It also allows the client to KNOW what the bill will be.

Totally different scenario on coon and other critter jobs, as they REQUIRE daily trap checks, which I NEVER have my customers do. Again, it's all how WE look at the business. My raccoon or skunk or whatever-furry-critter is causing trouble jobs are ALMOST always for a specified number of days. This allows the flat-rate cost to be determined. I have companies that show up to a home and set ONE trap for a coon or squirrel. Are you kidding me? That trap is often filled with a non-target before they get out of town. I gang set most jobs and knock the population down fast. I may set a dozen squirrel traps and usually a minimum of 6 coon traps at ANY job. I don't charge per animal OR for non-targets.... I simply set enough traps to catch the guilty culprit(s) even if a couple neighboring cats are also sitting in the cages the next day. I PLAN for non-targets, not "hope" my "trap" (singular) catches what I'm after. And yes, I'm quite familiar with proper baiting and trap placement to minimize non-targets, but it still happens.

Of course we can then move to bat work, which is in a league of its' own. Makes no difference if there are 10 or 1000 bats in a structure, the procedure is exactly the same and so is the cost.

Pricing is always a fun topic, and there is no right way or wrong way, as long as we do well and the customer is happy. Also, a solution-based program (as you mentioned with exclusion barriers, tree-trimming, etc) is easier to price than trapping programs for critters that WILL return such as moles and muskrats.

Beautiful.

I certainly agree with setting more than one cage. When a customer asks me why I set 3 cages when he only has one skunk, my answer is

usually something like this: That first one is for the neighbor's cat; That second one is for the raccoon that lives under your

neighbor's deck; and that third one is actually for your skunk. Of course, when you go back the next day, he's quick to point out

that you caught the skunk in the cat cage, the cat in the raccoon cage, and raccoon in the skunk cage!

One thing you have to learn is to say NO. If you dont see yourself earning much off of a job, your probably losing.

Our business pricing structure is similiar to Ron's. However we do vary somewhat. Our general wildlife removal pricing is a set up fee and a per trip fee. We charge per each visit after the initial set up. Our contract states the per trip fee is for trap maintenance or for animal removal. We charge the same for target or non target animals. Some jobs we add a per animal fee with our pricing as well.

This pays for our time/travel. We do give the option of trap checks to the client if we deem the customer to be competent and compliant with our check and call in guidelines. If after a few days this isnt working out then we check and charge for this or pull the job.

Squirrel work varies depending upon the time of the year.If we can do an exclusion eviction we can flat rate the job. If it appears it may be a multiple visit type of job with the customer not having a good basic structural integrity home or business we will do a set up and a per visit pricing.

These are jobs that fall into a catagory with population reduction being the only option for the client. They dont want or can't afford preventive repair measures or it may require major contractor work to resolve the problem properly.

If the customer has menacing kids and they keep messing with the traps, nosey pesty neighbors, lawn care goof balls,or some other act of God mystery interference with our equipment we charge to return and make the proper adjustments. If it appears to be a chronic on going frequent problem we excuse ourselves from the service. We then direct them to contact another service provider.Of course we collect our fees for set up and trip costs up to that point. We have had to do this a few times in my days.

Mole work we do 7-10 day contracts for most jobs. Lots of variables when pricing work particularly when you factor travel distance and pricing in call backs after your first initial program.

I believe the opposite, so I charge buy the week/job. If you have 6 coons or 60 killing your dozen chickens, it really doesn't matter. All that matters is they all need to be gone. However, 60 coons is going to take considerably more time. I just don't like variables in money. However, I'm new and might learn something.

Throw Back, apparently my post was not meant for people who worked in California. It's not my fault entirely. I believe that there is

an old song that says "California is a brand new place". I've been thinking about this for some time and as perplexing as it is, I'm

not that unhappy. There are specific areas of these Great United States that have different ideas, values, and costs. You have

reminded me that my thinking is Upper Midwest. Since I write a column in a magazine that I would like to see continue to reach their

main source of readers long after I am gone, this can only be accomplished by input like yours. The greatest population is on

either coast. I'm sure that this will remain the case. It's important to know what you would like to see in print. ( Tell us )

P.S. Come to think of it, that goes for the rest of you too.

I think its "California is a brand new game". I like Larry Gatlin too lol

well I was lucky enough to live in the mid west for 7years, and have seen 24 states plus Tijuana, so I have seen some vairiables

Thanks Travis, I stand corrected. And thank you, Throw Back. I do envy your personal view of so much of our country.

New York and California are two states I haven't been to. I figure once you've hunted Alaska and vacationed in Hawaii,

everything else is just "middle of the road". I do have one small admission: I've hunted a bunch of states and

vacationed in a few and I can tell you that the only place I didn't want to come back home from was Hawaii. I guess my big question

is; if you've been to as many states as I have, why would you still call Wisconsin "home"? Apparently this 'family and friends

thing' is a lot more important than we think.

So what do you think your worth?

Did you figure out your worth?