How to get into ADC

I've been thinking about possibly doing something with ADC trapping but don't know quite what steps I need to take for that or what the client base is like in my area (Montana) any info on this sorta thing would be great!

Montucky Fur Man

Do you live in a small town? That's something that will matter.

I'm trying as well myself Montucky and the biggest thing in finding out is study study study. The test to get licensed is not easy. Haggard, I live in a town with 26,000 residents but have smaller towns all over within 20min also have a couple larger cities (a lot larger actually) within 40 min. Think that's a good start?

I live in a town of about 4000 and there is 6 other towns of similar size within about 30 minutes of me in varying directions one of which is roughly 65,000

Then I would think you would have some market. Call the secretary of state. You could get registered pretty easy. Probably for 300 bucks, not including insurance.

The best thing you can do is learn about how to run a business and how to deal with people. Then decide if you want to own a business or work as an employee for someone else who runs one. No matter how good of a trapper someone is or how big a client base they may have, if they don't understand business issues like insurance, registration, licenses, taxes, basic accounting (credits, debits, expenses, revenue, etc.), marketing, determining services, creating pricing structures, and many others, it will be very had to make it.

Anyone can learn about running a successful business through books, seminars, classes, and mentors but it is harder to learn about how to deal with people. Once you understand what all is involved (choosing a business structure, handling money, determining services and their costs, selling jobs, etc.) then you can decide if you still want to go forward.

The biggest issue I see with new wildlife control operators is that they want to focus on the trapping aspect of the job and not much of anything else. It's kind of like when fur prices are high and suddenly everyone that knows how to set a trap becomes a "trapper". Those that understand the animals and locations will always outperform those that don't. Specific to wildlife control, keep in mind that trapping is a service, it is not a business just like fixing a leaking pipe is a service, it is not running a plumbing business. Yes, the business owner may need to know how to remove the problem animal and perform that service, but if they can't sell jobs, pay bills and still have enough left over to live on it won't matter how good of a trapper they are.

Indigenous Montanans are going to be pretty self sufficient. Your client base is going to be the non residents with the second homes.

There is probably not enough work in a service area trapping alone, but if paired with pest control or you want to travel the state doing bat exclusions you could probably make it full time

..and learn carpentry skills.
After we remove the critter, we should be able to close the access openings.