By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why does a pest control business feel like one surge after another?
Because pest control runs on obligations that don't pause for the owner's capacity: rodent and cockroach jobs spike after rain, termite barrier warranty callbacks run on for years after the original treatment, and commercial and food premises clients expect compliance reporting delivered on schedule regardless of how busy the technician is that week. Most pest controllers find themselves reacting to whichever obligation is loudest rather than running the business to a plan.
A general pest job booked for Tuesday gets bumped because a food premises client needs an urgent compliance report before an audit. A pre-purchase termite inspection is promised for Friday, but the technician is still out checking bait stations on a recurring service agreement from the week before. None of this is unusual in pest control. It is the normal shape of the trade. The problem is that an owner who only ever reacts to the next job never builds the habits that would let the business run to a schedule instead of a scramble.
Why doesn't just working harder through termite season fix it?
Because working harder treats the symptom, not where the problem actually starts. A missed job, a technician calling in sick, or wet weather delaying a treatment all sit outside the owner's control. The schedule built around a seasonal peak, the pricing on a barrier job against a one-off general pest treatment, and how a client waiting on an overdue inspection report is kept informed, all sit inside it.
Many pest controllers carry stress over both groups equally, as if a rained-out treatment and a vague quote were the same kind of problem. They aren't. One is outside the owner's hands. The other is a decision the business makes every day, and it's usually that decision that's quietly costing callbacks, chasing and lost recurring work.
What should a pest control coach actually help you control?
A coach worth paying should help you separate what you can plan around from what you can't, then build discipline into the parts that are yours: your booking schedule through a seasonal surge, your pricing on every quote, and how you communicate with a client waiting on a termite report or a callback.
Checking your margin isn't something you do once a month looking backward over the books. It's something you check at the moment you quote a termite barrier job against the moment you quote a quick general pest callout, because the two carry very different costs in chemical, labour and licence requirements, and pricing them the same quietly erodes profit. This is where AI agents, software that does a job the way you would, using your own prices, your own wording and your own rules, start to matter. An agent can send a client waiting on an overdue inspection report a status update written in your voice, or confirm a recurring service agreement visit, without you or your technician stopping what you're doing to do it.
How does a coach help you win and keep commercial and food premises contracts?
By teaching you to ask before you pitch. Before quoting a commercial or food premises contract, the question is what actually frustrates that client about their current pest provider, and what they genuinely value: reliability, compliance reporting that turns up on time, or simply fewer callbacks.
Only once you know that do you show how your service agreement solves exactly that problem, rather than running through a list of chemicals and licence credentials the client probably can't evaluate anyway. This is how recurring commercial work gets won in pest control, and more importantly, how it gets kept once a competitor starts circling with a cheaper quote.
How do you know if you actually have capacity for more work?
The number that tells the truth is how many inspections, treatments and service visits a licensed technician can realistically deliver in a month, not the feeling of being flat out. That's the figure a pest controller rarely has clear in their head, because it changes with every new job taken on.
Many pest controllers overbook into a seasonal surge because the phone is ringing, then let warranty work and recurring service agreements slip while they chase the new jobs. A data first view of the business, built on the owner's own job and finance numbers rather than memory, shows the real ceiling before it's hit, so growth gets built around the client base the business can actually service. AI agents can also take on the recurring reminders and compliance paperwork that pile up around a surge, freeing the owner's time for the inspections and treatments that actually need a person on site.
What should you ask before paying for a business coach?
Ask whether the coach has actually run a trade business, whether they start from your own numbers or hand you a generic worksheet, and whether their answer to every problem is a system or simply “hire someone”.
A warning sign worth taking seriously is a coach who sounds like a salesperson before they sound like someone who has stood in a ute full of chemical and bait stations trying to get to three jobs before dark. Greg Allan built and ran his own trade business before coaching others, and the approach he teaches, Data First Coaching, starts every conversation from the owner's actual numbers rather than from how well the owner can explain the business out loud.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts by looking at what the pest controller's own numbers actually say: how booked a technician really is through a seasonal surge, where warranty callbacks are coming from, and whether commercial compliance reporting is running to schedule or by exception. Rather than guessing where to hire or what to charge, Greg Allan's method runs these numbers through the Trade Business Intelligence to find where the real problem starts, not just where it shows up. As Greg puts it, the aim is to “focus on the things you can control and just let go of those things you can't”. The how, the systems and the building of it, is worked through inside the Academy, with members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member who is open minded, innovative and willing to share.
