#1. Pricing is probably the number one question when it comes to running a wildlife control or pest control business. I've written about this topic many times as well as addressing it in multiple training sessions. The short answer is, what you need to charge is based on your expenses and financial requirements, not what my expenses and financial requirements are.
A quick formula would be to take all your known and expected expenses, add them to what you'd like to make doing this work, add in profit for your business, then divide it by the number of billable hours. This will give you an hourly rate cost. So if your expenses (equipment, pellets, phone, gas, vehicle, advertising, insurance, licenses, taxes, etc.) are $25,000 for a year and you plan to pay yourself $10,000 and have your company make $3,500 (a 10% profit) and will be shooting for a total of 250 hours, then the formula would be $25,000+$10,000+$3,500/250 = $38,500/250 = $154/hr. This means that you must charge $154 per hour in order to cover expenses, pay yourself what you want paid, and turn a profit so you can upgrade/replace equipment and stay in business. Note that as the number of billable hours decreases/increases, the hourly cost goes up or down (i.e., 100 billable hours would be $385/hr while 1000 billable hours would be $38.50/hr. While some will refer to this as hourly worth, I like referring to it as hourly cost, here's why.
If you plan on shooting for 10 billable hours on a property, using the first numbers from above we know it will cost you $154 per hour or $1,154 total. Going to a prospect and saying I can shoot your mongoose with an air rifle for a project price of $1,154 may or may not get you anywhere. The first reaction most will have to this number is outright rejection. After all, most believe they can do it themselves for cheaper. Instead, you break down the cost to make it more acceptable to the prospect (this is an old selling technique). In this case it may be something like $250 initial one hour service call ($1,290 remaining), additional hourly service rate of $750 ($75/hr * 10 hours) ($540 remaining), equipment/materials $350 (air/pellets/trash bags/building of blinds, etc.) ($190 remaining), travel $75 ($115 remaining), carcass disposal $115 ($0 remaining). Although all of these numbers and items are made up to stress my point, you now have a much better chance of the prospect taking the quote as they don't see $1,154 for shooting mongoose on their property. Rather, they see five distinct areas you are charging for, the majority of which are under $400 so their mind accepts the costs much easier than an outright project fee. If you don't think this works, think of the last time you went out and ate at a nice restaurant. Did you add up the cost for your beverage, appetizer, entree and desert before you placed your order or did you just order items as each was an acceptable price by themselves?
#2. In terms of selling services, if you're going to operate a business then you need to think about this as a business. That means you'll need to do some market research, define your market area, determine your target demographic, and then develop a marketing strategy that will get your name and service in front of the decision makers. Again, this will be different depending on the market you're targeting. Some places will respond better to billboard ads, newspapers, and direct mailings while others will do better with Pay-Per-Click, Ad Words, or other Internet marketing tools.
While I'm briefly on the subject, make sure you know your laws and have all the appropriate licenses. Generally, this means registering with the State as either a Sole Proprietor, Limited Liability Corporation, Partnership, or Corporation for Profit. You may also have to register with your state tax department as each state has their own rules with what is or is not taxable. Additionally, you may require special licenses from certain regulatory authorities or additional requirements such as liability insurance. For example, if you live in Ohio and want to offer wildlife/pest control services our Revised Code (the law of the state) specifically states "No person shall provide nuisance wild animal removal or control services for hire without obtaining [a Commercial Nuisance Wild Animal Removal or Control Service License]." So to operate in Ohio you need to 1) register your business with the secretary of state (and nowadays you can't even open a business bank account unless you can show your business license), 2) register with the Ohio Department of Taxation, 3) apply Workers Compensation unless you're exempt 4) apply for a Commercial Nuisance Wild Animal License from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, and 5) have anyone performing nuisance wild animal removal or control services successfully pass the Nuisance Wild Animal Control Certification exam. Additionally, if your business will also be using a general or restricted use pesticide you must register with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, show proof of liability insurance (this isn't a requirement for wildlife control only businesses), and have at least one individual become a licensed Commercial Applicator (again, only required when using or recommending pesticides). Finally, while Ohio law allows for use of airguns on small game animals, you still must check any municipality codes or ordinances to make sure they are legal to discharge and use where you plan on using them. A lot of municipalities have codes that say something like the following: "It shall be illegal for anyone to propel any type of object towards any animal that may harm or kill the animal." Not only does this rule out air rifles, it also makes it illegal to throw a baseball towards an animal to scare it away.
As for what is better (air rifle, trapping, pesticide, etc.) it depends on the conflict and the location. Again, certain locations will dictate what you can and cannot do. Most of the time you aren't going to get permission to shoot rats inside of a food processing facility which is going to limit you to exclusion, trapping and rodenticides. On the other side of the coin, trapping mongoose or feral hogs on the side of a mountain may not get the same results as using an air rifle. Birds can get even trickier as some locations may actually have bird sanctuary status which means that even pest birds (i.e., pigeons, starlings, house sparrows) are actually protected at those locations. The belief that every big box store has someone come with an air rifle and shoot their pest birds is wrong. The reality is that most stores do not allow this to happen due to company policy and/or state/municipal laws. Instead, most jobs along these lines are handled with specialty bird traps, mist nets, and other exclusion products. I've done bird work for Wal-Mart and Lowes and several other stores, and I've only been able to use an air rifle once. The most important thing to remember as a business is that air rifles are just one of the tools you hopefully have to pick from, they are not the only tool for the job.
#3. How often you need to perform services will be based on client expectations, how effective your are, and how the animals respond to your efforts. If you look at Canada geese, most clients want 0 geese on their property which is a bad expectation unless they are willing to put up walls and a ceiling. However, if you have a flock of 200 geese, it is very reasonable to set the expectation that you will lower the number of geese to 50 or less over time. This is mainly done through harassment techniques as Canada geese are federally protected and require special permits for egg addling, shooting, and collection (i.e., roundups) during non hunting time frames. There will be times when you'll have to visit the site one time every week or so and other times when you'll have to visit 3, 4 or even 5 times each day for multiple days straight. All of these visits will be different as you'll use different techniques or materials each time and the geese themselves will respond differently each time. Matter of fact, in short order the geese will identify your vehicles and take flight when they see it pull into the site only to return 5, 10, 60 minutes later when they feel safe again. While I'm using geese as my example, the point is that all animals can be expected to react in much the same manner. When they feel threatened, they will disappear and then reappear when they feel safe again.
Services for only one or two animals may not take as long as services for several hundred. So again, based on the expectations you agreed on with the client, how good you are at the services you are offering, and how the animals respond to your efforts you will have jobs that are done in a single trip while others will take multiple trips several times a week, month or even longer to accomplish.
