Pest control route with 1,150 recurring accounts
Kettering, south of Dayton · In business since 2004. A twenty-two-year pest control route with 1,150 recurring accounts, three trucks and no shop lease. Earns its owner about $205,000 a year.
The business
920 residential accounts on quarterly service and 230 commercial accounts on monthly service. Recurring service is 78 percent of revenue; the rest is one-time treatments and wildlife exclusion.
People. Two technicians and the owner, who runs a route three days a week. The owner's spouse keeps the books part time.
Premises. Run from a home office and a rented storage unit at $280 a month. No shop lease.
Hours. Monday to Friday, seasonal Saturdays.
Pro forma
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $742,000 | $713,000 | $684,000 |
| Cost of sales | ($67,000) | ($64,000) | ($62,000) |
| Gross profit | $675,000 | $649,000 | $622,000 |
| Operating expenses, including the owner's pay | ($588,000) | ($571,000) | ($552,000) |
| Net income | $87,000 | $78,000 | $70,000 |
| Add back: Owner salary | $86,000 | ||
| Add back: Owner health insurance | $11,000 | ||
| Add back: Depreciation | $16,000 | ||
| Add back: One-time items | $5,000 | ||
| Owner's discretionary earnings, 2025 | $205,000 |
Swipe the table sideways for 2024 and 2023.
Gross margin 91 percent in 2025. Asking price is 3.12 times 2025 owner's earnings and includes equipment valued at about $70,000. Figures are rounded; the owner's tax returns and bank statements are provided to a buyer after the confidentiality agreement.
What is included
- Three service trucks with utility beds, 2017 to 2022
- Sprayers, application equipment and a chemical inventory
- The route books, the account list and the phone number
- The technicians' certifications transfer with the people
What a buyer will notice
- Routes are kept in paper route books; billing runs through QuickBooks; there is no routing or scheduling software.
- Prices have not been raised in four years.
- Commercial accounts are concentrated in restaurants and small apartment buildings, mostly on handshake renewals.
Role today. Runs a route three days a week and handles sales calls.
Handover. Ninety days, riding the routes with the buyer.
Reason for selling. The owner is sixty-eight and retiring.
The asking price includes the trucks, the equipment and the accounts. Route businesses of this kind are commonly financed through SBA 7(a) loans; the seller will consider carrying a note.
Besides this page: texted to every pest control owner within fifty miles, sent to the buyers on our list who asked for Dayton and pest control, and shown to lenders who finance deals like it. The owner gets a weekly text with who looked and who asked.
Tell us who you are and what you can bring. After the confidentiality agreement you receive the owner's name, the address, three years of tax returns and a walk-through.
Ask about this businessBuyers pay LastDayFirstDay nothing. Our fee is paid by the seller at closing.
This profile is representative of the Ohio trade businesses LastDayFirstDay lists. Its figures are a composite prepared from typical one-owner businesses in this trade and do not describe a specific company currently for sale; current listings, with the owner's own numbers, are at lastdayfirstday.com/s. We are not attorneys, accountants, appraisers or real estate brokers.