The Pest Detective

“We started a branch of The Pest Detective here. In 2016, I took ownership. I got to make decisions myself based on what the community needed. Because of that, my business grew rapidly. I brought in my twin brother and then a secretary. From there, we stayed busy.

The government definitely makes it difficult to run a small business. It’s like you’re on a big highway, and you’re trying to go straight. What the government does is put these big boulders or some kind of obstacle in your way and you can’t control that. There’s little we can do to move that obstacle.

The more obstacles they put in the way, the harder it is for us business owners to get to where we’re trying to go. And they are constantly, constantly changing.

One thing that gets on my nerves is sales tax. Let’s say I take a credit card for $1,000. I get charged a fee on top of that, and I have to collect the sales tax on top of that. I don’t want to get charged a fee to collect money I have to send to the government, since I also have to send the government money in ten other ways. I know we’ve got to have it. But let’s give something back to the business owners for doing the government’s job.

Plus, the government has continued handing out money, which contributes to inflation. How does that affect me?

Well, I was at the grocery store the other day, and a guy came in behind me. Looking at a bag of chips, he said, ‘How many times are they gonna go up on a bag of chips? This is the third time. I just can’t buy them.’ And he just walked off before I could buy them for him. It really aggravated me that he couldn’t buy the chips.

As a business owner, [inflation] is the biggest obstacle the government has thrown in our way. That customer at Kroger could have been one of my customers out in the field. They can no longer afford me. Not because my prices have gone up, but because that bag of chips has gone up.

We get requests from customers over and over again to push off their quarterly pest control because they can’t afford it and I hate that. I hate that they’re struggling. I want them to do their pest control because I want them to feel safe in their home. Sometimes I’ll do it for free, but I can’t afford to do that every time.

It’s aggravating because we saw the economic downturn coming. We warned the government. Now it’s come, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, only fill up your vehicle halfway to offset the cost of inflation.’ How does that offset the cost of inflation? I still have to put the other half in my truck two days later.

They give stupid advice even though we give them the foreknowledge of what’s going to happen. It’s just aggravating...

We’ll get used to going around a certain obstacle…And then the government will put something else in our way. We can only split ourselves into so many pieces and still be successful.”

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Wes Sullins‍

Arkansan, dad, entrepreneur, and owner of The Pest Detective