BROTHERS PUT MILITARY TRAINING TO WORK GROWING SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS TOGETHER

By Bailey and Brandon Robertson, Mosquito Squad

One of the first things the military teaches you is that failure is not an option. Whatever branch you serve in, youearn to figure it out, get the job done and succeed at your mission. That lesson has continued to serve us well in life and in our franchising business. I served for three years in the U.S. Army, starting out in infantry, then in the airborne division and supporting Special Forces teams with medical training. My brother Brandon entered the Marine Corps out of high school as a machine gunner and served a total of six years. He then went to college to study agriculture, joining the National Guard three years ago while in school and still serving today.

Now we own four Mosquito Squad territories in Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Alabama, and we will soon be adding a fifth. We started with the brand just a year ago but have quickly expanded by acquiring existing territories. Although we did not have pest control experience going into the business, the Mosquito Squad team gave us all the tools we needed to learn. We spent two weeks at Squad School, which included a week at the company’s training facility in Georgia, receiving instruction from experts in the industry and business. We also found it easy to reach out to other franchise owners with questions, and we have taken advantage of the continuing online training available for us and our technicians.

What we lacked in industryspecific experience we made up for with confidence in each other and in our ability to do whatever is necessary to make it work. Being brothers, we naturally have a competitive spirit. In business together, we use that to feed off of each other, not wanting to be the weak link in our partnership. Another driving force in our success has been what we learned from being in the intense, high-speed environment of the military. Our infantry service meant hard hikes and long days and nights. We don’t shy away from hard, so we knew we had what it would take to start a business and figure out any unknowns along the way. We also felt confident that our determination combined with the support a franchisor like Mosquito Squad provides would be the right combination.

The economy has been challenging this year, particularly with consumers reining in their household spending. Effective local marketing has become even more important as we strive to keep a high profile in our communities, run our social media pages, monitor review sites and all of the other sales and marketing tasks that come with owning a local service business.

We don’t shy away from hard, so we knew we had what it would take to start a business and figure out any unknowns along the way.

 However, we never doubt that we can get the job done. Over the past year, we have learned how to cut costs and train our team to excel as a unit. That effort has paid off, with our two Alabama territories achieving the highest customer renewal rates those offices have ever seen.

The military trains you to be replaceable, which is another valuable lesson we brought with us to franchise business ownership. It’s important to not get buried in the day-to-day of running the business. When systems are incorporated into everything they do, decision-making can be handled at the lower levels because employees feel confident in knowing their job.

The business runs smoothly because processes are in place and employees know what to do if you’re gone. The franchising model is ideal for those of us who appreciate process and procedures.

Ours is also a family business. We’ve partnered with our father, another brother and a fifth business partner to invest in this franchise. Based on our experience, we believe family businesses work best when each member of the team has first cultivated their own sense of responsibility and business skills before joining together. We both previously worked in our father’s trucking business, Bailey spent time as an area manager with Amazon and Brandon worked on our grandfather’s Idaho farm during college. Coupled with our experience in the military, we had already established our work ethics and knew our strengths and weaknesses before embarking on this partnership.

But even if we had not had those additional workplace experiences, our time serving our country taught us the most important lesson of all to survive and thrive in business: success will come when you have the mindset that failure is simply not an option.

Bailey and Brandon Robertson own multiple Mosquito Squad territories in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Bailey served three years in the U.S. Army; Brandon is a current member of the Tennessee National Guard and previously served six years with the U.S. Marine Corps. For more information about IFA franchisor member Mosquito Squad, please visit franchise.org/ franchise-opportunities/mosquito-squad.