PCT Digital Editor Amanda Donchatz
Editor's Note: Watch behind-the-scenes video of Allen performing general pest and mosquito treatments at a residential service.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — For Josh Allen, fond childhood memories of Truly Nolen’s mouse car riding down the highway led him to start his own franchise business with the company and have a successful career in the pest control industry years later.
But the journey to finding his career path as a pest control owner had many stops along the way.
Allen, born in Tucson, Ariz., moved to Youngstown, Ohio before joining the U.S. Navy from 2004 to 2010, Air Force Reserves from 2010 to 2012 and had plans of making the Navy his full-time career when a job at the Tucson Police Department opened up. He jumped on the opportunity and moved back to Arizona from his residence in the Youngstown area.
Two weeks later, the city underwent a hiring freeze. This left Allen without a job, looking for a new career path.
Allen said he remembered as a kid seeing the yellow mouse cars on the road and decided to reach out to Truly Nolen for employment opportunities.
“When I was living in Tucson, I knew I needed to go ahead and apply [at Truly Nolen],” he said. “I was offered four or five different jobs [at other businesses], but Truly Nolen had the most potential.”
With no intention of making pest control a career, Allen said he found that he was good at being an inspector for the company, working with other people and helping customers solve their pest control problems. He made Truly Nolen’s President’s Club (presented to high achievers) his second year and went on a cruise with the company.
“I was being honest with [customers] on any of the [pest] issues they had and not trying to sell them [more services]. I found a lot of inspectors from other companies would do [that],” he said. “I was out there for two and a half years.”
In 2018, Allen and his wife, Sarah, moved back to the Youngstown area for the second time due to the higher cost of living in Tucson. Allen left Truly Nolen and went down a couple different career paths before finding his way back to the company.
“I was selling IT, and it wasn’t really satisfying my career ambitions, so I ended up becoming a Realtor for a bit," Allen said. “When I made that switch, I found out my dad had cancer, and he ended up passing a month and a half later.”
After seeing a need for comprehensive pest control in the Youngstown area as a consumer and homeowner, Allen decided to reach back out to Truly Nolen and take a leap of faith to operate his own franchise business.
“I had companies come out [to perform pest control], and I just wasn’t satisfied, having the background in this industry. They just weren’t cutting it for me,” Allen said.
Allen said with the tough transition of working as a Realtor and grieving through his father’s passing, he was ready for a more fulfilling career path and wanted to get back to his roots in the pest control industry.
Allen cashed out his 401k retirement and savings plan with the Navy and started his Truly Nolen franchise business in the Youngstown-Warren area in May 2022, servicing Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Allen said franchising with Truly Nolen appealed to him because he “liked the branding of Truly Nolen and was successful when he worked for them out in Arizona” and he didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel” with his own company.”
After one year of business, Allen has 100 recurring customers and about 200 altogether, with 25 commercial accounts. He said getting a business off the ground takes a lot of sacrifice and making investments in yourself and the company.
“You can’t just start a business and think you’re going to dive into the coins like Scrooge McDuck,” Allen said. “You’ve got to really put in the time, sweat and effort to make it successful. It takes a little time to start [financially] breaking even, and I’m getting to the point where I am doing that now.”
One personal challenge Allen has had to overcome is having hand surgery from developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as a drummer in a band. He had surgery last year and has worked through the rehabilitation while getting his business up and running.
The Youngstown-Warren area also presents its own set of challenges as a business owner. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Youngstown is $31,020. Allen said being able to service financially challenged homeowners has been a unique part of his business model.
“We have some payment plan options for customers if they qualify because I don’t want to leave a family [whose home is] infested with roaches and just walk away from them,” he said. “You don’t want to leave them living in those kinds of conditions.”
Allen said bed bug infestations are a much needed service in the area. Orkin ranked Youngstown No. 27 on its Top 50 Bed Bug Cities List in 2023.
“I think I’m one of the [most affordable] bed bug services in the area and will work with people on that,” he said. “It just takes one impregnated female, and as long as she has a blood meal once every three to five days, she can lay eggs.”
Calls for carpenter ants started to increase in December due to mild winter conditions in Northeast Ohio, Allen said, adding that termite, mice, rat and mosquito services have also been on the rise.
Allen said he tries “to educate people and let them know during the winter, bugs are around, and they just go into a lower state of activity,” he said. "You always want to stay proactive instead of reactive.”
Allen said he plans on hiring his first service technician in January 2024, with hopes of having six to 10 employees in the future.
“My main goal is to open up a location toward Cleveland/Akron and get licensed in Pennsylvania to open a location near Pittsburgh,” he said. “This is only the beginning for me.”