Courtesy of Petti Pest Control
KEARNEYSVILLE, W. Va. — Before Petti Pest Control opened its doors in March 2021, co-owners and father-son duo Vince and Josh Petti bought eight service trucks, with the hopes of retaining customers at the start of their business.
“The day before we opened our doors, I looked at him and said, ‘What if they don’t like us?’ because I had invested everything I owned into this,” Josh said. “My dad said, ‘Just focus on getting one customer a day.’”
That mindset has paid off for the Petti family, who now have 40 employees, more than 3,600 Google reviews and 11 locations along the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Before Josh started Petti Pest Control, he was living in Tampa, Fla., working as a bartender, until COVD-19 hit. He decided to leave his job, sell his house in Florida and move back to West Virginia to be near his family.
After toying with the idea to start a pest control company, Josh said it felt like a “now or never” type of decision.
“My dad and I get along really well, so I knew that wasn’t going to be an issue. You have to understand each other,” he said. “But I had to tell him that times had changed since 20 years ago when he was running his pest control business. He didn’t want people to have tattoos, and I said, ‘That’s not happening.’”
Josh handles the day-to-day operations, along with his mother and Vince’s wife, Angela Petti, who works in the office. This gives Vince a chance to sit back and be a sounding board for Josh and contribute his years of experience in the pest control industry.
“He’s never spent one day in the office, and we like it that way,” Josh said. “He helps me step back from the day-to-day responsibilities to look at the bigger picture.”
Lots have changed over the course of 20 years, like incorporating technology into business operations and creating a work-life balance for employees, and Josh said that was one area he and his father had to work on implementing into their business together.
“When my dad was running his first business, the internet wasn’t around, and he was using Yellow Pages,” he said. “I ask every employee when they first start, ‘What do they want to focus on, is it quality of life, or do you want to work as much as possible?” he said.
Josh said one strategic growth decision for Petti Pest Control that has paid off is accumulating thousands of Google reviews over the last four years.
“The start of our culture lies in those Google reviews,” he said. “We’re big on communicating with each other when someone gets a good review. Our technicians just know to go out and get those reviews.”
While the Petti family have plans to continue growing, Josh said it’s a team effort to grow at a comfortable pace together.
“I follow their lead. If they’re not ready, then I won’t do it,” he said. “It sounds great to keep opening up in different areas, but we want to make sure everyone is comfortable with that because we care about quality of life as well.”