Tony Carder’s story is one I keep coming back to.
Here’s the short version of his story. Tony started in pest control at 16, working under his dad. He bought the family company in 2006 when it was doing about $4 million. He grew it to $24 million and sold it to Rentokil in 2019. Then he took five years off and ran a trash business. Now he’s back with True North Pest Control. In 18 months, it went from $1.4 million to $5.8 million.
When Tony talks, I pay attention. Here’s what stood out.
This was the biggest one for me. Tony admitted he got off track. While he ran the pest control company, he also built a sanitation company and a heating and air company. He poured the pest control profits into those side bets.
It cost him. As Tony put it, “I truly believe if I wouldn’t have done any of that, Active would have been 50 million when I sold.”
Then one day it clicked. He realized he was good at one thing. He pulled his money out of the other stuff and put it all back into pest control. The business went from about $13 million to $24 million in five years.
I see this all the time with operators around a million bucks. They get a little time freed up and they get bored. So they start something new. Tony’s answer to that? If you’re bored, get in the truck and go sell.
Nobody sells better than the owner
I asked Tony what he’d do first if he started over. His answer was simple. Hire a salesperson and a technician.
“Nobody’s going to sell the business better than the owner,” he told me. The owner will work harder than anyone you hire. Other people coast after a good month. You won’t.
He runs a sales system he calls the 520 plan. You take five categories. You put 20% of your effort in each one every day. That works out to about 10 people a day, or 200 a month. Do that and you’ll be a good salesperson.
He also pushed one thing hard. Go after recurring pest control. Termites and one-off jobs are fine, but recurring service compounds. That’s how True North grew so fast without knocking a single door.
Real estate agents are your free sales team
True North spends $30,000 to $40,000 a month marketing to real estate agents. Cookouts, lunch and learns, open houses, golf tournaments. It sounds like a lot. But Tony explained why it works.
“Realtors are community people. They’re in the people business. They’re not in the house business,” he said. They only sell homes through relationships. So if you treat a good agent right, they tell 10 people a month about you. They become a salesperson you don’t pay.
His line on this is one I’ll keep. “Don’t make a commission. Go make a friend. They’ll make you a fortune.”
Pay people well and they stay
People always tell Tony they can’t find good help. He doesn’t buy it.
“You write a big enough check they’re going to walk in the door and they’re going to want to work for you,” he said. He takes his team on a Royal Caribbean cruise every year. He does cash bonuses and live bingo at the office on Fridays.
Here’s the proof. When Tony started True North, about 40 of his 70 employees came back from his old company. They had left after the sale. A lot of them weren’t mad. They were loyal, and they didn’t like the yearly price increases the big company forced on customers. So when Tony came back, his phone rang off the hook.
Chase profit, not just growth
For years Tony chased growth and ignored profit. He even admits he was ego-driven about being a top 100 company. The wild part is he was already making plenty of money.
He learned the lesson during his year working for Rentokil after the sale. He got to see how much money they really made. Now he runs True North for profit and growth at the same time.
Part of that is fewer locations. At Active he had 14 offices around Atlanta. True North will only have four or five. He says you barely need physical offices anymore. Most of the reason to have one now is for Google rankings and SEO.
Sell-side lessons most owners learn too late
Tony shared a couple of things he wishes he’d done differently when he sold.
First, a golden parachute for his leadership. That’s a package for your top people if they get squeezed out after a sale. He didn’t have one set up, and he wishes he had.
Second, a shorter non-compete. His was five years across two states. He thinks three years is plenty, especially if you’re young. He was only 47 when he sold.
The bigger point is to build to sell from day one. Don’t wait until a buyer shows up to clean up your books. If you build profit in from the start, your company is worth more whenever someone comes knocking.
Delayed gratification is the whole game
Tony talks about the “American merry-go-round.” Get a job, buy a car, buy a house, have kids, and now you’re strapped in and stuck. He warns young people to write their own story instead.
For owners, it’s the same trap. You hit $5 or $6 million, the cash starts flowing, and you go buy the expensive car. He’s not against nice things. He just preaches patience.
“If you can do delayed gratification, you can have anything you want in the future,” he said. He even keeps his old CFO around just to tell him to slow down and wait until next month.
Stop chasing your money
One small habit changed his cash flow years ago. He stopped taking customers without a credit card on file or a year paid up front. He did this around 2012, before it was common.
The result is no accounts receivable headache. Every month his deposits land within 97% of his production. As Tony said, “I’m not chasing money.”
Coming back with cash is a cheat code
I asked Tony if it was easier the second time around. He didn’t hesitate. A lot easier.
He self-funds True North now. No banks, no truck loans, none of that stress. He’s put close to $1.7 or $1.8 million of his own money into the business in 18 months. He hired more salespeople and staff than he needed because the growth was coming.
But he made it clear money isn’t an excuse to wait. If he were young and broke today, he says he’d drive Uber at night and do bugs during the day. When you know the numbers and how fast pest control compounds, the sacrifice is worth it.
The part that stuck with me most
Tony’s dad was his mentor his whole life. The advice he gave Tony every morning was simple. Get out of bed and go to work.
As Tony repeated it to me, “The six inches between your ears and the demon that’s in there will be the thing that defeats you.” The only competition is you.
That’s the thread through his whole story. The money, the sales, the focus, all of it comes back to showing up and doing the work other people won’t. Tony’s done it twice now. I’d bet on him doing it a third time.
