Seasonality in the Wildlife Control Industry & How Our Franchise Stays Profitable Year-Round

If there’s one challenge that businesses of all sizes and industries face, it’s seasonality and the dip in revenue that frequently comes with it. While some businesses have built-in contingencies to account for this, like how a brewery makes seasonal brews to adapt to consumers’ changing tastes throughout the year, others must go to the drawing board to come up with solutions and maintain year-round profitability. At Skedaddle Humane Wildlife and Pest Control, we’ve already solved this for our Franchise Owners.

Today, let’s take a deep dive into how seasonality affects the wildlife control and home protection industry and the resources Skedaddle provides to our Franchise Owners to help them stay competitive and profitable all year long.

What is Seasonality?

According to Investopedia, “seasonality refers to predictable changes that occur over a one-year period in a business or economy based on the seasons including calendar or commercial seasons.”* While this depends upon the industry, seasonality can come with the changing weather that comes with each new season. For instance, the colder fall and winter months are a slow season for barbecue sales, while jewelry sales are often highest around Valentine’s Day, and retail sales are highest during the holiday shopping season.

Both of these are examples of annual seasonality; however, other industries can also see weekly or even daily seasonality. These businesses are often things like restaurants, hair salons, etc., so franchises in the home services industry, like Skedaddle, typically aren’t affected by these shorter-term fluctuations in business. This can pose a challenge to young business owners, especially those without any prior business management experience, but when you join an established franchise concept, you’ll receive a model that’s already built to mediate seasonal slumps!
*Seasonality: What It Means in Business and Economics, Examples. Investopedia

How Does Seasonality Affect the Home Protection Industry?

The wildlife control business is wholly affected by the nature of wildlife behavior, so the changing seasons are one of the biggest factors that play into the type of requests Owners see in this industry. It’s much more common for different animals and pests to be more active outdoors or to see local homes as a shelter during certain times of the year. While this depends greatly on the region you’re working in, even the warmest Southwestern climates still see animals’ migratory patterns change each year.

With this in mind, many prospective home protection Franchise Owners worry that they won’t see enough consistent business to make up for a slow winter season. However, thanks to Skedaddle’s decades of success and the expertise of our entire team, our system is designed to help mitigate seasonality and provide Franchise Owners with a business model that’s built to be profitable all year long.

How Your Region Makes a Difference

As the name suggests, seasonality fluctuates due to seasons, which can change drastically from one region to the next. For example, the seasonal changes a wildlife control business in Texas sees are wildly different from the changes a similar business may see in the Pacific Northwest or even the New England area. Additionally, the differences between the pests and wildlife that Skedaddle Franchise Owners will see from region to region will also contribute to any seasonality they may see.

With that being said, while homeowners in each area of the country may have different challenges or complaints when it comes to their home protection and wildlife control needs, there will still always be a demand for the service. If anything, the number of legs or the amount of fur Skedaddle technicians will see are the only things likely to change.

Skedaddles Solution to Seasonal Fluctuations

Our home protection franchise first opened across the Quebec and Ontario provinces of Canada, so we are no stranger to seasonality having an effect on the business. Since our founding in 1989, our Founder and Franchisor team has tweaked and expanded upon our original services to ensure they are high-ticket opportunities for our Franchise Owners. This way, if an Owner chooses to slow down business in the winter and focus more on family time during the colder months, they can still maintain an incredibly profitable animal control business.

On the other hand, our team also recognized the importance of diversifying the home protection services offered by Skedaddle business owners, especially as we continue to expand across the United States. That’s why we’ve complemented our home protection and pest control services, which still make up the bulk of our Owners’ revenue, with additional revenue streams. This way, when property owner’s need less assistance with home protection, Skedaddle Franchisees can still generate revenue and stay top-of-mind with customers in their territory.

Our Mainstay, High-Ticket Service

It’s no surprise that our Franchise Owners produce the majority of their revenue via our bread and butter service: home protection. That’s because our service is an easy sell when you compare our approach to the competition – if there’s any competition to speak of in a given franchise territory! While a “Chuck-in-a-Truck” might remove wildlife from a customer’s home, the animals tend to come back after a few weeks or months. At Skedaddle, we focus on screening the entry points and other weak and vulnerable areas of the home and guarantee our customers won’t have any issues moving forward. If, for some reason, they do, we will come back and perform our home protection services for free.

Multiple Revenue Streams

The wildlife and pest control business ebbs and flows year-round in some areas – that’s just the nature of our work. However, thanks to our decades of experience in the home protection business and almost as many years of franchising expertise, we’ve figured out how to keep our Franchise Owners and their teams busy so they can maintain incoming revenue, even in the slowest of seasons. We supplement our main home protection and pest control services with two additional revenue streams, keeping profits up and helping our Franchisees build their reputation all year long.

Pest Control

While our home protection/wildlife control services focus on keeping the usual suspects out of the home, i.e., birds, squirrels, snakes, and other rodents, our Franchise Owners are still empowered to help property owners in their territory with smaller nuisances like ants, wasps, and other common critters. This allows Owners to assist with all of a homeowner’s protection and control needs instead of referring them to someone else like many mom-and-pop operations do.

Attic Restoration

The biggest selling point Skedaddle Franchise Owners get to leverage to homeowners to differentiate themselves from competitors in their territories is the permanence of the solution they provide. Our wildlife control and home protection services use guaranteed home-sealing methods to ensure critters never make it back inside homes, and much of this process requires technicians to be in homeowners’ attics. Because Skedaddle technicians already have all the equipment necessary, restoring an attic is an easy service to add to an established franchise location. Additionally, should homeowners choose to purchase materials for the restoration project, a Franchise Owner will leave this ordering up to the customer, also making this a service that doesn’t require inventory maintenance.

Holiday Decorations

As we mentioned before, certain regions across the country may be affected by seasonality, especially in the colder winter months. To mitigate this, the Skedaddle team looked at the additional uses Owners’ existing equipment could have during this time of the year and – with the popularity of outdoor holiday decorations thriving, even during times of recession or pandemic – recognized the revenue potential right away. Once Franchise Owners invest in their initial inventory of holiday lights and decor, they can simply reuse it again and again each year. Plus, this service gives Owners the chance to vet seasonal hires, choose those they work with best, and continue their employment throughout the busier spring and summer months.

Run a Profitable Business, No Matter the Season, with Skedaddle

Joining a franchise of any kind and any industry comes with its challenges and learning curves, especially when that business model is affected by seasonality. However, when you choose to join Skedaddle and break into the profitable world of wildlife control, you can rest easy knowing that you’re receiving a recession-resistant model that’s already built to mitigate seasonal fluctuations in demand, taking half of the work off your shoulders before you even launch.

If you’re ready to achieve true financial independence and build wealth for yourself and your family, our home protection franchise is built for you. Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control has the industry experience and multiple revenue streams you can leverage to help you change your life for good. Take the first step in securing your future and ideal territory today by seeing if you qualify for your own home protection franchise with our quick, 1-minute quiz.