From Technician to CEO

This book is about the journey of Peter Hall, a second-generation pest control operator (PCO) and lawn care professional (LCP) who grew up amid his family business, went off to college to earn a business degree and returned home to work in, and eventually take over, the family business. While growing up, he watched his father work diligently to make a modest living for his family. While attending business school, Peter studied several facets of business, including management, accounting, finance, marketing and operations. His professors used the case method to teach, using successful high-growth, highly profitable companies as subjects. After learning about the strategies employed to expand these model companies, Peter believed he was in a position to move his family's pest and lawn business on a high-growth trajectory. But what tools would he need to make this happen? Do the lessons he learned in the classroom translate to a realistic strategy that can be used to grow a company that will dominate the market, creating above-average income and providing long-term wealth for his family?
About the Author: Daniel S. Gordon, CPA, owner of PCO Bookkeepers and TurfBooks, two specialty accounting firms that cater to the pest management and lawn care industries, looks into what it takes to build a successful pest management and lawn care business in this entertaining and insightful story about the evolution of a high-growth family business. While the characters are fictional, the time-tested business concepts are real and serve as a roadmap to success for the owner or manager of a pest management or lawn care company. Gordon, with more than 20 years of industry experience as an owner, manger and industry consultant, works with clients nationwide, from start-up companies to those with more than 100 employees providing financial, operational, tax advisory and exit planning services. He is a frequent speaker for the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), PLANET a national trade association representing more than 100,000 landscape industry professionals, as well as state associations and industry software user conferences. He is also a sought after facilitator of industry peer groups. A frequent columnist in several pest and lawn trade publications, Gordon is a Certified Public Accountant and graduate of Northeastern University in Boston where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Accounting and Management. Before his work in the pest and lawn industry, he was a tax consultant in the Stamford, CT office of Deloitte LLP.