Best Friends Tonn and Wickwire Launch Pest Control Business

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ever wondered what it’s like starting a business from the ground up with your best friend? Just ask Josh Tonn and Jerry Wickwire, owners of Freedom Force Pest Control, Buffalo, N.Y.

Tonn and Wickwire started Freedom Force three years ago, with a combined 24 years of pest control experience working for Buffalo Exterminating, which was purchased by Rentokil. Tonn said the two wanted to start their own venture together to provide a healthier work-life balance.

“We made the best of it there, rose in the ranks and became supervisors,” Tonn said. “One day, Jerry said, ‘We should just start our own company and do this for ourselves.’”

© Freedom Force

Shortly after, Tonn and Wickwire met with a local small business adviser to create a foundation for the business and learn what licensures were needed to own a pest control company in New York. To help build a solid customer base, the two invested in Angi, a home service company, to help get the company’s name out on the market.

“We tried a couple things that didn't work like door-to-door stuff and print advertising doesn't really seem to do anything anymore,” Tonn said. “Our Google presence and getting reviews on Google helped us continue to grow.”

The company’s tagline “Your friendly neighborhood exterminators,” reflects the vision and meaning behind the work put in every day by Tonn and Wickwire.

“There’s only two of us, but you’d think there’s 10 of us the way Josh and I work,” Wickwire said. “We're people pleasers and we like to help people. I've been a volunteer fireman for 18 years, and this is my way of helping people in a different way rather than pulling someone out of a car accident.”

Tonn said being able to work under “old-timers” and industry leaders while at Rentokil helped set them up for successful service protocols and knowing the ins-and-outs of pest control.

“When it comes to rats, we learned you have to get where the rats are,” he said. “There’s a lot of [PMPs], at least in our experience, that just don't do that.”

Wickwire said “good clientele has come from companies who drop the ball on customers.”

“Most companies do service agreements, but they'll make it almost impossible for that person to cancel, so we honor our service agreements,” he said. “I think our biggest goal is to make sure people know that there's actually two guys that care about their business and care about doing it right for them.”

Now growing to more than 300 recurring customers and servicing Erie and Niagara counties, Tonn and Wickwire were granted the opportunity to create a rodent control program for the city of North Tonawanda’s current rat issues.

“Jerry is a North Tonawanda native, so he knows a lot of the [rodent] hotspots and we did a lot of recon,” Tonn said. “We're going to be drawing up full maps and breaking up the area into quadrants and everything will be mapped out, so it'll be a fully transparent program with the city.”

The two are more than best friends, but “brothers” who want the other person to be successful in life.

“I'm the godfather of his son,” Wickwire said. “A lot of people will say ‘Don’t start a business with your best friend.’ Well guess what? They're not your best friend if it's not working out because we have little disagreements, but we always work it out.”

Tonn said for the next five years, the two are going to “hustle, bust our butts and do what we have to do to be successful.”

“We want to upgrade to brand new vehicles. I know that's not the biggest deal, but again for a small company that’s something we're looking forward to,” he said. “We started with a with a loan that we paid off this year so we're completely out of debt with the company which is awesome. Making more money for us personally on a weekly basis is something that we're always got an eye towards.”