Sure Glad Someone Else Did it

        Back in 1995, I found myself out of work due to a layoff. I was delivering newspapers and doing odd jobs to keep the bills paid. Something had to be done. So being a beekeeper and getting calls to kill yellow jackets and white faced hornets, which I couldn't do because I didn't have a license, and being very familiar with wildlife because of a lifetime of hunting and fishing, I decided to start a Pest Control business.
        I started researching what had to be done. First I had to go take a written test, offered by the State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection at the UConn campus in West Hartford., and then an oral exam at DEEP headquarters in Hartford, This was for a fee of $25. OK, that wasn't too bad. I got my General Pest Control license which covers ants, bees, wasps, fleas,  yellow jackets, roaches, bed bugs, etc. Oops, now I have to go take a another test at a different division of DEEP, to get my my Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator's license. Fortunately, that one was free, although I have to pay $100 a year to renew it. Now, I also wanted to be able to do rodents (rats and mice) - another fee, another written test, and another oral exam. OK, now I have all my licenses. Now what?
        Checked further and found out I have to get a Federal tax ID# from the IRS, then I have to register my business with the Connecticut Secretary of State's office. That wasn't hard, except for the $250 "business entity tax" I have to pay every year, along with an annual $20 fee to update my information, even if it hasn't changed. Now, I have all my licenses and I'm ready to go. Hold on, now I find out that I have to register my business with DEEP in Hartford. That's another $240 a year. Now I have to get in touch with AT&T, and sit down with a representative, to discuss a Yellow Pages ad. Can't get much business without advertising. Of course, the phone book only comes out once a year, so I have to wait for that to happen, before my phone starts ringing.
      Next step is set up a meeting with my Attorney to set up an LLC, so I'm protected personally, in case I ever get sued. That cost about $500. Now I'm all set except for getting toolboxes and a ladder rack installed on my truck. There goes another $1200. Of course, I also had to buy pesticide supplies, traps, tools, ladders, etc.
      All this was done before I killed my first wasp or trapped my first raccoon.
     So I guess I really have to thank Obama, because if some one else hadn't done all this for me, I probably would have never started the business.