Smooth Sailing: Gary Weisberg on Growing A1 Exterminators and Partnering with The POTOMAC Company

My name is Gary Weisberg, former president of A1 Exterminators in Massachusetts. My dad had started the business in 1953 and by the time I had a license at 16, my dad was giving me a route in Boston that I had to do and be up early in the morning. There was my dad and one employee, and that was it, and it grew one at a time to the point now that we are just about 100 employees. I could have never dreamt that the business would be the size that it is today.

We’ve always had a good reputation. We stood behind everything that we said that we were going to do, and we would get results where other companies wouldn’t.

So I’m 75 now, I’ll be 76 next month. You start to look at some of your employees that have been with you for 30, 35 years and they’re getting up in age, and you say, you know, what’s the next step — how much longer can I do this? What are my options? So why not kick the tires and see what is it really worth.

Franco and company really did a tremendous job as an intermediary between A1 and the buyer. I don’t think we could have negotiated as good a deal directly without Franco and Paul.

I’m a sailor. I race sailboats competitively. I race out of Newport, I race out of Boston, some long distance races from Marblehead to Halifax, Nova Scotia where it’s 365 miles and you’re about 90 miles offshore. I’ve done Key West Race Week half a dozen times and twice Miami to Havana.

Doing the sale enabled me to buy another race boat. They just finished building it in Turkey and it’s about to be shipped — hopefully we’ll see it in about 2 to 3 weeks.

There’s more work than you think in trying to sell a company. If you try to do it without a broker, I think you’re going to leave a lot of money on the table.