“The Biggest Relief” | Bob Dickason’s Potomac Experience

First and foremost, if you’re going to sell your business you want the best people to sell your business. Potomac 100%, I mean they knocked it out of the park. I mean I get the golf, I get to enjoy my life and I get to forget about pest control because of them.

I found Paul in 2015. I was reading an article in PCT magazine that he had written. I ended up calling him up, he called me back and that’s where it all started.

When you’re speaking to somebody of their caliber, and they’re telling you what they can do for you, and they’re walking you through the process, it just makes you feel really comfortable and they know what they’re talking about. They make you feel very secure in the decisions you’re making because you know they’re making the right decisions in the background.

You know dealing with somebody like me — I mean I give them all the credit in the world for dealing with me because I’m a pain in the ass. You can ask my wife, I’m a big pain in the ass. And these guys, they were total troopers. I mean Paul, the Mex, Erica — all the way through they walked me through this. It was seamless, it was actually easy. The numbers they told me that they were going to get, they got. And it was three times as much as the other companies offered.

Yeah, finished result just a couple weeks ago. So what is it like — this whole experience — would you imagine? Absolutely. It’s uh, you wake up in the morning and you forget about the business. It’s been amazing. Being self-employed, you have to wake up, 24/7 that’s on your mind, you go to bed it’s on your mind. Now that it’s sold and gone and you got the money in the bank, just the biggest relief. It’s just like opening a new chapter. It’s something you know you want to do, something you can do it right now without having to think about the business.

Did you ever feel like you were treated like a quote-unquote smaller business? No, no, not at all. I mean they treated me like a superstar from beginning to end all the way through. If I made a phone call it was answered, if it wasn’t answered I had a call back within 15–20 minutes. I was treated like a 50 million dollar company and that was amazing — that they were treating me that way because they’re the big dogs in the game for brokering pest control deals and I’m glad they worked with me because I’m on the smaller side of the scale.

Thinking back, I mean you’re in your mid-40s — did you ever imagine that you’d be able to you know enter and exit the pest control business and have this opportunity for you and your family? Never, never in my life. And if it weren’t for Potomac it would have never happened because nobody could have gotten the number that they got. It wouldn’t happen. And no, I still pinch myself and I’m really excited about it. I started the business with six thousand dollars, came full circle and made lots of money along the way. And then I sold for an amazing amount of money and that wouldn’t happen without Potomac.