Chet Rowland: From Dead-Broke
"Bug Guy" To Info-Marketing Millionaire!
Here's a story with a happy ending...
In 1985, Chet Rowland was ready to toss in the towel. Rowland, the owner of Chet's Pest Control, in Tampa, Florida had just spent the last 2 years working literally night and day to get his second office in Orlando, up-and-running.
And when you're running a pest control operation in Florida, this kind of work involves brutal labor.
Besides battling what's probably the fiercest competition in the country -- in Florida, nearly every unemployed worker, ambitious teenager, and even the lazy drunks, buy themselves a container of bug spray, stick in on the back of their pickup truck, and then presto-change-o, all of sudden they're all Pest Control Operators.
Plus, scrambling up the sides of houses, climbing on rooftops, and digging through attics, isn't exactly easy underneath the scorching Florida sun, where the daily average temperature is in the upper 90's between May and October.
But Rowland, who was used to things NOT coming easy, took all this work in stride and kept his focus on the end goal, which was to build his operation into a state-wide powerhouse.
Here's the problem though: just as things were finally starting to gel for Rowland, he finds out the manager of his Tampa office, has been falsifying bank reports and robbing him blind behind his back, and while it looked like things in Tampa appeared to be running smoothly , in reality over the last 9 months, Chet's Tampa operation had lost well over $500,000 Dollars.
Since Chet had been thinking about making his manager a partner, he was devastated not only emotionally, but at this point, financially as well.
Chet had to make a very difficult decision, that in actual fact, turned out to be the smartest move he made. He knew, in order for his Tampa operation to survive (he had been in business at that point, for 21 years), he needed to be there physically, to build it back up.
In order to do this, he would have to basically toss the last 2 years of his life out the window, and shut down his Orlando operation.
Shortly after Chet shut down his Orlando operation and moved back to Tampa, he stumbled across an unusual direct marketing piece he received in the mail. Something about the piece caught his eye and Chet had a gut feel he needed to start pursuing this kind of marketing for his operation. So, he began enthusiastically reading up on direct marketing, and studying different emotional direct-response styles, to try and figure out how to use this kind of marketing in his operation.
At the time, even though Chet's business was doing pretty well, he had the same problem most small business-owners had: He was eating, sleeping and drinking the business, 24/7, and his lifestyle wasn't the one he wanted not by a long-shot.
And so, like most things in Chet's life, the road to riches using direct-response, didnt come easy either.
After getting involved with a number of supposed gurus who promised him the world on a silver platter, but delivered nothing but empty promises and broken dreams, after 3 years, Chet had nothing to show for it but $75,000 worth of Marketing Suggestions, with no clear-cut plan of how to implement anything, in sight.
At this point, Chet was tired but not beaten. He knew using direct-response in his business was the ultimate way to make things work the way he wanted them to, and so, he continued moving forward, studying, reading and trying to design an ad here and a marketing piece there.
In 1997 he became a subscriber to the No B.S. Newsletter and became actively involved with my platinum groups. Hearing similar stories from other business-owners, and seeing how like-minded people were able to make incredible progress using direct-response, Chet began picking up ideas to use in his own business.
After 6 months, he started sensing the missing ingredient to his promotions, was in the sales copy, and he began hiring a series of copywriters to test the waters and try and figure out the most effective way to grow his pest control operation beyond where he was at the time.
Well, the good news is, Chet's hunch wound up paying off
Big Time!
Lets roll the clock forward, and see what has happened: Today, Chet lives in a sprawling lake-side home he owns several million-dollar plus condominiums on the gulf in Clearwater Beach and he's leveraged his knowledge of how to use directresponse marketing into his own information marketing business, helping struggling pest control operators who are in the same place in their business, Chet once was.
You see, once Chet finally found the missing link, his pest control operation took off like a rocket ship!
His revenues doubled in just two years he cut his costs literally in half (Rowland was able to let go of HALF his staff once he got the proper marketing systems in place) and most importantly after working like a dog for 27 years, Rowland was effectively able to retire.
Its true! Chets systems are so effective and idiot-proof, he no longer has to come to work any more.
Now, instead, once a week, Chet's office manager faxes him 5 or 6 reports detailing critical facts, figures and ratios about his business, and unless he needs to make any adjustments
Chet Just Sits At Home Working On All His Other Business Opportunities!
Chet's PCO Millionaire business (www.PCOMillionaire.com ) is now growing by leaps and bounds using the same direct-response marketing he used to grow Chets Pest Control.
Not to mention, Chet also parlayed all the earnings from his pest control operation into several very lucrative real estate deals.
Who knows, maybe Chet's next info-product will be How To Successfully Buy And Sell Pre-Construction Condominiums And Make A Bundle!
One things for sure -- his days of being an overworked and dead-broke bug guy are l-o-o-n-g gone!
