About Jonas Olson

Where He Started

Jonas grew up the youngest of four competitive siblings, working on a farm and wrestling. He says that background still drives how hard he pushes.

In 2008 he started a lawn care business on the side while working out of town during the week for the carpenters union. When his first daughter was born in 2010, he left a union job that paid about $30 an hour with benefits to run the lawn company full time.

At about 200 customers he was still running everything on paper. He moved the business onto Service Autopilot and joined a coaching group led by Jonathan Pototschnik, paying for it on a credit card because the business was only doing about $250,000 a year. About a year to 18 months later it passed its first million, and he grew the lawn company to about $3 million.

The Bet on Pest Control

When COVID shut much of Michigan down in 2020, Wisconsin stayed open. For a few months Jonas drove two hours into Wisconsin every morning to work and two hours back. He decided his next company would be pest control, for its recurring revenue, steadier cash flow and year-round work for his people.

In June 2020 he started Turf Badger, the company that became Pest Badger, with a white F-150, a 250-gallon skid sprayer and enough product for the week. He had never really knocked doors. He sold the first house he tried, ended the first day with about four customers and finished the first season with 400 to 500. In 2021 he sold the Michigan lawn company to go all in.

How Pest Badger Grew

Jonas recruits people before he needs them. One of his first sales hires went on to open new locations and now oversees nine of them. Finding a COO who could turn his ideas into systems, and building an inside team to own every customer from first call to renewal, let the company grow past what any one person could run.

At Pest Badger, technicians can become branch managers, branch managers can become regionals and regionals can become owners. Jonas even learned to fly so he can spend the day in a branch instead of on the highway.

Sharing What He Learns

Jonas hosts the Pest Control Millionaire Podcast, co-founded Pest Control Millionaires with Jake Sheldon and Dan Leibrandt, and co-wrote Zip Code Kings. He has been a guest on 19 other shows, and Pest Badger's YouTube channel has 153K subscribers.