Picture by: LEXA HARDWICK.
By Angela Norval
It has been a time of reflection and celebration for Bug Me Pest Solutions and Carpet Cleaning’s Hayley and Justin as they celebrate eight years in business.
Owner Hayley Kleidon said she and partner Justin Esse had discussed for many years starting a business of their own before taking the plunge.
“We felt with our previous work, which was for both of us very heavily focused on the customer experience, that we could incorporate that well into our own business as this is a large focus of any pest control business, while we also wanted Justin to develop greater knowledge of the industry overall and technical knowledge,” Hayley said.
“Then in 2015, it was as if things aligned and we decided if we were going to do it, no more talking it over but let’s actually do it and within three weeks of that decision, we were up and running.
“Looking back over the last eight years, we, like many, have had ups and downs, but we are glad that we have made the decisions we have.
“Now that we have got Codey and Hamish on board, we can get to our customers much faster, and continue our growth with the hope of employing again soon.
“We really do love Bundy and we hope that we can continue the success we have had to be able to give even more back to our local community, which is a commitment we made when we first began.”
Asked what she felt had contributed to their success, Hayley said it was trying to stay humble.
“Right now, yes, we are very fortunate but I don’t ever forget where we came from.
“We started Bug Me with very few resources at our disposal.
“I was working full-time at that time and many nights we spent with our young son in his bouncer in our garage, which was Bug Me HQ.
“One of the things I often look back at is the late nights designing and printing our flyers and leaflets then the torturous hours of cutting them all by hand with scissors as a guillotine was a non-essential item at the time.
“Back then there was a lot of doubt if things would ever pan out, but thankfully we persevered and here we are.
“We will forever be excited about small business here and always offer support wherever we can.
“We remember in the early days, how difficult it was breaking in, little things like trying to have suppliers take us seriously along with the daunting task of starting to build relationships with other local businesses.
“For us, it was a terrifying concept, but looking back we shouldn’t have been so worried.
“We were lucky to have a few business owners provide us with advice, even people who were some of our direct competitors for which we will always be grateful.”
Bug Me was another business that worked hard to weather the times of Covid restrictions, even going so far as to spending a lot of time apart as a family in an effort to try and keep their customers safe and also offering to pick up small goods on the way to their homes.
“We watched our community as a whole, band together and look out for one another and offer small kindnesses more often.
“We also watched the town rally in support of other local businesses trying to keep their doors open often helping each other with adaptation.
“Our customers have been part of not just our business journey but our journey as a family.
“Our family had just begun when we started Bug Me and since then we welcomed our Thea.
“They say it takes a village and we are very grateful for those that have supported us.”
Looking to the future, Hayley and Justin are excited for what’s to come.
In the past, they have always tried to take every opportunity to continue developing their knowledge and skill set by attending training classes, and industry events, and in the past had Justin travel as part of an Australian delegation to Thailand to visit chemical labs/ manufacturing sites.
“We have started to get back into this having attended the three-day Pesticon conference in the Gold Coast and have a few different training programs for our team already booked in for the remainder of the year.
“We really do believe our ongoing investment into our team and knowledge will not only help Bug Me as a business but our team knows we are invested in them too. “
