I find that everyone’s story is unique and that there are lessons to be learned from each person. However, before speaking to Moshe Kibel of Cincinnati, I would have never imagined the lessons one can learn from someone in pest control.
Bugs. Mice. Rodents. Sounds like fun. But one person’s “feh” is another man’s parnasah—even if he’s still disgusted by them (more on that later).
After a career in chinuch and then trying to land a job, Moshe went into pest control and never looked back. Today, the company he built from scratch serves a multitude of large nursing homes, commercial buildings and residential units across several states.
We spoke about his journey, his surprising business tips, and even some ideas on how to get rid of icky things in your home. He also told me some funny stories.
Enjoy!
—Nesanel
I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the third of eight children. Memphis is a regular frum out-of-town community. Both of my parents grew up there.
“My father, Rabbi Nechemiah Kibel, was in chinuch all his life. First he was a rebbi in Memphis’ Yeshiva of the South. Its rosh yeshivah was Rav Meir Belsky. After the yeshivah closed down in 1984, he continued teaching in the local Bais Yaakov.
“In 1989, he was brought to Cincinnati to start the RITSS high school for girls, and we moved there when I was ten years old. My father ran RITSS until his untimely passing in 2005 at the age of 53.
“I attended the local Hebrew day school and skipped the eighth grade to go to South Bend Yeshiva for high school; then I was in beis midrash for three years. Skipping a grade made sense because there was only one other kid in my class, and they were going to put us back with the seventh graders.
“I wasn’t at all entrepreneurial as a teenager. I was focused on my learning. I enjoyed doing magic tricks, but not as a business. My plan was to go into chinuch and be a rebbi.
“My wife is from Cincinnati, and after we got married we moved to Eretz Yisrael, where I learned in the Mir for three years. I had learned there for two years before my marriage; my rebbi was Rav Yosef Elefant. Then we went to South Bend for a year before I joined the Cincinnati Kollel. All in all, I learned in kollel for about five years until I needed to find a parnasah.
“My first job was working as a salesman for a new type of test to be implemented in schools. The students would scratch off the answer they chose, and they could immediately see if it was correct. I did that for about a year. Baruch Hashem, it didn’t work out, because after that I became an eighth-grade rebbi in the day school.
“My first entrepreneurial venture was arranging a pre-camp camp for the period between school and summer camp. A local Yid had a few boys, and he asked me to head the learning part of the camp. It ran for a few years.
“I enjoyed my time as a rebbi in Cincinnati Hebrew Day School. While I was teaching there, I worked on an app idea I’d had. When you were near a store, the app would give you an alert such as ‘30% off for the next 30 minutes,’ which would encourage people to shop there. I was up every night until 3:00 a.m. working with overseas developers. I raised some money, but it didn’t get off the ground.
“But one good thing came out of the experience. I’m naturally a very shy person, but in order to develop the app I had to speak to stores to get them to participate. I hired a professional salesman who accompanied me, which helped me learn to sell and overcome my inhibitions a bit.
“I then got a job selling wound care to nursing homes and medical facilities. I traveled a lot to present to out-of-state facilities. At the time, I thought that traveling for business was an indication that you were successful. Now I realize that the ideal life is to work close to home and travel for business as little as possible.
“I did that for a year, but there was very limited growth in the company, and they couldn’t afford to keep me on as an employee. Again, I have to say baruch Hashem that it didn’t work out, because it wasn’t a healthy job for me, and I don’t think I would have had the resolve to quit on my own.
“I knew that I didn’t want to work for someone else; it just didn’t suit me. I thought the best idea would be to buy a business. I flew to Chicago to look into a silver jewelry business, but it didn’t seem right. I also applied for jobs left and right.
“Then I got a call from Ronnie Wilhelm, a tzaddik who lives in Cincinnati. He told me he had a relative named Moshe Rokowsky who was in the pest-control business, and he thought it was something I should look into.
“I will share something personal. I am not only disgusted by bugs and mice, but I’ve been afraid of them my whole life. I thought it was a ridiculous idea to get into the pest-control industry, but my wife said I should consider it.
“I met with Moshe Rokowsky and then I drove to Cleveland and trained with him for the summer. It was really hard in the beginning, but I tried to think of it as strictly a business move that would enable me to support my family. Every day we went into places that were infested with roaches and bedbugs. Every day I called my wife and complained, ‘I can’t do this. This is ridiculous!’ I just couldn’t take it. She would reply, ‘Nothing is harder than what I’m doing.’ At the time, we had three-year-old twins, a one-year-old and several other children under ten. ‘If I can be home with the kids, you can do that. At least try it out for a week, and we’ll see what happens after that.’
“To give you some background, my wife and I had stayed in an empty house that was infested with mice before going to Eretz Yisrael. I was going nuts. We laid out traps, and my father-in-law used to come and dispose of the mice that were caught because I couldn’t do it myself. So for me, going into any business related to pests was just crazy.
“After a couple of days of training, I started to realize that Moshe was getting paid for this work and that there might really be something in it. I saw that I was able to block the unpleasant stuff out of my mind and focus on the work. When I returned to Cincinnati, I was ready to open up.
“I knew that in order to start a business, I needed a few people to give me a chance. Ronnie Wilhelm and some other friends had some nursing homes in the area. That was okay, but it wasn’t enough.
“Then Moshe Rokowsky found me a job in Toledo, which is three hours away from Cincinnati. I went to Toledo every two weeks and worked in some really, really nasty apartment complexes. But because they were infested with bedbugs, they paid very well. I used to drive there and didn’t get home until 11:00 or 12:00 at night.
“It was also dangerous. The apartment complex wanted me to come educate the residents about bedbugs and how to prevent them from spreading. I asked them, ‘Why don’t we invite the people in the complex across the street?’ I was thinking that maybe I could get their business too. But they said, ‘No, that’s a different gang’s territory. We don’t get along.’
“I did that for a year, and then the complex dropped the account. I was extremely upset, because they were paying me $25,000 to $30,000 to go there twice a month. Afterward, I realized it was a brachah because it wasn’t safe, but I would have never dropped it on my own. Complexes tend to drop you rather easily. I was able to get other business, though, and it ended up working out well.
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