I had it confirmed this pm. I have a business partner and tommorrow am I starting the process of incorporating and registering Georgia Wildlife Services. I had initially planned on ducking back home to Alabama to do this but decided I have a much better market right where I'm at and besides us Alabama folks don't have as much need for a WCO, we eat our problem animals back home. 
I have spent the past couple of weeks studying and trying to learn everything I can about getting a small business off the ground. The field work I have no problem with that's all I have ever done and I have excelled at it but the admin part is already giving me headaches. There's marketing, finances, insurance both liability and vehicle for starters, the paperwork required for both start up and day to day, printing, websites (I need an IT guy desperately to walk me through it), purchasing, it goes on and on. But I'm going to do this! No more busting my rump to put money in someone else's pocket I'm going to work twice as long for me this go around.
Wish me luck!

Best of good LUCK!

Best Luck to you !

Yes, there is a lot of stuff. But you will get in trouble over the "stuff", not over the actual work. You get in trouble for not filing the right forms, for not getting all the permits, for not doing this that and the other thing. The actual work is the easy part. Get good counsel and get everything in writing and keep everything. You can get in trouble for throwing out paperwork too soon. You can't get into trouble for keeping it too long. Oh, and the bureaucrat is NEVER your friend, no matter how friendly, and probably actually knows less than you, and will make things up to hide his/her ignorance. Always suggest, politely, but forcefully, "Show me where it says that this or that is required, or is the way it should be done, or..." More often than not, they won't be able to tell you.

Other than that, "You go, Girl" - no gender offense implied.

While it's good to know, this is one of those cases where I would hire an advisor or lawyer familiar with the stuff.  But that's just me.

With that said, Good Luck, and help me get rid of all these damned squirrels eating my stuff!!!

 The best of luck to you. You will excel again
   Paul

I will take issue with Jon on the "more often than not": business.  If you have a question about what you SHOULD do in a regulatory sense ASK the bureaucrat BEFORE you act.  Any competent goverment official should be happy to tell you what the regs require and will give you some cautionary notes as to how to stay out of trouble.  They should also be able to refer you to online or hard copy regs for your line of work.

Too often I have seen hardheads who "did it my way" and then wailed and complained when someone had to clean up their messes.  In response to a complaint I once made a courtesy call to a man and told him that he should not impose lie detector tests upon his employees, quoting the regs.  The dummox talked to a PI who told him "there's nothing he can do about it" and then bitched and moaned when I levied a ten thousand dollar fine on his butt.  He actually took offense when I told him that he had made a stupid move.
Ox

Ox, see that kind of stuff right there is what I want to avoid, thank you very much. Now why would an employer want to put his employees on a polygraph? It is either he is hiring the wrong people to start with or he's an idiot that wants an adversarial relationship with the people that makes his living for him.

Hope it all works out in your favor. Good luck.

Ox, I totally agree: ask before doing. But after 25 years in automotive and watching my wife deal with the building department for longer than that, and my own dealing with the Ag sector, I have the experience to say that a lot of the time they do not know what they are doing, and they very definitely make things up so as not to appear to be ignorant on a given issue. There are some people who are conscientious, knowledgeable, etc., but you cannot operate from that assumption. One local government office has a sign hanging in their lobby to the affect that they will look up info for you, or you can do it yourself, but if they miss something (and they do) they are in NO way responsible, even though they are the official keepers of the info and the supposed experts.

There are rules, regs, bureaus, departments, etc. that you don't even know exist, but they will have a finger in your business life, and often, when they raise their head, your business comes to a halt.

It is basically a "buyer beware" approach to all of this stuff. Certainly wish it was otherwise.

Well so far I have been impressed with the part of our Dept of Ag that I have dealt with. As part of this I am having to upgrade my pest control license. One of the downsides is having to have this license. Here in GA repellants or any other chemical such as deodorizer and disinfectants applied for a fee fall under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Ag and if it is in or around homes it falls under the auspices of the Structural Pest Board. Now here's the real kick in the pants, this is for PCO licensing not WCO. The entire WCO category is a grey area. The critters themselves fall under the Dept of Natural Resources and as such I must hold a license from them in order to handle them (I already have that one) BUT if I use a chemical (other than narcotics/tranquilizers which is a whole nother can of FEDERAL worms) for their control that goes back to the Dept of Ag Structural Pest Board. Here's the rub Structural Pest is just that pest of the structure that have six legs and not four. So I have to sit for a test (Household Pest Control) on termites and roaches just so that I can go after the honeybees in the wall AND sit for a seperate test (Ornamental & Turf) if I want to deal with the hornet's nest in the yard.
Well needless to say I had questions. One phone call got me directed straight to the number two man in the whole friggen dept and he was very informative and polite. As a matter of fact we had a long and pleasant conversation about honeybees (I'm a beek btw) and when I posed a question he could not answer he gave me the direct number of the head man himself which resulted in another pleasant conversation and my questions answered.
To say the least in spite of being concerned about the crazy hurdles (added costs) I'll have to jump to be licensed to operate within the law I am well pleased that the powers that be are so helpful.

Jason, once I get all the legalities out of the way I will be glad to help you with your squirrels. Actually it sounds like you are in need of a maintenance trapping program.
{squirrels population reduction program done on an ongoing or periodic basis as opposed to the one time remove the problem squirrel in the attic/structural seal}
How I've done this in the past is set it up on a quarterly system where I do all the work or in special cases I can teach you every thing you need to know to do it yourself and help you get set up to do it yourself.
PM me if you want to discuss it.

Sure thing!  I'm going to buy a hav-a-hart trap and start trapping and relocating them, which will lead to them dying, but whatever, they're eating all our food, someone has to go!!

I have a jar of peanut butter in the fridge and plan to do a couple rounds of 50/50 balls of peanut butter and plaster-of-paris and stick them to the trees near their nests.  This is supposed to induce a heart attack within a few minutes as well.

I have never been so annoyed with varmits in my life.

Get a good CPA.  They can help you getting your business started and keeping the government off your back.

Vern

Jason, you need to kill the squirrels you catch. It is against the law to relocate them. They are territorial anyway and WILL find their way back or die trying. Experiments were done relocating squirrels 30 miles away and they made it back...took the little rascals a while but they did. Humanely kill them and fry them up. :-)

I prefer the squirrelinator to the Have-A-Heart. It traps many squirrels at once. It comes with a plastic container you fill with water to place the trap in and drown them. I know it's heartless. ;-) Have a Heart catches them only one at a time.

http://wilcodistributors.com/pdf/70202_2010.pdf

Holy cow, that's great, Sue!  Exactly the kind of trap I'm looking for.

Yeah I know I hate to kill them or anything as well but it's them or our figs!

Jason, the pop mixes do not work. By the by it could also get you in dutch with the Dept of Ag if they got wind of it. If you want to do it by the book you first need a license from the DNR, and they offer a free one to homeowners that are good for thirty days. I'm not sure how many freebies you can get in a year though but thirty days worth of intense trapping would knock a dent in their numbers. One phone call to Social Circle and they can steer you straight. In Georgia squirrels are live catch only and relocating does work but must be a minimum of 10 miles. Sorry, svanessa, but an animal that can't remember where it buried the acorn isn't coming back from 30 miles. Sad but true relocation is often a death sentence especially this time of year and even if they did try to come back here in the Metro they wouldn't get far before meeting a set of goodyears.
A good bait for the traps can be mixed up from peanut butter (sun butter if you can find it is better), black oil sunflower seeds, black walnut oil/extract and ground pecans. The trick to catching squirrels is to set the traps where they are (this applies to all animals). Take note of your yard and observe where you see the squirrels. More than likely they are running on elevated structures (no your not going to have to climb a tree). I catch the heck out of them along the tops of fences, deck rails, tops of retaining walls, swing sets, even low tree limbs. For a squirrel height is safety so get your traps elevated. You can fasten your traps (and you should to keep raccoons from toting them off) with screws and washers to wood or bungee cord them to things. The main thing is pick spots that the squirrels are using regularly, most squirrels have a favorite spot to sit and feed if you know those spots you in business. Barring good sets you can create them by prebaiting a spot to get the squirrels coming, but be careful that you don't draw in more than you had to start with.
The best deal on traps out there that is durable for what you want is the Simple Squirrel available from WCS http://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com you want the four inch model. Around 12 and change apeice (if memory serves) and you going to want several, say four to start depending on how fast and hard you want to move on them. On a project like this I usually unload six to eight for starters. Avoid the Havaharts especially the two door model, we in the industry call them havajunks for a reason. The offer still stands for me to come up there and help you out. So far I have given away the store on this but will be glad to eyeball the situation and gives you some site specific plans.
BTW, this comes from having caught a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of squirrels over the last few years. 

Of course I can't find the research paper I read about relocating squirrels and tracking their return but I'll keep looking. And yes a good number of them that were GPS tagged did not make it back due to predation, cars, etc. The study did show they were headed back in the same general direction they came from and a very few even made it. Just a research paper I read online...I'll find it. It was an interesting read.

Can't say for the rest of the country but in Calif property owners are allowed to trap destructive pests on their property but are not allowed to relocate them off the property without permit due to diseases they carry and could spread, etc. They want you to euthanize them. The problem is catching those critters.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7438.html

Each state I'm sure has their own rules so do check with your Ag dept.

Sue

The squirrelinator trap is not designed for our eastern grey squirrel though it would probably catch a few. It is actually designed for the western ground squirrels and the closest we have to them would be our eastern chipmunk. I've looked at this trap before and passed on it because the single catch 4"x4" traps are more effective. Believe me I'm always looking for the better mousetrap as time is money and the faster I catch the critter the faster I move on to the next fee.
Traps that I have used and have had in my arsenal are the standard 4"x4" safeguards (the best of the cage traps IMO), the tunnel trap (not impressed with though they do work), 110 conibears (the duke magnum is my preferred), #0 and #1 foothold both coil and long springs, modified victor large rat traps (not recommended unles you can guarantee a direct blow to the head), glueboards (not recommended except under special circumstances), excluders w/wo attached cages (for removal from structures), snares (not legal in most areas). 

Well, that bit about Squirrelinator is too late, I picked up one new-in-box on eBay for ~$60 shipped.  Will give it a shot.  I'm planning on ordering four of the 4x4 traps this weekend - I already know where to set them or max effectiveness - two of which will be on the main upright supports for my deck.