Starting over after more than two decades in the same career isn’t easy.
For Tyler Batt, owner of Elite Pest and Termite AZ, starting his own pest control company meant leaving behind the security of a job he’d held for 21 years and stepping into something completely unknown.
The fear didn’t magically disappear.
He simply decided it was worth doing anyway.
Today, Tyler is building Elite Pest and Termite AZ around something that matters deeply to him: creating a local company Queen Creek families can trust while building a legacy for his own family and employees.
An Arizona Native Who Calls Queen Creek Home
Tyler was born and raised in Arizona, growing up in Mesa before moving to Queen Creek more than 20 years ago.
At first, he remembers wondering why so many people were moving farther out to Queen Creek.
Then his family made the move themselves.
“We just fell in love with the area,” Tyler says.
For Tyler, his wife, and their four children, Queen Creek became home.
He especially appreciates the community’s family-oriented atmosphere and the relationships that come from living and working in the same place.
That connection to Queen Creek would eventually become an important part of the business he built.
Falling Into the Pest Control Industry
Pest control wasn’t exactly Tyler’s childhood dream.
In fact, he never imagined himself working in the industry at all.
“It was just something that I fell into.”
While living in Utah, a friend invited Tyler back to Arizona to work for a new pest control company. What was supposed to be a part-time summer job turned into something much bigger.
Tyler enjoyed the work enough to stay.
He spent a couple of years working as a pest control technician before eventually moving into the office and becoming a general manager.
The longer he worked in the industry, the more he loved it.
Now, after more than two decades, Tyler jokes that some people might call him a pest control “geek.”
Taking the Leap After 21 Years
For years, people asked Tyler the same question:
Why don’t you start your own pest control company?
He thought about it.
But thinking about starting a business and actually doing it are two very different things.
“I was afraid to take that leap.”
Tyler had spent 21 years with the same company. He felt secure and believed he was being taken care of, so walking away from that stability was difficult.
Eventually, circumstances began changing. Tyler learned the company might be sold, and he knew he didn’t want to spend the next chapter of his career working for a large national company.
So he went home and talked to his wife.
After more than 20 years in pest control, Tyler realized he potentially had another 20 years ahead of him.
Why not spend them building something of his own?
“So we jumped and took the leap.”
The Fear Didn’t Go Away
One of the most relatable parts of Tyler’s story is that he doesn’t pretend entrepreneurship suddenly made him fearless.
“I didn’t overcome the fear.”
Instead, he learned to move forward with it.
His wife became one of his greatest sources of encouragement, reminding him that he knew the pest control industry, understood customer service, and had the motivation to make the business work.
He also surrounded himself with people who genuinely wanted to see him succeed.
The fear, Tyler admits, is sometimes still there.
But now he knows fear doesn’t necessarily mean you’re making the wrong decision.
What No One Tells You About Starting a Business
Before launching Elite Pest and Termite AZ, Tyler heard plenty about the benefits of entrepreneurship.
People told him how great it was to own a business and encouraged him to start one himself.
What they didn’t talk about nearly as much were the hard parts.
“Nobody actually sat you down and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to have some times where it’s hard.'”
Owning a business brought stress, uncertainty and plenty of moments of self-doubt.
There were times Tyler questioned his abilities and wondered why he’d chosen this path.
His advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs is to understand that those moments are part of the process.
“It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be hard. You’re going to doubt yourself.”
But those moments pass.
And for Tyler, the rewards have made the difficult days worthwhile.
A Business Lesson Learned the Hard Way
Tyler is also candid about one of the biggest mistakes he made when starting Elite Pest and Termite AZ.
His original business partnership grew out of a friendship.
Looking back, Tyler says they approached the relationship as friends instead of taking enough time beforehand to examine what working together as business partners would actually require.
Once the realities and sacrifices of entrepreneurship set in, the partnership wasn’t the right fit.
It became one of Tyler’s biggest learning experiences.
His takeaway?
Excitement isn’t enough when you’re starting a business with someone.
You also have to have the difficult conversations about responsibilities, expectations, sacrifices and what happens when things don’t go according to plan.
Why Owning His Business Has Changed Family Life
Despite the challenges, entrepreneurship has given Tyler something incredibly valuable:
His time.
“My time is my time.”
When he worked for someone else, his schedule ultimately belonged to his employer. Even with a supportive company, there were obligations he had to meet.
Now Tyler can structure his schedule around his family.
He can spend time with his wife and kids, leave town when necessary, help someone who needs him, and be present for moments he might otherwise have missed.
That freedom has become one of the biggest rewards of owning Elite Pest and Termite AZ.
Building Something Bigger Than Himself
Tyler’s motivation has changed as the company has grown.
He isn’t only responsible for his own family anymore.
Elite Pest and Termite AZ now has an employee whose family also depends on the business.
Knowing someone else’s livelihood is connected to the company’s success gives Tyler another reason to keep pushing forward.
His long-term vision goes even further.
Tyler hopes Elite Pest and Termite AZ can someday become something that is passed down to one of his children or perhaps to an employee who becomes like family.
He wants the business to create opportunities—whether that’s a career within Elite, another location, or even helping fund one of his children’s future ventures.
For Tyler, success isn’t simply about building a larger pest control company.
It’s about building something that can continue benefiting people long after him.
The Best Part of His Day? Meeting Customers
Despite all the responsibilities that come with owning a company, Tyler still genuinely loves the customer-facing side of pest control.
“I enjoy my customers.”
As a smaller local company, Tyler has personally met every Elite Pest and Termite AZ customer.
He’s often the person who arrives for the initial service, and customers even have his personal cell phone number.
He loves hearing people’s stories, gaining their trust and helping solve problems that have been causing stress inside their homes.
And sometimes customers send him pictures of bugs they’ve smashed so he can identify them.
That doesn’t always go according to plan.
Sometimes, he laughs, there’s simply not enough bug left to identify.
The Customer Tyler Will Never Forget
One customer in particular reminds Tyler why trust matters so much in the home service industry.
An elderly woman in her 80s was dealing with a rodent problem and had already been receiving help from someone else when she was referred to Elite Pest and Termite AZ for another opinion.
When Tyler evaluated the situation, he believed she was being taken advantage of.
His team was able to address the problem properly, save her a significant amount of money, and—most importantly—give her peace of mind in her own home.
The relationship stayed with Tyler because she reminded him of his own grandmother.
For him, that’s what being a local service company should look like.
It’s not just about eliminating a pest problem.
It’s about making sure someone feels safe and knows they have a company they can trust.
Why Supporting Queen Creek Businesses Matters
Having lived in Queen Creek for more than 20 years, Tyler has watched the community grow dramatically.
Through it all, he believes there’s something special about supporting businesses owned by people who actually live here.
Local business owners, he says, often make sacrifices customers never see.
They’re supporting their families, employing other local residents, investing in their communities, and trying to build businesses that will remain part of the area.
“I personally think that local companies will take better care of you because they’re in the area. They know the area. They know the people. They live here.”
And there’s accountability that comes with that.
Your pest control technician isn’t someone from a faceless national corporation.
He might be the guy you run into at the grocery store next week.
What’s Next for Elite Pest and Termite AZ?
Tyler’s vision for Elite Pest and Termite AZ is ambitious, but it remains rooted in Queen Creek.
He hopes to grow the team, expand the company’s fleet, and eventually establish a dedicated office location.
But he doesn’t envision that office simply as somewhere employees clock in and out.
He’d love for it to become a space that can also support local events and bring people together.
Most of all, he wants Elite Pest and Termite AZ to become a familiar local name.
A company Queen Creek residents recognize.
A company they trust.
And, someday, a company capable of creating opportunities for the next generation.
Building a Legacy in Queen Creek
Tyler spent more than 20 years becoming an expert in an industry he never expected to enter.
Then he took everything he’d learned and bet on himself.
It wasn’t the perfect time.
The fear didn’t disappear.
There were mistakes, difficult days and lessons he couldn’t have learned without experiencing them himself.
But there was also more time with his family, deeper relationships with customers, opportunities for employees, and the chance to build something that could eventually outlast him.
When Tyler needs a reminder of why he started, he looks to the person who encouraged him to take the leap in the first place: his wife.
She reminds him of their original vision—to build something meaningful that could become a legacy for their children and the people who help them grow it.
And that’s ultimately what Elite Pest and Termite AZ is becoming.
Not simply another pest control company, but a local Queen Creek business built around family, relationships, trust, and the community Tyler has called home for more than two decades.
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