Cole Watts Survived a Life-Threatening Accident to Later Thrive as a Mosquito Joe Franchisee

Cole Watts had always wanted to create something for himself.

Once he graduated from Abilene Christian University--the town where he was born and raised--Watts left home for a job working in an accounting firm, but quickly realized that life wasn’t for him. In 2011, he made the return trip to Abilene to make his way back into the family business, More Clean of Texas, which his father had founded seven years prior.

Still striving to one day become his own boss and take on something he could call his own, he enrolled in Texas Tech University’s graduate program to study horticulture and landscape management to expand More Clean’s platform.

But the leap into taking on a larger role within the family business, as well as the prospects of opening his own business, were put on hold indefinitely when he suffered a serious hunting accident in late 2014. He was shot on the trip and had to endure nine complex surgeries to reconstruct his entire abdominal wall. The injury cost him over a year of physical rehabilitation.

During that time, Watts decided to take advantage of the time in between his rehab and recovery and began to read every business and entrepreneurship book he could get his hands on. It was during this time in his life that he first learned of Mosquito Joe*.

“I wanted to generate some extra income and take on a new challenge,” Watts said. “I fell in love with the Mosquito Joe business model. After I spoke and met with corporate, it felt like a fit. I enjoyed all of the people who cared about their business and what they were doing.”

Mosquito Joe of Abilene would establish itself within the same warehouse the family business called home, giving him an opportunity to get the best of both worlds he sought after. To this day, he still splits his time with the family business.  

It took him over a full year to return to work full time in December of 2015 – and he’s still rehabbing to this day. He officially joined the team in early 2016 and opened Abilene’s Mosquito Joe territory that spring and has since expanded his territory reach to Southwest Fort Worth.

“Some milestones over the past year were being named to Mosquito Joe’s Platinum Club for 2016 and opening up that second territory,” Watts said. “We hit and even surpassed goal last year, so we were proud of that.”

After a full year of Mosquito Joe experience under his belt, and being named one of the franchise’s best rookie operators for 2016, Watts is already looking toward his next challenge. His day-to-day primarily consists of organizing his brand new territory, Mosquito Joe of Southwest Fort Worth, and educating customers on the value of year-round treatment.

“I’m working on big picture stuff right now,” Watts said. “It doesn’t mean that I’m not ever out there spraying either. I’m as good as I can be. I don’t have any more surgeries in the future. Strapping that 65-pound backpack on for a day’s worth of sprays was the best rehab out there for me.”

Today, it’s clear that after a death-defying accident, Watts is making the most of his future, having already successfully become the owner of his very own business. Now, he’s working toward becoming one of the region’s biggest and brightest entrepreneurs.