Truly Nolen is a pest management franchise best known for their mouse eared cars. They were founded in 1938 in Miami, Florida and continue to be a family run business today.
Their founding story is great:
The Truly Nolen Company started in Miami Beach during the great depression. Truly (called Daddy Truly by his family) moved from Indiana to Florida to clean houses.
Daddy Truly soon found that winter season homes left vacant during the hot-humid Florida summers; had a number of infestations develop.One being – rats! Rats feeding in the area would move inside the fine vacant homes.
The rats gave Daddy Truly particular concern. He knew from growing up on his father’s rented farm that rats could be easily caught. This meant that the dangerous rat poisons of the day did not need to be used.
So he captured a live rat, and went door to door showing folks that with his service, he could safely catch the rats. His personal attention to customers allowed him to build the dominant pest control business in the south Florida market.
I love stories like this.
Surprisingly, they have more locations internationally than they do domestically.