As home inspection professionals, we are expected to provide our paying clients with enough information so they can make a more informed decision about whether or not to purchase a particular property. It’s an enormous responsibility, and one that every person that considers themselves a professional home inspector must take seriously. Long ago, this was a difficult task to achieve, …
Your Permanent Record
If you’re of a certain age (i.e.: old like me), you probably remember being a kid and getting “corrected” for doing something wrong. Back in those days, correction probably involved some hard object finding its way onto your backside, often in a swift and repeated manner! But regardless of whether or not your correction involved borderline child abuse, you were …
Lessons Learned
We all know that exercise is good for us. It helps to keep our bodies (and our minds) healthy as we age. Unfortunately, for many of us, making a conscious decision to exercise is difficult. It’s easy to reason that, instead of exercising, we could be working and making money, or relaxing from all the work we’ve already done (and …
Some (of the) People. Dealing with Unhappy Clients
There’s an old saying that applies to customer satisfaction in your business. Is says that if you make an honest effort, you can please about 90% of your customers. Of the remaining 10% of your customers, it will take twice as much effort to please half of them. Of the remaining 5% of your customers, it will take twice as much effort …
Don’t Be Scared
We’ve all experienced it. We’ve all gone through it. That customer or vendor that’s causing us all that grief. That person that we would do anything to have never met. It’s an inevitable part of being in business; it’s something that cannot be avoided. Or can it? “Not all customers are created equal.” Tim Ferriss It seems like all of …
The Tip of the Iceberg
No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter how successful your business is, there’s one thing that we all have in common: we all feel a bit of stress when it comes time to tip at a restaurant. Tipping is such an arbitrary thing; it often ends up being a nerve-wracking experience. Why does it have …
No One Can Do It for Us
I know, I know; it’s hard. When you run your own business, finding time to do all the things you’d like to do seems impossible. I was in the same place as everyone else, thinking “I’d love to find the time to upgrade my inspection report.” But, the simple task of running my own business was overwhelming. With scheduling, marketing, …
One (3) of Your Most Important Documents
Without a doubt, one of the most important documents in the home inspection process (or any business deal, for that matter) is the contract. Contracts help set the terms of the business relationship, ensure that the parties know exactly what’s expected of them and provide a legal framework against which any future disputes should be judged. This is the last …
One (2) of Your Most Important Documents
Being a professional home inspector is a wonderful thing. It’s an exciting business, it allows us to provide for our families and helping other people (our clients) can often prove to be a rewarding experience. But, we all must occasionally face the stress of problems in our business. Thankfully for us, a properly executed home inspection contract can help minimize …
One of Your Most Important Documents
Running a small business as a home inspector can be a wonderfully rewarding experience. It’s a unique job that has a lot of perks. We get to be in a different place every day, and not stuck in the same cubicle next to “Gum-smacking Sally.” We get to interact with different people every day, not forced to attend yet another …