Everyone wants be be faster at their job. Even professional home inspectors, who are typically very detail oriented and spend time looking in every crack and crevice of a home, would like to work more efficiently. We’re under a lot of stress during the on-site inspection process, with everyone involved wondering when we’re going to be done looking around (and …
How Far Will We Go
How far will we go to get (or keep) a good client? It’s an important question that all small business owners should ask themselves. For the most part, all clients are good in that they provide revenue for our businesses, and a business will ultimately fail without revenue. But, as everyone who’s been in business for more than a minute …
Crawling vs. Walking
I consider myself to be extremely fortunate. I (somehow) ended up in a career that I really enjoy, that allows me to help others and that helps me provide for my family. I started doing home inspections in 2000, and soon thereafter started teaching other home inspectors (and Realtors) about our industry. I’ve helped inspectors in many different states start, …
Right Place, Wrong Customers
Customers. They’re the lifeblood of any successful business. Without them, we’re just standing around, thinking about how great our business ideas are. Without them, we’re soon on the way to the unemployment line. No business can survive without cash flow, and that means customers. Unfortunately, customers can also be the worst part of our business, often causing untold grief and pain. I’m …
Opportunity and Decision
What do we do when faced with an opportunity? How do we decide what’s our best course of action? What happens if we can’t make the hard decision?
Are We Getting Fixled?
Friday, April 03, 2026. It’s been a few days since Spectora rolled out their misguided attempt to milk even more profits from their “captive” home inspector client base. The backlash against their new “Fixle” product (seriously, you couldn’t have come up with a better name than that?) has been pretty strong. Spectora has even gone into radio silence mode on …
The Complete Product
In business, our success is tied to our abilities. And having the skills to juggle multiple responsibilities at once helps ensure that all those different things come together at one time. The main thing that any business puts together is the product that they’re trying to sell. Our product (for inspectors, that means our inspection report) must be assembled properly; it’s …
Jumping Off a Cliff
Unless we are someone who has completely given up all hope, which unfortunately happens to some of us every once in a while, we are all driven to succeed in our lives and in our businesses. This drive for success motivates us to look for ways to get better at what it is we do, which ultimately pushes us to …
Problems Suck
If you’ve been inspecting for more than a couple of days, it is quite likely that you’ve already encountered a problem. Problems are a way of life for small business owners, and, let’s face it, problems suck. Problems usually mean that, one way or another, someone is extracting a pound of flesh from us. We’re likely going to end up …
The Right Messaging
I’ve recently fallen down a rabbit hole, as I am prone to do, learning about the human mind and all the different ways that our brain receives information. We could easily say that we go through every day of our lives, constantly receiving messages. We spend every waking moment (and some sleeping moments) getting sensory input, receiving useful information from …