The price we charge for our services is always a sticky subject; one fraught with tension, anguish, and stress. We worry that if our prices are too high, we won’t get any customers, and if we’re too low, we’re leaving money on the table (and undervaluing our product). What we charge for our services, our price, is a story. A …

There are lots of decisions we need to make when we’re operating a business. The most important of these decisions is choosing the right customer. Our ideal customer will have values that align with ours, appreciate our effort, desire the type of product that we’re delivering, be excited for the opportunity to work with us, and happily pay for our …

Jim Rohn, author and speaker, famously said that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” We should take his advice to heart, and not be afraid to develop relationships with people who are more successful than we are. We’re lifted up by those who’ve gone to where we’re trying to get, and dragged …

In business, as in life, we all have to make choices about how far we plan on going to satisfy our clients (and ourselves). There will be times when meeting spec is sufficient. Deliver exactly what’s needed and move on to something more important. There will also be times, often important occasions and potential turning points in our careers/lives, when …

Our goal, as home inspectors, is to deliver important information. Unfortunately for us, an in-person discussion is often the worst way to do it. Presenting important information digitally (written in a report, recorded on a video, or archived on a website) is a much more effective way to get our point across. If we’re going to interact with someone in …

The only thing that good business owners have in common is that they’re good business owners. There is no specific list of traits or things that you absolutely must do to be a good business owner. Yes, if we look close enough, we will be able to see some similarities in what they’re doing; some patterns may start to emerge. …

We seem to be fascinated by trying to make sure that we create, format, run, and grow our business (and our personal lives) the right way. It can be hard for us to grasp, but there really is no “one right way” that works for everyone. We can try to copy, duplicate, and emulate the success of someone else, but …

The best way to get our business where we want it is to make sure that we’re building a certain type of product that’s tailored for a specific audience. Then we can easily communicate what it is we’re doing and exactly who we’re doing it for. And once we figure out who it is we’re serving, we need to make …

It’s an old and overused adage, but people do business with people they know, like, and trust. For new business owners, we’ve got to remember that the process of developing trust is exactly that: a process. We need to know that this is not something that happens overnight. It takes a while to develop a quality relationship. With this in …

Success in business originates from the same place that supplies success in our personal lives: it’s all about how we deal with our problems. We’re all saddled with problems; it’s how we deal with those problems that dictates how our personal life (and our business life) is going to play out. There are no shortage of problems for us; wait …