We’ve already gotten through (what we thought was) the hard part: we’ve made the leap into the home inspection business. Whether we’re in a state that has certain requirements for licensing, or we’ve simply struck out on our own and learned what we think we need to know, we are sure we’re past the really rough part. We’re firmly in …
Investing in Your Business
It’s not our fault. Really, it’s not. We were all trained the same way; all indoctrinated into the same mindset by the same school system. As author Seth Godin is fond of saying, we were all raised to be cogs in the wheel of industry. Put the peg in the hole; eight hours a day; five (or six or seven) …
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, …
Guidelines
Guidelines. They exist to help us know what to do in public, in our relationships, as well as in our business. If you’re a professional home inspector, like me, those guidelines will typically include your standards of practice. They may be directives coming down from your state or local government or may be established by the home inspection organization that …
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 …
Peace of Mind
Small talk is a part of each of our lives. It’s defined by Wikipedia as ”polite conversation about unimportant things.” On most days, we all engage in some form of small talk, whether in public or in our jobs, and most of us have our go-to questions at the ready, just in case some small talk breaks out. One of …
Is There a Market for Quality?
Give the people what they want. George Jessel Obviously, as a small business owner, we must follow the advice of George Jessel, and give the people what they want. If we’re trying to sell something that no one wants, there’s an oversized chance that we’ll quickly find ourselves out of business! Unfortunately, too many businesses point to this quote as …
Plan Accordingly
It’s tough to grow a business. If we’re good at what we do, sooner or later, we’re going to be overwhelmed. We’ll be faced with more work than we can handle. Not only will we be doing the actual inspections, the thing we do for a living, but we’ll also have to deal with all the other tasks that come …
Employer or Employee; Which One am I?
As children, we were taught that once we started working, we had our choice of either a blue or white-collar job. For as long as we can remember, that was the norm. You went to school and got a white-collar job, or you skipped school and started working right away at a blue-collar job. We could be a worker, or …
3 Things
What the hell am I supposed to do when this happens? When we’re out there inspecting, running our business, we’re going to be asking the “what do I do now” question a lot. There are always going to be unusual situations popping up, and we’re the one left trying to figure out what to do next. Things happen to us …