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 …
3 Simple Principles to Growing Your Business
Running your own business ranks up there as one of the most challenging things most people will ever do in their lifetime. It’s unfortunate, but the majority of those small businesses will end in failure. In the U.S., only about 25% of small business startups make it past their two-year anniversary. While the odds are stacked against new business owners, …
Can We Live With Constant Change?
Unless you’re brand new at this small business thing (and if you are, good luck to you), we’ve all made it through the dreaded start-up phase. We’ve soldiered on, taken our lumps, run the gauntlet, learned our lessons and come out of the other end. We mourn for those who weren’t as lucky as us; the 75% of start-ups that …
3 Things
What am I supposed to do when this happens? When we’re running a business, that question is coming at us all the time. A client wants something different. Something breaks at the most inopportune time. An unusual situation comes up. An associate needs it done yesterday. It always happens at a bad time. It always piles on when we’re already …
Seeing Through the Disguise
Often, when starting out in a new small business, we run into problems. One of our biggest problems happens to be figuring out what type of clientele we want to deal with in our business. There are always two different type of potential clients available to sell our services to: professionals and amateurs. Unfortunately, because we’re just starting out in …