As business owners, we often find ourselves faced with important decisions that are going to affect the future success of our business. And all too often, those decisions involve choosing between something that we know is right or something that we know will be profitable. We’re either going to gain someone’s respect, or we’re going to make a bunch of …
Above and beyond
As professional business owners, we all have some standard that we operate by; some set of guidelines that we put out there so that our clients know what it is they’re actually getting when they hire us. Typically, these principles are provided to our clients in one form or another, either printed out in some sort of list or outlined …
Fishing for Success
Good news! We’re currently in a booming real estate market! While this information will come as no surprise to those of us that have been working as a home inspector for more than a minute, and the bottom is certain to eventually drop out (so be prepared), being in the middle of a boom time does make for some increasingly …
Hell Yeah
We’d all like to be more decisive in our lives. While some of us are blessed with the certainty gene, most of us are pretty wishy washy when it comes to making decisions. We think about it. We debate. We hem and we haw. We say we’ll think about it. Then we think about it some more. Whether we end …
Now and Then, Too
This is the second part of a two-part article. The read the first part CLICK HERE Obviously, self-assessment is an important task and should be performed by all business owners on a regular basis. We should be evaluating our overall situation, examining our long-term goals, and figuring out ways to reach them. We should be setting milestones, figuring out the …
Now and Then
There are many things to deal with when starting and running a small business. While it’s certainly important to keep our attention on the daily processes involved in running our business, it’s also vitally important that we spend some time and energy planning for the future. And while planning ahead is key in running a successful company, it’s also crucial …
Riding Out the Storm
Eternal optimism. It’s one of the most important traits that a small businessperson can have: the belief that, against all odds, we’re going to be successful. We know that most small businesses fail within the first two years. But we’re going to buck the trend; we’re going to be the one that makes it! It’s good that we’ve got a …
What Do You Want?
It’s a fact of life: we’ve all got to work for a living. One way or another, we’ve got to do something to make money. It’s hard to live in today’s world without an income. If we like food, shelter, and the creature comforts available in our modern world, we’ve got to figure out a way to earn money to …
What’s Going On Here?
Face it, we’re an unknown. The dreaded home inspector. The deal killer. (And yes, one of my agents actually calls me that…) The agents think we’re there to cause trouble; to create hurdles to them closing the deal. But the buyers, they really have no idea what we’re there for. They know that their agent told them they had to …
Practice Makes Perfect
While a good percentage of our lives are spent working (probably too high a percentage), we all have things that we enjoy doing when we’re not at work. Hobbies, pastimes, interests, or diversions; whatever we call them, we all enjoy a little downtime every now and then. Whether they involve time with people we love or time alone to ourselves, …