As the end of summer nears, many of us are getting our children ready to return to school. Back to school brings many challenges for home inspectors (as well as our kids). Quite often, the real estate market slows down in response to the start of the fall semester, as families hunker down for the new school year and are …
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 …
Is There a Market for Quality?
Give the people what they want. George Jessel It’s an often-quoted line, and it’s typically used as an excuse for doing inferior work. Many businesses fall back on this old axiom to justify providing a mediocre product. They say that they’re only doing second-rate work because that’s all they’re clients want; it’s all they’re willing to pay for; it’s what …
6 Tactics to Increase Success – Part 2
Note: This article is part 2 of a 3 part series. Click here to read part 1. We each come to the home inspection business from different backgrounds, different thoughts and different ideals, but we all share one common goal: becoming a successful small business owner. It’s hard to start a successful small business in today’s dog-eat-dog environment. It seems …
6 Tactics to Increase Success
While we all come into the inspection business with different goals (making more money, becoming our own boss, having more control over our schedule, etc.), the overriding goal of everyone is to be successful. Success in the home inspection industry is dependent on many factors. Some of these elements, like the quality of the homes in our area, are (for …
Getting Better Home Inspection Clients
Get better clients. If we stop to think about it, this simple three-word sentence should be the ultimate goal for anyone running a small business. Better clients offer many different benefits for the small business owner. Better clients are easier to deal with in our business. Better clients force us to produce a better product. But, arguably the most important …
Action, Not Just (Paying For) Words
One of the biggest hurdles a small business owner faces is figuring out how to get clients through the door. Whether your company has an actual front door in a building, or you operate a service-based business without a physical location for customers to visit, the goal is still the same: to get customers to call on you so that …
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 …
It’s Up to You to Let Them Know It’s Important
I’m not sure if it’s real or imagined on my part, but it seems like almost every time I engage in a conversation on a home inspection forum or discussion board, the topic inevitably turns to pricing. What we charge for what we do seems to always be a topic that’s top of everybody’s mind; it’s always on the radar. …
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, …
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