One of the biggest concerns (especially for new small business owners) is how to stay competitive with their pricing. They think that if their prices are too out of line with what “everyone else” is charging, they’ll end up losing business to their cheaper competitors. Nothing could be further from the truth. Think about it. If price was the only …

We all know that there are important areas in our life that need to change. If we’re honest with ourselves, we already know that the question is not whether we need to make those changes, but rather do we have the courage necessary to do so. The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you …

Be skeptical, not cynical.

I’m currently reading a book that’s blowing my mind, offering guidance that’s undoubtedly going to make a difference in my business. And it was written in 1915! The book is The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie. If you’ve never read anything by Dale Carnegie, obviously some of the language and references can seem a bit dated (hell, it’s …

There’s an old saying that tells us to dress for the job we want, not the job we have. The same type of thing can be said about building our small business. We should operate like the business we want to become, not the business we currently are. Actions develop into habits, habits constitute character, and character determines destiny. Dale …

It’s easy to show up. It’s easy to do our job. It’s easy to check the boxes. It’s easy to take our clients’ money. It’s easy to be there in body but not in spirit. It’s easy to be just another person running a business. The hard part is actually trying to do something that matters. Going above and beyond …

As home inspectors, it’s important for us to remember that we are going to have an asymmetrical relationship with our customers. We meet new client and sees new houses every single day. The inspection that we do tomorrow morning is simply going to blend into the background with the other hundreds/thousands of inspections that we’ve already done. That client will …

It’s not something we often think about, but we are obviously products of our environment. Everything we do is geared toward optimizing for speed. We try to get everything on our to do list done as quickly as possible. So we can move on to the next thing… That’s not really a bad thing, as successful people get lots of …

It’s important to have standards in our business, knowing exactly what we will and won’t do for money. While we’re sometimes tempted to deviate from those standards (especially when large dollar amounts are involved), its important to hold our moral ground. If we make the choice to do something that we’ve already decided we’d be better off not doing, chances …

It doesnt matter how much we know about our jobs, how much we learn, or how many books we read, if we’re not also students of business. Knowing how to do a good home inspection is pointless if we don’t also know how to run our company. A small investment in developing our business skills can pay dividends long after …