This article is the second part of a two-part series. Click here to read part one. Running a small business can be a wonderful experience, bringing with it a sense of excitement and fulfillment when things go right. At the same time, things don’t always go the way we’ve planned. When things do go wrong, those feelings of happiness can …
The 7 Pitfalls of Small Business
I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this article, the odds are pretty good that you’re running your own business, quite likely as a professional home inspector. It’s also likely that you’ve held down at least one “real” job before becoming a small business owner, spending your valuable time working for someone else. You’ve probably felt the frustration of …
Working on Your People Skills
Think about the last time you spent an evening at a restaurant with some good friends. Was it an enjoyable experience? Can you remember all the details? How nicely was the food presented? How professional was the service? How clean and comfortable was the restaurant? Was the noise level acceptable, enhancing the meal? Overall, did you have a pleasant experience, and will you …
Give a Little Bit. 5 Things I’ve Learned About the Home Inspection Industry
As home inspection professionals, we are expected to provide our paying clients with enough information so they can make a more informed decision about whether or not to purchase a particular property. It’s an enormous responsibility, and one that every person that considers themselves a professional home inspector must take seriously. Long ago, this was a difficult task to achieve, …
Your Permanent Record
If you’re of a certain age (i.e.: old like me), you probably remember being a kid and getting “corrected” for doing something wrong. Back in those days, correction probably involved some hard object finding its way onto your backside, often in a swift and repeated manner! But regardless of whether or not your correction involved borderline child abuse, you were …
Lessons Learned
We all know that exercise is good for us. It helps to keep our bodies (and our minds) healthy as we age. Unfortunately, for many of us, making a conscious decision to exercise is difficult. It’s easy to reason that, instead of exercising, we could be working and making money, or relaxing from all the work we’ve already done (and …
Some (of the) People. Dealing with Unhappy Clients
There’s an old saying that applies to customer satisfaction in your business. Is says that if you make an honest effort, you can please about 90% of your customers. Of the remaining 10% of your customers, it will take twice as much effort to please half of them. Of the remaining 5% of your customers, it will take twice as much effort …
Don’t Be Scared
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, …