Self-inflicted wounds. I recently wrote a post about this very topic. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realized that there was still much to be said about a problem that many of us, no matter our industry, suffer from. If we’re being honest with ourselves, the more we think about it, the more we come to …
What the Hell is Interdisciplinarity?
As some of you may know, I’ve been back in college now for several years, taking one course each semester in an effort to increase my knowledge and keep my old brain engaged to (hopefully) ward off the gradual mental decline that comes with age. I earned my bachelor’s degree last year (2025) and I am currently working on my …
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 …
Why Should I Change?
Working in your own business can be a very rewarding experience. Unfortunately, those rewards also carry along with them some difficult lessons. One of the most confusing lessons that businesspeople learn is that in order to keep our businesses where we want them to be, we have to figure out how to change in order to stay where we are. …
This Post is Open to Interpretation
Interpret. It’s a strange looking word with a straight-forward meaning. It is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “(deciding) what the intended meaning of something is.” Every word that we provide to our paying clients, what we say, what we email and text, and what we write in our inspection reports is going to be interpreted. And interpreting what we mean …
Avoiding Misunderstandings
Recently, I was writing content for a website, putting together a series of FAQs about the home inspection process. One of the articles was intended to explain to prospective homebuyers why it is important to obtain a copy of the Standards of Practice their home inspector follows. I explained that this document defines the scope of the inspection: what the …
Streamlining Your Business
Customer acquisition. It’s a phrase that most of us had never even heard of, much less thought of, before we became business owners. Now, whether we call it that or not, it’s something that we can’t get out of our mind. Trying to figure out how to get more people to hire us ranks right up there with food and …
I Know Nothing
I am often amazed at the link between our real lives and our jobs as home inspectors. All too often, I will learn a lesson in some area of my life that helps me gain a bit more insight into the world of inspections. This happened recently when I was pondering another milestone in my life and I wanted to …
Why We Should Keep Asking
Starting up any new small business is a difficult task, and running a home inspection company is no exception. Far too often, people trying to get a new business off the ground end up going under. They eventually close their business, the very thing they believed was going to rescue them from a life of mediocrity. They tried their hardest, …
What Was I Thinking?
We’ve already gotten through (what we thought was) the hard part: we’ve made the leap into the home inspection business. Whether we’re in a state that has certain requirements for licensing, or we’ve simply struck out on our own and learned what we think we need to know, we are sure we’re past the really rough part. We’re firmly in …