As small business owners, we all have a love/hate relationship with our clients. Obviously, we love when clients are paying money for our services, which (ultimately) pays for everything that we enjoy in life: food, shelter, transportation, vacations, and that new 85” 4K ultra-high-def TV. But we hate it when some of those same clients turn into vile-spewing demons, bent …
A Bird in the Hand
We spend a lot of time marketing our business. AdWords, social posts, videos, cards, brochures, promotional events, sponsorships; you name it, we’re trying it. We spend every bit of our time and resources trying to get another client through the door. Top of the funnel, they call it. If we look at our business prospects in terms of a funnel, …
A Face in the Crowd
Since I operate a school that trains students to become home inspectors, I often get the chance to talk with people who are considering making a career change. Most of them are excited for the opportunities that the inspection industry provides, but as with any life-changing decision, they’re often filled with apprehension. They typically come armed with a long list …
Simple and Hard
We all have a job to do, and with that comes the requirement that we assign a value to what it is we do. How much is what we do worth to us, and how much is it worth to those we serve? Is there a price that we can assign to our services that our clients would be willing …
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 …
Thanks (Giving)
As we bring Thanksgiving week to a close, and I’m finally finishing off (most of) our leftovers, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on some of the things that I’m most thankful for in my home inspection career. All too often, in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, trying our best to keep our businesses on …
Are You a Slacker?
The English language is considered by many cultures as one of the most difficult for an outsider to learn, as words and phrases often have many different meanings. The topic of today’s post, the word “slack”, is one of those words that can have a few different meanings. Most of us immediately imagine something negative when we hear the word …
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 …
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 …
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 …