As professional home inspectors, our job is to let buyers know what’s wrong with the home they’re considering buying, as well as what might go wrong in the not-too-distant future. The very nature of our job, to be the bearer of bad news, puts us in a precarious position. If a purchase agreement falls apart after the buyers hear the …
Self-Inflicted Wounds
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. Regardless of where we inspect or how long we’ve been at it, the more we think about …
What Did We Expect?
We all go into business with certain expectations. We imagine that we’ll make a lot of money. We expect to work with the best people in our industry. We anticipate that we’ll have scores of frenzied clients, posting to social media, raving about how great we are. And we’re certain that the number of problems that we’ll encounter will be …
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 …
Swimming Upstream
Starting out in the world of small business is difficult. When we’re just beginning our home inspection journey, it seems like the list of things to do is overwhelming. New business owners, especially ones that are trying to run a business for the first time, are faced with a seemingly endless number of options. Quite often, there are so many …
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 …
What the Hell
When I was young, if you’d asked me if I wanted to grow up to be a home inspector, my first reply would’ve probably been “What the hell is a home inspector?” Then I would’ve probably given you a standard young boy’s response about wanting to be a doctor, astronaut or professional football player. Working as a home inspector had …
Never (Having to) Say You’re Sorry
As I recently celebrated my 54th birthday, I was surprised to receive a gift that I had not been expecting. Responding to a knock at the front door, my daughter was shocked to find a sheriff’s deputy standing there, waiting to serve me with a lawsuit. While it wasn’t on my wish-list, that was one birthday surprise that will be …
Real Estate Agents versus Us
As we’ve touched on many times in these articles, it’s imperative for a small business owner to stay current on the constantly changing landscape of their industry. Continuously educating yourself is almost a requirement if you’re to have a chance to remain relevant in your niche. Being part of the digital age has certainly made it easier for us to …
The 7 Pitfalls of Small Business (conclusion)
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 …