Soon to be Rookie of the Year?

[cjustason]

Hi all. I'm likely the newest guy on the block. Got a lot of building background, mostly mechanical and commercial. I think I'm ready to charge into this field and can see I got a lot of work ahead. Anyone have any input for me?

[Wayne B. Wilson]

Welcome to NACHI
Great place for information Great guys on here , Lots of views , Keep a thick skin
Before someone points it out put where yur from in your info lol

[dbelmont]

Originally Posted by cjustason

Hi all. I'm likely the newest guy on the block. Got a lot of building background, mostly mechanical and commercial. I think I'm ready to charge into this field and can see I got a lot of work ahead. Anyone have any input for me?

Hi there and welcome. First thing is put your location in your profile. That way when you need help folks will know if their experience is applicable.

You'll hear lots of opinions and the advice about having a thick skin is good. HI's for some reason can get almost religious (and want to burn the heretics).

My advice is don't sell your service on price. And know that your prices will make you a profit when you build your business to a reasonable level of inspections. (very location dependent). You'll find that the common approach is to sell under cost and think that it will gain you market share. Then you can raise your prices later. But it doesn't generally work that way as your real estate agents get used to you being cheap. Raise yor price and say good bye to your referrals.

IMO better to market to consumers as you can offer temporary (limited time coupon etc) incentives that make your service attractive and then can withdraw the offer or modify it since your next client doesn't generally know what you charged the last guy. In a word it''s easier to get your prices up to a profitable level without losing to much trade.

Consume everything you can on marketing. Just reading the members section on marketing is worth the price of admission. You'll find most every idea on home inspection marketing discussed in detail.Keep your money in your pocket when it comes to marketing until you spend a few hours (days. weeks) reading. Marketing will be your life. Especially at first.

Do build a decent website. It's just to useful in so many ways. And done reasonably well will pay for itself many times over. Be careful of cookie cutter sites that will be offered. You want original content, not copies of anyone elses. If you borrow from another site it's called research as long as you take the facts and rewrite to make it your own. If you cut n paste it's plagarism and not very nice at all.

Come here often and ask questions. Even the cranky ones among us are really happy to help (well most of the time).

Good Luck

[cjustason]

Thanks for the encouragement gents. I'm in Iowa and havn't seen much on the web as far as competition goes. Could be good, maybe. Ive started off with the green course due to taking thermal imaging course next month. I really don't see the point in starting without the benefit of IR. U?

[rmaday]

Welcome!

Get a good web site.

Home Inspector Pro will give you 3 months free hosting. Super easy site builder too.

Then it comes down to a few things - marketing, education, marketing, education, marketing, education.

And don't forget to market and educate yourself.

[dbelmont]

Originally Posted by rmaday

Welcome!

Get a good web site.

Home Inspector Pro will give you 3 months free hosting. Super easy site builder too.

Then it comes down to a few things - marketing, education, marketing, education, marketing, education.

And don't forget to market and educate yourself.

Yes, what he said.

And don't forget marketing and education.

[cjustason]

Thanks again. Working on it. Marketing and education seems to be the attack mode.