Business Success Tools for Multi-Inspector Firm Owners

The following are some things that are particularly helpful for multi-inspector firms:

• InterNACHI^® offers multi-inspector firms a huge discount for additional inspectors to join InterNACHI^®. Memberships for additional inspectors of a multi-inspector firm are only $100 each per year.
  
  
• InterNACHI^® offers a multi-inspector company dashboard where you can keep track of the educational progress of your employees. This dashboard provides the membership renewal date, education transcript, CPI status, and visibility for each employee, plus the option to view their educational progress, and download their certificates.  To setup your company dashboard, email fastreply@internachi.org with your company name and a list of your inspectors.
  
  
• It's important that all of your inspectors are getting their inspection agreements signed before performing their inspections. InterNACHI's Online Agreement System makes that easy by allowing your office staff to receive an instant notification when the client has signed the agreement, and allows them to check the signed status of your company's agreements. You can even add your company logo to your fully-editable agreements at www.nachi.org/onlineagreement
  
  
• If you have more than one partner in your home inspection company, you can use InterNACHI's sample template of an operating agreement for LLCs with more than one member.  Find it here:   www.nachi.org/home-inspection-llc-operating-agreement-templates
  
  
• Find out what each of your clients thinks about the particular inspector who performed their inspection by using InterNACHI's Client Satisfaction Survey: www.nachi.org/survey
  
  
• If you don't want your inspectors personally handling any complaints about the inspections they've performed, InterNACHI's free online Issue Resolution Service is something you may want to consider: www.nachi.org/issue-resolution
  
  
• Hiring additional employees?  Use InterNACHI's Employment Agreement, which contains a non-compete clause. This agreement assumes that your employee is going to be a legal employee, and not just an independent contractor.   www.nachi.org/employmentagreement
  
  
• Hiring additional inspectors?  InterNACHI's Independent Contractor Agreement should be used when you retain people who are not going to be your employees: www.nachi.org/independentcontractoragreement
  
  
• You should delineate your employees' rights, responsibilities, and terms of employment with InterNACHI's editable Employee Handbook Template for Multi-Inspector Firms.  It includes provisions for:  defining the terms of their employment; wages and salary; holidays and paid time off; workplace accommodations; confidentiality rules; employee complaints; guidelines for protecting intellectual property; and more. Download it at www.nachi.org/internachi-employee-handbook-template
  
  
• Taking out a potential hire on a real inspection? Onsite training shouldn't come at an unintended cost for your multi-inspector firm, especially in a job that's fraught with built-in risks of injury and mishaps.  Use InterNACHI's Ride-Along Release when mentoring or training a non-employee: www.nachi.org/release-for-ride-alongs
  
  
• As a multi-inspector firm, you should use press releases to make official announcements about your company. Some good uses include:   introducing new inspectors to real estate agents; when one of your inspectors has earned a new training accreditation; when your inspector has joined InterNACHI^®; and when you or your inspector has earned his/her Certified Master Inspector® professional designation. Use InterNACHI's Press Release Template
  www.nachi.org/press-releases-inspectors
  
  
• The life expectancy of a home's systems and components can be subjective.  You don't want your inspectors giving clients different answers to the same questions about service life expectancy.  A strategy to prevent this might include directing all clients who ask about service life expectancy to InterNACHI's Estimated Life Expectancy Chart: www.nachi.org/life-expectancy
  
  
• InterNACHI's E&O insurance company provides discounts for multi-inspector firms.  Our insured inspectors also enjoy free five-year tail coverage, which is especially important for your multi-inspector firm.  Read more at www.nachi.org/insurance-pr
  
  
• If you're going to provide company vehicles for your inspectors, InterNACHI's exclusive deal with the Ford Motor Company can save you up to $8,000.   Learn more at www.nachi.org/ford
  
  
• After bringing a new inspector into your company, you want them to be able to identify themselves properly as a bona fide home inspector.   The easiest way for them to do that is with InterNACHI's free photo ID card.  Have them order theirs today: www.nachi.org/sampleid
  
  
• Most multi-inspector firms are robust enough to offer commercial property inspections, along with residential inspections.  InterNACHI's sister organization, the Certified Commercial Property Inspectors Association (CCPIA), can help your multi-inspector firm enter the lucrative commercial side of inspections.  Join CCPIA now at www.ccpia.org
  
  
• Properly training a new inspector by taking him/her out on real inspections and seeing the same common defects over and over could take months.   InterNACHI's multi-million-dollar House of Horrors^® training facilities are much more efficient at getting your new hires up to speed.  Each house is packed with thousands of defects.  Give us your inspector for a week and we'll give you back a battle-hardened assistant who will be showing your lead inspectors what they missed on their inspections.  And although the House of Horrors^® facilities in Florida, Colorado and Pennsylvania are currently closed because of COVID, they’re expected to reopen in mid-2021.  Learn more about them at www.nachi.org/school
  
  
• As the owner of a multi-inspector firm, you or your administrative staff may want to keep track of your employees' training through InterNACHI^®. You can do this by viewing your inspectors' educational transcripts online.  The transcripts are instantly updated every time the member completes a course. Discover more at www.nachi.org/about-transcripts
  
  
• Someone else at your office answering the phone?  You only get one chance to make a good first impression. InterNACHI's SoundSmart page can help whoever is answering your phone to competently converse with your callers.  It's like having a little helper on their shoulder, whispering in their ear.  Learn more about SoundSmart at www.nachi.org/soundsmartintro
  
  
• InterNACHI's free Fee Calculator helps your office staff bid inspection projects correctly. You can customize the calculator to your inspection company so that your office manager or whoever answers your phone can bid inspection jobs just like you would – not underbidding, and not leaving money on the table.  Check it out at www.nachi.org/fee-calculator-faq
  
  
• You don't want your inspectors to have nothing to do between inspection jobs that have been scheduled too far apart in time, and you also don't want them to be late to an inspection. InterNACHI's free Time Slot Calculator will properly space apart inspection jobs based on their distance from your office and each other, as well as the size and age of the home.  Try it at www.nachi.org/my/tools/time-estimator
  
  
• Technical competence isn't quite enough for a multi-inspector firm.   All of your inspectors need to know how to communicate with your company's clients as well as you do.    Have them take InterNACHI's free online Customer Service and Communication for Inspectors course at www.nachi.org/customer-service-communication
  
  
• Imagine that one of your inspectors is on a job and needs immediate technical help.  InterNACHI's free Emergency Help Forum to the rescue!  It's only for time-sensitive emergencies when an inspector finds something on an inspection and doesn't quite understand it or how to report it.    The Emergency Help Forum is monitored by subject-matter experts 24/7, and your inspectors can upload photos to it and ask questions.  Visit it at www.nachi.org/on-site-help
  
  
• InterNACHI^® has a tagline especially for multi-inspector firms: The Right Inspector, Right Away.^® It's trademarked for your protection and free for your inspection company to use.  Find more information at www.nachi.org/rightinspector
  
  
• Are some clients insisting that you personally perform their inspection, rather than one of the inspectors on your staff?  You might as well charge extra for yourself or your very experienced inspectors.  The best way to do this is to become a Certified Master Inspector (CMI)^® and charge accordingly.  Apply at www.certifiedmasterinspector.org
  
  
• There is some risk (albeit almost none) when sending a new employee to inspect a home full of expensive items.  Rest assured that your InterNACHI^® inspector employees are covered by a free $25,000 fidelity bond.  Find more information at www.nachi.org/honor
  
  
• Having additional inspectors on staff means needing additional tools.   Use your InterNACHI^® discount at Inspector Outlet to outfit your new inspectors with the apparel and equipment they need to help them do their best for your company: www.InspectorOutlet.com
  
  
• InterNACHI^® generates about nine consumer click-thrus to its members' websites every minute. When you add your contact information to your inspectors' member profiles, you increase the places your inspection company appears on InterNACHI's many inspector search sites, and thus the number of inspection jobs they generate.  You can actually watch the number of click-thrus that InterNACHI^® generates in real time at www.nachi.org/inspection-leads
  
  
• Multi-inspector firms are different than single-operator inspection companies in that as multi-inspector firms grow, they need to learn to rely less on relationship marketing.  All your inspectors in your multi-inspector firm must put the company first and market your company, not themselves. Toward that end, they should be using a customized version of the "Now That You've Had a Home Inspection" book, which promotes your company, not your individual inspectors.   Discover how you can have your own custom-branded home maintenance book for only $2.70 each at www.nachi.org/now
  
  
• With more inspectors comes more risk, and more need to manage that risk.   InterNACHI's "We'll Buy Your Home" Guarantee allows you to sleep soundly at night.  Participate in the program at www.nachi.org/buy
  
  
• There may come a time that your geographic market area expands into nearby states.  If that's the case for your multi-inspector firm, rest assured that InterNACHI^® can help you get your inspectors licensed to perform inspections in other states.  InterNACHI's courses enjoy some 1,400 governmental approvals and accreditations, including from the U.S. Dept. of Education.  Visit www.nachi.org/approved for more information.
  
  
• Multi-inspector firms like yours require branding of your company, not for the individual inspectors working for your company.  And that branding has to be consistent throughout all of your marketing.  Allow InterNACHI's team of professional designers help you develop and maintain that consistent branding for your company for free at www.marketing.nachi.org
  
  
• Success for multi-inspector firms relies on constantly adding ancillary inspection services.  You can acquire the education and credentials you need to offer additional ancillary inspection services by taking InterNACHI's free online and accredited courses at www.nachi.org/education
  
  
• As the owner of a multi-inspector firm, you should always be doing that which improves the technical bloodline of your inspectors.  A great way to improve the overall competency of your inspectors is to have them complete any of InterNACHI’s dozens of online course each month.  In addition to becoming better inspectors over time, they'll also be completing courses accredited by the U.S. Dept. of Education.  InterNACHI^® is the only USDE-accredited school in the inspection industry.  Visit www.InterNACHI.edu
  
  
• Most multi-inspector firms have inspectors who specialize and/or are licensed to provide radon and mold testing.  InterNACHI^® members can join the International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants (IAC2) for only $1 per year.  Join now at www.iac2.org
  
  
• Growing your business?  InterNACHI's free online webinars aren't just limited to technical subjects. Our "Filter by Category" allows you to enjoy our business success webinars, many of which are geared to the multi-inspector firm, at www.nachi.org/webinar
  
  
• Before hiring an inspector, why not take him/her out on a few inspections first?  By participating in InterNACHI's mentoring program, you'll get first contact with the most eager new inspectors in your area.  This way, you can choose from the best.  Join our mentoring program at www.nachi.org/mentoring
  
  
• As a multi-inspector firm owner, you're not just an inspector any longer.   You're a businessperson who happens to be in the inspection business.  Take InterNACHI's free online Inspection Business Course at www.nachi.org/become-home-inspector-business-course-101
  
  
• And, finally, if you’re trying to grow your multi-inspector firm, we have the tool for you.  InterNACHI^® Founder Nick Gromicko built BizVelop, a free online business development tool. Try it out at www.BizVelop.com 

InterNACHI^®... home to the biggest and best multi-inspector firms!