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Home Inspection Business Plan Home Inpsection Business DevelopmentHome inspection business plans are critical and must be created FIRST. It has been said if you fail to plan you plan to fail. Home inspection businesses are not at all exempt from that rule, in fact I know for a fact they are subject to it. NACHI's web site has some good information. I have yet to meet a home inspector because they wanted to run a business. Fewer still who become home inspectors think about how much time it takes to peform a home inspection or have any idea what it takes to run a business. I bet just about no one starting a business has any idea of what to charge or how significantly it impacts how much they will make. Please look at the these documents (next paragraphs) to see you how many home inspectors spends their day. Other pages show you how all the expenses a home inspector face add up. I'll show you how you can decide what to charge OR how to pick how much you will make a week. I am also willing to bet you will be shocked at what you read. There are a few versions of the program. For the HTML version (no download but not customizable click Time, expences and the impact of pricing on profit. For a better but still NOT customizable PDF version click Time, expences and the impact of pricing on profit in PDF The last option is by a far the better file. Since you will not have the same ideas as I do as to how much things cost you can use the FREE and totally customizable Excel version click Time, expenses and the impact of pricing on profit in Excel (click here). You will fall in love with the Excel version. You will see how all of your own numbers change the total and how different factors change your ability to earn a living as one of the few home inspector who know what it takes to earn a profit. The first exercise I suggest to anyone who wants to start any home inspection business is to get a copy of a five year old yellow page book (yes, a five year old one not a new one) and start calling the businesses listed. I expect out of the first ten calls you make to home inspection businesses five will be out of business, three will be answering machines and two will have a person answering the phone. I further predict only one out of the three messages you leave for a home inspection business will EVERY be returned after all people who are no longer in business can not return phone calls. Why is it that out of ten companies only three are in business after five years? Because only 1/3 of home inspection companies had a business plan! Would you dream of driving from New York to California without a map? If you did odds are you would get lost a few time along the way (unless you brought your GPS). First one would take a large scale map and plot a rough course. Then one would take smaller scale maps and plan stops along the way or bench marks if you will. As one travels the route adjustments will be made. Odds are when the rough home inspection business plan is drawn it will be too ambitious and you will not meet all of your goals. Adjustments to the plan will have to be made along the way or you will drift off course and never make it to your goals. No one in their right mind would think they can sit down and write a home inspection business plan they will stick to 100%. The idea is to write a plan so you have a concept of what to do. As you implement the ideas in the plan you will refine it. After a few years of looking at your business plan it is likely you will see your initial plan was not quite as good as you thought it was. Experience (making money) is a great teacher. Experience (loosing money) is an even better teacher. Why? When you make $200 you can take your spouse out to dinner, enjoy a great meal and feel happy. When you LOOSE $100 you realize not only can't you take your spouse out to dinner you may have day old bread and grilled cheese for dinner the next few nights! Yes, that is a drastic example but it got your attention. I started my home inspection business in September or so of 1993. For the last four months of 1993 I worked day and night (literally). When I had no work I went to real estate office after real estate office begging for work. When the real estate offices were closed I called every realtor whose number I could find (not legal any more) and left messages begging for work. I worked 90 hours a week and ONLY LOST $3,654.33. The first MONTH I had one inspection, yes that is correct ONE inspection. The second month I had 12 inspections. By month three I was up to 19 inspections. During month four I performed 18 home inspections. Funny as it sounds now, I thought that was a good year for a starting a home inspection business. My accountant was shocked to see how quickly my business was growing. All the while I was loosing money. Before you do anything else there are two files that are likely to be the two best files you download this year. These two files are FREE. One file is in a PDF format and the other is in Excel. NONE OF THE NUMBERS IN THE TIME OR EXPENSE CHART ARE "MINE" THEY ARE JUST STARTING POINTS FOR YOU TO APPLY YOUR NUMBERS OR ANTICIPATED NUMBERS TO SEE THE IMPACT CHANGES WILL HAVE UPON THE PROFIT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT EARN. The first page shows you how a typical home inspector spends their week. The second page shows you what type expenses a typical home inspection company faces. The last two pages show you how you can decide how much you want to earn as a home inspector and how hard you will have to work in order to achieve your goal. ONCE AGAIN -- NONE OF THE NUMBERS IN THE TIME OR EXPENSE CHART ARE "MINE" THEY ARE JUST STARTING POINTS FOR YOU TO APPLY YOUR NUMBERS OR ANTICIPATED NUMBERS TO SEE THE IMPACT CHANGES WILL HAVE UPON THE PROFIT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT EARN. For the NON customizable PDF version click Time, expences and the impact of pricing on profit in PDF For the Totally customizable Excel version click Time, expenses and the impact of pricing on profit in Excel. The advantage of the Excel format is you can plug in all of your own numbers if you wish to and see in real time how different factors change your ability to earn a profit. Home inspector classes Home inspector classes Home Inspection Business Part I Home Inspection Business Part Two Home Inspection Business Plan Home Inspection Business Part Four Home Inspection Business Part Five Home Inspection Business Part Six
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