Greatly increase your chances for success in the home inspection business by having a plan - by knowing exactly what you need to do. Download our 3 page business plan for a fast start.

A typical start-up home inspection company should break even or lose a little money in year one, make a decent "salary" for you in year two, and provide a substantial bonus for you in year three. To make your business profitable in year one, figure out what you need, in terms of new customer revenue, to bring a profit to the bottom line. Use our "Profit Calculator" to determine your fixed costs, pricing and profit potential with your anticipated yearly volume.

Then devote at least 80% of your resources - your time and money - to achieving that new customer revenue goal.

The key is to follow a program that breaks long-term goals down into shorter-term objectives and finally specific tasks. Each individual task should be something that can be accomplished fairly quickly.

In terms of your marketing objectives, for example, individual tasks might look something like this: (1) Stop by three offices and leave brochures. (2) Call up such-and-such group and see if they would like to have you give a talk. (3) Buy a quarter-page ad in the real estate section of the local newspaper.

The 5 basic Secrets To Success:

1. Business doesn't happen until you make the first sale . Buying office furniture and printing cards doesn't make the business go. Selling the service does. Yes, there are some initial preparations you need to make - but until you have that first check in hand, all you're really doing is spending money. So don't wait until every last piece of the puzzle is in place, get out and start getting the rejections over with. Tackle your greatest fears first, they might not be as bad as you thought.

2. The single most effective way of staying in business is to package your inspections at a higher precieved value than your competition.

Trying to enter into the market at a price point that you can't sustain at low volume makes no sense unless you have a small fortune to back up that type of strategy. The package is all about "PERCEPTION" From marketing materials, services offered, to your qualifications to the vehicle you drive up in. Take a look at the bigger franchises for a good idea of where your priceing needs to be to make a profit. These types of businesses are experts in packaging and perceived value.

3. Since the home inspection startup model is "You" the personality, make sure that you have an exit plan. Many businesses - especially those built around the personality or drive of a single person - depend for their growth on the commitment of the founder. Make sure your home inspection business model can expand with the addition of more people - but not more of you. Your plan could even be as simple as selling out at a certain point or the accumulation of assets separate from the business entity.

4. Focused effort may not be more effective than a diversified approach to the home inspection business model. Home inspectors tend to fall into two groups: those who focus on one project at a time and those who spread themselves out on many projects. The focused approach allows you to acquire mastery faster. The diversified approach gives you more balance. I've done both. And although I'm naturally inclined toward the focused approach, without the balance and openness of diversification your business will be one dimensional and growth will be much slower.

5. Pareto's Principle (the 80-20 Rule): 80% of your success comes from 20% of your resources. Most of the success/income/satisfaction you will get in your career will come from a small portion of your skills/projects/efforts. That's way it always makes more sense to work on your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

Make it a habit to ask yourself, "Where am I getting most of the benefit here?" and compare that to where you are putting in the most work. To do this effectively you must have a systematic way of measuring results in each of these areas. By impoving each area by just a small percentage will increase your overall