R Bunzel

I am a bit a flashlight geek myself. I tried to get Fenix to participate in the last two articles I did but they didn't even respond to my requests. On a daily basis I still use my Streamlight Strions. They are a nice size and do a good job in attics and even closeup don't burn out the areas I am looking at. Once you get over 350 lumens the lights are just too bright for what we do. For a newbie even the cheaper lights work pretty good. Here is a link to my last article http://www.ashireporter.org/HomeInspection/Articles/Flashlight-Shootout-2018/15301

Steven, Glad to see your doing a business plan. The mortality rate of home inspectors is high. 90% don't make it through the first year. Of the remaining 10% half don't make it to the end of their 2nd year. I am sure that if Marc polled his past students he would see similar numbers from his classes. HI is easy to get into but hard to make a living at. Doing inspections are actually a small percentage of your day. Accounting, business development, Social media, establishing relationships with realtors and actually talking to clients all burn up hours in the day. Regarding marketing - go online and educate yourself on Google Adwords. I also do Facebook and Bing. Set a budget and stick to it. My best tip is to create a goodie bag with information about your company , a powerbar, fruit, bottle of water and your business cards. On the weekend I would drive around to the open houses and give our the goodie bag. If no one except the realtor was at the house I would have a 5 minute chat with them. After 5 minutes I would depart. I might followup with an email later in the week. Flyers are trash can fodder so I don't do those and haven't for years. We do notepads and pens and hit our realtors several times a year with trinkets that are designed to hang around for a bit. //Rick