pmizeres
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Hello Fastlaners, here is some process content related to the 2nd remote businesses I started this year (I'm 56 and semi-retired from my primary business and source of income which is a multi-inspector home inspection business I started 20 yrs ago that is mostly automated). Retirement is boring so I started these fledgling businesses. The other business I just started is posted here.
So this business is targeted to people who want to start or grow a successful home inspection business. Since I've already accomplished that, I thought why not monetize the knowledge I gained in doing it and perhaps scale it beyond what my own inspection business is constrained by - ie we can only perform home inspections within an hour's drive of where each home inspector actually lives in order to maximize profits.
Here are a few things to know about the home inspection industry - the franchising, instruction, how to book, trade group, and reporting software aspect of it is pretty saturated and well entrenched by several larger players so cracking those eggs would require a large capital outlay with questionable returns. It takes a good year to train a new inspector to be technically competent and another couple years for that inspector to penetrate their local real estate market to earn enough to make a living - so this makes it risky to geographically expand one's existing business to other geographic locations AND it is a high barrier to enter the industry as a single operator - certainly not a get rich quick business. Buying someone else's existing inspection business in another location is even more risky since the business assets are the inspectors whom that owner hired, trained, and has a long term relationship with - you the new owner are at risk if those inspectors leave the business as you would no longer have a business.
A few years ago I wrote a 100 page pdf E-manual on how to start a successful home inspection business and tried to sell it online via a website that I created - but to no avail. I then created a home inspection business start up kit complete with a manual reporting system that I myself and my inspector employees had used before switching over to a commercially available report writing software system, and tried to sell that on-line, but again to no avail. So I shelved the idea for awhile until late last year when I listened to MJ's MFL for the first time (I've since re-listened to the audio book 3 times). This sparked me to consider posting YouTube videos about how I created my now passive home inspection business and try to sell my manual and start up kit via those videos PLUS offer consulting for new or struggling home inspectors AND while I'm at it, add web site development and local SEO services to my consulting. I myself was paying $500/mo for a non home inspection industry SEO company to do it for my established inspection business.
I started studying local SEO techniques and got bold enough earlier this year to fire my $500/mo SEO service provider and take over the responsibilities for my established inspection business myself - with excellent results as measured by the increased revenue we started getting from online searches.
I ended up publishing a handfull of home inspector videos in late spring of this year - but forgot about them over the summer while I got busy doing summer projects. But then one day in October someone reached out to me asking for advice in starting a home inspection business. And then I got another request, and then another. So obviously the Google Gods must have smiled down on one of my videos which was now getting some visibility - and sure enough when I checked, the one video had about 800 views to my surprise. That sparked me to publish more videos and to start thinking about holding a FREE seminar for my YouTube channel subscribers - I'm up to 73 now!
When I started receiving actual inquiries for advice and asking how much I charged, I decided to just do it for free - advice that is - and if anyone wanted me to do their local SEO, I would charge for that. So now I am giving away my start up manual for free, offering free one on one advice, AND I have now decided to post review videos of the top 5 or 10 commercially available reporting software systems (which is really the core of any home inspecting business and is a BIG decision for a new inspector to choose which system they want to work with). The review videos will be a lot of work because I will have to purchase an operating license for a month and then learn how the software works, interact with their tech staff for questions I have, then make lap top screen and smart phone screen recordings with my narrative going over the pros and cons of each system. So what is my end game?
First off, know and understand that the only thing this business idea has cost me is my time and some web hosting fees and monthly licensing fees (which run anywhere from free to $60/month but I only need the license for one month and then I cancel). Secondly, by posting free useful content and offering free advice (since I am a real teacher) I get personal satisfaction in helping someone move from being an employee to becoming a small business owner (yes I know at first they will own a job, but it can grow beyond that). Thirdly, this business idea keeps evolving from selling a start up manual on line to selling a start up kit, to selling consulting time, to selling SEO services, to holding seminars, to who knows what as I continue to post free content and gain followers - in chapter 55 in The Great Rat Race Escape MJ talks about forgetting business plans and staying alert to see where during the execution of your business idea the market takes you and what problems become exposed to you to solve or what needs are not met - the 3A method. And that is where I am with this business idea and execution up to this point - once I get up to 100 YT followers, my plan is to invite them all to a free on site seminar in Tampa FLA where they can all ask me whatever they want about how they can start or grow their own home inspection business....which will further clue me in to identifying THEIR problems to solve. Who knows, maybe it will turn into a huge on-going coaching, consulting, web site building, local SEOing, technical instruction, thing.
So that's where I am - either this has been or will be a giant waste of time or it will grow into something far more scalable and lucrative than my primary business. Hope this post sparks some of you into action along whatever lines you are pursuing...
So this business is targeted to people who want to start or grow a successful home inspection business. Since I've already accomplished that, I thought why not monetize the knowledge I gained in doing it and perhaps scale it beyond what my own inspection business is constrained by - ie we can only perform home inspections within an hour's drive of where each home inspector actually lives in order to maximize profits.
Here are a few things to know about the home inspection industry - the franchising, instruction, how to book, trade group, and reporting software aspect of it is pretty saturated and well entrenched by several larger players so cracking those eggs would require a large capital outlay with questionable returns. It takes a good year to train a new inspector to be technically competent and another couple years for that inspector to penetrate their local real estate market to earn enough to make a living - so this makes it risky to geographically expand one's existing business to other geographic locations AND it is a high barrier to enter the industry as a single operator - certainly not a get rich quick business. Buying someone else's existing inspection business in another location is even more risky since the business assets are the inspectors whom that owner hired, trained, and has a long term relationship with - you the new owner are at risk if those inspectors leave the business as you would no longer have a business.
A few years ago I wrote a 100 page pdf E-manual on how to start a successful home inspection business and tried to sell it online via a website that I created - but to no avail. I then created a home inspection business start up kit complete with a manual reporting system that I myself and my inspector employees had used before switching over to a commercially available report writing software system, and tried to sell that on-line, but again to no avail. So I shelved the idea for awhile until late last year when I listened to MJ's MFL for the first time (I've since re-listened to the audio book 3 times). This sparked me to consider posting YouTube videos about how I created my now passive home inspection business and try to sell my manual and start up kit via those videos PLUS offer consulting for new or struggling home inspectors AND while I'm at it, add web site development and local SEO services to my consulting. I myself was paying $500/mo for a non home inspection industry SEO company to do it for my established inspection business.
I started studying local SEO techniques and got bold enough earlier this year to fire my $500/mo SEO service provider and take over the responsibilities for my established inspection business myself - with excellent results as measured by the increased revenue we started getting from online searches.
I ended up publishing a handfull of home inspector videos in late spring of this year - but forgot about them over the summer while I got busy doing summer projects. But then one day in October someone reached out to me asking for advice in starting a home inspection business. And then I got another request, and then another. So obviously the Google Gods must have smiled down on one of my videos which was now getting some visibility - and sure enough when I checked, the one video had about 800 views to my surprise. That sparked me to publish more videos and to start thinking about holding a FREE seminar for my YouTube channel subscribers - I'm up to 73 now!
When I started receiving actual inquiries for advice and asking how much I charged, I decided to just do it for free - advice that is - and if anyone wanted me to do their local SEO, I would charge for that. So now I am giving away my start up manual for free, offering free one on one advice, AND I have now decided to post review videos of the top 5 or 10 commercially available reporting software systems (which is really the core of any home inspecting business and is a BIG decision for a new inspector to choose which system they want to work with). The review videos will be a lot of work because I will have to purchase an operating license for a month and then learn how the software works, interact with their tech staff for questions I have, then make lap top screen and smart phone screen recordings with my narrative going over the pros and cons of each system. So what is my end game?
First off, know and understand that the only thing this business idea has cost me is my time and some web hosting fees and monthly licensing fees (which run anywhere from free to $60/month but I only need the license for one month and then I cancel). Secondly, by posting free useful content and offering free advice (since I am a real teacher) I get personal satisfaction in helping someone move from being an employee to becoming a small business owner (yes I know at first they will own a job, but it can grow beyond that). Thirdly, this business idea keeps evolving from selling a start up manual on line to selling a start up kit, to selling consulting time, to selling SEO services, to holding seminars, to who knows what as I continue to post free content and gain followers - in chapter 55 in The Great Rat Race Escape MJ talks about forgetting business plans and staying alert to see where during the execution of your business idea the market takes you and what problems become exposed to you to solve or what needs are not met - the 3A method. And that is where I am with this business idea and execution up to this point - once I get up to 100 YT followers, my plan is to invite them all to a free on site seminar in Tampa FLA where they can all ask me whatever they want about how they can start or grow their own home inspection business....which will further clue me in to identifying THEIR problems to solve. Who knows, maybe it will turn into a huge on-going coaching, consulting, web site building, local SEOing, technical instruction, thing.
So that's where I am - either this has been or will be a giant waste of time or it will grow into something far more scalable and lucrative than my primary business. Hope this post sparks some of you into action along whatever lines you are pursuing...
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