First off just want to say hello to everyone here as I new to the site. Now on to my question. I am have my certification number and I am just starting out my inspection company. Is there any advise that you guys can give me on getting started and drumming up business? I have been in the building industry for around 10 years now in jobs ranging from design to sales of building materials. Any help that you guys can offer is greatly appreciated
Market, market and market. Education, education and education.
what types of marketing do you mean james? I was thinking about joining my local real estate chapter as an affiliate. I am working on a brochure and i was thinking about also printing out sample reports to put in my local realtor’s offices. any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Change your profile information Brock, to reflect where you are located. Many of the questions you have could be answered more appropriately if we know where you’re located.
Welcome Brock. And as Jeff mentioned, that would help. There are 100’s of Inspectors throughout the Country here at your fingertips to help you with anything you may encounter.
Good luck in you endeavors. 
Meanwhile we are working on a checklist to get you started…
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f2/any-volunteers-51333/
Spend a year learning the business before you do a home inspection or invest in any expensive equipment. Take some courses, read the message boards…look at it from all sides.
When you can honestly answer the question “Why should someone hire you INSTEAD OF your most experienced and qualified competitor?” and your answer is factually true and has nothing to do with your fee, you are ready to start a business.
Until then, you have nothing to offer anyone. Nothing to market…nothing to sell.
Is that what you did James?
My advice: begin part time. Don’t quit your day job. Business is slow sometimes, at least in SC. Many a day, I wake up unemployed.
Brock, the online education here on nachi.org is second to none. Definitely watch all the videos and live on the message boards in your free time.
And (fair warning) do not venture into the “Last one to reply” thread… those guy’s are “brutal” in there !!! (you have been warned). :twisted:
and if you’re married, prepare for the wife to stay pissed off. 
Hi Brock
Have you already performed Home Inspections?..I read your “starting out”, but the first year is starting out.
When you say you have your Certification Number what do you mean…state certification-license?
Hard to give you information without knowing what stage of the business your in. If you have not performed a Fee Paid Inspection, have you performed many inspections on homes of folks you know?
Have you done an inspection on a Home, written a report, and had a very experienced Inspector inspect the same home and compare report findings?
Have you been on Fee Paid inspections with an experienced Inspector?
Personally I would need to know more about your experience, what you have done, what you haven’t, before I could give advice on how to go about drumming up new-more business, not knowing what you have tried already if anything.
Good Luck though, but clue us in regarding what exactly you have done as far as inspections and marketing as of now.
We could help you much more, knowing more.
ActiveRain. If I were just starting out and knew about ActiveRain, I’d be there in a flash.
You are king of AR in my area Russel (maybe even the whole darn thing) - I can’t compete with that
Darin you do not need to be the king.
Just have confidence like RR while creating your own style.
Nobody is better than you at what you know.
All you need to succeed on Active Rain is the desire to type words on a computer screen that you can relate to.
Take a look at mine as I was a big fan from the start.Might have even joined before RR but did not check,because it does not matter.
Remember you are whoever you say you are if you repeat it and think about it enough.
Know go sign up and get some fast points as signing up is the easiest rout to lots of fast points.
Points are for position on the local channels where others in your area might see you ,and what you post about.
Practice writing blogs on word like RR does if I recall him posting that a few years back.
I have not posted a blog in over a year and still get benefit from AR , plus I met some good inspector friends there.
Notice the kick a-s url I have.
Gotta love your AR url. I signed up with AR a while back but didn’t really spend the time to understand how it all worked. So your points were helpful. I wonder if I can change my blog url to something more catchy?
BTW - I’ll be in Oak Brook, IL in Sept. doing a property inspection (A slightly different animal then the residential work I do in CA). That near you?
Not with that attitude!
Over 3,000 homes sold in April 2010. You can get your share of the pie.
Yes it is west of me and about 20 minutes.
NACHI Chicago meets not to far from there.
How is it you are coming all the way out here for a commercial inspection?
Someone you know ,buying?
I do contract work for hotels in guest liability, safety, loss prevention and OSHA compliance. So I spend half the year typically traveling around the US. I also do training at the hotels on various safety topics.