I’m planning on starting a business in Maryland and I was curious if anyone had good financing ideas?
Are you talking about an inspection business? If so, you’re not likely to succeed if you don’t have the capital to even fund the business. Let alone live off of for 1, 2, 3 years while you get it going. Inspection business are cheap to start (as far as businesses go, anyway). All in, tools, education, training, etc. I think you’d be hard-pressed to spend more than 20K. Getting money coming in the door is much harder.
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Ain’t that the truth.
You need to have some source of income to pay for licensing(Maryland requires licensing I believe) insurance, tools, a website, Internachi, eat, live and stay warm.
The first year I was inspecting, I had my service business(home repairs and tech services), I worked a part time job 3 days a week in the evening as well as working 7 days a week. Now I still do the other work, but I’ve dropped the part time gig. I only work 6.5 days a week ;).
I still had to draw down some retirement funds. I own two homes, so my expenses are a bit higher than most, but still.
If you can’t float that time it’s going to take, maybe see if you can get in with a multi-inspector company, put some years in.
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Put together a business plan, step by step procedures.
Join InterNACHI.
Hire a good CPA.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
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I know it’ll be tough at first, I’ve got a pension and disability from the military so I’ve got a leg up. I was thinking about a franchise. I just looking for more resources to minimize a business startup loan.
Ben Gromicko(Internachi) has a video on starting up. I don’t recall where I saw it, but he essentially says “All you need is a pen, paper and a plug in socket tester”.
You can run super lean, no software, no website, no thermal, no drones, use one camera(your phone or a point and shoot). Add on as you are able.
There are some software packages that pay per report. I don’t use any, but they exist, so you’re not out of pocket ahead of it.
You are going to have to pay to get licensed, insured and then certified so your credits count in the licensing portal. After that, eat Ramen 
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Do not buy a franchise, you are just throwing money away. You are only paying for a name essentially. It will not help you get business, which is the hardest part. Agents and clients don’t care if you are a franchise or not. Save you money there, spend it on tools and advertising.
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Sheesh. I quit that years ago. 5 days a week is plenty. For some of my best agents, or for a big pay day, I’ll do one inspection on Saturday. Never ever work Sunday. Ya gotta have some time to chill down. Nick Gromicko likes to say that the most important word that a busy inspector needs to learn is “No”. That’s a tough word to say, but he’s right. I am much happier since I quit working 7 days a week back in 2013.
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FWIW sold my sports car and borrowed against my life insurance policy… and when I paid it back, I paid myself the interest too.
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I’m not afraid of work and I’m still in that “if you build it, they will come” phase.
I’m now about 3 years in my service business and approaching 2 on inspections and much of it is for realtors who then use me when they have a buyer.
Then those buyers use me to add attic ladders. Then they tell their friends and the chain takes a while to snuff out.
I retired once already! I’m sort of driven now to make this work and right now at least, I’m still there trying to keep all the plates spinning to make everyone happy to make the business work.
Sometimes I make more in a week then I did with my corporate job and considering we like to keep buying expensive stuff, I’ll just keep at it for a bit.
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Thanks everyone, so nobody thinks a franchise is a good idea. I’m working on the business plan but I’ve got some things to think about.
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It’s not about being afraid of work.
It’s about answering if you are working to live or living to work.
But I now understand where you are at. At 3 years, I can see that you are still working on building your business. I worked the seven days a week for years, too. I tell newbies that they can get business if they are willing to work weekends. I just had two clients wanting me to do a weekend inspection. One found an inspector willing to work Sunday, and the other said that she understood and I am doing her inspection this afternoon (Wednesday).
Like you, my wife and I still like to spend money and to maintain the lifestyle that we have, I continue to work as I start my seventh decade. My wife retired for about two months. Boredom pushed her back to work. I make in 3-4 days what she makes all month, but she likes what she does.
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Working for someone else for a while is the best advice you’ll probably get, especially if you don’t have the cash to get to get rolling. There is a lot to learn starting out and it is much easier if an employer is helping guide that and help with your mistakes. They will have systems or software set up that you can learn on. Depending on the size of your area it may be worth trying to work for more than one outfit just to see some different approaches.Once you have a little experience with the inspection work you can decide how (and whether) to start your own business.
Not to sound like a downer, but keep in mind that there are many more people who started in this industry in your exact position and didn’t make it a year than who did. They pop up in Facebook groups all the time selling off piles of tools for pennies on the dollar.
The inspection schools sell the idea of buy our classes and this list of tools and you too can be a home inspector in a week, and it just doesn’t work that way 99% of the time.
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We just put in a hot tub. We had one up north and she missed it. So now I’m at a point that I can justify popping 11k on what is absolutely an unnecessary extravagance. It’s not like I’m clearing that in a week, but if I hustle, I can do it in a couple months without dipping into savings, so there’s some more plates to spin.
She’s been retired for 25 years. After I started making bank she decided she didn’t need to work. I’m still trying to remember when we had that conversation and that I had agreed to it, but you know how we men are about listening to our wives. We don’t seem to remember our wives telling us our income is going to drop 75k a year(25 years ago kids, equal to about $140k today).
I basically retired in 2021 and started piddling around helping neighbors and it just blew up when realtors needed repairs…then I realized I was missing out on the inspections and now here I am.
As to the 7th decade, I salute you. I plan on being done in 8 or less at 64. I can goof off and waste days easily :). I live in the worlds largest adult playground, 5000+ clubs, 70+ golf courses, and unlimited other stuff to do.
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While I agree that working for someone else is a quick start for income and training, if you really want to be self-employed, the catch with this path is that most HI companies will require you to sign a no compete agreement.
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