Failure is Not an Option

Failure is NOT an Option

By George Wells

Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?

For some of us, quitting is not an option. Failure is not an option. We are in this for the long haul; for better or worse. This business is what we know. It is all we know. Many of us remember sitting by the television or radio in April of 1970 waiting to learn the fate of the Apollo 13 crew. Twenty-five years later the movie that recounted the Apollo 13 mission popularized the expression "Failure is not an option". The head of Mission control (in the movie, at least) said "We've never lost an American in Space. We're sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch. Failure is not an option". Thousands of Americans, especially Inspectors, are in a position today where failure is not an option. The pundits are now saying that we should be prepared for a rough ride in 2009.

Our leaders have given major corporations billions of dollars to save them from extinction. In return, the big corporations are buying corporate jets, giving top executives big bonuses, and undoubtedly they are squandering the money in ways that we will never know. There is very little evidence that they have any intention to use the money to benefit the average American.

Jobs are evaporating. Hardest hit are the older workers. The average age of a home inspector is 51. The sad reality is that anyone over the age of 40 is going to have a very difficult time finding a decent paying job with benefits in the US or Canada. For us, failure is NOT an option!

Even companies such as Home Depot are laying off employees by the thousands. There are not many businesses that are willing to hire employees in their fifties and sixties. The wages at places such as Home Depot may not be great but at least Home Depot has traditionally recognized the value of older workers.

Home Inspection is still a low-barrier-to-entry business in most places. What that means for those of us already in the business is that thousands of people who are in need of earning an income are going to be turning to home inspection. Five years ago we saw a tremendous influx of new inspectors when it looked as though home inspection would be a quick and easy way to make money.

Those who were looking to make a fast buck were also quick to get out of the business as soon as home sales began to drop. The current situation is very different from what it was five or six years ago. The next wave of new inspectors will have more at stake. For them, failure will not be an option.

Competition is a reality of business. There will always be competition. There will always be winners and losers. As this industry continues to grow and mature, the competition will get stronger and smarter. Do you realize though that your competitors are not always the biggest threat to your survival?

100's of Texans Orphaned - It Could Happen to You!

I have seen more inspection report software companies come and go over the past decade than I can count. Many of the publishers were programmers who thought that they were going to make a quick buck in the growing home inspection industry. They overestimated the size of the market. Having no real ties to the industry, they have been quick to move on to greener pastures.

Texas inspectors were required to begin using a new report format at the beginning of February. I spoke to well more than 100 home inspectors in January who had learned that they had orphan software. The story was the same - over and over again. "I called for an update and the company is out of business". The default rate among inspection report software companies run by programmers is significantly higher than the default rate of companies run by home inspectors.

In a few instances, inspectors told me the publishers of their software were still in business but no longer published home inspection software. On one occasion a couple of years ago, there was a fellow who outright stole our intellectual property and decided to start a business publishing and selling our software. He was selling our stuff for months before we learned of him. It took us only a few days to shut him down. He tried to come up with his own materials but within a few months he was selling weight loss and recipe management software.

I was at a home inspector convention as a vendor a few years ago. There was a new inspection report software company in the booth next to ours. For four days I heard them bragging to the inspectors who stopped at their booth that they were "programmers, not home inspectors like some of the other software publishers here". I heard all about how they were going to set entirely new standards for the home inspection industry. I had a few conversations with a couple of the fellows over the course of the event. They told me that they had only been involved with the home inspection industry for a short time. They also had no real business experience but they believed they knew what was best for home inspectors. Less than a year later, they were gone. Huh ... Imagine that!

This isn't just about inspection report software. This is about building relationships with other people and businesses that have as much at stake in your business relationship as you do. Look at any business that has been successful for a long time. You will see that the owners choose to do business with others who have a stake in their success. At a minimum, you want to build business relationships with others who are committed to the home inspection industry.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are people and businesses that are either directly or indirectly tied to your business. They have a vested interest in your success but do not necessarily own any part of your business. Their success may be directly linked or influenced by your success. Stakeholders can be suppliers, customers, shareholders, or employees. You've heard the old saying "We are all in this boat together". That pretty much sums up the relationship of you to your stakeholders.

You cannot always limit yourself to doing business with others who have a strong stake in your success. When you buy a truck for your inspection business, the truck's manufacturer benefits from your purchase but your individual purchase has no real noticeable influence on their success. It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands, of home inspectors buying from the manufacturer to have any appreciable influence on the manufacturers business. The company that made your truck not only does not have a tie to you, it does not have a strong tie to the home inspection industry.

Perhaps you need to buy some tools for your home inspection business. You could go to a big box retailer to buy the tools or you could go to someone who specializes in home inspection tools. The company selling home inspection tools may still be so much bigger than your business but at least they have a strong tie to the home inspection industry. They have a much greater incentive to help you succeed. They are going to be working harder to make sure that home inspectors have the right tools at the right prices. The big box retailer may drop home inspection related items from the items they sell when business is slow. The company that specializes in home inspection is likely to continue to sell home inspection items.

Clearly, there are degrees of mutual dependencies among connected businesses. Your relationship with other businesses or other people will never be completely equal. You should at least have strong common interests. Your relationships and those with whom you have direct relationships may not may not be dependent on each other but you can make sure that you are building relationships with others whose businesses are dependent on some of the same things that you business is dependant upon.

The Chicken and the Pig

A former boss of mine had a rather colorful metaphor for describing the roles of participants versus stakeholders. He would say that some people are involved and some are committed. He likened them to the roles of a chicken and a pig in an eggs and bacon breakfast. The chicken was involved but the pig was committed.

Perhaps you belong to one or more home inspector trade associations. The other members are your competitors. You join the associations because the other members are also stakeholders in the home inspection industry. Your competitor can be your best friend when you are facing a common adversary. The adversary can be anything or anyone. It can be a law that would harm you. Inspectors in Toledo Ohio faced just such a challenge recently. Inspectors, some of whom had never met each other, naturally joined together to present a unified front. There were no organized efforts to oppose the harmful law. The coming together happened spontaneously and naturally. That only happens where the parties coming together have a strong common interest and an approximately equal stake in the outcome.

The Road Ahead

Spend your time building relationships that matter. Networking is a powerful force in business. Networking goes far beyond networking with other inspectors, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers. Ask yourself at every move, "what kind of a stake does this person or company have in my success". You don't want to be the only one left out in the cold after everyone else has found a safe warm shelter.

Home inspection is a cottage industry. It is a small but growing industry dominated by individuals working from their homes. Even within the real estate industry, home inspection is still a relatively small segment. Home inspectors do not enjoy the economies of scale that larger companies enjoy. We are more fragile and often depend on others more than they depend on us.

At the very moment you decided to go into the home inspection business as a self-employed inspector, every business was bigger than your business. It probably seemed to you at the time that you depended on every other business more than they depended on you. That was not true then and it is not true now. There was and are still mutual dependencies between you and others.

Choose to build relationships with others who are as committed to home inspection as you are. We may never develop a strong loyalty to each other as individuals but we will each benefit from our common loyalty to home inspection - or as I like to say "our loyalty to the cause". We also understand that for us, failure is not an option.

February 2009