Category: Business Tips

Everything You Need To Know To Make Your Next Email Campaign A Success

November 22, 2022

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Communications Specialist All business owners know the power of email marketing to capitalize on leads and convert sales, but the numbers are striking. According to Litmus’s “The CMO’s Guide to Email Marketing,” email marketing has the highest return on investment across industries, averaging $42 for every dollar spent! Though these numbers fluctuate depending on the industry, it is no secret that email marketing can be incredibly powerful. However, sometimes it can be tough to figure out how to get started. Whether this is your first email marketing campaign, or your fiftieth, here are some ways to make your next campaign a hit! 1. Identify Your GoalWith any monetary investment, small business owners should always consider how each dollar spent will lead to growth. Goals for a single email marketing campaign can be more than just securing more business. Campaigns can be geared towards increasing your brand recognition within a specific demographic, community, or area that might be underrepresented. Alternatively, a campaign could focus solely on gathering feedback on your business with previous clients, or introduce you client base on a new or underutilized service. Whatever your goal, identify it as a starting point, and

How to Make the Most Out of Your Indeed Job Ad

November 15, 2022

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Communications Specialist Making new hires is always an exciting venture. Either your business is growing, or you’re ready to fill an important vacancy to satisfy a need. In this position, it is important to know how to hire right and make the best use of the tools at your disposal. In the inspection industry, it can be difficult to find qualified individuals to add to your team. We have found that personal referrals from industry professionals (such as real estate agents or other inspectors) tend to result in the most successful hires. But when these contacts aren’t providing many leads, it may be worth trying Indeed. Indeed is a popular job-finding platform, recording over 250 million unique visitors each month, and hosting over 150 million resumes. With such impressive traffic, Indeed provides a great opportunity to get your job ad in front of a large audience. However, there are a few things to consider to ensure you get the most out of your investment with Indeed. Screener QuestionsA frequent experience that employers can have when working with Indeed is a barrage of applicants. Too many options are better than too few options, but many

4 Ways to Create a Positive Work Culture for Your Small Business

November 8, 2022

By Kimberly Stevens, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Coach As your small business grows, you may find yourself in a position to hire additional employees, expanding your team and delegating duties as far as your finances allow. While growth is exciting, it also comes with its own set of problems. A successful small business owner must also become a successful team manager. They impart their vision for their business to new team members, who must become productive workers and genuine brand advocates. After making your new hires, you need to earn their loyalty and create an ideal environment for them to operate as optimally as possible. This, of course, all hinges on the quality of your work culture. Do your employees dread work, or do they look forward to it? Are they willing to make concessions when times are tough, or will they back out when they are most needed? Consider these tips to strengthen your company culture and develop a family-like atmosphere that makes work something to look forward to. According to a Globoforce study, happy employees are 85% more efficient in their work and stay in their positions twice as long. Although it might be common sense, sustaining a team

Pre-Inspection Agreement: Why They’re ALWAYS A Must-Have

November 1, 2022

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Technical Supervisor & Training Administrator In establishing a successful inspection franchise, there are so many things to worry about. From learning how to best market yourself and your services, to offering the best possible product, new inspectors have plenty of areas that can command their attention. In these moments, it is important not to overlook the standards and the basics of the business. One standard process that you should never skimp out on is the pre-inspection agreement. Let’s review the pre-inspection agreement and its unique importance. BackgroundA pre-inspection agreement is a standard form which outlines standards, scope of work, and expectations for an upcoming property inspection. There are many reasons why this form has become a stock-standard part of every inspector’s business plan, but of particular note are the liability protections that they provide. Although no inspector intends to find conflict with a client, a disagreement is likely to come up at some point. The pre-inspection agreement is the rule-setter that keeps every inspection fair and clear. Some basic aspects that a pre-inspection agreement describes include: ConsiderationsSome inspectors are more strict than others with how they administer and handle their pre-inspection agreements. Some inspectors may

5 Podcasts to Grow Your Small Business

October 25, 2022

As a National Property Inspections franchise owner, you are one part inspector, one part marketer, one part entrepreneur. Needless to say, there can be a lot on your plate. To stay on top of the competition and to become the best leader in your industry, it might be valuable to find a podcast to help you on your way. Today, experts are freely offering their years of experience and personal stories to listeners through an easily consumable medium. Here are a few podcasts that could help you grow your inspection business! 1. Home Inspector Podcast by InterNACHIAverage length: 1-5 minutes, with an occasional “webinar” podcast that can be between 1 and 3 hours.Releases: Twice a day every weekday. As inspectors, a great starting point podcast is the Home Inspector Podcast by InterNACHI. The majority of releases are extremely short, sometimes with no introduction at all. These topics briefly explain how to perform a specific task relating to property inspections. The Home Inspector Podcast is a great option for inspectors looking to brush up on their knowledge or looking for quick, easy review material. The webinar releases are obviously much longer and seem to be direct uploads of online classes and

Test Taking Strategies

October 18, 2022

By Jon McCreath, Technical Supervisor & Training Administrator As an inspector, there are plenty of licenses and certifications that require strong test-taking skills in order to succeed. Perhaps the most difficult examination out there for inspectors is the National Home Inspector Examination (NHIE). Everyone tests differently, and some people have a tougher time when tasked with demonstrating their knowledge in scenarios where the stakes are high. Here are a few techniques to consider for setting yourself up for success in high-pressure exams: Study the MaterialNothing beats good preparation, but what is good preparation? Slowly moving through covered material can be difficult and time consuming, which is why many resort to cramming. Cramming is the technique of covering a wide range of topics in a very small amount of time, typically right before a test or exam. According to one study, 72% of students felt that cramming was more beneficial than evenly spacing their study time. Despite this belief, this same study found that methodical studying was more beneficial to 90% of the study’s participants. Cramming can be a helpful review tool, but when reliably retrieving information in a high-pressure setting, slower, evenly-spaced studying leads to more consistent results. In short,

Entrepreneurship 101: How to Set Your Employees Up for Success

October 4, 2022

After a brief pause to enjoy the sun and hit the beach, we return to our Entrepreneurship 101 series. Here, we outline some of the best tips for running your franchise like a seasoned pro. In our first entry we discussed how to lead your franchise, and in our second entry we covered the best hiring practices. Now that you’ve got a new batch of employees, it’s time we made them into rockstar members of your company. Here’s how you can put your team on the fast track to success. Start Strong New hires have a lot to think about. They want to prove their competence, they want to give off a positive social impression, and they want to ensure they made the right choice for themselves in accepting their new position. It can be a stressful time! As an owner, a manager, and your team’s leader, it’s your job to walk them through an onboarding process that instills confidence for everyone on the team. First things first, set clear expectations so that your new employee knows what success looks like. Start with the basics. What does their first week look like? Their first month? Give them a clear picture

Entrepreneurship 101: How to Hire Right the First Time

July 19, 2022

To see continued growth and development in your business, you may consider growing your team. To ensure that you’re hiring the best individuals for your needs, here are three crucial questions to ask during the interview process. What to Ask: What do you know about the company? What Their Answer Reveals: This question is one of the most telling regarding whether the applicant has done their research on NPI. If the applicant knows nothing about the company, or provides incorrect information regarding NPI, it’s a no go! What to Ask: What about inspection interests you? What Their Answer Reveals: Answering this question correctly is very important in this industry, as it’s essential to look for people pursuing this position for career purposes rather than just a regular job. Those who are not able to provide a clear answer to this question should set off alarms for you. What to Ask: When would you be able to start? What Their Answer Reveals: If the applicant implies that they can start right away with little to no regard for their current employer, it’s another red flag. At minimum, a two weeks’ notice should be provided. After all, how you get them is

Entrepreneurship 101: How to be an Effective Leader

July 12, 2022

As a National Property Inspections franchise owner, you’re so much more than just an inspector. You’re an office manager, a marketing coordinator, an accountant, a boss, a mentor, and a teacher—just to name a few. In our Entrepreneurship 101 series, we’ll cover leadership traits and tips specific to running a successful inspection empire. As part of a national network, your resources as an NPI inspector are plentiful, and we’re excited to share what we’ve learned about effective leadership in our industry. Lead By ExampleAlthough it may sound cliché, it’s important to align your business goals with your mindset. Even if you’re currently a one-man show and don’t have plans to hire in the near future, getting into a leadership mindset will help you elevate your thinking to that of a boss. After all, being a leader is not about being front and center. True leadership comes in the form of behind-the-scenes hard work and dedication. To be successful in your business, it’s vital to have goals set for where you want to see yourself in the next year, along with a plan of action for how you hope to achieve your goals. In the pursuit of your goals, it’s helpful

How to Communicate More Effectively with Clients

June 20, 2023

By Kimberly Stevens, Marketing & Business Coach Running a successful service-based business requires a significant amount of technical skill and knowledge. As such, the sorts of people that tend to be drawn to these industries tend to have a highly analytical disposition and a preference for structure and detail. In the property inspection industry, these traits are particularly beneficial since missing little details can lead to big problems down the road (and part of why we’ve found veterans are such great home inspectors). While these traits are beneficial on the technical side of inspecting, they can sometimes come at the cost of being a good, empathetic communicator. Property inspectors have to communicate with a lot of people, so owners who might struggle in conversations with clients would be wise to invest in some introspection. To get started with upgrading your interpersonal skills, let’s take a look at the basic pillars of client communication in business. Prioritize Clarity EarlyWhen coordinating a home inspection, it is crucial to establish an open line of communication early between the inspector and client. A significant amount of negative reviews or otherwise dissatisfied client experiences can be traced back to misunderstandings, assumptions, and a lack of

Surefire Strategies To Increase Your Market Share

June 13, 2023

By David Stamper, NPI, Inc.’s President & CFO Running a small business is a lot of responsibility to take on. Owners need to not only become experts in their field and in their industry, but they also need to stay up to date on key market research if they want their business to succeed. When it comes to building your small business and tracking market research, there are few concerns that outrank your business’ market share. Market share is, simply put, a percentage of your business’ earnings compared to the total business done within your market over a particular period of time. While a business owner’s goal should always be to build their business’ percentage of market share, there are many benefits to tracking direct competitors’ market share as well. To learn more about how to build your market share, let’s review some strategies on how to get started. Perform a Competitive AnalysisThe first step to increase your market share should be to gain an awareness of your business’ position in your market compared to your competitors. Although it may be difficult to find hard numbers that break down your competitors’ exact market share, you should be able to check

Essential Steps For Setting Your Home Inspection Business Up For Success

June 6, 2023

By Celeste Black-Harr, NPI, Inc.’s Recruitment Coordinator Becoming a home inspector is a great profession that allows for incredible flexibility and the potential for impressive profits, but many enter into the industry unprepared and uninformed. Starting a home inspection business requires an investment of both time and money, and too many start up while missing key details that cause their businesses to stagnate or even fold prematurely. Don’t let a lack of research end your entrepreneurship dreams before you’ve started! Avoid these pitfalls, and your home inspection business has the opportunity to meet its potential. Understand the ProfessionAlthough this may sound surprising, one of the most common mistakes that new home inspection business owners make when setting up their business is that they do not fully understand what the job entails. Business owners who start out inspecting homes themselves need to be aware of the physical nature of home inspections, for example. To examine roofs, home inspectors should expect to carry and maneuver ladders, as well as climb up and down them on a regular basis. Additionally, inspectors should feel comfortable with navigating attics and crawl spaces. Some newer technologies such as drones and crawl bots enable those who might

5 Strategies to Get More Reviews for Your Small Business

May 30, 2023

By Zach Vesper, Senior SEO & Marketing Strategist Let’s say you’re heading out to eat in an unfamiliar city. You want to try something unique and high-quality, but searching online leaves you with an endless list of options. Mood and taste will certainly come into the picture, but how do you make your final choice? Check the reviews. Across all industries that rely on pulling in new clients and customers consistently, online reviews are crucial for instilling confidence in service quality. Adding positive reviews on websites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp improves where small businesses rank on Google and increases overall visibility through SEO. According to marketing analysts at Entrepreneur.com, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. To start improving upon your online advocacy channels, here are some great strategies for getting more reviews online. For more help building your online marketing strategy, reach out to your Omaha marketing team. today! If you’re interested in learning more about franchising with NPI, get your free info packet.

Expanding Your Online Following with YouTube

May 23, 2023

By Sydney Bailey, Director of Marketing Successful small business owners know the incredible value that a fully optimized online presence brings to their business. Facebook, Google Business, and LinkedIn all work alongside a professional business website to direct and convert visitors into clients. Depending on the industry, business owners might prioritize some of these platforms over others, but it’s clear that each plays an important role for small businesses. One platform that might get overlooked more often than it should is YouTube. Receiving billions of new views and videos every single day, YouTube’s international footprint is astounding. Present in over 100 countries around the world, the video-hosting website is also localized in 80 different languages. But with that said, small businesses usually aren’t interested in reaching an international, or even a national audience. Small business owners are rightly more concerned with reaching clients in their own cities. So this begs the question: How can YouTube be a benefit to small businesses? How Can YouTube Benefit Businesses at a Local Level? Out of all social media platforms on the market today, YouTube is perhaps best known for its intensely competitive nature. Vastly popular creators tend to dominate attention, and often leaving

From Rookie to Asset: Tips for Training New Employees

May 16, 2023

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Communications Strategist In the home inspection industry, it should be every business owner’s goal to expand their team. New employees can expand marketing efforts, allow for more property inspections to be completed in a shorter amount of time, and improve on client satisfaction due to increased efficiency. Both in the case of adding a very first employee and when adding to an already large team, owners cannot overlook their training processes. To build your home inspection team the right way, let’s discuss the importance of training, and review a few tips on how to help transition your new employee into an invaluable contributor to your team. Highlighting the Importance of TrainingAll business owners understand to a certain extent the value of a solid training process. New employees are an investment, and the quicker that these team members can get up to speed with the rest of the business the better. Business owners are incentivized to make their training processes as quick and efficient as possible in order to get their new partners contributing. Though these goals are understandable, business owners who are only focused on the speed of their training schedules are missing out

Level Up Your Digital Marketing with LinkedIn

May 9, 2023

By Zach Vesper, Senior SEO and Marketing Strategist We’ve previously discussed best practices for getting set up on LinkedIn as a small business, but as new features and opportunities become available, it can be difficult to know how to navigate through LinkedIn’s tools effectively. LinkedIn stands out from the crowd due to its focus as a business-oriented digital networking platform. As such, LinkedIn should not always be treated the same as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. If you are looking to expand the use of your LinkedIn Business Page, it’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of LinkedIn as a platform. To optimize our efforts, let’s take a minute to explore LinkedIn’s unique features and how you can use them to strengthen your business’ presence online. Reviewing the Strengths of LinkedInIn many ways, LinkedIn is set up similarly to other social media platforms. LinkedIn allows users to post content and build an audience over time, it promotes engagement, and it invites users to interact with relevant content based on what their interests are as determined by LinkedIn’s own algorithm. The main distinguisher of LinkedIn is its intended function as a social platform for businesses and business owners

Diversification In Small Business: Why It’s Important To Try New Things

May 2, 2023

By Chris Bates, Vice President of Sales & Development When entering into a new industry or starting a small business, sometimes it can take time to find your footing. It’s important to learn the business, establish relationships in your area, and refine your service quality, but sometimes breaking through can still be difficult. With that said, one of the most frequent mistakes business owners make when they’re slow is avoiding trying new things. Opportunities frequently come knocking at the door, but a fear of losing what little market share they have, or concerns related to their ability to recoup from an unsuccessful investment too often lead to inaction. One of the biggest benefits of owning a franchise is access to a network of industry professionals who are plugged into the latest trends, technology, and business strategies that can help you pull ahead of your competition. Additional add-on services and opportunities to access new leads come up every day. The only way to guarantee that things stay slow in your business is to refuse these new opportunities. If you find yourself stagnating in your business, then the time is right to take action. Whether you’re busy and looking to expand or

Technologies That Are Innovating Home Inspections

April 25, 2023

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Training Director The home inspection industry is a far different animal than it was just a decade ago. With new toys and tools designed to provide more thorough and precise services, home inspectors have the potential to elevate their product to higher levels than ever before. While adopting new technology can be viewed as intimidating or overly expensive compared to the value added to a single inspection, home inspectors should consider how much these tools can separate themselves from their competition. Many trending home inspection tools not only add increased accuracy to their inspection reports, but they can cut down on the time it takes to perform an inspection considerably. As any small business owner knows, additional time means more opportunity to market or book additional jobs, leading to more revenue. Read on to learn more about some of the advanced, industry-changing tools that every home inspector should consider adding to their toolset. Drones, Robots, and ScopesThe first major category of tools that can elevate a home inspector’s value are those that offer increased access and mobility. Tools like aerial drones and crawling robots give home inspectors the ability to view areas that were previously

Watching For Wildlife: How To Add Value By Inspecting For Animals

April 18, 2023

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Training Director Good entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to pull ahead of their competition. In the property inspection industry, business owners often will achieve a larger market share by expanding their add-on services, or through emphasizing their own unique strenghts that separate themselves from the crowd. These strategies are great things to build upon! However, the best thing an inspector can do to establish themselves is to deliver the best primary product possible. This can mean writing an unmatched inspection report, or consistently catching things that the other guy misses. A great way to add value to a property inspection that other inspectors might skip out on is to inspect for animals. What To Do When Inspecting For AnimalsSome property inspectors may feel the instinct to shy away quickly from anything related to wildlife during a property inspection, and this is understandable! Property inspectors are trained to evaluate key home systems and aren’t experts on animal species or the best wildlife defense strategies. According to InterNACHI’s Home Inspection Standards of Practice, a property inspector is not required to determine “…the presence of evidence of rodents, birds, bats, animals, insects, or other pests.” Property inspectors