January 8th, 2007 → 9:19 pm @ terry
I doubt that my writings will bring tears to your eyes like mine when I watch ”It’s A Wonderful Life” but I’m going to try real hard to convince you that I am having a wonderful life.
Today is probably going to be one of those days that will be easy to recall for a long time to come. I have a lot to talk about today: phone calls, inspections, manual updates, gifts and more.
Let the first words out of mouth be “Thank you so very much” to whomever sent me one of the books from my Amazon Wish List, “Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds”! You really can’t know how deeply I appreciate the fact that you did that for me. I will probably read this book tonight. I’m so interested in the subject that I want to read it now to see how soon I can re-read it! I guarantee you I will find information in the book that will be beneficial to you. That’s how it works around here – I have the fun creating internet stuff and hope that it benefits you.
Some of you may be interested in the business stuff. Well, let’s get that out of the way. There were thirty-six inspections on my route and Vickie called me with two more. That helps create the supersecretcodefortheday (38•6.50).
I also asked how many new jobs came in today. Here is the report I got:
I really think everyone’s forecast for the year is coming true quite early. This is normally a dead time of the month but these numbers tell me something is going on.
I had eight properties that were FTV, first time vacancy. That’s a lot! I checked all eight of these properties in December and they were occupied. Now they’re vacant. When I see this in January, it makes me think the occupants held on until Christmas and then moved out. I will know more, of course, as I see the types of services I am called on to do in months to come.
I also had new properties that I have never done before.  That tells me that delinquencys are increasing.
I had one house that I spent over thirty minutes looking for and had actually given up trying to find it. I decided it might help to call Vickie and have her research the property in the county tax records so I drove up the street about a half mile and pulled into a driveway to get out of traffic and make my call. While waiting with cell phone to my ear, I looked above the garage door and saw 626. It was the house I was looking for and it was between 744 and 746. Funny, I mention stuff like this in my business manual and then I don’t do as I teach: look for the house where it is not supposed to be!
I passed by one house that was not on this route but shows up every month. Last month I had reported that the house had been broken into so I stopped to see if the company had made my recommended re-securing. Guess what? Nope. Back door still wide open and will not lock due to busted door and frame. Looks like it was kicked in.
Here’s a good one. I can’t blame the company for trying to make an extra buck or two but I hope they don’t expect me to play along too long. On the company’s regular occupancy inspection form, the instructions said “Need tag number and condition of RV”.  Hmmm. Looks like this mortgage inspection company now has a RV financing account. These type of inspections normally pay around $25 from companies like NC or CC. Guess this company puts the inspection request on a property inspection form so they can get it done for $6.50.
I’ve been concerned some time about one little word: “venue”. Look it up in your dictionary or visit www.FieldInspectors.com and look it up in the glossary there. You should take notice to the word and any paragraph containing the word. Here’s the bottom line: this company puts a notice at the bottom of their forms that says if there is any legal action to be taken, the venue will be in the state they are located in. Think for a minute or two here. If you are a small mom and pop outfit located in Arizona and lets say this company sues you in Connecticut, you have a problem! Most mom and pop outfits can not afford an attorney in their hometown much less clear across the country. I’ve mentioned it elsewhere – if you are going to get into this business, check out www.PrepaidLegal.com. I use their legal services and I am also an independent  sales associate. If you have questions go to their site or e-mail me.
I took plenty of notes today. I had calls from three different people today and all of them were inspiring. I will use the notes to update the business manual and I am going to ask all three for permission to tell a bit about our conversations. You may want to look for some of this infomation later in the week.
See ‘ya later-I’ve got a book to read!
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January 5th, 2007 → 5:59 pm @ terry
One of the nicer things about being self employed is the freedom to pick and choose, to an extent, the days to work. I really wanted to spend the day updating the Field Services Business Manual so that is what I have done all day.
I received five phone calls today. It seems some people know when I am at home. Three of the calls were from people I am assisting with their field services business and two callers were new people interested in the manual and the business.
One caller said she had purchased all of the information about the Field Services Business that she could find on the internet. She called to discuss some things I had in my manual and wanted to point out what she called “Big Differences” in the approach and openess of the different authors. I explained that there are so many types of field services that can be performed that I did not believe any one manual could cover it all-my manual included-and that each author would have a different perspective depending on experience, education, etc.
I took the notes I had made during our conversation and began my normal process of determining what parts of the conversation, if any, would prompt changes to the manual. I have said many times that these phone conversations and questions help me tremendously. An awful lot of enhancements to the manual are a result of the question and answer sessions I have with callers or those that e-mail.
It was wise for the caller to ask for explanations and she and I both benefited. I found a relevant quote made by Peter Abelard in his book “Yes and No” around the year 1120:
The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning. . . . For by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at truth.
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January 2nd, 2007 → 11:55 pm @ terry
Today turned out to be quite a surprise. Inspection requests have slowed down a whole lot which is usual for the first of the month. In fact, I have done so little field work for the last week I have been able to complete many of my projects. I have finished some biggies at www.TheRepReport.com and I have started a new web site for the community which I will talk about at some time in the future.
Why was the day a surprise? Well, I was surprised, maybe you could say shocked, when I had conversations with not one, not two, but three people in the industry that I respect and let influence my actions and decisions. All three of these people showed a desire to make a positive influence on the industry. I was shocked to find three in one day. I often complain that there is not enough progress in the industry to satisfy me and to find all of these people pursuing their ideas for progess was a welcome sign of even better things to come. I almost got a little cocky when my prophecy of a fantastic 2007 was supported by all three also.
I really cannot tell you much about my conversations because I did not ask for permission to repeat any of the conversations. I will say though, that it appears all three will participate at www.TheRepReport.com and some of these people have some seriously big stuff underway that they will probably share with us at TheRepReport™. I did ask them for an interview in the future and their responses were positive.
A while back, one of you asked how many inspections we do here in our area. I am not going to give the farm away but I asked Vickie to give me some figures. It appears that the office staff is kind of swamped because she said that only the November numbers were ready. I asked for info on one company - not our biggest customer – and was told we did 1,163 inspections for them in November. That may give you some indication of how busy we are. Again I warn you to not take that as an indication of what you may do. If your town has a population of 3 people there will be a lot less work than we have.
On January 1st I raised the price of the manual back up to the original $65. There were not many manuals sold during the Christmas season even with the discount I offered but sales have picked up again now and I continue to update the manual just about every day. I have begun to put my updates in the manual and the web sites daily. I have found it is almost essential I do that. If I wait just a day or two, I can have too much information to update after a long day.
I’m going to call it a day for now. I really hope you had a wonderful day and tomorrow is even better. I’m going to look through my library for a good book and I’ll give you a report later next week. Secret code for today: (2•25)+(12•7.50)
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