June 20th, 2007 → 10:35 pm @ terry
Somebody, somewhere has been playing around with a ouija board or something like that. I have had been contacted by reps and companies that I thought had been dead for a long, long time.
I can feel it in the air now – almost like the first fall day you notice on your way out to retrieve the morning newspaper. I do not think we have long to wait before we experience some really big changes in the field services business.
I don’t have a lot of time tonight – we’re still uploading inspections – but just for fun, here are a few of my predictions for the industry:
I’m just kidding about the gasoline. Write these predictions down and watch. They will all come true. You know I will be telling you more later. I’ve got to get back to work. Just wanted to let you know I’m still here.
(66•6.50)+(2•35)+(1•25)
June 19th, 2007 → 9:24 pm @ terry
At 8:39 in the morning I completed my first route of the day. On occasion I will leave quite early in order to accomplish a special task or just to better arrange my day. Today Vickie and I had an appointment at 9:30 am so it was smart to get some of the work out of the way early. I was out early to finish the inspections I was unable to finish yesterday due to the stormy weather. (12•6.50)
We finished our appointment and decided that we should complete as many inspections as possible so we might have the luxury of taking the weekend off. We assembled a fairly large route and I worked until a little after sunset to complete all of them. (52•6.50)
We received three additional merchant verification requests by e-mail while we were out. Either these companies have acquired some new accounts or my contacting them in the last couple of weeks really paid off. I will be sure to give you an update on the inspections. I’ve already mentioned two companies for you to contact for merchant verification assignments: www.equicheck.com and www.turnerofthecentury.com.
Inspection orders are coming in heavy again so I will be very busy this week. Please call if you need to talk, however.
June 18th, 2007 → 11:09 pm @ terry
Even though I can talk too much about anything you like, I do, at times, have difficulty trying to find the perfect words and concise sentences I prefer to use. I am having that difficulty now.
Most evenings when I sit at the computer to write about my day and the field services business, I have more to say than time allows. Often I have other work to do or I’m just ready to call it a day. Today is one of those days – but, I feel I have something important to tell you.
I want to let you know how I feel about the future of the business and my opinion of what we need to be doing to prepare for tomorrow so to speak. It all started with a gallon of milk and a couple of cans of tuna fish. Actually, I read an article in the newspaper that forecast milk prices going up to at least $4 a gallon. I did not give it too much thought at the time but sub-consciously it must have made an impact because I did read the article and actually remembered reading it! I had no such warning for an increase in the price of tuna fish though.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you know about my dogs. I really love my dogs and take my responsibilities to them seriously. And, like many pet owners, I take every opportunity to treat them a little too good.
When I found Casey, the female Siberian Husky, she was about nine months old, tied to a tree and skinny as a rail. I kept seeing her on one of my routes. At least once a week I would pass by the house and she was always tied to that tree.
Pakak, the male Siberian Husky was a gift from my daughter. He was just a pup and bull headed as they come. We had a lot in common! I sent him off to boot camp twice and the trainer said I would always have trouble with him unless I constantly reminded him that I was bigger than he was. When he would act up as a puppy, fifty pounds or so, I would at times have to hold him down like a wrestler until he realized I really could control him.
Well, I finally rescued Casey and fed her well. I started giving her whole milk to help fatten her up. Pakak prefers tuna fish to all other foods or treats. He will pull every dirty trick he can think of to steal tuna fish sandwiches. Even though the vet has told me not to, I continue to buy milk for Casey and tuna fish for Pakak. Bentley the beagle gets pig ears – his favorite treat.
I hate to think I have been ignoring gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon and only become very concerned when I have to pay $4.39 for a gallon of milk and 79 cents for a tin of tuna. That is what has happened however. Of course I went ahead and bought the milk and I bought the tuna but I immediately knew it was going to effect the way I did business. I decided that I would have to raise prices, cut back on service areas or move into a expense cutting mode.
While all this milk and tuna stuff was floating around in my head – I guess that’s a tuna float – I continued to do business, run routes, and talk with others in the business. I have talked a couple of times to a fella that has kind of shaken my foundation a bit. For the better, I think. It appears he has done very well in the field service business and he has been willing to talk and give me some advice. All of which will eventually benefit you too! This guy is moving heavily into the site inspection side of the business. I do not know yet if it would properly be identified as commercial property inspections or something similar to that. I do know that it is not, I repeat, is not, mortgage inspections.
Now, here’s the monkey wrench: he has nothing but good to say about the mortgage inspection side of the business. That is where he made an awful lot of money and he knows that is where I am making mine. So, with just a little thinking of my own, I came up with the idea that he thinks the future is somewhere other than mortgage inspections!
I think that in order to maintain cash flow in our businesses we will have to continue to do mortgage inspections. They are consistent and the volume is usually much more than other types of inspections. However, I know we cannot continue to do them for today’s rate or even less as some companies would like. Mortgage servicing companies have leaned more and more in the direction of paying a field inspector $5 to do a drive-by inspection while demanding the inspector pay $1000 or more for insurance and then ask the inspector to file a $17,000 claim on that insurance! Do the math on that one!
Of course there will always be the field rep that will do the $5 or less inspection. I wish them well but I can almost guarantee they will not be in business a year from today. They will either surely go in the hole while buying milk for $4.39 and tuna for 79 cents, or they will have one insurance claim and bam!
So what do we do? I say we should expect the best and prepare for the worst. I am going to continue with mortgage inspections as long as it is profitable and non-hazardous to my business. In the mean time, I will be putting much more effort into finding other field service opportunities and acquiring the skills, experience and education necessary to be the best rep in the country. I encourage you to do the same.