Week 34 – If I Could Go Back to Day One…

This week, I found myself thinking: “What would I do differently if I could restart today?”

I’m 34 weeks in. That’s over 200 days of learning, trying, testing, and occasionally facepalming. And honestly? There are two things I would absolutely change if I had the chance to start again. One is a timing thing. The other? A humility thing.

First: I would’ve started earlier

I know it sounds obvious now—but this is the business I should’ve started years ago. The support, the tools, the clarity… it’s miles beyond the chaos of freelancing or corporate jobs. Every week, I meet another agent or client who tells me, “We need more people like you doing this.” If I’d started just 12 months sooner, I’d already be scaling faster. Lesson learned.

Second: I wouldn’t have chased my own “great ideas”

When I first launched, I thought I needed to be clever. Stand out. Try everything. So I signed up for a local BNI networking group (expensive, early, exhausting) and bought an ad in a glossy local print magazine (expensive, ignored, totally silent). Guess how many inspections came from those two plays? *Zero.*

Curt warned me. He didn’t tell me *not* to try them—he just gently suggested that time and money would be better spent meeting Realtors face-to-face. Coffee meetings. Office drop-ins. Relationship building. And he was absolutely right.

Why the franchise system matters:

The Inspections Over Coffee playbook isn’t just a suggestion—it’s the map. And every time I’ve strayed from it thinking I could outsmart the process, I’ve lost time and cash. But when I follow it? Referrals. Reviews. Revenue.

My new rule: don’t “get creative” until the proven stuff is maxed out

I can experiment later—once I’ve done 100 Realtor meetings in 60 days. Once the local real estate offices know my name. Once my reviews are so consistent that clients ask for me by name. Until then? I’m sticking to the franchise framework like gospel.

What I’ll repeat (and never skip again):

Face-to-face connection. Agent education. Solution-based messaging. Every time I do that, the brand grows. The business grows. And I sleep better at night.

→ Next up: Week 35: Second Truck? New Territory? Time to Think Big

← Catch the moves I made to boost visibility: Week 33: I Invested in My Brand — Here’s What I Did

Thinking about starting your own home inspection franchise? Do yourself a favor—just follow the system.