How A Home Inspection Company Scaled Through Networking, Delegation, And Smart Marketing with Kimi McBurney

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. All right. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae filling in for Bill Gilliland with your local business training and coaching firm, Action Coach Business Growth Partners.

0:45I'm excited to have Kimmy McBurney with Allied Home Inspection as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today. So, Kimmy, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community. Yeah, well, first off, thanks for having me. A bit of a loaded question, but yes, like you said, my name is Kim McBurney with Allied Home Inspection. We are a home inspection business based here in Western North Carolina, primarily serving home buyers or prospective home buyers. So when you go to buy a house, you get a home inspection.

1:18That's us. But we've expanded over the years. We now do tons of ancillary services, radon testing, radon mitigation, water testing, well inspection, septic, inspection and septic pumping. So that's our most recent exciting venture. But that's me. I'm here. I live here with my husband, who's our main inspector or lead inspector and owner of the business. And then two kids, two dogs, the cat, 17 chickens, you know, same as anyone else here in North Carolina. I love it. I love it. All right. Great. So yeah. So it is a home inspection company. So if you had to start that company from square one, what would you do differently?

1:58Oh, man, I think about this probably more than most. But I think as entrepreneurs, that's what we do, right? We kind of analyze and go backwards a bit. My marketing efforts would have been so much different. When we started the business in 2017, we had just bought a home. We had had a home inspection. My husband and I were in construction, so we were very familiar with building in the construction industry. But home inspection industry is very different. And I did not understand that at the time. You know, we put up our Google business page and we're like, oh, sweet. Like, just let the business roll in.

2:31Absolutely not. It's a very, you know, it relies heavily on networking. You know, we don't necessarily market to the general public. We are more so referral based and we work with a lot of real estate agents. So I definitely wish I had understood that sooner. But at the same time, you know, everything happens for a reason. So definitely would have had a different approach to marketing. But I figured that out now. Okay. Anything else you would do differently or just really the marketing? I think it's really the marketing. I think everything else came pretty naturally. Um, I ran a construction company before, so, you know, hiring and processes and systems, and that was all kind of similar accounting, et cetera.

3:13But really it was figuring out the marketing. Um, you know, in home inspections, when you get your license, they don't quite prepare you for that. A lot like real estate agents or any really solopreneur, right? It's like they teach you how to do your job. You know, you go to school and you get an architecture degree or whatever the degree may be, but they don't teach you how to run a business. So I think that was the biggest learning curve. But no, really, to me, it's really the marketing that kind of sets home inspection or any real estate adjacent business apart. Okay. And you just said your biggest learning curve, that's kind of goes into the next question.

3:47What have your biggest learnings been as an owner since you started your business? yeah so like i said marketing uh like i said i've had other businesses so pretty familiar with the things that you know transverse any business meaning hiring and systems and all that stuff so really marketing um i came from we did uh commercial construction so it was like public bid right they a company put out a project and you bid it and you either won it or you didn't so So this whole networking thing was so new to me. Social media was new to me. That's definitely a cornerstone of our business, putting a lot of effort into social media, networking, stuff like that.

4:29So, yeah, again, I feel slightly repetitive at this point, but this network-based marketing has definitely been a learning curve. But, I mean, my thing with any job is, you know, you just figure it out, right? trial and error, what works, focus on that, learn that. I'm big in being self-taught. I've taught myself social media and Google, Google ads, Google marketing. So really just trying to understand every aspect of our business and growth. Okay. Okay. Love it. So what are some common misconceptions about running a business? This is a good one. Oh man. The first thing that came to mind was like, kind of, Oh, like you can make your own schedule and your own boss.

5:11And I was like, well, my own schedule is probably worse than when I work for somebody else. You know, I get up every morning, pretty much about 430, you know, have some dedicated time in the mornings to do, you know, some some personal growth stuff like mindfulness, etc. But it is a lot of my work. And then, you know, I'm out about all day and sure, my phone is still on in the evening. So really, I mean, it's not a cliche. We kind of all work 24-7 ish. But there are perks to that. You know, we homeschool our kids and I can pick them up from school and I can kind of dictate my schedule. I think that's a misconception.

5:50And then I don't know if a lot of people understand getting into it, you know, the pressure. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, we now employ nine people, which, you know, isn't a ton in the grand scheme of things. But at the same time, like you're responsible for other people. You're responsible for business. You're responsible for delivering products to clients. So I think there's a lot of pressure in that. And like you said, at the end of the day, my husband and I, this is our sole source of income. So it's like we are responsible for our own livelihood and there's no guarantees. I think that's a lot.

6:22Okay. So how do you handle taking vacations while running a business? That one took a while to figure out. I mean, leverage and delegating, right? I think that would apply to any business. But early on, you know, before when my husband was like the one man show, we found quickly found, like I said, leverage and delegation. We found like another home inspector who was willing to kind of step in while we were gone. So important to build those relationships. Now, over time, we have other inspectors now. We have six licensed home inspectors. So obviously we can have them manage the day to day. and all of our administration is remote, both U.S.-based and overseas.

7:05So, and I can do what I do remotely for the most part. So, again, that pro and con of being your own business center, like we can step away because we have other inspectors to do the field and then I can do my part remotely. So that's a real benefit. But it's still hard to turn your phone off. My trick, so this last vacation we took, I literally didn't have cell service. So I had no choice but to step away. So it's possible. You just have to be conscious and engineer those opportunities. Yeah. And I bet you when you finally got that cell service back on, you probably were like, oh, my God, what's everything doing?

7:42How's everything going, right? Yes. But also I, this last vacation was the first time that I genuinely felt that I prepared well enough that I told my team, like, you know, unless it's like an absolute emergency, like, I don't want to know about it. I don't want to hear about it. You know, I trust you guys, uh, put on your, what would Kimmy do bracelet and just march on. So it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too, too overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah. So, so basically the, the, the big, you know, the big turning point here is kind of just really trusting your team and trusting the people that you have working for you and knowing that the job is going to be a good job.

8:15will get done even when you're not there, right? 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So what have you attributed your growth so far in your business? What have you attributed to that? Probably marketing, but then also something that came to mind was I'm involved in a couple of coaching communities. I think that was a big turning point in our business. A lot of people who are home inspectors are a one man show or they kind of just figure it out on their own. But I was invited early on to an inspection-based coaching group, which I've explored a couple of groups over the years and a couple of different coaching scenarios.

8:51But I think that's been really important to find people in your similar industry and not necessarily in the same market. I network with, you know, similar owners in other markets, which is really helpful because we're not in competition with each other. So I think that, right, having help and having people who can kind of teach you how they did it, emulate what they do, share their secrets and stuff like that. So the coaching community has been great. Yeah. Okay. Love it. Love it. Yeah. So we, we, we talked about this a little bit earlier, kind of, you know, how you handle vacations, but let's dig into this a little bit more.

9:28How do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business? uh what's the personal life i'm just kidding i do feel like we do a pretty good job it's definitely evolved over the years you know we started in 2017 so what are we now like year eight um so just in this past year i feel like we're really hitting our stride and again delegating in both personal and professional um a lot you know aspects of our life like i said we homeschool, but we have a lot of resources that can support us. So it's not necessarily, they're not, my kids aren't home all day, every single day. You know, we have co-ops and drop-off programs that we use to supplement.

10:07So like I said, leverage in both aspects, right? In both my personal life and then my professional life, hiring full-time admin, hiring home inspectors to do the work for us has really allowed us to engineer our day that we can do the things we want to do. You know, I'm home for dinner early. I pick up the kids from school. I drop the kids off. I go to the gym during business hours, you know, so it's like you can kind of engineer these things, but then also I get up early to get my work done. So that's kind of nice pro is being able to, to craft your day in the way that suits you. Okay. And what qualities do you look for in potential employees?

10:48That's a good question. I guess it depends on the position. Something I really love about our home inspection, our home inspectors in particular, are just the culture. We've definitely hired intentionally. We don't just hire anybody, but we really want to foster this culture. Home inspections can get a bad rap. It's scary, and we're the bearer of bad news, and we're deal killers and all this stuff. We definitely have a responsibility to convey important information, but I want it to be done in a way that is, you know, non-threatening and educational for our clients. So we really try and do that with, you know, a certain attitude.

11:28A lot of our inspectors have spent time at some point in their life in the service industry. I think that's really important. I say sometimes I can teach someone to inspect a house, but I can't teach people to talk to people. So that's important to us is having people who are personable and warm and welcoming and friendly so that it kind of takes the edge off the process. Yeah, that kind of, you know, that kind of aspect can't be taught. You either have it or you don't, right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, understood, understood. So, you know, you kind of say you do foster a positive environment. How do you foster that positive and productive work environment in home inspections?

12:05Yeah, so first and foremost, I think hiring the right people is key. Personally, we have a group text. I mean, we talk all day, every day, which some people may think that's overwhelming, but really it's so supportive, you know, from bouncing ideas off each other, like, Hey, you know, what do you guys think about this? But then also just sharing random gifts and just little, you know, social media posts and fun stuff. So that's really kind of the lifeline of our inspectors, especially because we're such a tight knit group. But again, it goes, it's important to hire the right people because you know you could invite the one wrong person to that text thread and and throw it all off so we really enjoy that it's fun fun tool we have yeah so you kind of keep it like a little little family you know you guys can say this or put a funny post you somebody saw on tiktok or whatever and put it for the group to see and react to right literally we're doing that this morning we share real together it's great and in the best way right Like it just keeps morale in it.

13:06But like I said, it's also there as a tool to help each other. Like if we don't understand something or we have a question, we can, we have this great resource where we can all talk to each other. Great. Great. I love it. All right. So we're going to head into the quickfire round. So basically what I'm going to, I'm going to give you a word and I want you to think of the first thing that comes to mind when it, in regards to running your business, when you hear this word. Okay. Education. Oh, I mean, we have continuing education requirements. So, but just always trying to educate ourselves right on, on things we need to be aware of in the field.

13:40Planning. Planning. Room for improvement. You know, we're in business planning season, so I definitely can identify room for growth in that regard. But it's nice that we've been around for so long that I have some data to go off of. So business planning comes to mind when you say that. Inspiration. Oh, the community. Like I love, like I said, our coaching community and part of different Facebook groups with other home inspectors. And it's always fun to kind of see what other people are doing and learn and grow from that. Commitment. Do or die. Like I said, this is our sole source of income. So, you know, that's both inspiring and challenging at the same time.

14:20Pros and cons. So I love that about our business. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that. So what words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow? I think my first piece of advice to anybody in any industry, even if it's an industry I don't understand, I say find a community immediately. Go on Facebook. I'm trying to think of an example. Somebody I was talking to the other day is a private dietitian, right? So they don't work for like a hospital or a medical organization. I was like, is there a Facebook community for other solo dietitians? Like that would be my first thing.

14:56if I started over in the home inspection business too, was like join a community of other home inspectors who are helpful. You know, there's some groups that are not helpful. They're like, you're an idiot. Why would you ask that question? You know, that's not the group for you. But no matter your industry, I guarantee you there's a Facebook group of people or some coaching community or other group that is willing to help. I'll tell everybody anything I know. Even if you're in my market and you're my competitor, I'll tell you everything I know because someone did that for us. So that's my biggest piece of advice for sure.

15:27Okay. And what's the next big thing for your company?

15:34That's funny. I keep joking with my business friends, like nothing. We've grown so much. And in the last year we've taken on radon mitigation and septic pumping. So I have joked that I don't want to take on anything more. I want to refine and grow what we have. So I guess growth. We've got some pretty big goals for the next year. So that's exciting. So yeah, just really honing our craft and getting better at what we do and growing our client base. So growth, I guess, would be the answer. Okay. Okay. And lastly, what's the best way for someone to find or get in touch with you? Yeah, I tell people I meet you where you're at, whatever you need.

16:14Allied inspector.com is our website. You can call us 828-589-0252. You can also text that if you're like me and you don't actually like being on the phone, you're welcome to text us. Or I always love when people follow us on social media. I believe it's Allied Home Inspector underscore Asheville. We post every single day. It's very entertaining. So I like people to find us there because that's the most organic way for you to kind of get your daily dose of allied home inspection. Okay, great, great. All right. Well, yeah, fantastic. Yeah, Kimmy, thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all you're doing.

16:50We certainly wish you continued success and thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com.

17:34That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.