Residential boilers have been in use for generations. They’re effective at warming a small bungalow or an expansive estate and many people who live with them couldn’t be happier. That’s because a boiler and radiator system in good condition produces even heat with fewer cold spots than a forced air system. They might seem like an old-fashioned home heating choice, but there’s a reason why they’re still popular and widely used throughout Europe.

What goes into a boiler and what makes them tick? Here’s brief breakdown.

Boilers Use Combustion or Electricity to Heat Water

Like a furnace, boilers may rely on combustion or electricity to generate heat. Modern combustion appliances often use natural gas. Oil-fired boilers are common, as well. You’re less likely to find an electric boiler than a combustion unit, but electric models do exist.

Combustion Boiler Design Tends to Fall Into One of Two Categories

Boilers may be firetube or watertube style, which are opposites and somewhat self-explanatory. Nationwide Boiler explains that firetube boilers send heated flue gas through a series of tubes, which run through a chamber filled with water. The hot tubes heat the surrounding water. Watertube boilers send water through a series of tubes, which run through a heated chamber. The chamber heats water inside the tubes.

Boilers Produce Hot Water or Steam

Boiler-fed home heating radiator systems may use steam or hot water. Generally, older systems circulate hot steam through a network of pipes and radiators before sending it back to the boiler for reheating. Newer systems often use hot water, but that’s not universally true. Steam may have a higher likelihood of leaks, according to The Spruce, but system age may be a factor.

Electric Boilers are More Akin to Watertube Design

Electric boilers have an electric heat element inside. Because there’s no combustion, they don’t produce gas and don’t need flue venting. They’re often much smaller than a typical combustion unit. Like watertube design in a combustion boiler, electric boilers pass water inside tubes across the internal heating element.

Electric Boilers are Nearly 100 Percent Efficient but More Expensive to Operate

Although electric boilers are nearly 100 percent efficient, they also usually cost much more than a combustion unit to operate. Efficiency in heating refers to how much of the energy is converted to heat. Electric appliances convert nearly all of their energy into heat, but electric energy is expensive. Combustion boilers are less efficient at converting energy to heat, but the fuels are less expensive than electricity.

A Boiler and Radiator Heating System is Usually Comfortable

People who’ve never lived in a home with a boiler and radiators might think it’s too old-fashioned. They may plan to rip out the system and replace it with a modern furnace or heat pump. That’s unfortunate since this heating system is widely regarded as one of the most comfortable. Forced air heat blows dry, heated air through registers throughout the home in a cycle. Radiators warm the home quietly, evenly and continually without blasts of air.

Boiler systems aren’t as common in the United States anymore, but that doesn’t mean they need replacement. If the radiators and piping are in good condition without rust or major leaks, they could serve the home for 100 years or more. As long as the boiler is maintained for its lifespan and replaced when it’s outdated, the same as you would a furnace, there’s no logical reason to ditch a boiler for a so-called modern home heating system.

Even if your business is known simply as Joe’s Home Inspections, you need a logo. It’s the identifier that makes your business immediately recognizable no matter where it’s seen.

Since you probably aren’t an artist or graphic designer, you might be tempted to skip the logo or wait until you can hire a pro. Don’t fall into that trap. Many designers offer logo services on the side of their day job and they might charge less than you think. If that’s still out of your price range, you can find inexpensive basic logos through several online services.

Here’s what you need to know about logo design and why such a small thing is so important for your business.

A  Logo Supports Your Branding Efforts

Branding sets your home inspection business apart from all of the others in your market. Without a logo, your brand is about as memorable as a plain bologna sandwich.

Branding Beat says a good logo becomes part of the business identity. When people see it, they instantly think about you. For that reason, a logo needs careful thought and a professional appearance, even if it’s a cartoon character.

The more professional the design, the more professional your home inspection business brand comes across to the public. The more professional the design, the more professional your home inspection business brand comes across to the public.

Great Logos Have a Few Common Characteristics

As different as one logo is from the next, all great logos are similar in a few ways. U.K.-based PN Design says good design is “more than just displaying your name in an appealing font.”

Good design has these characteristics:

Different enough to recognize at a glance Visuals and font that complement the type of business that they represent Imagery and font style that work with the business name Legibility Clear and clean in black and white and also in color, if you use color in the design Graphic Designers Might Not Be as Expensive as You Think

You’re designing a logo, not putting a graphic designer’s kids through college. A designer’s skill has definite value, but that doesn’t mean logo design is exorbitant. A quick Google search will show you a range of prices between free and about $200. The higher the demand for the designer’s services and the more complicated the logo, the more you’ll pay.

If you decide to hire a designer, check out their portfolio before you take another step. If you like what you see, reach out and ask about design services. Often, there’s a process that involves designing a few options for you to choose from, fine-tuning your choice and one or two design tweaks after the design is complete. You’ll want to know what’s included in the price.

Don’t Forget About Inexpensive DIY Logo Design

A few things to remember:

Assume all images online are copyright protected. Just because you can right-click and save an image doesn’t mean it’s legal to do so. Download your image from a reputable image source that licenses images for commercial use. Go with a high-resolution file for a clearer, sharper image. If you don’t want to invest in Photoshop, check out a free program such as GNU Imagine Manipulation Program (Gimp), which gives you a lot of design freedom.

You can certainly run a successful home inspection business without a logo, but why would you want to? Your logo is part of your business personality. Whether it’s nothing but the company name in an eye-catching font or it’s got memorable imagery, your logo is a business tool that raises awareness and helps support all of your marketing efforts.

Home inspectors are torn on the topic of licensing, at least in states where it’s not yet the norm. In California, for example, many home inspectors are happy to keep things the way they are. Inspector and former contractor, Dave Pace, tells NBC Bay Area that he’s satisfied, but he also isn’t opposed to licensing if it’s done right. Pace belongs to the California Real Estate Inspector’s Association, so his standards are a bit higher than some CA inspectors who fly solo.

No licensing means no government regulations, no state intervention and sometimes even no insurance. But what you save on the front end could come back to haunt you later on. If you’re working in a state like California that doesn’t license home inspectors, here’s how you can protect yourself and your career.

Get an Education From a Reputable Home Inspection Program

In unlicensed states, prospective inspectors usually have no education requirements before hanging out a shingle and going to work. As Pace explained, he’s seen people work at a grocery store one day and start a home inspection business the next. An education sets you apart from other inspectors who only do the bare minimum.

An education can also protect you. In some unlicensed states, legislation holds inspectors to a reasonable duty of care to their customers. If you provide an inspection, you’re required to perform a responsible one. In the absence of a licensing board, state laws may give customers a legal foothold for suing if they’re dissatisfied. With an education, you’ll know how to do the job properly.

Take the National Home Inspector Exam

Passing a home inspection education course is a great first step, but the National Home Inspector Exam lets you prove your knowledge. Although it’s not required, it’s smart to take part. Some associations require future members to pass the exam, so why not join the ranks and schedule a test date?

While studying for the exam, you’ll probably find an area or two where you need more knowledge. The helps ensure that you’re as fit as you can be once you’ve tested and are ready to enter the workforce. It also protects you from inadvertently overlooking a home defect and finding yourself in court.

Join a State or National Home Inspection Association

State- and national-level home inspector associations go to great lengths to cultivate a unified industry. Each association has a code of ethics and standards of practice, and continuing education isn’t uncommon, either.

Adherence to the code keeps your membership intact, which helps with marketing yourself as professional. Standards of Practice are your road map for performing a home inspection the way most inspectors in North America do. And with continuing education, you’ll stay competitive in a changing industry.

Participate in Continuing Education Courses

After passing an educational program and then taking the national exam, why would you subject yourself to even more education? Continuing education keeps your existing knowledge fresh and makes you aware of new laws, trends, tools, and standards.

Associations often have continuing education requirements. If you join, chances are you’ll be required to participate. If you choose not to join an association, you can still earn continuing ed credits. Contact a provider such as Quality Education Group and keep learning throughout your career.

Maintain Errors and Omissions Insurance

Perhaps one of the most important characteristics of a responsible home inspector is an errors and omissions insurance policy that stays in force. If you operate a business, you’ll probably need liability insurance. Errors and Omissions or E&O is different. It protects you and your customer from loss in case you overlook a costly defect.

Liability protects you and the homeowner in case you break a window. E&O protects you and the home buyer in case you overlook a window that’s defective. Having a policy is one more way to separate you from other inspectors who try to skimp. It can also protect your business as well as your personal belongings.

Working in a state without licensing gives home inspectors a lot of freedom. There’s the opportunity to carve your own path, make your own name and do it all on your terms. But there’s also the opportunity to land in a mess if you don’t take certain precautions. Instead of thinking of your state as freedom from licensing, consider it the freedom to do better. You can build a business the way that you see fit. Take this chance and go further than your competition.

Everyone tells you to get active on social media. It’s a great marketing tool for home inspectors, but used the wrong way, it can have the opposite effect. If you’re too responsive, you’ll spend more hours than you should in front of a computer or mobile device. But if you’re not responsive enough, your audience will drift away.

What is that magic combination and how can you get it? Avoiding these common newbie marketing mistakes is a good start.

#1: Using Too Many Different Social Media Platforms

It’s easy to jump into every channel you can find when you’re getting your social media sea legs. After all, if one channel is good, all of them must be fantastic. That’s not usually how it works.

Every platform has a certain type of audience, so each one has the ability to reach a different type of person. This article at Entrepreneur breaks down the popular channels. But if you try to use them all, you’ll spend more time than you should in social media and not enough on the job.

Learn what the different social media options is about. LinkedIn, for example, is a professional social site. Facebook is personal, but that also means you have an incredibly broad reach, especially using some of their new business tools. Pick one or two platforms and work out from there. That’s what Dave Kogan says at the ASHI blog.

#2: Too Much Business or Too Much Casual

You want to be friendly. That’s what social is all about. A dull presence will do nothing for your engagement with followers.  But a too-friendly social media presence can make your home inspection business come across as unprofessional. That’s probably the opposite effect that you’re going for.

Businesses that use social effectively have mastered the art of the business casual voice. Think of it as the khaki pants and Polo shirt of words.

A friendly conversational style with your social media audience helps them develop a connection with your business. Just be careful about responding to negative comments in kind or sharing too much about what you had for lunch.

#3: Haphazard Social Media Posting and Engagement

There’s an icon on every Facebook business page that tells visitors how quickly the page owner responds. The quicker you are to respond to visitor messages, the more professional you’ll look to your audience. Not only that, your response time could be the difference between getting a home inspection appointment and the potential customer contacting someone else.

Timeliness also applies to social media posts. If once a day is all you can manage, stick with it. If you start off with a bang and then lose steam, your audience could fall away.

Every channel has a better time for posting and a better mix of posting schedules. for Facebook, once or twice a day is fine for a small home inspection business. Twitter needs three times as many posts per day. Now Marketing Group explains more about schedules plus gives insight into the best times of day to post on each channel.

#4: Blending Personal Social With Your Home Inspection Business 

There are different schools of thought about using a personal social media account for business. Some say one account is plenty for anyone. Forbes says you should never mix business with personal life. It’s just too risky and complicated.

It’s easier, at least at first, to use a personal account to raise awareness of your business. But soon, the lines between family and work start to blur. Separating the accounts once you’ve started to build an audience will cause confusion. You might also lose some valuable posts and customer interactions in the shift.

If you stick with one or two social media accounts at first, opening a business page for each of them will be much easier to manage. As your comfort level increases, then you can safely think about adding more.

We get it. One of the biggest attractions about being a home inspector is driving business as you see fit. But sometimes, guidelines exist because they work. You can use social media as little or as much as you like. You can even skip it altogether. The important thing is to use what’s known about each platform to get the best results. Just because you can use social any way you like doesn’t mean that’ll get you more home inspection customers or referrals.

You can get an education and go to work as a certified home inspector, but building a dynamic business takes savvy. Your unique value proposition is what makes your business different and better. Many entrepreneurs need a little help defining it, and it might not be what you think.

Small business owners usually have some idea about what makes them special. Maybe it’s your extensive background in construction that gives you an edge. Or maybe you’re a woman who can relate to other women buying a first, second or third home. But it’s likely that your unique value proposition is more than what you think.

Once you know what sets you apart, you can capitalize on it to stand out in the industry.

Value Matters to You and Your Customers

The unique value proposition is just a fancy way of showing what makes your business different from the competition. Why would customers choose you over any other certified home inspector? And is that value real or just a catchy phrase? Not everyone can be the best, the fastest or the cheapest. But you can offer something that’s rare in a way that’s appealing to the people in your market.

Try to keep the value proposition clean and precise. While you certainly don’t want to exclude any potential customers, the tighter your value proposition the more you’ll be able to market your services in a way that resonates. Maybe you really are the quickest inspector in town. If the market is booming, buyers who might otherwise skip the inspection to make the first bid could hire you without fear of losing time.

The Value Proposition is Part of Most Formal Business Plans

You don’t need to determine your unique value proposition to start a home inspection business. But if you plan to secure a business loan, expect the lender to ask. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has tools that help you work through the steps the right way.

A business plan is a smart idea for any business owner, even those who have no intention of renting an office or hiring employees one day. That’s because a plan arms you with knowledge. As you work through the steps of building a plan, you’ll learn more about the market, your skills, business requirements and numerous other factors that can help you succeed. If you need help, the SBA can connect you with a counselor or mentor through one of their programs, such as SCORE or the Women’s Business Center.

How to Find Your Unique Value Proposition 

While you know your business better than anyone else, you might not really know what makes it special. Your value proposition isn’t just what you think, it’s what you can back up with research.

Michael Skok of Startup Secrets writes at Forbes outlines four basic steps.

Define the problem that your value proposition solves. Is it really a prevalent problem or an important one that needs a solution? Evaluate whether your solution is really all that Earth-shattering. Does your value proposition offer something that’s rare or that doesn’t exist at all? Measure whether customers will be likely to agree. Does your solution require anything out of the ordinary from customers that they might not understand or want to learn? Build the Value Proposition Framework. Who is your market? What is the problem that your solution solves? What is your solution? How does it solve the problem? What does your closest competitor offer and how is your solution different?

Expect a few surprises as you build your unique value proposition. You might learn that what you thought was unique isn’t really different after all. But that knowledge is valuable, too. Instead of committing to a flawed idea, you can reevaluate and find something different.

Every home inspector has something that no one else does. If you can’t find it, then you can develop it. That’s part of building the value proposition. While researching the problem that you think your services solve, you could find another one that the rest of the industry has ignored.

Your home inspection business and your customers rely on a great home inspection report. Without that, nothing else matters. If you’re not satisfied with the reporting software you’ve got or you’re ready to step up from handwritten reports, Report Form Pro is a great choice. It’s clean, easy to use and produces professional results every time.