Cautious Plans to Expand After a Grueling Year

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Clients who had opted for in-house graphics departments returned and private investment began flowing, freeing up some budgets for Web site overhauls.

Rigney is still forgoing his salary and he's stuck to the "close everything" policy. He will also continue to handle sales himself for the time being. But the company, which had $740,000 in revenue in 2009, is back in the black and bidding on an extremely large job. If they get it, Rigney says, he'll bring in some freelance contractors to help, but isn't considering hiring more full-time staff in the near future.

LaRocca Inspections, meanwhile, has rehired several of its laid-off inspectors and a new administrative employee. With $3.9 million in revenue in 2009, it finished up about 8% over 2008, due to the surge of property inspections late in the year and the cuts the company had made earlier in 2009. In 2010, Wrightsman expects revenue to continue growing at 8% to 10%. "We're looking forward to bringing on another new employee in the spring," Wrightsman says.

geology, termites, and foundations

The firm changed its marketing strategy after its database of 12,000 Southern California real estate agents dropped to 8,000 early in 2009. "We cut our expenses, our inspectors offered to work extra days and we sort of changed our whole attitude. We knew we had to pull out of this somehow," Wrightsman says. Instead of relying on referrals from real estate brokers, the company marketed its services directly to homeowners through online social media and networking.

"We got ahold of everyone we knew in the inspection arena, from geology to termite to foundation inspectors. We came together in a meeting and decided to all work together. We were able to funnel a lot of work to those people when we started asking clients if they needed specialized services. As they piled on more work, they gave us more clients," he recalls.

Helped by the first-time-homebuyers' credit and a rebound in real estate, what would normally be a slow summer looked better than average in 2009. "We recognized it was better than most summers. By the end it was much better than most summers, and in the fall business kept increasing," Wrightsman says.

Advertising—both online and in local print publications—and sponsoring charity events paid off for the inspection service. As 2010 starts off, Wrightsman is just glad to have survived 2009. "I remember being hit by a recession in the early '90s, but it was not nearly this bad. This was the worst I've seen in Southern California—ever."

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.

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