My husband and I own a franchise with HouseMaster, a home inspection business, the oldest in North America (30 years. Our business covers a large section of Arizona. We inspect 150-200 houses a month and employ five fulltime inspectors. My husband is a home inspector and I handle the office and marketing.

EDUCATION | Bachelor's in Social Work; Master's in Social Work and Master's in National Security Studies (Political Science), as well as professional military coursework to include Air Force Pilot Training.

HOW TO GET STARTED | Every state is different. In Arizona, you have to be State Certified to become a home inspector. You have to take a course, and then ride along with a State Certified inspector for 30 inspections. You have to take the National Home Inspector Exam. That makes you just minimally qualified. I only hire inspectors who are already State Certified AND who have a background in construction or remodeling.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | You have to be computer literate, able to take firm but positive control of the inspection environment, often with many people trailing behind you, and know how to really work well with people. The finesse comes in where you must tell the truth about the home, but couch things in terms that aren't "scary".

how I got started | My husband and I are both retired Air Force officers. I was a pilot in the Air Force. We were looking for a business to get into after we retired from the service, and I picked up a book, the "100 Best Franchises in America". That was in the mid-1990s, and HouseMaster was fairly new at that time, but it was still listed in the appendix. I checked into a few franchises: the first one, a burglar alarm installation company, treated me like I didn't know what I was talking about because I was a woman. The next one didn't pan out, either. Then I called HouseMaster. They were crisp, succinct and open, and they said they love former military people because we know how to follow a plan and get the job done. They asked where we owned a house, and I told them Mesa, Arizona. They said that territory was available, so we decided to go for it.

why this job?| I like the autonomy. I enjoy getting out and being involved in different parts of the community.

why I love this job!| We get to provide a service that almost everybody needs at some point in their lives. When you make the biggest purchase of your life, you want to know what you're getting. It fulfills a desire we have to serve others. And, the beauty of owning your own business and having a good reputation is that you can be choosier about whom you do business with.

my typical day| Nothing is really typical and I like that. I get up, go running, check my e-mail, go into the office (a 5-minute walk from the house) in the afternoon and do quality control. I meet with my inspectors, go to networking events, teach a class for real estate agents on home inspection liability.

what they are | Unhappy customers from time to time - - people who didn't like to hear about the problems with their house. Sometimes, homebuying clients and especially their real estate agent, have a tendency to shoot the messenger. Occasionally, longstanding employees leave and compete against you, which is a breach of contract and requires us to take legal action.

all about growth | The potential for growth is limitless. I just hired two more employees - an inspector and an office worker. Everybody's always moving to Arizona and no matter what the economy is doing, everybody is always buying houses.

my website| http://phoenix.housemaster.com; http://www.ArizonaHome.blogspot.com; www.WendyRogers.org