Marketing & Building a Thermal Inspection Business……

The WOW!! Factor.

Malcolm West
Thermal Inspection Services Pty. Ltd., Brisbane Queensland, Australia.

ABSTRACT
Many thermographers are employed by large corporations or government-owned organizations, thus they
already have an inspection market and don’t need to promote and create an ongoing scanning business.
There are, however, a growing number of smaller independent operators who invest a lot of time and money
into creating and building a successful Thermal Imaging/Infrared Scanning business. This paper is designed
to complement and enhance your current marketing and business building ideas by providing you with some
ideas and concepts to assist in the development of your own business. This is how I use the WOW Factor!
So what is the WOW Factor?

INTRODUCTION
Remember the first time you saw an Infrared Camera in action? Your first reaction was probably WOW!!!
How does the camera do that? That’s what I call the WOW Factor. By capturing and embracing the power of
the WOW Factor you can building and expand your Thermal Imaging business. Most people have never seen
an Infrared Camera in action, so wherever you can, take your IR Camera so you can show them the WOW
Factor in person.

The WOW Factor gets people’s attention, the first step to building business. Take the two images below, for
example—I bet they were the first things you saw on this page. The magic of the WOW Factor can start your
business dream.

Figures 1 & 2. The WOW FACTOR in action; a common thing (Airplane) and an unusual object (a Drying Drum
at an Asphalt Plant) viewed thermally give the first time viewer an amazing WOW FACTOR experience.

THE DREAM BEGINS WITH A PLAN

It’s the WOW Factor that starts the dream, and once bitten with the IR bug you need to write the dream
down. Once written down, your dream can then become reality. You have the beginning of your first business
plan.

Whether you’re starting your business or looking to expand it, do your research into Thermal Imaging before
you commit to the purchase of an IR Camera. Know in what areas of IR Scanning you are looking to build a
business to guide you in buying the right equipment. Your business plan should look at all aspects of your
business and must contain short term and long-term goals. In any business venture that requires a large

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

outlay of money to establish, always seek professional advice from key people you can trust, i.e. your
accountant and lawyer. By doing this you will stand a better chance of success and have your business
established in the best possible way.

Hopefully by the time you finish reading this paper you will have a better understanding of what it takes to
build your successful IR business. Whether you are starting out for the first time or have been in the IR
business a while, this paper is designed to make you stop and think a bit about your business and where it is
headed.

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS AND COMPETITORS

The first thing you need to understand is the IR industry. By doing this you will be able to have a far clearer
understanding of what is needed to be successful within your business. A little research and planning goes a
long way. Likewise when establishing your thermal inspection business you need to understand the IR
opportunities in your area. It is easier to service clients closer to your office. What other infrared/thermal
inspection operators are in your local area, what industries are they working in, and how will you address the
possibility of competing with them for the business?

Do the research on your competitors:

- Where are they located? What services do they supply?
- Do they specialize in a specific area? What equipment do they use?
- Are their thermographers qualified? What areas do they service?
- How much do they charge? What do their reports look like?

These are a few thoughts to get you started. Your location will generate more localized questions, which will
assist you. The more you know about your competitors the better equipped you are when you come across
one of them.

One of the most important rules in building your IR business is this: NEVER SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT
YOUR COMPETITORS TO PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS. Firstly, bad-mouthing others doesn’t put you in a
positive light with clients, and secondly you don’t need to waste time highlighting other companies and their
weaknesses when you may have only a small window of opportunity to promote yours. Downgrading others
also puts more pressure on you to perform and may make it harder to please a client by increasing their
skepticism and negative outlook.

KEY AREAS OF YOUR BUSINESS

Honesty/ Integrity
In all contact with new and existing clients you need to conduct all your dealings in an honest and
professional manner. The old saying, “What goes around, comes around” is very evident in business today.
We have had one of our opposition thermal Imaging companies receive our purchase orders for work
accidentally and by the time we realize what has happened they have gone and completed the work. This has
happened not once but three or four times. Not ethical but we lose out…or do we? In most cases, when we
explain what has happened to our clients, they apologize to us and we’ve been able to win back their
business. More importantly, they see the other company in a different light (not being able to be
trusted/unethical). We have found that this has made these clients even more supportive of our business and
we have picked up new clients because they have told others that we are a fair and honest company to deal
with.

Office Support
This is a critical part of your new or existing business, particularly if you are a sole operator. It is very hard to
run a successful business while you’re on site scanning. You need office support with phone calls, reports
and the general running of the office. You don’t carry copies of all your clients’ reports or accounting details
around with you on site, and if you did the client you were working for at the time would not appreciate your
using the time they are paying for to service other clients.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

Thermographers
To have a successful thermal inspection business you need to have motivated and qualified staff as part of
your team. Prior thermal training is an asset but not necessary as there are accredited thermography training
courses available that can bring your people up to speed. Industry backgrounds are desirable, i.e.
electricians. Your thermographers are your front line, they deal hands-on with the clients. Hiring the wrong
person will cost you ongoing business, while the right person can build your business. To be a great
thermographer, I believe you have to be dedicated, passionate and curious by nature, because you learn so
much by accident. Many a time I have pointed my IR camera at something not knowing what to expect or see.
Every now and again you hit the jackpot, the WOW Factor.

Here’s an example of this, from a case study about overhead power lines:

While conducting thermal inspections of 11KV power lines in a city suburb, we stopped to check a pole-
mounted transformer adjacent to two small factories and opposite a golf club in a very busy road. Having
checked all the connections we were about to leave when I spotted out of the corner of my eye a service pole
feeding one of the factories. Without thinking I swung the IR Camera around and checked the top of the pole.
Pretty silly, as there were no power line connections located at the top of this pole. To my amazement the left
hand side of the pole had a heat source at 115.0 °C and the right hand side of the pole around 61.0 °C. We
got out of the truck and went to have a closer look.

Figures 3 & 4 –Service Pole: -Left Hand Side Digital Photo and Thermal

Figures 5 & 6 –Service Pole: -Right Hand Side Digital Photo and Thermal

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

There was thermal activity at the rear of the pole on both sides with the LHS being the hottest. Staring up at
the top of the pole I saw the cables go down inside the cable protective cover and disappear underground. I
thought I also saw a flash mark on the top RHS section of the cover. Confirmation of this was made using our
binoculars and I noticed a cable with no insulation on it in the area of the flash. Following it down to the
ground I soon realized it was a stay cable supporting the post. Curiosity again took over and I ran my IR
Camera down the stay cable to where it was looped through the stake in the ground. To my amazement the
loop at the end of the stake was hot, but why? Our only thought was that the stay cable was live! To gather
more information I check the LHS stay cable stake and found it to be cooler. We then phoned our power
company contract coordinator and he had a scout vehicle at our location within five minutes. Two power
company workers arrived and I showed them the thermal images I had taken of the pole top and support
cable stake that we believed was live. They took some test equipment out of their vehicle and slowly checked
out the findings. The next thing we know they had called in the live-line repair crew to rectify the problem.
They arrived within fifteen minutes and started the repair work. What appeared to have happened was that
the live cables feeding the factory had rubbed against the sharp top edge of the cover and somehow jammed
the loosened stay cable against the cover causing the flash mark on the cover. This changed the status of
the stay cable from just a support cable to a potential killer. The WOW Factor of this fault surprised us all.

Figures 7 & 8. Digital and Thermal Images of stay cable stake in ground.
Thermograph shows distinctive thermal activity within the eyelet of the stake.

Reports
A thermal imaging business is like any other: your business is judged on the end result and you don’t get paid
until the job is delivered 100% finished. This includes the final report you give your client.

Reports are more important than many thermographers realize. At the end of the day, the last impression you
leave with your client, and the first impression you create with a possible new client, is your report. If you think
about this every time you send a report out the door, you will ensure that a high standard of reporting is
maintained.

The quality of your report is your point of difference in the market place. When setting up your reports try to
make them user friendly—use the KISS method (keep it simple stupid). In the last 11 years I’ve found that
unless clients specifically ask for a high tech report all you are doing is confusing the client. Not all people
who receive your reports are able to understand scientific data; most just want to know that there is a
problem, how serious it is and what component is damaged or about to fail. As Infrared Scanning/Thermal
Imaging is a preventative maintenance tool, keep that in mind when scanning and doing your reports. Some
operators set the IR Camera up high and only report critical/serious faults. Yet experience tells me that even
the lower temperature concerns are worth reporting because they are exactly that, a concern. By including
these lower temperature concerns into your reports you can monitor and trend if necessary while at the same
time cover yourself if there is an issue before your next inspection. After all, the equipment may not have
been under full load or may not have been running long when you scanned. The thermographer’s duty is to
report the thermal abnormalities we find to our clients. If they choose to ignore or not investigate these
concerns they do it at their own peril. It may take a bit longer on site and in the reporting, but if you charge an

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

hourly rate for scanning you don’t really lose. I don’t know about you but I like to sleep at night without the
worry of wondering, “Have I missed something?”

Client Service/Contact
The problem we have with our clients is that 90% are only inspected once a year, which means you only have
contact with them over a two-month period: one month before, the scan itself, and when you forward the
reports. The remaining ten months are the ones we need to worry about, when the other competitors can
target and make contact with your clients. Look for ways to have more regular contact with your clients, such
as sending out a company newsletter every quarter

Sustainable 12-month Client base

Many people look at what we do and say “Hey that looks easy, I think I’ll start up my own
Infrared/Scanning business.” I’ve heard this particularly from electrical contractors who think it’s an easy
opportunity to make money without all the hard work that electricians have to do. This approach is a financial
trap, as they don’t consider the need for regular work every month for 12 months. Not to mention the ongoing
operational costs of rent, wages, insurance (Indemnity, Public Liability, Camera, work cover, leases and
vehicle running expenses just to name a few). These issues should be addressed at the beginning, at the
business plan stage, but in a lot of cases it’s not. A sustainable, regular 12-month list of clients is critical for
future expansion and security because capital and running costs are incurred all year long.

Repeat Business
When looking for new clients you have to promote the need for Thermal Imaging to be part of an ongoing
preventative maintenance program. History tells me that you will retain about 90-95% of your clients each
year. You inevitably lose some clients when they change their decision-making staff; for example, the
maintenance engineer or operations manager changes and they use their preferred IR company, no matter
how long you’ve been there. We had a client for 7 years and built them up from 1 day to 3 days of scanning.
We lost this client with a change of engineer because he didn’t know us and wanted to use his preferred IR
supplier, not because of anything we had done. In these cases you are better to channel your energy into
looking for new clients, but still keep them in the loop. Of course it hurts every time you lose business, but it’s
better to move on than to dwell on the loss.

Prospecting New Clients

No matter how busy you get you have to devote regular time to generating new business. If you provide a
professional service you will pick up a few clients through referrals, but you need to do more if you want your
business to take off. Knowing what direction your business is moving in will assist you. When I prospect I
have two main approaches: Shot Gun and Rifle. By Shot Gun I mean broad-stream marketing, like shot gun
pellets, spreading out over a wide are. The Rifle approach, by contrast, means specific targeted marketing,
aimed like a rifle shooting at a target.

To be successful I believe you have to do both types, and I have found the best balance to be the 80/20 rule.
As we don’t specialize in one area of thermal imaging, I spend 80% of my time marketing to a broad industry
base and 20% targeting specific industries. This 20% will change with seasons and seasonal work. For
example, air conditioning clients will either be summer or winter clients depending on heating or cooling. This
is particularly important when trying to create a balanced client base so you can have consistent scanning
work throughout each of the 12 months. If you can master this balance you can move forward in building your
IR business.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

Diversity in Clients
Printing Industry (Figures 9,10 & 11)

*>144.4°C

140.0

130.0 129.6

120.0

106.4
110.0

123.4
*<100.0°C

Figure 9. Figure 10. Figure 11.

Power Industry (Figures 12, 13 & 14)

Figure 12. Figure 13. Figure 14.

Electrical (Figures 15, 16 & 17)

Figure 15. Figure 16. Figure 17.

Equine Industry (Figures 18, 19, 20 & 21)

Figure 18. Figure 19. Figure 20. Figure 21.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

Our Industry base is very large and covers many industries, including sugar mills, coal mines, sand mining,
chicken hatcheries, processing plants, sub stations, overhead power lines, soft drink plants, shopping centres,
cold storage (cold rooms/freezers), high rise buildings, resorts, trains, airports, abattoirs, steel plants,
parcel/letter centres, bakeries, foundries and wineries just to name a few. One of our sayings is that
“Applications for IR scanning are only limited by your imagination” and that’s the way we approach our
business. If we have never scanned it we’ll give it a go in an effort to help clients. We have learned a lot this
way as well as creating ongoing business. A lot of people know about infrared as they have seen it in the
movies and on TV, but they really don’t know much about the many applications that it has and the benefits
associated with its use. Not every IR business needs to be as diverse as we are, but always keep your eyes
open.

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGES OF LOCATION

Figures 22 & 23. Maps show location of Queensland within Australia. We service clients in all capital cities shown as
well as smaller cities and towns.

Our Thermal Inspection Company is based in Queensland Australia. We operate out of Brisbane,
Queensland’s capital city. Our office is approximately one hour from Australia Zoo, home of the late Steve
Irwin….The Crocodile Hunter!

Figure 24 & 25. Pictures show our crocodile hunter the late Steve Irwin on billboards in front of his home “Australia
Zoo” Beerwah Queensland Australia.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

From a business perspective the vast distances between major cities in Australia used to make it difficult to
obtain work from any other location except for your local city and surrounding areas. The downtime and travel
costs usually made it uneconomical to source interstate work. We were unable to compete with local
operators on price. However with the launch of low-fare airline carriers and good old competition, it is possible
to compete in other markets. Imagine trying to service clients from LA to New York and all cities in between.
We do this on a regular basis. It isn’t easy but as we have a big country with a small population so we have to
go where the work is.

Figure 26. Overlaid Map of Australia, USA and UK. This map shows the size of
Australia in comparison to the USA and the UK. Australia is black, the USA in blue
and the UK red. Although similar in land size the USA has roughly 277 million more
people than Australia.

As shown above the greatest challenge we faced regarding building our Thermal Imaging business is the size
and vastness of Australia (7,687,000km²). Shown above is the size of Australia to the USA and UK. Australia
and the US are almost the same in land area, however the populations are very different. The US has over
300 million people while we have just over 21 million. Being the largest Island in the world and one of the
driest we have almost all our people living on the coastal fringe with not much between except the sparsely
populated outback.

Population
As briefly touched on our population is small (21 million) in comparison the USA (300 million) and other
European and Asian countries. The work opportunities are located where the people live and work. The more
people, the more infrastructures there are, the more equipment there is to scan. People attract people and in
this case more scanning opportunities.

Isolation
Being a large island in the Pacific we are a little bit out of the way, which is good for some things but not for
the Infrared Industry. Things are a lot better now but when I started out 11 years ago if you had a problem
with your IR camera and it had to be shipped back to America or Europe to be fixed or serviced you were
without your camera for anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks. Not real good if all you do is IR scanning and scanning
is your only source of income. Loan cameras were scarce and hard to arrange and also had to be sent to
Australia from overseas which meant again weeks of waiting. Thankfully things are better now but you dread
the thought of your IR Camera failing. For this reason my No. 1 business goal short term was to build our
client base as quick as possible so as to obtain a second camera for ease of mind financially. Weeks without

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

an income could put your business plans back months or even send you broke. If you are a small IR operator
make sure that your IR agent can supply you with the backup service you need to survive in business in a
time of crisis before you outlay the money on their equipment. The bottom line is we will all need support at
some time with our IR equipment so ensure the backup is there from the beginning.

MARKETING TOOLS

People say, “A Picture says a Thousand words”…Our Pictures save

people thousands of dollars!
Calendars/Christmas Cards

Figure 27. IR image of pottery Christmas tree.

We used this Thermal Image of a Christmas tree on our client Christmas cards. The thermal image is a
pottery Christmas tree with a small tea light candle within creating thermal variances within the tree.

Company Vehicles

Figure 28. Company vehicle with lots of IR advertising.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

We use the WOW Factor on our company vehicles. I believe the money spent on this form of advertising is
worth every cent. It’s a mobile billboard for our company and by having large thermal images on all sides of
our vehicle, people get the message about what we do. In fact we picked up two jobs in the first month from
people seeing our vehicle. These jobs more than paid for the signage so the business it generates from the
next 10 months is all a bonus.

Brochures
Since an IR business relies so much on visual images, a great brochure is a must. We have several
brochures we use to promote our business. We have a general brochure that covers all aspects of our
thermal imaging business and then we use industry-specific brochures to target specific industries so
potential clients can easily relate. We produce all our brochures in-house for ease and flexibility in changing
details and target marketing.

Business Cards
Use a thermal image on your card as this will add to the Wow Factor…..a point of difference. It will stand out
from other business cards. After a few years of just having a plain business card we had a thermal image
placed on the front of our business cards and have had great success with them. We will never go back to a
plain business card again. With our new cards, the WOW Factor works its magic for us long after we’ve left
the client.

Staff Uniforms/Work Wear

A business-like approach to presenting your staff in the marketplace with proper industry-approved clothing
will portray your company as professional. Ensure all your thermographers have and are provided with the
proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).

Promotional/Advertising Products
There are many and varied products in the marketplace that could be used to promote your business. Some
we have tried are wall calendars, hanging calendars, desk jotters (note pads), pens, baseball caps and
coffee mugs with our company name. They all are different ways to get your business name and details out
into the market place.

Advertising
Every business needs to advertise. Look at the options available to you and decide which form suits your
business best. You definitely need to have a productive web site and brochures, and be listed in the phone
book/directory. From there other options are trade/industry magazines, internet banners and ads to name a
few. We print our own brochures using our standard template and colour laser printer. This gives us the
flexibility to create as many different industry brochures as we need. We have been down the path of printing
5000 brochures from the local printer and found that we had lots of waste because some details changed and
the brochures became obsolete. By printing our own, we control the content and number of copies printed so
we don’t have as much waste. When using various types of advertising try and keep everything similar (the
same WOW Factor) so if a potential client sees your different types of advertising the common theme ( the
WOW Factor) will tie it all together and reinforce your advertising message.

How much should you spend on advertising? Some people say you should spend 5% of your turnover on
advertising/marketing, some say more. The decision is yours. If the advertising you use is working why
change? But depending on the stage of your business growth, you may need to increase or decrease your
advertising dollar.

Company Newsletters
If you have the time to put together a regular newsletter this can be a strong marketing tool as it gives you the
opportunity to have more contact with your existing clients while at the same time showing off your company
in a positive light to new potential clients. Newsletters take a lot of planning but they are definitely worth the
effort.

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

SUMMARY
In the world of business there are many ways to build and improve your company. During this paper I have
tried to show some areas of our business that we have had to address to still have our doors open after
nearly 12 years. These ideas are not the only way to do things they are just ones we have used in building
our IR Business. Hopefully they will get you started on the right track if you are looking at establishing your
own IR business. Likewise if you already have your own IR business this paper will at least make you stop
and think about your own business a little more. Sometimes when we are in the trenches fighting to survive
we don’t get a chance to stick our heads up and have a good look around. Every successful business makes
this time to analyze their business so they can adjust their direction if needed. In closing let me pose this
question to you:

Where will you find your “WOW Factor” and how will you use it?
*>28.4°C

28.0
27.0
26.0
25.0
24.0
23.0
22.0
21.0
20.0
19.0
18.0
17.0
16.0

*<15.4°C

Figure 29. Find your “Wow Factor”

REFERENCES
Australia Maps of: Goggle Images
Australia, USA, UK map Goggle Images
Pollitt.C.Chris 2001 IR jpeg Images

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Professor Chris C Pollitt. Assistance with equine thermal images
Goggle Images Australia, USA, UK map
Goggle Images Maps of Australia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Malcolm is a Level I thermographer with the Australian Institute of Non destructive Testing (AINDT) and has
been using the technology for 11 years. He has gone from working for an electrical maintenance company
running their themography division to running his own Thermal Imaging business for the last 6 years.

Thermal Inspection Services P.O.Box. 1498 Carindale, Brisbane Queensland, Australia 4152
Phone: 07 3245 1386 Fax: 07 3245 2548 E-Mail: sales@thermalinspection.com.au

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24

InfraMation 2007 Proceedings ITC 121A 2007-05-24