A Small Business Owner

My Story

Hi, I am Ian W. Mayer.

In 2014, I faced losing everything. I was getting laid off from a job I didn’t even like. I had a mortgage, a wife, and two young kids to support with no actual career or income. Sitting on the curb of Ventura Blvd, feeling lost, I realized that if I went to another company, I’d just have to start at the bottom, with no guarantee I wouldn’t get laid off again. On that day, I made a vow to myself that I would never put myself in this position again, and I started my own business, IM Home Inspection.

But the truth is, the story didn’t begin there.

The seeds of this business were planted decades earlier. I grew up in chaos—a childhood filled with instability, frequent moves, and a rotating cast of adults who came and went. My mother tried, but the truth is she was deeply lost herself. I learned early that if I wanted stability, I’d have to build it. If I wanted clarity, I’d have to fight for it. And if I wanted to stop the chaos, I’d have to break the cycle.

That’s what I was really doing on the curb of Ventura Blvd. I wasn’t just starting a business. I was building the kind of life I never saw growing up. And shedding a cage I had no idea I was in.

Several years later, I was coming out of a crawlspace, and I stopped. I was working hard, paying the bills, but my kids were growing up without me. We rarely went anywhere or did anything because if I wasn’t working, there was no food on the table. So I made a second vow: to become a better business owner and give my kids a better life.

A year later I was able to take a week off for a family vacation while the business ran itself. A year after that, I took two weeks off to a place with no cell service. And the business didn’t even miss me.

This isn’t just a story about starting a company. It’s about choosing to end a cycle—and creating something better that lasts.