SnapCount Insights

Electric vehicles are everywhere. In the space of just five years, from 2017 to 2022, EV sales have increased tenfold. And all the hype around EVs comes with plenty of opportunities. The EV charging sector is projected to reach $53 billion in 2027.

With available government incentives and relatively low material costs (Level 2 ports can range from about $4,000 to $6,000), electric vehicle charging stations can seem like a clear-cut, easy business opportunity, especially for business owners with electrical or energy backgrounds.

What this means for you as an electrical contractor or energy retrofit service provider, is that the market is ripe for accelerated growth! SnapCount is currently helping clients extend their offering into the growing world of EV charging with:

• EV-specific site audit data collection
• Ready access to leading EV charging manufacturers
• Bid workflow for subcontracting electrical or civil work
• Graphical proposal templates that quickly tell your story of why the customer should work with you

To help you assess if the EV charging market is for you, here are some things to keep in mind before adding EV charging stations to your business.

As an energy retrofit professional, you don’t need anybody to tell you about conventional energy retrofits.

But these are unconventional times when it comes to the demand for more energy efficiency, especially for commercial and industrial buildings. That’s because, as Energystar.gov reports, those buildings are responsible for half of the nation’s energy use and nearly half of its greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that on average, 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted due to inefficiencies.

So, it’s no surprise that deep energy retrofits are an increasingly popular topic of discussion among building owners and managers. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Is it better to have a few big clients or dozens of small ones? Maybe the answer is both. Having a diverse client base that includes large and small companies offers unique advantages that can help your company maintain a steady cash flow.

Adding some large clients can help you achieve a balanced mix that creates a safety net for your company. Because, let’s face it, smaller clients often have tighter budgets — and missed or late payments can be devastating. Bigger clients, on the other hand, bring in more revenue and push your business to meet higher standards.

If your retrofit business has focused mostly on smaller clients, adding larger ones can help you get a more balanced mix. However, selling to larger accounts takes a different approach.

Typically, when organizations have improved energy efficiency in their facilities, it’s all about the bottom line: less energy used = less money spent.

Today, the picture has gotten a bit bigger. Customers aren’t just looking to reduce energy at their facilities — they’re also setting carbon reduction initiative targets and looking at their overall sustainability goals. The question is: Where do you and your business come in?

Multiple buildings, sprawling campuses, and square footage that goes on and on. Replacing thousands of fixtures on time, within budget, and without disrupting business operations. And … designing a lighting plan for each space managed by smart controls tied to a centralized IoT platform.

It can make you sweat, just thinking about all the elements that have to come together to make complex retrofit projects successful.

When I first wrote about this topic a few years ago, I focused on how Sustainable Turnkey Solutions (STS) manages complex energy retrofit projects with well-thought-out processes for data, tools, and people. We still count these three as must-have pillars of quality.

The energy industry is changing at… well, light-speed. As both regulations and demand shift toward greater sustainability, and as new technologies and applications rise to meet those demands, it’s hard to keep up with it all.

And if you’re a busy energy contractor growing your business, where will you find the time to figure out which trends and advancements are worth investing in … and which are just passing fads?

That’s why we spoke to Timothy Unruh, the Executive Director of The National Association of Energy Companies (NAESCO), who gave us his thoughts on where the industry is going.

As more and more organizations and businesses prioritize saving energy and reducing their carbon footprint, we’ve seen the LED retrofit industry continue to grow. But this demand for better efficiency has also spurred on the development of new kinds of technology.

With these advancements have come new opportunities for both you and your customers. Among the most promising? A suite of advanced control solutions that make it easier than ever for your customers to control when and how they use energy.

Let’s look at how this technology works and what it means for advancing your business.

Today, the retrofit industry is enjoying some very strong tailwinds. Government mandates, decarbonization strategies, ESG goals, the Inflation Reduction Act: Everywhere you look, you’ll see trends that favor energy-saving retrofit projects.

Yet too many businesses struggle to capitalize on this momentum. Why? Because they’re so busy with what’s right in front of them, they never look up to see the larger macro trends at play. And if they do notice these trends, they may feel too busy to do much about them.

We want to help you think bigger. If you want to grow your retrofit business, here are some smart places to start.

The key to growing your business can be found in building partnerships in the energy-efficiency industry. As the chief executive officer of ECM Holding Group, a leading national provider of energy-efficiency retrofit technologies, I see the value of these partnerships on a daily basis through our work alongside Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).

Because ESCOs want their efficiency projects to save energy across as many measures as possible, it’s important for them to foster good relationships across the industry. In turn, ESCOs bring their partners a lot of work. In our case, nearly 90% of our business comes from the relationships we’ve built with our ESCOs.

Want to make partnerships the cornerstone of your own business? Here’s what you need to know.

In a world as connected as ours, it’s easy to take good communication for granted. From watching your Uber approach on the app to tracking a shipment from Amazon, we’ve come to expect real-time updates on the products and services we buy.

But good communication is no accident, and there’s a reason successful companies like Uber and Amazon invest in the digital infrastructure necessary to keep their customers informed. Communicating updates with your customers builds trust, demonstrates your reliability, and helps you stand out from other contractors.

The good news is that digital tools like SnapCount provide you with an effective way to share updates without becoming overwhelmed. Here are some reasons you should consider digital communication for sharing lighting project status updates with your customers.