SnapCount Insights

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.

As a business owner, you understand the value of a dollar. While there will always be someone trying to sell you on the “latest and greatest” or some new bells and whistles, you need a pretty compelling reason to change what you’re doing, especially when you’ve got a solution that works.

It’s this line of thinking that accounts for why many auditors still rely on spreadsheets to complete their work. But while spreadsheets might seem like the most inexpensive solution, on closer inspection, you might be surprised to discover they come with plenty of costs of their own, both in terms of your time and your money.

To explain what we mean, here are 10 reasons your spreadsheets cost you far more than you think.

Conducting an audit is the first step in any lighting retrofit proposal. But your success hinges on how much information you capture, and how accurately it is recorded.

When details are missed or measurements are off, it can lead to proposals that don’t meet the needs of your customer. Even if you manage to win the business despite those errors, you could still face expensive mistakes that need to be fixed down the line.

Where are the weak spots in your audit process?

Conducting a successful lighting audit is no simple feat. But in an industry where time equals money, the most savvy auditors are always looking for ways to streamline the process for greater efficiency. Some even go so far as software design in an attempt to create their own custom tool that can quickly resolve the most common problems they face.

But that’s no simple thing, either. Just ask Ty Clark, the founder of LightBids. LightBids is a lighting audit software Ty developed in his quest to help auditors overcome the most common challenges they face on the job. The lessons he learned in the process are invaluable for anyone thinking of going down the same path.

Over the last few years, there’s been a tremendous push in the business community to meet sustainability goals. Many of these companies are now enjoying the fruits of their efforts, achieving their commitments, and reaping the benefits of energy efficiency.

But make no mistake: There’s still a tremendous need in the market. One study by Princeton University revealed that it will require an investment of more than $2 trillion for the United States to achieve true energy sustainability. Much of that capital will be spent to upgrade lighting, controls, and HVAC — and to install electric vehicle charging stations.

For a company like Orion Energy Systems, this represents a huge opportunity. Orion’s mission is to help customers accomplish their sustainability goals through innovative technology and exceptional service. But to get their products into the hands of more retrofitters, Orion needed a partner like SnapCount. Here’s why.