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Sun Volt

Sun Volt Solar

earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

Day Three "Sucessful Solar Business" course

26 Sep 07 | General Business, Training

This morning started out with accounting and business practices. Things like filing taxes, incorporations, payroll, and the very exciting world of worker compensation insurance. This is all needed information if you are going to start and run a business to be sure. It is also information you can get from almost any college business 101 course, or even by doing research on line. The gist of what I got out of this information is “Have a good accountant,” and “hire a payroll company.” Good record keeping is also a must. Pretty much common sense all.

This afternoon we talked about sales and how to prequalify potential customers, how to conduct a site survey and what tools to use. This was very good specific information on the solar business. This information is vital to any successful solar business, as sales is the driving force. Without sales, there will be no installations and thus no income. Anyone in that situation will be out of business in short order.

Good sales requires being prepared, knowledgeable and knowing when to speak up and when to keep quite. Having certain sales tools such as a presentation book is helpful. Other tools such as a solar pathfinder are great for qualifying the site as a good or bad solar site. A tape measure can help with material estimation. These are common sense things for anyone who has been in the contractor business, which is what the solar installation business should be seen as.

The one thing that was covered extensively was return on investment or ROI. This is a major selling point of renewable energy systems because all of the cost of the system is up front with little or no operating or maintenance costs. Traditional power providers such as the electric company are pay over time (for what you use) systems. If you can show that the return on investment is better than a CD (certificate of deposit) then the system makes better financial sense to the prospective buyer.

There are many, many more things that were covered, but once again, I don’t want to give away the store and have SEI get mad at me.

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26 Sep 07 | General Business, Training
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