Energy Audit Institute

I started out in the energy audit industry in 2008 by partnering with Denby Energy to build a new training and certification company focused on the commercial audit sector. I was able to build a nice website platform using WordPress and a keyword campaign into Google Adwords that quickly netted a profit. After the initial success of that first training platform, we decided to split as partners and I created a white-label version of the training under the brand Energy Audit Institute.

After its launch in Jan of 2009, the Energy Audit Institute (aka EAI) quickly became the most recognized brand in the energy efficiency training and certification sector. I was able to attain this by keeping the price point under $200 as well as pointing out to prospective customers how the training and certification they received was not a replacement for other certifications offered by RESNET and BPI. As a marketer, my vision and focus was generating a unique selling proposition and building off that to offer different products.

By the beginning of 2010 my white-label contract was completed and I hired some technical writers in the energy industry to create 2 new programs – commercial and residential – that would serve as both a replacement product for what I sold during the white-label period as well as to upgrade the materials that had become dated during the year long contract. The new programs also included more academic tools such as practice exam questions, working examples, and highlighted core concepts to assist students in the learning process – which helped increase the number of customers actually taking and subsequently passing their certification exams.

The Energy Audit Institute continued to grow during 2010 with the addition of my own white-label partners, community colleges, and state programs adopting the new course materials into their own curriculum’s. This added boost was enough for me to have to look into expanding EAI as a multi-employee company with potentially several offices located throughout the U.S. But since I am a marketer at heart and did not have the aspiration to be the CEO of a full-size energy company, I decided to sell the company at the end of 2010.

Lessons Learned
There were 3 big lessons that I learned during this process. The first was that if you do your research, you can find opportunities in even the most impregnable areas. This industry was strictly patrolled by governmental agencies that had a strong hold since the 1970′s. But by finding an area where they weren’t operating (commercial energy audits) and focusing in just that market to start, we were able to get up and running without issue. Second, I learned how important contracts really are and how a hand-shake agreement to start a business with people you don’t really know can quickly fade once you start making money – enough said. And 3rd was just how complicated, irritating, but rewarding selling an online business really is!

Comments