Some energy efficiency auditors work locally one building at a time, or with crews in one city.  Pro Energy Consultants has bigger dreams, selling franchises across the US for entrepreneurs to build their own energy efficiency business.  Pro Energy Consultants was created by three partners, Mark Canella, Kris Simonich and Derek Sola.  Mark Canella has run his energy auditing business in Cleveland for thirteen years and is an expert in his field, using his business and knowledge as the foundation of the franchise business.  Simonich and Sola bring experience building franchising to the table, working with business owners who have a business in one location and want to franchise it nationally.  Working with Canella, they developed the systems, processes and manuals to sell franchises and help them to succeed.

When Simonich first met Canella, he was struck with the scale of the opportunity and the lack of competition at the national level in the residential energy efficiency auditing market.   Energy efficiency is a vastly underappreciated opportunity for businesses, sitting right at the junction of helping people to save money, live well, and do the right thing for the environment.  “Customers are most interested in saving money, and for the greater part the green side is secondary,” said Simonich.  “If we can meet the primary need to save money, and the secondary need to help the environment, all the better.”   

Pro Energy Consultants is taking their energy auditing business nationwide by selling franchises, and started to roll out the franchise business in the Fall of 2008.  They have ten franchisees signed up so far in various parts of the US, with more signing up all the time. 

When a Pro Energy Consultant is working with a client, they go to their home and conduct an energy audit.  “The visit includes consulting, listening and talking with the homeowner, and the technical component, the audit.”  When people call for an audit, they are motivated by various factors that the consultant needs to understand.  “We put on our consultant’s hat and listen,” said Simonich.  “We need to talk about ‘Why are we here?’ Clients are motivated by the energy cost pain, spending more on energy than they want, or the comfort pain, that rooms are too hot or too cold.”  The third factor motivated clients is their green conscience.  When consultants sit down with clients they analyze utility bills and talk about problem points, allowing clients to provide valuable information that often leads to the best solutions.  

After talking, consultants undertake the actual technical audit featuring two pieces of equipment, the blower door and the infrared camera.  The blower door is a large fan that is sealed in a door frame and blows air out, measuring how hard the fan has to blow.  The easier it is to blow air out, the leakier the house must be.  As the fan blows air out, air gets back into the house through other routes, exaggerating the air exchange and highlighting problems areas that can be identified with the infrared camera. 

The infrared camera visualizes areas where unusual heat differences occur, the focus of many problems in homes. “The camera is the piece everyone gets excited about,” said Simonich.  With the camera in hand the consultant explains simple principles with the homeowner looking over their shoulder, helping them make sense of puzzling energy costs or discomfort.  “We walk around with the homeowner, educating them,” said Simonich.  “At the end we will have to explain our findings, reading from the blower door and the camera, boiling it down to very simple principles. Every time air goes out one place, it comes in another.  Air is always trying to get in and out.”    After the audit, the consultant puts together everything they learned from talking with the client, the blower door, and the camera to create a plan for the homeowner.   “We can tell them what to do and how much it would cost,” said Simonich.  “The reality is that it’s not the big expense of the repairs that makes a big difference.  People already know if they need windows.  It’s the small repairs that give them the biggest return on investment, those little $1-2000 repairs they would never know about and never fix without the audit.”  Consultants can help to coordinate these smaller repairs with contractors in their network.  

With the economy taking a dive in recent months, the interest in saving money has never been greater.   “In Cleveland, for example, our record months were September, October, and November of last year, 2008,” said Simonich.  “All of this bad news seems to converge in positive way for us.  The more that people realize they are staying in their house, the more cost conscious they become. With the economy down, the business is consumer driven; people are clamoring for it, and can’t find anyone.”

The franchise opportunity seems to be doing well so far.  “We are getting a lot of interest in franchises,” said Simonich, “With 10 franchisees so far, we have an upbeat view of 2009.”  To get started, those interested in buying a franchise need to go through a qualification process to get to know the founders and start what will be a long-term partnership.  “We talk over a series of phone calls with myself, partners, and other franchisees.  On average it takes four to six weeks from first contact to approval for franchises.”   Once franchisees complete the process and are awarded the territory, they sign the agreement, and pay the initial investment of $29,900.  This franchise fee includes the equipment such as the infrared camera and blower door needed to start the business.

The next step is completing two correspondence courses, one on the internet and one with a printed manual.  Although some interested in a franchise might worry that it requires an extensive technical background, Pro Energy Consultants provides franchisees with whatever information they need.  “We like people to be on board for about a month before bringing them out for training.”  Next, franchisees travel to Cleveland for three days of practical hands-on training, including mock audits to practice dealing with homeowners. 

With the training under their belt, consultants are ready to start their business, but they are not on their own.  They enter an 8 week mentoring program, including scheduled conference calls with trainers.  The mentoring program helps reinforce training and get things off to a smooth start. 

Franchisees continue receiving support for their business in many ways:

·         An 800 number they can advertise, routing customers back to their business.

·         The main webpage allows customers to input their zip code, and directs customers back to their local business. 

·         Participation in vendor purchasing programs, providing a better deal than they could receive on their own.

·         Protected territory and ongoing support

·         Research and development as the business grows, introducing new revenue streams and strategic partnerships  

There are still new avenues to explore, with energy auditing as the springboard to additional opportunities.  When consultants are in the customer’s home building a relationship, it opens the door to talking about additional products related to energy efficiency or energy production, in addition to the initial repairs.  “Going forward the audit is just an entrée into other things,” said Simonich. 

The opportunity to fix our homes and make them more efficient is a huge one, with plenty of room to grow across the country.  A franchise with Pro Energy Consultants could be a straightforward path to joining the green business revolution and building a strong business of your own.