Are you about starting an energy efficiency management company? If YES, here is a complete sample energy efficiency management business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE. Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting an energy efficiency management business.
We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample energy efficiency management marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for energy efficiency management businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.
Energy efficiency Management in our modern world is a way of managing and restraining the growth in energy consumption. We all understand that something is tagged more energy efficient if it delivers more services for the same energy input, or the same services for less energy input.
The united states is the second-largest single consumer of energy in the world. It is estimated that the energy used in the United States can be categorized into four broad sectors: transportation, residential, commercial, and industrial.
The energy used in transportation and residential sectors (about half of U.S. energy consumption) is largely controlled by individual domestic consumers. The commercial and industrial energy expenditures in the industry are determined by businesses entities and other facility managers. National energy policy has a significant effect on energy usage across all four sectors.
When you are looking to start this type of business, you have to be sure that you are ready to write a business plan for your business. Why is this important? This is particularly important because you will need a whole lot of guideline that will work for your business. Here is a sample business plan for your use;
A Sample Energy Efficiency Management Business Plan Template
1. Industry Overview
Energy efficiency Management is a very crucial sector in the world energy industry, it’s improvements over the last 25 years saved a cumulative 5.7 trillion USD in energy expenditures.
This virtual supply of energy generates multiple benefits for governments, businesses and households, including greater energy security from reduced dependence on energy imports and billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
It is becoming very important that we strengthen our understanding of the energy efficiency market and the prospects over the medium term.
It was evaluated that the impact of energy efficiency in the energy system and assesses the scale and outlook for further energy efficiency investment using detailed country-by-country energy efficiency indicator data and IEA expertise.
The most recent report of the energy efficiency Management sector looked into the buildings energy efficiency market and the electricity sector. Energy efficiency investments in the buildings sector totalled between USD 90 billion in 2014.
In the electricity sector, energy efficiency has proved critical in flattening electricity consumption in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries, driving utilities to adapt their business models. It is becoming very important worldwide that we examine and expand the energy efficiency markets. Major and very busy cities drive economic growth but can also drive sustainable change.
As the share of the world’s population living in cities rises, ambitious action in urban areas can be instrumental in achieving long-term sustainability of the global energy system – including the carbon emission reductions required to meet the climate goals reached at COP21 in Paris.
With global energy demand set to become even greater over the coming decades, the world is becoming very cautious of what is to happen in the Energy industry.
2. Executive Summary
Rainbow Energy Consultancy is start-up energy efficiency Management Business in Portland, Oregon, that offers breathtaking designs and advice to architects and consumers regarding environmentally sensitive buildings as well as energy consumption recommendations.
Right from the onset, we at Rainbow Energy Consultancy identified three keys that will ensure success in our business. The first and foremost key is the need to only offer solutions which are based on market demand.
While the second we believe is to ensure that all of our offerings are based on economic justifications; and finally, that the solution we will be providing should make sense beyond the environmental considerations because it has long-term economic value.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have through extensive research understood what is obtainable in the industry and have taken our time to decide on the targeted audience we choose to serve. We hope to work hand in hand with several architects providing them the ability to offer environmental solutions to their customers and learn their clients.
Our targeted audience we believe are growing at 7% and there are 23 potential customers in the area. Our second customer group at Rainbow Energy Consultancy are individual consumers; an environmentally conscious group that have sought out a service provider to help them implement their personal ethics into the design of their new or existing structure.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy understand the need of the environment, which is why the firm was established as an environmental energy consultancy that offers a wide range of services: advice regarding passive heating, grey water usage recommendations, renewable energy considerations and employee transportation options.
Rainbow Energy Consultancy will be led by the seasoned management team of Dr Samuel Finny and Kate Walker. Dr Samuel Finny received a degree in environmental studies, business, a Masters in architecture, and a PhD in Environmental Resource Management.
Dr Samuel Finny has several years of work experience within the industry. Kate Walker who is the co-founder of Rainbow Energy Consultancy has an MBA and work experience with the Tigers Power Administration in their renewable energy department.
Through a combination of excellent education and good work experience, we believe that our management team will be able to successfully execute our vision and goals in our business plan.
3. Our Products and Services
Just like we stated above, Rainbow Energy Consultancy will be offering a wide range of environmentally-conscious energy solutions related to new and existing structures. The main areas of consulting we hope to offer are: Passive heating, Grey water, Renewable energy, Employee transportation, and Efficient building construction
4. Our Mission and Vision Statement
- Our Vision at Rainbow Energy Consultancy is to become the world leader in the creation, development, and deployment of technologies that converge the advancement of human civilization with that of the environmental condition.
Our mission at Rainbow Energy Consultancy is to provide the finest green energy solutions for new constructions as well as existing building owners/lessors. We believe and hope that through careful analysis, attentive customer support, and cost effective solutions, we will become a stable business serving the entire state of Oregon.
Our Business Structure
We believe that Rainbow Energy Consultancy will become the world’s leading provider of Energy Efficiency Management services with projects potentially spanning all seven continents by 2025. For the first four months of business the business structure of Rainbow Energy Consultancy will be quite lean, consisting of just Dr Samuel Finny and Kate Walker.
Dr Samuel Finny will be in charge of most of the business-related issues as well as doing research and helping out with the work projects. The responsibilities of Kate Walker will be marketing and sales based. She will have to strive very hard to develop visibility for the business as well as working with prospective customers.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have forecasted during the five months of proper business, we will need other workers like an administrative assistance. Outlined below are the portfolios we will need from our fifth month of running Rainbow Energy Consultancy;
- Chief Executive Officer
- Head of Technical Services
- Associate consultant
- Sales and Marketing Executive
- Accountant
- Investment expert
- Client Service Executive
5. Job Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Executive Officer
- He will oversee all other executives and staff within the organization.
- Charged with meeting with board of directors and other executives to determine if company is in accordance with goals and policies.
- He should encourage business investment.
- He will be changing promoting economic development within communities.
- Tasked with directing the organization’s financial goals, objectives, and budgets.
- In charge of implicating the organization’s guidelines on a day-to-day basis.
- Will preside over quality control.
- Hire, train, and terminate employees.
- In charge of developing and implementing strategies and set the overall direction of a certain area of the company or organization.
- Charged with providing visionary and strategic leadership for the organization.
- Tasked with collaborating with the board of directors to develop the policies and direction of the organization.
- We will make sure that the members of the Board of Directors have the information necessary to perform their fiduciary duties and other governance responsibilities.
- Will provide adequate and timely information to the Board to enable it to effectively execute its oversight role.
- Direct staff, including organizational structure, professional development, motivation, performance evaluation, discipline, compensation, personnel policies, and procedures.
Head of Technical services
- He serves as the project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
- In charge of developing strategic plan by studying technological and financial opportunities; presenting assumptions; recommending objectives.
- Tasked with accomplishing subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
- Tasked with coordinating efforts by establishing procurement, production, marketing, field, and technical services policies and practices; coordinating actions with corporate staff.
- In charge of building the company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices.
- Should be able to maintain quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards.
- Tasked with maintaining professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
- Charged with making certain that the technical department perform efficiently, coordinate employee efforts, and facilitate communications between management and solar panel installation, repairs and maintenance engineers and technicians
- Makes sure that the organization work in line with international best practices.
Associate consultant
- Interacts with clients and project team to plan and develop project work.
- Reviews and edit all client communication documents.
- Provides training to clients on project deliverables when needed.
- Responds to client’s questions and concerns in a timely manner.
- Provides business solutions and recommendations to clients to meet project goals.
- Communicates with clients to clearly understand project requirements and scope.
- Maintains high level of professionalism and competence in client communications.
- Monitors and report project status to clients on regular basis.
- Provides daily client services from project start to end.
- Ensures that project deliverables meet client requirements and quality standards.
- Schedules client meetings to discuss about project updates and issues.
- Builds positive working relationship with clients and ensure client satisfaction.
- Works with HR team to screen and recruit candidates for project.
- Maintains complete project documentations for reference purposes.
- Ensures that project team works according to project scope and timelines.
Sales and Marketing Executive
- Tasked with managing external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
- Should be able to model demographic information and analyse the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
- In charge of identifying development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
- Should be able to write winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
- In charge of handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
- In charge of supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
- Should be able to develop, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
- Creates new markets cum businesses for the organization
- Motivate the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets
Accountant
- In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
- Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyses financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
- In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
- Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
- In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
- In charge of administering payrolls
- Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
- Handles all financial transactions for Rainbow Energy Consultancy
- Serves as internal auditor for Clean Rainbow Energy Consultancy
Investment expert
- In charge of managing external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
- Tasked with modelling demographic information and analyse the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
- Tasked with identifying, prioritizing, and reaching out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
- In charge of supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s need s, and communicate with clients
- Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
- Tasked with developing all customer contact and information
- Represents the company in strategic meetings
- Aids increase sales and growth for the company
Client Service Executive
- Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
- Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
- Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
- Manages administrative duties assigned by the creative director in an effective and timely manner
- Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries
6. SWOT Analysis
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy being a business that wants to be successful contracted the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist our firm research and analyse a sincere SWOT Analysis. We are really interested to understand our advantage and flaws. The professionals we contracted were very thorough, and this is the summary of their SWOT Analysis for Rainbow Energy Consultancy;
- Strength
According to our SWOT Analysis, our strength lies on the innovation and marketing strategies we are coming with. It was ascertained that we at Rainbow Energy Consultancy are viewing the energy efficiency Management industry from a different perspective from the players in the industry already. It was ascertained in our SWOT Analysis that the way we see things and the vast experience of our founders will surely be our strength.
- Weakness
It is quite hard for a new entrant in any industry to attract customers immediately; this is what our SWOT Analysis concluded. New entrants are always focused on making or raising funds, and not putting into consideration the need to acquire a substantial share of the market. We hope not to make the same mistake but use this weakness as a stepping stone.
- Opportunities
Our SWOT Analysis also stated that the energy efficiency Management industry is huge and still scanty. It is believed that the industry does not have many players and that we at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have a substantial opportunity to take over the United States market. We plan to use this opportunity judiciously, and acquire a substantial share of the market.
- Threat
It was stated clearly in our SWOT Analysis that the major problem facing every industry in the world is economic recession. The world is recovering from a massive recession and people are still scared that it might swing back. Another threat to us are the major players in the indigo are already keen to take us out even before we enter the industry, but we believe in ourselves and we believe in what we can do.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Trend
As we already know, the environmental power consultancy industry is fairly new. But recently a lot of firm have emerged to offer these services. This can be explained by several factors. First, we believe that people are becoming more environmentally aware these days, a function of many things including the recent problems with the Middle East and Fundamental Islamists.
All these issues have forced people to reconsider America’s dependence on oil and the need to maintain good relationships with Saudi Arabia only because of their oil. Another important factor that has contributed to the growth of the energy efficiency Management industry is that it has become increasingly cost effective to make business decisions while taking into account the decisions impact on the environment.
Few years back environmental decision were based entirely on personal consciousness and ethics, not overriding economic factors. But in this our modern age money can be saved when environmental impacts are taken into account.
8. Our Target Market
There are people we look up to be those who might be in dire need of our services. We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have chosen just two audiences for compelling reasons. We are focusing on the architects because they are the service providers that do the bulk of the design work for residential and commercial structures.
We hope to use them as our secondary sales individuals; we believe that they are the ones that can then sell these services to their customers. Our method we believe will benefit the architects because they are able to offer a wider range of value-added-services to their customers without spending capital of learning the information themselves. We hope to create a substantial connection with a handful of architects.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy also plan to serve individual customers. These customers are people who know that they want environmental considerations made in the design of their structure and will seek out a firm such as Rainbow Energy Consultancy to have this work done. Portland is a wonderful place to locate Rainbow Energy Consultancy as there is a high population of environmentally-conscious people in this city. This we believe provides us with a large market of interested customers.
Our Competitive Advantage
The competition we believe we will be facing generally takes two different forms: Eco-architects and local utility. We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy hope to use our competitive advantage of economic justification to turn potential customers into qualified sales customers.
While some of the other similar companies often highlight the positive environmental impact that their designs offer, Rainbow Energy Consultancy will also offer economic justifications for their designs. We believe this a competitive advantage since it will be providing evidence that the customer can save money in the long term and make a positive impact on the environment.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy understand that providing a cost benefit analysis for the energy design is important because it will increase the size of our potential market and the industries, moving from people that want to do good for the environment to people that also want to save money.
We hope to offer an environmental solution that saves the person or business money which will create a compelling reason to adopt the suggestions. Without doubt there are a lot of individuals that will act only for the reasons they attest to the environment, but when you save people money, there are far more people interested.
9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
- Sources of Income
Rainbow Energy Consultancy will be organized as a Partnership business, with an executive office in Portland, Oregon, USA, during the first quarter of 2017. Rainbow Energy Consultancy will serve as a for-profit holding, investing, and consulting agency, and will work in partnership with the residents of Oregon to conserve energy and build a better environment. We hope to generate the income by offering the following services;
- Passive heating
- Grey water
- Renewable energy
- Employee Transportation
- Efficient building construction
- Other energy conservation related consulting
10. Sales Forecast
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have adopted a conservative sales forecast for our business plan. We believe that with this adoption, it will be much easier for us to hit sales goals and increase the likelihood that the business plan is very important to the business. It is discouraging to note that sales will be slow for the first several months, because we are just new entrants in the industry.
As our clientele base increase and more architects become familiar with Rainbow Energy Consultancy services, we believe that our workforce, products, and business will grow. We believe that our sales forecast was actualized using all predictions and incentives present and obtainable in the industry. Our sales forecast at Rainbow Energy Consultancy includes;
- First Year-: $900,000
- Second Year-: $1,600,000
- Third Year-: $2,500, 000
- Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy
We will leave no stone unturned in seeing to it that we drive marketing and sales with tenacity and all seriousness. We know that without a doubt when we do this, we will be able to attract the need clients for our business. Our sales and marketing strategies at Rainbow Energy Consultancy recognizes and will make use of the fact that a lot of business will be transacted through networking and word-of-mouth referrals.
We are very prepared to work to build strong alliances with architects who will be in need of our services. We believe that we will be making use of our competitive advantage of adopting a cost effective environmental solution so in addition to meeting environmental concerns of the customer, the services we offer will save the customer money over time.
Rainbow Energy Consultancy sales and marketing strategy will make known both environmental attributes as well as economic attributes to entice our customers. We believe that our sales and marketing strategies will be focused on two distinct market customers.
- We will offer services that will compel economic analysis of how our customer can save money by making use of the services we provide.
- The foundation of our sales and marketing strategies will be to develop an awareness regarding Rainbow Energy Consultancy services to both architects and the end use consumers.
- We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy will without delay make use of networking as a means to develop relationships with many of the city’s architects.
- We will also place Advertisements with the local architect newsletter.
- We will advertise our serv6in the local paper as well as within the yellow pages to attract the individual customers.
We will also participate in several community-based seminars that serve as a free source of information for the citizens of Portland to create and boost our brand awareness.
11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy
We believe very much in investing in brand awareness. We are in no doubt that with the right and ample publicity out there, we can be sure to get loads of clients in no time at all. We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy understand that we need to rely greatly on publicity and word-of-mouth advertising to promote our financing plans.
The building of our business facility will be large news in the city of Portland, and will therefore serve as a very useful promotional tool. Residents will be unable to avoid noticing the sheer scale of this project. Outlined below are the publicity strategies we hope to use at Rainbow Energy Consultancy;
- Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
- Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
- Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
- Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around San Diego – California
- Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighbourhoods
- Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
- Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of Clean Energy Technologies®, LLC and the services we offer
- List our solar energy company in local directories / yellow pages
- Advertise our solar energy company in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
- Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.
12. Our Pricing Strategy
We do not intend to overprice our services. We believe in moderation because this is the only way that we can gain more clients as newbies in the industry. Our sales strategy at Rainbow Energy Consultancy will take into account the philosophy that the reason why our targeted audience will be interested or attracted to patronize our services is because of our personal environmental ethics and our attractive incentives.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy will make use of this desire with the fact that environmental decisions can have positive economic impacts in the long term. We will also make use of our competitive advantage in the industry as a method for turning sales leads into customers.
We will also keep our prices below the average market price for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services. We also hope to offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals to attract them to our business.
- Payment Options
We understand that some people in some other businesses may not have an all-inclusive way of making payments and purchases, this is exactly why we have taken time to deliberate and we have come up with the bets payment options that will do our business a world of good.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy understand that payment options are the forces that bring any business closer to the heart of the people, and we are very much prepared to make use of that extensively. We will be bringing payment options that are unique and will make the payment for the service we offer very easy for our customers.
- Payment by via bank transfer
- Payment via online bank transfer
- Payment via check
- Payment via bank draft
- Payment via mobile money
- Payment with cash
To provide all these Rainbow Energy Consultancy services, we have partnered with a renowned bank in the country and we hope to make use of that relationship. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials so that it will be easier for clients to make payments when necessary.
13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)
Starting an energy efficiency Management is not an easy business. This business requires enough capital and hard work. The incentives needed to start this business will include the price of facility lease or building, office equipment, advertising and all other aspects.
It will take only a well articulate zealous, career focused individual to be able to survive in this business. Meanwhile, this is what it would cost us to start Rainbow Energy Consultancy;
- Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
- The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $4,000
- Budget for leasing and renovating an adequate facility in Portland Oregon– $200,000
- The amount required to purchase the needed energy equipment, tool box and repair equipment – $150,000
- Equipping our office facility (computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
- Amount required to purchase the needed software applications to run our business – $3,500
- Launching an official Website will cost – $500
- Amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $250,000
- Our budget for marketing and publicity – $200,000
- Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
From our detailed analysis above, we will need $843,750 to start Rainbow Energy Consultancy. We believe that our goals and vision cam be actualize if we stuck solely on our business plan and all strategies mentioned.
Generating Funding / Start-up of Rainbow Energy Consultancy
Rainbow Energy Consultancy a business that will be established and managed by two friends who have known each other for many years. They will also be the sole financial of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources.
- Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
- Generate part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
- Generate part of the capital from the bank (loan facility).
Note: We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have been able to raise $500,000 (Personal savings $300,000 and soft loan from family members $200,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $400,000. We have verified all the necessary procedures to actualize or get our start-up cost.
14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy have noted several milestones as a way of setting achievable goals. We hope to improve our performance through our vibe to achieve our goals and vision. We have identified the following milestones: Business plan completion, 10th customer, Revenues exceeding $50,000, and Profitability.
We at Rainbow Energy Consultancy will offer services both to architects who are constructing new businesses as well as existing building owners/users who are looking to make their existing structure more environmentally sound. We believe that we will create the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare is well taken of.
Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner. We have also have identified several keys to success that will be instrumental in creating a sustainable business. We have created and we believe we will be standing by this keys and platforms they include;
- We hope to offer solutions that are demanded by customers.
- We will make sure that all of the solutions have economic considerations built into the respective models.
- We will only provide 100% customer satisfaction. All customers must have their expectations exceeded.
Check List/Milestone
- Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
- Business Incorporation: Completed
- Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
- Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
- Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
- Application for business license and permit: Completed
- Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
- Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
- Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
- Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
- Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
- writing of business plan: Completed
- Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
- Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
- Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
- Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
- Recruitment of employees: In Progress
- Purchase of the Needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
- Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
- Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
- Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
- Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress