Hi - I posted back in April that I was looking for a "side hustle" that was completely online. Well, I dropped the small plans and went for something bigger - I'm starting my own (online) law practice, doing "Green Building" law. It's at sarahkaplanlaw.com. One thing I'd like to start helping people with right away is innovative financial arrangements that make green measures affordable. Does anyone here work with anything like that? I'd love to know what innovations are happening in this area, and I'd appreciate any feedback.
-Sarah
Congrats on starting your venture!
One thing to keep in mind is that commercial markets will often have larger potential than residential (in terms of contract size). Also, while it is purely dependent on the owner, I'd guess that some property owners might be more open to different options when you stress the ROI versus the homeowner - not only because landlords/business owners are more in-tune with focusing on the bottom line, but also because it is easier to (for instance) plop a solar array on top of an industrial building in an industrial neighborhood than a random house (which could have homeowner association issues, but also simply have some aesthetic issues for the homeowner to get over).
For solar, look for what areas would be ideal for positioning a solar array...in terms of angle of exposure of the roof, low neighboring buildings, etc., and simply do a lot of cold calling.
Also, as a suggestion, talk to one or two contractors that you can get some referrals on, to see if you can work up a "recommended contractor/systems" list - which you wouldn't get kickbacks from, but just a way to help the client make a decision, since many are either busy or don't have any expertise/interest in picking random names out of the phonebook. Same thing with suppliers.
Some people may not want you to be a one-stop-shop source for all of that...but my guess is that many clients will. The easier you make it for them to simply sign up with you and you have all of the contacts ready to go, the more they might be willing to do the project (note: from a liability perspective, you still might want them to sign a contract direct with the contractor, rather than going through you). Also, if you agree to refer all of your business to one or two contractors and one or two solar panel suppliers (if your clients are looking for a referral), they might cut you better pricing to pass along to your clients.
One final suggestion - it might be difficult for you to get your first client or two. Try to work your existing network of personal/professional contacts to see if you can find someone willing to be your first two clients that you will give "free" services to (they'll still pay for the solar arrays, or whatever design it is), but you'll have that critical list of existing installations you can point to and market. Even better if you can have a "before and after" real-world results of what they paid for utilities before and after (of course, don't just look at the total electric bill cost, factor in the degree days, kW-Hr usage, last year's temperature vs this years, etc.)
