Controlling Costs Is Critical To Moneymaking Business

February 16, 2012 by  
Filed under Green Energy

For years I’ve been saying that clever businesses focus on increasing sales, not on cutting expenses. “You can’t cut your way to profitability” is one of my beloved sayings.

In business, a dollar earned is approximately identical to a dollar saved since taxes are based on your profits, not income. Basically, you are taxed on your revenue (sales) minus expenses. Sales and cost control are more or less worth the same. The difficulty is that it is a lot easier for most people to focus on expenditure control that on top end (sales) growth. And after you hit the obvious expenditures, you squander more and more time on stuff that save you less and less money. It is the 80/20 rule reversed, where you find 80% of your cost savings from the first 20% of cost cuts. Also, you are limited on how much you can cut expenses, while your ability to increase sales is in effect limitless, so it makes more sense to focus on development than on frugality.

So my simple advice is for entrepreneurs to concentrate on sales.

I still believe this, but that doesn’t mean that I’m saying that you should discount your spending. That would be a big misstep. First of all, spending troubles increase quicker than income. What is a inconsequential problem at $30k per year income is a massive crisis when you grow to $300k per year. The subsequent reason is that cost control is initially quicker to do than sales growth. Your initial swing at expenditure control will get you the biggest gains. Subsequent attempts at cost control will be more difficult, less effective, and often influence critical business areas like productivity or quality.

The Answer Is To Be Smart With Your Expense Cutting.

What’s my favorite area to cut costs? It’s saving energy through an ashrae energy audit or energy management. At this point a small confession is needed: I am an energy consultant and get compensated to help companies reduce their energy spending. I do energy audits for my customers and typically cut their energy bills by more than 20%.

Now that we have cleared the air, let me explain why I like to focus on energy spending:

-Nearly all of my customers are manufacturers, and they spend a lot every month on their energy expenses. This is a considerable area of worry to them.

-Even if you are not a manufacturer, utilities are nevertheless one of your main expenditures.

-Nearly all organizations can cut their energy costs by 20% or more. I’ve seen savings as high as 59%! I can’t think of many areas where you can save this much.

-Energy Management is an area where you will cut expenditures while increasing output. Any other cost cutting will eventually reduce production or quality.

Industrial Energy Audit Services are industry leaders in energy saving audits. Our decades of experience will make your energy audits fast, effective, and affordable. We are so confident that we will save you money, that we guarantee that we will save you 15% or more on your energy bills.

Understanding Industrial Energy Audits – How To Understand What Certifications Are Official

February 5, 2012 by  
Filed under Green Energy

Nobody can deny that getting an commercial energy audit will help you improve your industrial energy efficiency. The challenge is finding a qualified auditor to do the work. Although there are a ton of people out there willing to take your money, it can be tricky to find the right combination of education and experience.

It Can Be Confusing

It may be challenging to evaluate an auditor’s capabilities, so several organizations have created standards and certifications. Although this does help you select an auditor, it has created an alphabet soup of certifications: HERS, HESP, RESNET, BPI, AEE, CEM, EMIT, CEA, CSDP, CRM, CBCP, BEP, CMVP, CEP, CLEP, DGCP, GBE, CGD, CPQ, REP, EBCP, BESA, CRU, HPB, REA, NEASI, EEA, and EAI.

Another thing adding to your uncertainty is the fact we now have at the least six certifying organizations. Some offer overlapping coverage. Several are legitimate and respected, while some are of questionable validity.

Everybody Claims They Are The Best

One can’t even look towards the organizations themselves for advice. Every certifying organization states they’ve got the very best certifications. While the majority are authentic and high quality, they can’t all be the best!

Take into account Your Requirements

You also will want to take into consideration what form of building or facility the certifications cover. Most cover residential, some cover commercial, and only one even vaguely addresses industrial audits. Because residential, commercial, and industrial audits need distinctive skills and education, you’ll need to ensure your auditor’s certifications complement your needs.

For example, BPI and RESNET certifications focus on residential audits. They cover energy conservation basics, but deal with weatherization and household appliances. This means they are perfect for residential and light commercial audits, but these certifications don’t do anything to confirm an auditor’s expertise for anything else.

Contrast this with AEE’s CEA/CEM certifications. They also cover energy conservation principals, but their target is on commercial equipment, HVAC systems, and lighting. Weatherization is barely mentioned since it is just not used in commercial audits.

Industrial Audits Are A Unusual Breed

If you need an industrial energy audit, your options are limited. The only certifications that cover industrial audits are through AEE. That being said, the AEE certification in reality qualifies an assessor to perform commercial audits. For industrial audits you also want someone with extensive industrial experience, someone who understands your process and industrial gear.

We Have Created A Guide To Help You Interpret Energy Assessment Certifications

You are not alone if ashrae energy audit certifications confuse you. Over and overour clients ask us “what certification should I look for.” To answer these questions we created a free guide to help sort out energy auditor certifications: Deciphering Energy Audit Certifications. Check out our website at industrialenergyaudit.com and download it today.

Industrial Energy Audit Services are industry leaders in the field of ashrae energy audits. Our decades of experience will make your energy efficient audit quick, effective, and inexpensive. We are so certain that we will save you money, that we pledge that we are going to save you 15% or more on your energy bills.

Commercial Energy Audit is one of the best way to maximizing your industrial energy efficiency…and your profits!

January 29, 2012 by  
Filed under Green Energy

Why Must I Worry About ashrae energy audit?

I know, I know, you already have so lots of things to worry about. Your competition is gunning for your top client. The biggest project in your shop is behind schedule. You are worried about the economy and anxious we are heading into another depression. Expenses are rising but you can’t raise your prices without loosing business so profit margins are non-existent. How are you going to deal with growing energy costs?

And that doesn’t even take into consideration troubles in your personal life (we all have them).

Why should you add something in addition to your list? Since commercial energy efficiency is a low risk method to solve some of your major problems.

Think about it. Energy costs are a major expense. If you can slash your energy spending by 25%, how much would that help your business? What would that do for your profit margins? How much more competitive will you be if your costs are lower?

How Can ashrae energy audit Assist Me?

If done correctly, a energy saving audit will show you how to slash your expenditures. A first-class consultant can study your utility bills looking for billing errors, avoidable fees, along with superior rates. A first-rate energy auditor can show you ways to help reduce your energy consumption (and your energy spending), and many of his suggestions will cost you little to implement. And these suggestions are low risk since the consultant quantifies the savings and price to implement. You know ahead of time what to expect, and get to reap the reward of the energy savings year after year.

So What Is a ashrae energy audit?

A ashrae energy audit is simply a review of your business, building, along with utility bills by a consultant who is an expert in energy conservation. There are different levels of commercial energy audits. The most frequent designations are:

**Preliminary Audit: A high level look at your energy use. Your energy consumption is compared to other companies in your industry. This offers you an idea of just how much energy you could save, but doesn’t make any recommendations. **Scoping Audit: Scoping audits consist of an examination of your utility bills and a brief walk through of your facility to grasp your process, maintenance practices, equipment, and energy consumption. There is enough data to find the low hanging fruit, but not sufficient to find every savings possible or to give you a high level of precision. **Comprehensive Audit: Also know as an ASHRAE Level 2 audit, a comprehensive audit picks up where a scoping audit stops. A more comprehensive walk through and analysis of your facility lets the consultant to fully look at all energy conservation possibilities. More importantly, because there is enough data to accurately examine your energy consumption, the energy consultant is able to tell you how much energy your will save with a high degree of precision. This allows you to prioritize energy conservation measures as well as to a great extent reduces risk. **Engineering or Investment Grade Audit: These are the most complex (i.e….costly) audits. They are regularly used by major corporations with intensive project approval processes, or by companies looking to implement major (and expensive) technologies. These include wind, solar PV (photo-voltaic), hot water heating, solar heating system (passive & active), CHP (Combined Heat Power), CHCP (Combined Heat Cool Power), refrigeration (mechanical & absorption), heat pumps, HVAC, high performance electric motors, biomass, and small hydro-electric….Most businesses don’t need an audit at this level. The cost and time simply are too steep to justify the minor improvement in precision.

Industrial Energy Audit Services are industry leaders in industrial energy efficiency. Our decades of experience will make your business energy audits fast, effective, and affordable. We are so confident that we will save you money, that we guarantee that we will save you 15% or more on your energy bills. If you would like more information on business energy audits or would like a quote please contact us at www.industrialenergyaudit.com.