Scaling for Success

Your business has been humming along, but the landscape is changing.

Customers are talking about more than lighting now: building controls, UV-C, EVC and every other acronym you can think of that has to do with facility and energy efficiency activity.

In addition, if you are providing service for customers who have LED lighting installed, the effort associated with service is also changing.

You now find yourself flexing to address the needs of long-standing customers and it is likely forcing decisions about your business and how best to scale to meet these changing needs.

So, where to begin…

As a partner to EMC, there are a few things you should be doing:

1.      Take a step back from the day-to-day to look long term at where you want to be as a business in five years.

2.      Identify the gaps between where you are now and where you want to be.

3.      Understand the opportunities in your region to ensure you invest in desired areas where there is anticipated business growth.

4.      Call me to discuss resources available to support your efforts.

Taking a Step Back

We’re all busy and it is difficult to look beyond the day-to-day to a future version of yourself and your business. We tend to get stuck in the noble goal of making sure that today is a win, that our customers are satisfied now.

But, given the dynamics in our industry, ensuring that you are relevant as a business five or ten years from now requires taking a step back before you step forward. There are significant opportunities ahead for all, but they require different skills and focus to ensure success.

These opportunities include:

EV chargers. While a good chunk of this work is still electrical, there are other things to consider.

Concrete work, pavement work, flower bed replacement, curb replacement, new technologies that require some level of computer literacy and the ability to work with remote team members to complete installs may be required.

You can subcontract some of this, but if you want to realize all the financial benefits, you may need to look at adding resources or training existing team members to drive success.

Advanced Controls. While advanced controls are related to the work you are likely doing today, they require other types of expertise as well.

For instance, they bring low voltage and commissioning work into play, which may seem like a foreign language for those who have been focused entirely on high voltage electrical work in the past.

As advanced controls reach into other aspects of the facility and its equipment like the RTUs, another area of licensing may also come into play. There are some similarities for sure, but here again is an opportunity to add or retrain skilled employees.

For you, exterior lighting and parking lot lighting controls or UV-C lighting may be growth opportunities. Or maybe you are in a heavy industrial region and energy efficiency gains through assembly line motor replacement is a way to grow. Those same manufacturing facilities may have disparate assembly line controls that present you with opportunities to assist with replacement or maximization of controls currently in place to drive assembly line efficiencies.

Opportunities abound but they require taking a step back to assess where you want to go, and how best to get there.

Identify the Gaps

Where you are and where you want to be is the very definition of your gap. The steps needed to get from here to there will be different based on where you want to go and how much effort is required to get there. You will also have to consider how many people in your organization are impacted and how to best move everyone toward your goal or goals.

Oftentimes, the issue is building a skillset. A resource we can recommend for this is NALMCO. The training tools and certification processes available provide meaningful training and greater clarity for anyone interested in taking another step in the industry.

Aside from the technical training you or your team may require, it will be important to bring the rest of your operation along for the ride. Providing new services in the field will also require office personnel, who may have to manage paperwork or respond to customer or supplier questions, to receive additional information or training to ensure success in that part of your operation.

Understand the Opportunities

Markets and market demands vary. You know what is going on in your own backyard. The customers are familiar. The calls you receive on a daily or weekly basis follow a pattern. That said, the idea of stretching into an adjacent space or a completely new area of work may not allow you to rely on your prior work as a point of reference to understand the opportunity.

Take the time to look at the demographics, the market potential in your area, that can support the business direction you want to take. You can also reach out to EMC and our buyers to let them know that you are interested in pursuing new work and that you would like to know what we are seeing as potential to support your growth plan.

It will be important to vet the opportunity before investing in the time and effort to fill skill and organizational gaps.

Call Me

I’ve had the opportunity to visit with several of our partners, and I look forward to doing the same in the future. I have seen several different versions of success during these visits. It is not one size fits all in achieving success in this industry. I have also heard from several of you about your goals for growth and I want to help.

If you are interested in growing your business with EMC, I want to help you succeed. You can always reach out to me to discuss your ideas and I will do what I can to connect you with the right people and resources. I can also help you vet the opportunity to gain clarity and drive toward success in your growth plans.

EMC continues to grow aggressively, and our valued partners are an important part of successful growth. We want to work with partners who embrace growth and the inherent risk related to it, and we would like to see our partners grow with us to address the ever-changing needs within our industry.

Are you ready to scale for success in 2023? Let’s work together to make it happen.

John Loheit is EMC's Director of Labor Partner Development. In this role he oversees the Labor Partner Network and Field Quality Assurance. He has been in the lighting industry for 16 years and holds a bachelor’s degree from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN.