Viable solar panel service?

[Dojobloke]

Hello,

My mate is on the road to starting a business offering the paperwork / admin and inspection side of solar panel installation to installers / firms. After reading these forums I notice the amount of paperwork and certifications needed to get feed in rates etc.

I think he is hoping that as installers you would 'outsource' all of this work, leaving you free to get on with other stuff.

If you were an installer, would you pay for such a service?

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Welcome to the forum :coffee

My initial thoughts.......

Does your mate outsource his research & marketing work as well???

Would he not be better asking himself?

Why are you interested in finding out about prospects for your mate?

Or are you directly involved with his business?

Personally if I were outsourcing anything that was critical to the success of my business...

I doubt I would be offering it to someone who cant be bothered to ask themselves.

Indicates a lazyness and lack of commitment to the business IMHO.

Sorry if that sounds harsh..

But as a rule of thumb, (for small business), bringing a third party into transaction can often cost more...

bit like these "job finder" & "work finder" & "get a quote" type of websites

What are you and what do you do DojoBloke?

:coffee

 

[Dojobloke]

I'm currently looking at training to become a 'sparks'. However as you rightly said I'm

inadvertently doing his market research for him. For someone who was in business for several years, I've raised some of the pitfalls with him. Yet he is intent on bringing

other people on board, speaking about it to others and getting their hopes up in a climate that I would suggest needs caution not frivolity. Many of my colleagues and even a few electricians friends are struggling. I know of two large electrical firms on my area that have gone down the pan.

The govt. feed in rates drop from early next year and yet when I mentioned this to him he mentioned that it won't happen as the penalties for not meeting the climate goals will bankrupt the country. I was unable to find this info but I'm not sure his reply is correct.

Who knows, perhaps it will work but I have not heard of him asking these types of questions on forums directed at people like yourself who actually work in this game. Surely that would have been the first step?

 

[roys]

The govt. feed in rates drop from early next year and yet when I mentioned this to him he mentioned that it won't happen as the penalties for not meeting the climate goals will bankrupt the country.

I am willing to bet good money the FIT will drop on the 1st April 2012,

 

[binky]

drop in Fit is all planned and well publicised. As for mateys business idea, it's not bad, but price has to be right, as in less than employing part time paper shuffler, or buying software package. There's also client confidentiallity to be considered, data protection, and of course access to price information. Personally i wouldn't use a service like this, but I would have been very tempted a month ago before employing neighbour part time to shuffle paperwork.

It would only really be of benefit to small outfits.

 

[Dojobloke]

Thanks for the feedback chaps