Why 90% of Solar Companies Will Go Out of Business

Solar companies have become well-known for going out of business. In this video, we shed light on why that is.

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Join us on our journey as we expand our company in the growing solar industry. We will be open with our ups and downs as Cody Thiel and Thomas Simms work to make eEquals one of the leading solar companies in the renewable energy space.

On this journey we will give insights into how to sell solar, how to install solar, how to build teams, and provide excellent customer service. We will share both our successes and failures. Thanks for tuning in. - Cody

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[ed]

I talked to about 7-8 solar companies when i decided to get into solar. I was very disturbed at how their "training" pretty much was throwing people on the doors and learning as you go. The other disturbing thing was the ppv pricing. It is litterally all over the place. I am glad i watched many, many videos before I decided which company to chose to go with, due to the training, and price! I am, after 8 months of research, ready to go to work for a great company! Thank you for your video's!

[OG..]

I enjoyed visiting SLC at the solar conference back in 2019.

[allsolartexas]

Keep producing videos. Our channels are a “value first” philosophy and we need more in the industry. 👍🏻

[DavidBly-ouwb]

Nice to see your progress from where we met. Keep it up!

[boblatkey]

I grew a very successful solar business in California and it continued to grow for 10 years and then I simply threw it out the window because I was sick and tired of pulling permits and dealing with interconnection agreements with Southern California Edison. I started the business out of pure passion and I quit the business because I had created something that I absolutely hated. I still work in the solar industry but I don't have to work nearly as hard and I make twice as much money being an employee than I did being a business owner.

[ryancerickson]

Great video Cody. This is awesome because I am just entering the solar market.

[kdtxo]

@0:36 "Welcome to beautiful Salick City" ....where is that? LOL

[DevilDuck]

Cody, thanks for your candid and honest view and offering it an easy to understand manner. Would like to reach out to you or someone to talk to. I have 20 acres of land in California I would like to put a solar farm on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[brockallstate]

I work for the largest company in Utah and we just had a
Giant acquisition, so idk.. . 90% is a lot… idk but maybe your right and I got lucky. My company is debt free and 14 years old

[malcolmamazin]

Great video would love to chat with you soon if possible

[gjgrgaming]

thanks man! good thinking and great video

[dingpongcrate]

As a delivery guy for ups, I've seen many solar co. stay and then they are gone. I have a few solar companies in my route.

[pathTube]

How does cost-benefit work when quoted $30k for 8 kW system without a battery? Takes about 15-20 years to "break even." $30k in stock market is a better return.

[rodr.j]

Can you make a video about solar in California with nem 3.0 and how it's changing

[crw]

Good video overall, though neglected to cover how PV price was brought down and made affordable at scale with the creation of the power purchase agreement as a finance instrument.

[feefee]

Im currently trying to contact my company. Their phone number is disconnected and no response on emails. They were supposed 2 be maintaining my panels. Im not even sure if they went out of business but i see other people with the same complaint 4 them.

[thomasm]

25 year warrantee's isn't worth much is it ?

[chriseidam]

I agree with everything in this video except for the notion that all-in-one companies are superior to sales companies in solar.

I started in the business in 2014.

Without naming names, I've worked for a couple of the very largest companies that did their own installs. They were horrible. Horrible to the employees. Horrible to their customers. The processes were very sloppy. Communication was sloppy. Service after the sale was unpleasant. None of those for my customers were expected. I was new to the industry.

Once I found out my customers were treated that poorly, I had to move on. I've done a lot of moving on in this industry.

I have found that the biggest companies are the worst in customer service. The executives and the owners are so far removed from the customer experience that they fail at it. They aren't thinking about quality customer experiences. They're thinking about the maximum amount of money that they can stuff into their pockets while paying the least to their employees. These are people so greedy that they have a personality disorder of it. The stories I could tell...

Then there is another aspect to consider. Companies that have become financially successful on a large scale often get there by stepping over people. They get there by doing corrupt sales practices and committing fraud. I have seen it at all of the larger companies for which I have worked. I became a pariah for speaking up against it.

I now work for company that is a sales company of just four, very experienced solar sales professionals. The shortest term in the industry on our staff is 8 years. We have a perfect five-star rating at every review site you can find. And it's real.

Most of the big companies and fast-growing companies use fake reviews. A dirty little secret that consumers don't know is that if you advertise at Google and you get a bad review on Google, you are entitled to respond to the review, and once you have responded to the review you can delete it. It's a whitewash operation. And most of these rating sites allow this sort of rigging of reviews because they collect advertising money or marketing fees from these companies that are whitewashing their reviews.

Again, I have seen this at all of the bigger companies for which I worked and some of the older, smaller companies of 50 or so employees.

I've been in sales for 41 years. I've sold cars. I've sold mortgages. I've sold bicycles. I've sold payment systems. I've sold business signs. I've worked with a lot of scummy sales people, unfortunately. And I've never met more scummy sales people in any industry than I've met in the solar industry.

When their scummy practices start to catch up with them, these operators close the business and reopen under another name. You can do one bankruptcy and still get a business license in most states to start another company. But you can't do two bankruptcies and keep a business license or obtain a business license, at least where I operate. So these operators will use straw owners, such as a spouse, or one of their kids. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The last thing I want to point out is that a lot of the worst operators call themselves devout Christians. They are "prosperity Christians". I.e., they use religion to expand their businesses. They are in it for the networking, not spiritualality. They dominate the solar industry.

In my experience, they have been the most corrupt people with whom I've worked with in any industry, but most so in solar. Yeah, it is a real thing and everybody talks about it within the industry.

[davefroman]

You are correct, but not for the reasons you think.

[dm]

Lesson learned - Solar is in its infancy. Too many fly by night, both big name and smaller solar companies that go belly up.  
Too many scams and extremely complicated contracts which homeowners later live to regret going into deep debt.  
Too much maintenance, parts/ panel failures, roof leak issues, utility company rules changes and issues when trying to sell your home with a large '2nd lien' owned still, sitting on top of an older roof...that potential buyers dont want to assume (if their smart).

Conclusion - Avoid solar panels for now. Wait 4-6 years and let the companies, rules and regs, shady installation companies/dealers etc...'shake out' of the industry. Down the road they may be financially a sound investment by the middle class HO, but not at this time.