The “bath in a box” concept is not a new one. Remodelers and contractors have made millions installing these all-in-one kits for years. Now a new West Coast venture takes the all-in-one concept one step further by offering a home-performance department, essentially, right out of the box.
Strategic Package
Home Performance Matters, in Claremont, Calif., is an offshoot of home-performance consulting firm Every Watt Matters and is a prototype business started from scratch to develop all the systems, procedures, and software required to run a profitable and sustainable home-performance division, according to company president Devon Hartman. “We’re taking all of those strategic marketing, sales, business, and production systems and we’re packaging that out to offer remodelers around the country the opportunity to create a home-performance division inside their already-existing company,” he says. “We believe that if remodelers use our systems, they can have an extraordinarily sustainable and profitable division in 24 months rather than taking five years to figure it out.”
Not a Franchise
HPM does on-the-job training in all the techniques and procedures necessary for the design and installation of all energy systems throughout the entire house. “We’re taking that intellectual property at Home Performance Matters and we’re consulting to construction companies and to remodeling companies specifically,” Hartman says, adding that the company has both residential and commercial clients.
But a franchise this isn’t, Hartman says. “Our goal is to launch successful businesses and send them on their way. We’re not trying to take a piece of them for the rest of their existence or co-opt their brand.” However, HPM is developing its own brand, so that a remodeler can be a licensed contractor “powered by Every Watt Matters.”
Hartman says that this venture is the height of a responsible model from a consulting point of view. “We only get paid out of the profits [the company is] generating by what we’re contributing to their growth,” he explains. “We are rolling up our sleeves and training them to not only create a new division, but the things they will learn will have positive growth and strategic ramifications for their existing business as well.”
The home-performance division is not just another service, but, according to Hartman, it can often serve as a “Trojan horse.” “It provides a brand new conversation for all your clients around a very exciting megatrend and then allows you to get back in front of your clients and new clients in a very meaningful way and discover other work beyond energy systems that they might want to accomplish,” he says. “It’s a wonderful conversation to be having with people at this time.”
—Mark A. Newman, senior editor, REMODELING.
