Yahoo Finance Smart solar business lights up to $48 million
Jasper Boyschau co-founded residential solar company Smart Energy in 2016 with longtime friends Elliot Hayes and Beau Savage in Byron Bay. The business has grown to more than 200 staff with offices across Australia, UK and US. Last financial year the business cracked revenue of over $48 million. Yahoo Finance caught up with chief operating officer Jasper to hear how it happened.
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What does your business do?
In a nutshell, we save people money on their electricity bills.
Smart Energy is a leading provider of solar, battery, and energy solutions for homeowners at an affordable rate.
Our origin story is a little unconventional but essentially our two co-founders, Elliot and Beau, were working for Red Energy when they were approached by someone asking: “Are you the energy guys?”
They said “Yeah - what can we help you with?”
Eventually, they sat down with this man, who was quite flustered over his bill as it clearly stated an unreasonable sum of money.
Elliot and Beau were able to explain to him that he was $2,000 in credit as his home had solar panels, meaning it was actually the energy company that owed him money through a rebate scheme.
From that day, they realised the full potential of solar power, and how much they could help others save by making the switch.
Smart Energy came to fruition shortly after in Byron Bay, and our mission since the start has been to be a solar and battery, and now energy, company that people can trust and rely on.
We aim to help people understand how their energy bill works by being fully transparent so they can maximise on saving.
Smart Energy has no upfront costs with our smart savings plan, so customers’ savings can go towards paying for the energy system itself - this means very little out of pocket expenses. Some people will always be critical, but renewable energy really is the future and it's beating out coal every day of the week.
What led you to start the business?
With an athletic background and spending a few years overseas, I found once I returned to begin my tertiary education it was not something I connected with anymore. Some friends of mine became interested in starting an online business - I saw the potential and opportunity of the internet, despite it being 2009 and nowhere as sophisticated as it is now, so I decided to pursue it instead.
Our website No Yelling connected learner drivers with driving instructors and became the biggest provider of driving lessons in Queensland, with the whole business built off of SEO (search engine optimisation).
This eventually led to building our own software to more effectively run the business, building advanced booking and payment technology, and later releasing an app.
We then became the first business in Australia to integrate PayPal and mobile payments into our site to enable our contracted instructors to manage their business from their mobile device.
We eventually sold the business, however the knowledge I acquired from this experience was priceless.
After retreating from the Melbourne cityscape for Byron Bay in 2016, I met Elliot and Beau. Their passion for solar energy was evident, and being interested in it myself for quite some time, I decided Smart Energy was the perfect opportunity I had been waiting for.
What have been the biggest milestones in business?
A first major milestone was having panels installed in every state and territory of Australia. Even in more remote areas, like the Northern Territory, we’ve been able to make our mark. Smart Energy has an extraordinary foot print in this country, especially for a young business.
The next biggest milestone was being awarded with our Energy Retail licence, a difficult but gratifying process. This fulfilled our long term plan, as we have always envisioned Smart Energy as an energy provider, not only a solar and battery retailer. By being awarded with our licence 18 months ago, it allowed Smart Energy to buy from the national energy market and become a robust competitor amongst the biggest energy companies in Australia.
What has it been like to scale a business to nearly $49 million?
We went from 14 million to 30-something million between year two and year three. That growth was very challenging. At one point we had to navigate being able to provide millions of dollars worth of installations with $150-200,000 in the bank within the time frame of a week.
At certain times, our cash flow would be very tight which caused immensely stressful situations in managing suppliers whilst also searching for lines of credit - we had the money, it was just tied up in stock.
Growth, while it can cause some issues, is optimal for a business’ momentum.
Fortunately for Smart Energy, there were a few months where we experienced incredible growth. With the help of good suppliers and much perseverance to get us through tough times, we were able to successfully cross the 40 million mark.
And we've continued to grow ever since.
With our next phase approaching, we've found growth is not always linear - particularly when you’re in the midst of a pandemic. However, with new offices in Austin, Texas as well as Portsmouth, England, where Beau and Elliot hail from, in addition to becoming a new energy provider, we’ve been provided with many exciting opportunities which will see exponential growth over the next few years.
What have been some of the biggest lessons learned in business?
From my heavy introspection, I can conclude brutal honesty with yourself as well as your ideas is key.
Reflecting on my first business venture, it’s too easy to become caught up and delude yourself in the fantasies of ideas - this is incredibly harmful and can dissuade you from the reality of situations, like ignoring key and obvious metrics.
If you speak to an investor, and can’t answer the three major questions you need to think about pivoting your business. These are:
What is your cost for customer acquisition?
What's the lifetime value?
How do you scale your marketing?
What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
If you have an idea, just go for it. It doesn't have to be perfect. As long as you believe it has potential, you have the power to make it work. Introducing your product to market in a quick and efficient manner is also vital, so you can start leveraging your customers or users to learn and improve.
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