By Richard Turner, founder and CEO of ZEN Home Energy Systems
Richard Turner talks about home-produced solar energy, and why the future looks sunny for ZEN Home Energy Systems.
One day, in 2004, Richard Turner decided he wanted to put some lights in the backyard cubby house for his kids. Given the location, it seemed solar panels might be the way to go. He thought he would buy a panel, set it up on the cubby and let it run.
If only it was that easy. Richard found the myriad of products, prices, options and information confusing and complex. It occurred to him that if someone with his business experience found it hard to understand, the average consumer must be utterly baffled.
And so ZEN Home Energy Systems was born –
a simple, solar home energy package of the highest quality, branded and professionally installed.
“I am an entrepreneur at heart and created four successful businesses from the ground up across four different industries before I started ZEN,” says Richard. “Business building is in my blood I guess, it was just a case of looking for the right opportunities.”
Richard and business partner Philip Vafiadis began their venture with extensive research. “We researched all kinds of renewable energy including wind power, domestic appliance technologies and finally solar energy. We knew we had to source world-leading technologies to create the best quality packaged
and branded home energy system, which we did, complete with wireless in home monitor as standard.”
Their hard work and insight continues to reward Richard, Phillip and their franchisees. ZEN has experienced an incredible 600-800% growth every year for the last four years. This is well above the expansion rate of the solar energy industry, which is a growth sector in itself. Why the phenomenal success? Richard thinks the answer lies in quality, simplicity and professionalism.
“We are the only branded and packaged Home Energy System on the market. Not only does this make things easy for the consumer, it also offers the security of knowing the best quality components have already been sourced for you.
We are also the only Solar company to be endorsed and engaged by Local Government Associations across Australia to deliver Council-led community wide solar installations. Councils have engaged with us because of ZEN’s proven track record of managing large scale install projects, but also because of the quality of our product and offering.”
When asked if he has any advice for potential entrepreneurs, Richard is open. “If you have a great idea and the passion to take it to market, how do you compete with existing players with established market share and established supplier relationships? You also have to develop economies of scale in production and distribution. The simple answer is you have to change the rules of how the industry operates and make them compete with you on your terms. If you try and compete with established players you will simply burn cash and most likely fail.
Franchising is another option open to successful businesses, and one Richard has decided to embrace. “We strongly believe in the power of local ownership, local knowledge and local management. There are passionate, independent people that believe in the future of renewable energy and the brand values of ZEN. We want to share our success with them.”
Richard believes the future of solar energy in Australia is incredibly bright. “The renewable energy sector is and will be the fastest growing for many years to come, as the world embraces sustainability for long term survival,” he says. “A business which properly uses this technology to not only offer a market leading product, but also foster our future makes not only great business sense, but great sense for the planet.”
ZEN - http://www.livefree.com.au
