Yodle recently sat down with David Rarrick, Executive Vice President of Aztec Solar Power. This two part Q&A will cover everything from running a small business, marketing pitfalls, and solar energy to the Pittsburg Steelers!!  Have a question for David about anything covered? Please leave your comments below.

(photo: David and family)

PART 1 (check back for part 2 next week)

What is your role within Aztec Solar? I’m the Executive Vice President, and I oversee the finance, sales and new product development. 

What did you do before Aztec Solar?  I worked in the financial world for ten to twelve years.  I worked for Prudential, Vanguard, Alliance Capital, but I always had the entrepreneurial spirit.  While I was working for those firms, I remodeled houses on the side as a hobby.  Then, I wanted to get into real estate full time.  I was flipping houses myself when the real estate market bottomed out. I went back to the financial world for a little bit, but I knew I had to stick with that entrepreneurial spirit.  Then, I came across [my friend] Jerry here at Aztec Solar Power and thought it was a great opportunity for me to be able to have the security of a company to work with but also be able to develop a business that was in its infancy stage of development.

What would you say you like most about being a small business owner? It’s exciting because you’re creating every step of the way.  It’s always exciting in the sense that I don’t know what today’s gonna bring.  As compared to the other jobs I’ve had where you go in to your desk and the same issue presents itself over and over.  It gets pretty dull.  So this is just very exciting.  It’s always changing. 

What would you say is the most important lesson you’ve learned from running a small business? The most important thing I’ve learned is to be open-minded to everyone around you.  Just because you own the small business or you’re higher up in the company doesn’t mean you know everything.  Learn from those around and realize that you don’t know everything.   

Can you tell us some of the marketing challenges you’ve experiences as a small business owner? About two years ago, there were about 40 installers in Pennsylvania; now there are over 500.  It’s a very limited customer base that’s buying solar systems, but you have quite an expansive group of installers going after that same market.  You have to really be able to separate yourself from the pack in a variety of different ways: from the initial attraction of the customer all the way through to installation and service.  It’s not just one thing that can separate you from the rest.  That’s why Aztec is in the position that it is as one of the premier installers, not just in Pennsylvania but all up and down the East Coast.

What was one of your biggest marketing mistakes? Not analyzing things, or a product, thoroughly.  Not to analyze a marketing plan thoroughly and going off the cuff.  Everything should have its due diligence and you should do your proper research about whether it’s gonna have its payback or not.  Marketing products can be rather expensive.  Hate to throw money out the window.   

What about the biggest marketing success?It’s kind of funny.  We had a customer that was interested in doing a large project for us, over a 12 million dollar project.  He was tossing it back and forth between us and another company.  He decided to go with us.  We actually had done some advertising on a billboard, and, ironically enough, he was coming in to see us to sign the contract.  He said he drove in, looked up and saw our advertisement on the billboard, and he goes, “You know what, I think I’m doing the right thing.  I feel more confident now.”  It was seeing our name on the billboard that reemphasized to him that he was choosing the right company.  To date, that’s our largest private contract that we have.  It was a good move. 

What is solar energy, in your own words?  Why is it important? Solar energy is basically taking the power that is provided us every day and utilizing it, through the sunlight.  If you could harvest the energy from one hour of sunlight, you could power the world for a year (11:05).  There’s a lot of wasted energy out there, floating around, so to speak, coming in from the sun.  To me, it’s just crucial that we look at these other forms of energy, whether it’s the sun or solar thermal, being able to harvest that energy to heat up hot water as well.  You actually use more energy to heat up hot water than anything else, save for heat and electricity, or, you know, for lights.  So it’s important for me to be able to grab that other form of energy and harvest it and clean it, make it renewable.  It’s a benefit to the environment to use that form instead of drilling.  The Gulf, what happened down there – those forms of energy are just antiquated and hazardous to the environment.   

(photo: house fitted with aztec solar power panels)