Better homes | A conversation with Matthew Damon, co-owner of Penobscot Home Performance in Brewer and Belfast
Photo/Courtesy Penobscot Home Performance
Partners Matt Damon, right, and Paul Shepherd
Founded: November 2008
Number of employees: None
Startup costs: $30,000
Projected revenue, year one: $225,000
Projected revenue, year two: $500,000
Contact: 991-2100
Company website
What is Penobscot Home Performance?
We’re a home performance contracting company. We consider ourselves a one-stop shop for home performance — we do both energy audits and blown insulation. We use a science-based approach to test homes, and after the test we make recommendations as to what needs to be done to make the home more energy efficient. We inspect and check insulation levels, match existing insulation levels with where they should be for this climate zone, test for leaks — we relay that info to the customer and recommend improvements. After we determine how efficient the home is, we then go in and do the work, air-sealing holes and blowing in insulation.
Why did you and your partner launch this business?
My partner and I both worked for a nonprofit for many years doing energy audits for a low-income home energy assistance program. We were in a train together one day and started talking and we both saw an opportunity to go into business for ourselves and do it for the private sector. We both believe passionately in energy conservation and making homes more energy efficient. We both realized it was a burgeoning industry and saw some companies entering the field, and we saw that we had more experience than most of the other people and decided to make a go of it.
How did you finance this business?
Personal finances and savings.
How do you market your business?
Mostly word of mouth — that’s been our best marketing tool. We’ve tried home shows, tradeshows, newspaper and magazine ads and haven’t had great success with those, but in this business it’s word of mouth and we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on our website. We’re also listed under MaineHousing and we’re listed under the new Maine Association of Building Efficiency Professionals and a couple other trade organizations.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced running this business?
Right now it’s finding the right people to expand the business. We’re at the point now where we need to hire people and we’re having trouble finding qualified people who really believe in it to work for us. The work is hard, the auditing is clean and nice and science-based and pretty fun and really interesting, but when you start climbing around in an attic with fiberglass and it’s 120 degrees it’s not that fun. So you have to believe in what you’re doing and know that what you’re doing has a purpose and is not only helping people but also reducing energy consumption in our country and in the world.
How has the economy affected your business?
It hasn’t affected us at all. Oil prices tend to affect us more than the economy; the higher the oil prices the more people feel it in their wallet and the more likely they are to call, but the work we do pays for itself. Sometimes it takes two years and sometimes it takes 10, but it always pays for itself, so it’s an investment that’s always going to show positive returns. If you blow insulation in your house, we can calculate with a good deal of accuracy how much money you’re going to save every year.
What’s your biggest overhead cost?
The cost of materials — usually we get the cost of materials up front before a job. In our industry the materials we use are often very expensive. We typically use dense packed cellulose and loose foam cellulose, which has a lower embodied energy value and is more environmentally friendly.
What are your goals for the next 5-10 years?
We’d like to expand and have an HVAC guy on our staff, someone who can do furnace and boiler work, install heating systems and ventilation systems. We’d also like to break into new construction, so if someone’s building a house we’d go in and test the house and look at the plans and make recommendations as to how to make the house more energy efficient. It’s relatively easy to do on a new house, but once the house is built, it’s much more expensive and more difficult to do a retrofit. We’d also love to expand as much as possible through the region.
Interview by Mercedes Grandin
New Ventures profiles young businesses 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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