Noah Lawrence

By Noah Lawrence, Technical Trainer & Customer Success Lead, Retrotec

When I first entered the energy efficiency industry, I was a freshly certified, overly optimistic college grad who thought, "How hard could this home performance thing be?" So naturally, I started my own company.

I had just completed an online course with a one-day in-person training, passed the exam, and purchased a shiny new set of energy auditing equipment—including a Retrotec 5100 blower door with a DM32 gauge. My first paid blower door test was booked, and I was excited. I lucked out: my cousin had just built a house with an apartment above the garage in a town that had only recently started enforcing New York State’s energy code blower door testing requirement.

I offered him a great deal—on two tests—and severely underpriced the value of what I was providing. That was lesson number one: Set