{"id":42723,"date":"2023-10-20T15:23:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/wattelse-solar-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:23:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:23:18","slug":"wattelse-solar-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/wattelse-solar-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"WattElse Solar – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Founders:<\/span><\/strong> Martin Carlin, Rhodes Watson <\/div>\n
Revenue:<\/span><\/strong> $1.62 million <\/div>\n
Started:<\/span><\/strong> 2011 <\/div>\n
Head Office:<\/span><\/strong> Victoria <\/div>\n
Employees:<\/span><\/strong> 4 <\/div>\n
Industry:<\/span><\/strong> Retail trade <\/div>\n
Website:<\/span><\/strong> www.wattelse.com.au <\/div>\n

WattElse Solar manages the design and installation of solar photovoltaic systems. Specifically, it sources quality solar PV technology, importing it directly or buying it locally at wholesale prices.<\/p>\n

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The business also consults with homeowners and businesses around their energy needs, and recommends energy-saving solutions.<\/p>\n

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Carlin says the inspiration for the business was born out of personal experience.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRhodes wanted to get solar for his own home and was frustrated at all the confusing information, high prices and dodgy solar businesses out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis led Rhodes to start a community bulk-buying initiative in his hometown of Yeppoon. It went off!<\/p>\n

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\u201cRhodes and I joined together to start the actual business because we saw how much people wanted honest service, good prices on quality products and no bullshit around the sales process.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe also wanted to work for ourselves while doing something meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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WattElse offers people an easy-to-understand service, which has allowed it to win the hearts of consumers who are \u201csick of the smoke and mirrors\u201d, says Carlin.<\/p>\n

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The hardest part of starting up was working out the business model.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe went from being a broker to doing pretty much everything ourselves. That was a big learning curve,\u201d Carlin says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe learnt the practicalities of importing, of working with tradesmen and subcontractors, and the importance of good contracts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe learnt how important it was to provide good service to our customers, which we now have so much control over now we\u2019ve taken so many parts of the business in-house.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founders: Martin Carlin, Rhodes Watson Revenue: $1.62 million Started: 2011 Head Office: Victoria Employees: 4 Industry: Retail trade Website: www.wattelse.com.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}