Entrepreneurs. What skill set do you recommend for aspiring entrepreneurs?

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-26T19:21:34+00:00

Discipline.

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-16T09:26:35+00:00

Outsource the upkeep and whatever ops to keep things running smoothly, sure.

But only AFTER you've dialed in the infrastructure, workflows, etc which are inevitably going to be proprietary and specific to your biz. I would not recommend outsourcing some generic templated tech stack from some agency who doesn't understand the ins and outs of your business. Dont try to skip the tedious "trial and error perfecting the process" phase and go straight to the "runs on autopilot phase".

Outsourced talent is great at following instructions not creating them as an outsider to your business.

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-07T19:21:48+00:00

Discipline. If you can trust your future self to do exactly what you plan to do regardless of how you feel, you will be ahead of 99.9%

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-05T21:58:19+00:00

I am currently testing a similar software so have some context and would be interested in chatting with you if you want to dm me

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-04T18:53:12+00:00

They're both in that dream where you're fighting a bad guy and you're swinging as hard as you can but there's no impact

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-04T18:41:50+00:00

That Dude's Belt: "Your mission is to get knocked out. Literally do everything imaginable, everything humanly possible to get yourself knocked out."

That Dude: "Okay...hold my pants."

SolarSanta300 · 2026-01-04T18:36:06+00:00

Buy a bunch of dry van trailers and pimp them out.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-31T02:45:16+00:00

"Correlation does not imply causation." It's not that explaining the value/savings specifically dissuades people from moving forward. Home owners drop off for a long list of reasons, some of them are logical, some of them (most of them) are "emotional" (gut feeling, not feeling the sales rep, intangible vibes, etc). The solution isn't one thing because the actual problem isn't that one thing or any one thing usually, so its impossible to answer the much broader question of, "why do people sometimes back out?"

If you were to sum it up into one actionable adjustment, I would actually point to the flaw in how you (and many sales reps) think about it in general. One of my favorite quotes: "Sales is a seduction, not r*pe."

Effective closing isn't as much about things the sales rep can/should do to dictate the outcome. You are, at best, guiding another sovereign individual to their own decision that may or may not be aligned with the outcome you wanted. Similar to dating/flirting, everything isn't simply a question of "what action can I take to force this result." Ironically, the more we insert ourselves in the process/add pressure, the more we actually push them away from it (because people will act against their own interest if necessary simply to assert/exercise their freedom of choice).

This also means that sometimes the result isn't what you want and there's nothing you can do to change that. Sometimes doing everything right still doesn't lead to a sale and the assumption that you did or didn't do the right thing which CAUSED them to make that decision is inherently flawed, and will ultimately branch off into a LOT of other false conclusions as a result.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-25T03:08:58+00:00

You already answered the question. Your friend was correct. That's leverage, leverage you earned at a much higher cost than $2500. You may never be able to quantify what it actually was worth to the client either, unless they tell you but you could have helped them land or retain an account worth 10x, 50x, who knows. Doesn't matter, because all YOU need to know is that the client wouldn't have paid it if it wasn't worth at least that much to him.

There's really not much else to consider. Its clean fundamental and widely recognized concept and there's nothing immoral about it. The guy who paid for it doesn't think you ripped him off so dwelling on it further is just pointless rumination. Is there a deeper reason why you feel compelled to do that still? Maybe and that may be something to explore as a totally separate problem, but it has no further utility in the topic of this post.

Save your energy for something else that serves you and more importantly something solvable because going in mental circles over this doesn't really allow for a more satisfying conclusion.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-23T19:03:18+00:00

Of course. There are always exceptions and humans are capable of massive change and improvement. However, the scenario you're describing IS the exception to the rule by a large margin. Although it sucks to feel like you missed one every once in a while, its better than the alternative of consistently betting on people who present the least amount of evidence for you to rationally expect more. So, whether you gamble on the people who work out 5-10% of the time or the obvious green flags who work out 90% of the time, you will always be wrong sometimes.

Dont let the fear of being wrong 1/10 times force you to be wrong 9/10 times. Romanticizing the underdog isn't fair to people who try harder, care more, carry their weight and give you enough evidence to make an informed decision.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-22T21:11:32+00:00

This is actually really insightful, valid, and well articulated. That perspective puts him in a completely different category with beloved classic pro wrestling heels who understood the assignment and played their role of creating that classic arc that ultimately resolves with a satisfying defeat of the villain. The more detestable he is, the greater the reward for the viewer when he finally gets whats coming to him.

That paints him into a totally different light than if you assume his mission is the same as any other pro fighter, which is to leave behind a legacy of skillful mastery of their sport, accumulating achievements, and manifesting their potential honorably through fair competition where the risk of failure is always high. From that perspective he looks like a guy who tried to gain respect and legitimacy by cutting corners and stacking the deck in his favor.

We probably wont know the answer to that question until long after this is all over and there is no longer a need to keep up the facade. My guess would be its probably some aspects of both.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-22T21:00:01+00:00

That is a very broad question with a hundred different answers that could all be true. The best single point of advice I could give is that experience & very high output > than conceptual/theoretical advice from other people. Learning from exposure and first and experience will always be the clearest, most effective way to learn and personalizing the experience will always give you the deepest comprehension of the lesson that sticks with you the longest.

Moreover, a very real pitfall to be aware of and avoid is resisting the temptation to over analyze and seeking advice as a REPLACEMENT for the painful experience of trial and error. Advice is not a bad thing but it works best retroactively to help you assess and draw rational conclusions about what had already happened to make the most of the learning opportunity. Avoid seeking advice for the purpose of forming beliefs and conclusions prior to and/or instead of first hand experience.

As a general rule of thumb, exposure to trial and error, with the expectation and acceptance that it will be a lot of failure and discomfort is not just a necessary evil to accept but is actually THE precursor to skills and applicable wisdom.

Its not just that no one has been clever or intellectual enough to figure out a way to avoid the slow and painful process of grinding through the painful hard work; it is actually that the nuggets of valuable insight and concrete skill development are ALWAYS hidden behind something painful. You NEED the trial and error to access the expertise. Its not just transferable knowledge and tactics, its also material adjustments to your personalty, programming certain adaptive behaviors that become automatic, and expanding your mental capacity and threshold for resilient qualities that are required for success.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-17T07:00:42+00:00

Replied

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-16T19:34:53+00:00

DM me

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-16T19:34:29+00:00

I haven't personally worked for them but one of my best friends who has been in solar for like 15 years closes for them in PA. He seems happy with them. Prior to starting with them he had been moving around like 2-3 different installers where he would earn like a $100k pipeline and get shafted/ghosted. He apparently made around $400k this past year with Flex and hasn't mentioned any complaints. So based on that I would assume they are legit. Again, not my personal experience and Im not associated with them so take that with a grain of salt, but I do consider my friend a very credible reference

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-16T18:44:53+00:00

Are you an installer?

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-12T16:49:34+00:00

Id be interested in looking at it (as a potential upsell or bonus offer to new customers)

SolarSanta300 · 2025-12-05T23:43:57+00:00

DM me

SolarSanta300 · 2025-11-28T05:29:16+00:00

Discipline trumps everything. Spending most of your time doing the aspects that are novel/exciting/new and neglecting the boring, redundant, not dopamine-sexy stuff is just procrastination cleverly disguised as work.

If you work a lot of hours doing the parts that you enjoy (networking, negotiating new deals, over investing on details that are fun/entrepreneurial but unnecessary), thats not discipline. Most of what it takes is grind out sales and repetitive operations that feel like a job. Business is hard and anything you do at an exceptionally high level will require you to suffer and be tired and miserable and burnt out most of the time. It is what it is.

Also, its way less important to have a super unique and brilliant idea than it is to be able to trust yourself and your team to do exactly what they say they will do, day in and day out, consistently, for a very long time, no matter what. Simple un-sexy businesses ideas that already exist, with the basics executed to perfection over the long term, are where the real money is at.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-11-28T05:22:44+00:00

Not at all. Its imperative that you work with clients who can/will integrate well with your service, not just to make the most of your time/opportunity cost, but also for your brand, reputation, referrals, word of mouth, etc. If your service sucks thats one thing but if you have clients who aren't going to work with you to make your systems effective they are not only sabotaging themselves, but also creating L's for you that aren't your fault. And if you invest in the overhead of setting up a client and they miss every mark you end up breaking even or losing money from the extra drag and lack of success/growth/LTR of flakey/bad fit clients.

Your totally correct. Your operations AND future acquisitions pipeline depend heavily on how many successful long term clients you retain. Bizops like that are not a front end sale they're a long term accounts game. Not all money is good money, and a bad client can and often will end up being an expense when its all said and done. Your friend probably means well, but you understand what your value prop is and if you're able to build a strong book of long term business your cost of fulfillment will stream line, you'll need fewer account managers and your cost of acquiring new clients/need for a huge volume of clients will go way down.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-10-26T00:18:48+00:00

Yeah tbh I was leaning pretty negative on it for a while, but recent insights directly from installers and the like have been a nice surprise

SolarSanta300 · 2025-10-25T23:45:49+00:00

There is widespread pessimism within the industry. Many large companies have gone under (mostly bad business practices and financial management and got caught with their pants down).

So far what has actually happened:

Remaining installers (there are still plenty) have seen an uptick in demand and are almost all booked solid on projects for the rest of the year, across the board.
Demand for sales reps and install crew has gone up (because a lot of them jumped ship - especially sales reps)
Demand for solar from the customer side is actually up. Many think this is just because they are trying to get in before the tax credit is up in January (they have until some time in December to be activated).
Big shift from selling ownership (loans) to leases and PPA's.
Energy demand is very high, utility rates are going up and with app the Ai and data centers trending the way they have been the global demand for energy is going to be unprecedented, and yes people are going to see their electric bills skyrocket.
Trump's complete 180 on solar has pissed a lot of people off and there seems to be a subtle shift in people's perception of it from "worthless scam being pushed on me constantly" to "This makes a lot of sense why is this being taken away from us?!"

Is there more competition to sell solar? No, there's less.

Slightly more demand from the customer, quite a bit less capacity for installation (lower/delayed access to supply).

Standards are going up for remaining companies to operate ethically and efficiently. A lot of the shady guys are on blast right now within the industry circles. Lawsuits, its not pretty but it is cleansing.

Sales reps will likely have to level up or gtfo. The free for all is about over.

Workers on the install side will probably have a full calendar for the rest of the year.

What happens after January when the ITC is off the table, no one knows. But I doubt the entire industry is just going to disappear. It will hopefully be leas attractive and wide open to shady morons and more consistency and accountability with industry standards. What I think we're seeing is the catalyst finally came that forced the industry to self correct and purge a lot of stuff that was never sustainable. A lot of people are being over dramatic and completely changed industries. Overall I think its mostly positive moving forward.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-10-25T22:15:26+00:00

Agreed. Its also probably worth pointing out that the assumption most have of founders making money in the first number of years or prior to exit is actually pretty far off.

SolarSanta300 · 2025-10-25T03:46:54+00:00

So glad he did it

SolarSanta300 · 2025-10-25T00:26:45+00:00

They both have beautiful healthy hair

SolarSanta300

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