Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Creating a Vision

I'd like to see Campbell Energy do a vision board/book that clearly maps out what we want for the world. The more we put it down on paper, the easier it will come to us.

Here are some links: mindjet.com (comprehensive mindmapping software that steps it up with task lists, spreadsheets, able to be edited, worth a look)

CE Field Trip Brainstorm

Premise: Lots of groups get together and talk about green things, have green speakers, and spend green money. I want to do all that at once, on site, in situ, as a community of interested and active people. Take public transport, walk, bike, and carpool to a quarterly Field Trip to take direct action, meet people, learn something, and make a direct difference. You pay small fee for organization, and match with a donation to good green cause.

Possible Trips:

  1. Kavu
  2. Theo Chocolates
  3. 34th St. Transfer Station
  4. Ballard Locks
  5. Fare Start
  6. Green Bean
  7. Boeing
  8. 5 star Built Green housing developments
  9. Mini-solar tour
  10. Insulation companies
  11. HVAC companies
  12. recycled steel companies (NUCOR?)
  13. Waste Management
  14. A solar manufacturer
  15. A biodiesel manufacturer
  16. A wind farm
  17. An off-grid and/or grid tied home
  18. An organic farm
  19. A decidedly NON-environmentally responsible location/company
  20. individual households in various states of green
  21. Electric Bike store tour
  22. Electric Car store tour
  23. a day-trip eco-tourism thing
  24. an herb walk with Jake

Saturday, November 15, 2008

CE State of the Union

I've got around $1500 in the bank, generated from 5 clients. I've got a logo, cards, a web designer, a blog (now!), a design company, and mounting debt to the finances of my family. I have already spent around $3,000 give or take on getting the company up and running.

The company is actually up and running, but I do want to get cracking on some more basics: I want an accounting system and a bookkeeper. I want my website up within a month. I want to train more, and yet have more clients. I want my office separate from my home. I want to charge the same amount for each audit less than 3,000 square feet. I want one client per day. Is that going to be unprofitable? I want to ensure that I can work at my own pace and still make a family wage.

My desk is currently piled with stuff, personal and business related. I have a scanner that sits unused, a lamp without a bulb, the shells of 4 unfinished projects and at least 3 books I have bought but haven't read. I have cards that I have not either entered as contacts or recycled, piled up. I have gewgaws and knickknacks and a hand cranked radio. It's like my mind, cluttered but creative. I like it and it slows me down.

I have 10 to do items in my homework bin online that I am slowly hacking away at. I have people on my side, and time that isn't. I have a new president and a good governor and Van Jones to help me out there in the noosphere. I have a lot of knowledge and a passion for conservation.

I've had a successful seminar with 16 people which generated perhaps one interested customer who has yet to decide to get an audit.

Overall, lots of pluses, but still need to either get a stronger flow of clients, or somehow write my book and sell millions overnight....

--Aaron

What is Campbell Energy?

Campbell Energy LLC is a company founded in memory of Richard S. Campbell by Aaron B. Campbell in order to continue RSC's work with energy efficiency, reduced global impact, and innovation.

The thrust of Campbell Energy's work focuses on conservation, specifically, in buildings. The buildings I am most familiar with are largely residential, so that's where Campbell Energy's energy is currently being focused.

In the future, we may expand into commercial energy conservation, but I am not interested in diluting my skills or knowledge in expansion when there is so much to do with residential energy conservation.

This blog is a landing pad for ideas and progress relating to ongoing work at Campbell Energy. I will post as I feel compelled, but as we evolve it may end up being incorporated into our website, or become a strictly internal blog to track our own progress.

Subscribe at your own risk: it may not be witty or even useful to most people. I find that I write with less flair than I speak. So be it. It's not about me, and it's not about entertainment. I have been spending far too much energy worrying about how others see me, and I'm tired of wasting energy in all aspects. Onward.

Who is Richard Campbell?

Richard Scott Campbell was my father. He was also an inventor. I love him dearly and dedicate my company, Campbell Energy, to him.