I’d subcontract the skills I didn’t have. I would go in independently and be in charge of an audit report, and I’d charge for upgrades and retrofits.

One of our skills was doing energy audits for buildings. Walker-Miller: We were able to purchase and sell things. Walker-Miller: By crying a lot and being stubborn and determined and by the grace of God.Īdams: How did you turn the business around? It was painful and lonely and it was not just my company but the entire business ecosystem. My twin sons went to college in 2008, and our home lost 80% of its value but our mortgage didn’t change. I got down to zero employees and $250,000 in debt. We had re-stock and cancellation charges, salaries, and money we’d borrowed to hold onto people, thinking there was going to be a turnaround. I was left with no prospects for growth or even for a way to hold on. The orders we’d processed were canceled and there were no new orders. Walker-Miller: I ran into trouble when the economy turned. Walker-Miller: Between 20 we built a staff of 11 people and our average operating revenue was $10 million. Utilities were trying to diversify their supplier base so it helped that I was a black female. My proposal to ABB was, you pay me what it would cost you to operate my office, and I’ll become an independent business instead of an ABB employee. I was the Michigan distributor for ABB’s equipment. That stands for transmit and distribute and it includes power circuit breakers, large power transformers and meters. Walker-Miller: I distributed T&D products. In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, she recounts how she built the business and why she likes to hire people who are unemployed.Īdams: What did the business you started do at the outset? She has 75 employees, $24 million in 2017 revenue, and says her business is profitable. Today, the company, Walker-Miller Energy Services, has contracts with several Michigan utilities to evaluate and reduce residential energy use through retrofits that include LED bulbs, low-flow shower heads and new thermostats. On her own she bought and sold equipment and hired herself out to do building energy audits.

It took her two-and-a-half years to get back into the black. A quarter of a million dollars in debt, she laid off all 11 of her employees. It did well but when the economy crashed in 2009, her business crashed with it. So she quit her job and started a business distributing energy products like circuit breakers and large power transformers for her former employer. Walker-Miller Energy ServicesĪfter an 18-year corporate career, Carla Walker-Miller, then age 41, concluded that, as an African-American woman, she wasn’t getting the opportunities she deserved.

Carla walker