An ability to pivot quickly helped keep entrepreneur on rugged path to profit
Energy-efficiency firm survived with hard-nosed skills
DETROIT — Not for nothing has Carla Walker-Miller become something of an icon of black female entrepreneurship in Detroit.
Her company, Walker-Miller Energy Services, employs nearly 90 people, takes in $24 million a year in revenue, and – perhaps most important — makes a profit.
That sets her apart in a town where black female business owners often struggle to make money and build their businesses beyond a few employees.
But it hasn’t been easy. Starting her company in 2000, Walker-Miller endured numerous challenges even before the trauma of the 2007-09 recession nearly swamped her.
“Let’s be real,” she said. “I’ve been in business 18 years and I’m just getting to the level of profitable revenue. A lot of businesses with high revenue (but no profits) go out of business every day. That profitable growth is very elusive.”
How she succeeded holds lessons for other entrepreneurs in Detroit, male and female, black and white. As she testifies, success goes beyond having a good idea and passion. Hard-nosed business skills and an ability to pivot when circumstances demand are key.
“There are so many capable businesses that have the right product and the right value proposition at the wrong time,” she said.
A civil engineer by training, Walker-Miller brokered energy equipment for an engineering firm for many years before starting her own company in 2000 at the age of 42. She sold equipment to the likes of utility DTE Energy.
It was a good business, took in about $10 million in revenue, and benefited from the desire by power companies to diversify its supplier base by doing business with more minority owners.
But the recession changed all that. Her equipment sales had been targeted at new construction projects, and as construction evaporated in Michigan, so did her sales.
That’s where the pivot came in. She knew that recent energy legislation in Michigan and other states encouraged utilities like DTE to help their customers save money by becoming more energy efficient. Walker-Miller had followed the legislation and switched her efforts from selling equipment to providing energy efficiency evaluations to companies and consumers.
Not only did her firm survive, but the new line of work proved better than the old one.
Her business now operates in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois and continues to grow.
She had help along the way. Her firm was based for several years at TechTown, the business accelerator at Wayne State University, at a time when TechTown offered the best, and almost the only, entrepreneurial support system in the city.
And in 2014 she won a place in the first cohort of entrepreneurs going through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program, an intensive, monthslong training boot camp.
The program encouraged her to think bigger, to envision what sort of business she’d like to have if revenue were not an issue. Strategic questions like what type of culture she should foster or where she wanted to be in 10 years became as important as the more day-to-day concerns.
“So having gone through a grueling master’s-type program on this particular business I felt ready to pursue much bigger opportunities than I ever would have,” she said.
The payoff came almost immediately. DTE had released a request for proposals for a residential energy efficiency program. Walker-Miller had thought of going after a small piece of the business as a subcontractor. But having learned through the Goldman Sachs program to think more strategically, she bid for the work as a prime contractor — and won.
The contract is worth $24 million a year.
Having just turned 60, Walker-Miller reflects on her younger self and the hard road that let to her present success.
“I thought I was pretty smart at 30,” she said. “I was smart, I was capable, I was hungry, I had everything lined up to be successful. Corporate America chewed me up and spat me out.”
One of her biggest obstacles was the ceiling corporate America put on black women advancing. “The construct said I had to wait for a slot that would open every five or 10 years that would accommodate a black female and the right manager,” she said.
So having struck out on her own, she succeeded through hard work, creativity, luck and, as she prefers, “the favor of God.”