Planet Earth supports all life forms and creates healthy ecosystems to thrive. But climate change and man-made disruptions to nature have invited widespread destruction. Invariably, it becomes necessary to undo the damage done and create a balanced environment. As a result, several entrepreneurs have deployed their minds and resources to create modern-day energy solutions with their strong knowledge and experience.
Charles Meitus is a pioneer in the renewable energy field. Charles is the Founder and CEO of LUCID SOLAR, an innovative provider of renewable energy equipment and systems. His vision is to carve a new path in the energy space with his transformational leadership.
He believes in building the goals and the action strategies together. “We continuously encourage each other on creating tasks, strategies that will lead to the success of the team, the Company, and the Brand. I make sure that our team is 100% involved all the way to create the success we all share and enjoy,” he says.
The way Charles integrates this is by being very inclusive when asking for opinions, strategy, and making sure that every employee regardless of position on the team feels heard and valued. “You also have to be the mentor you never had at times of failures,” he says.
Knocking on the Doors of Renewable Solutions
Charles kickstarted his initial and amateur entrepreneurship at the age of 17. He wanted to help reduce the amount of trash built up in the elevators of college dorms and apartments. As a solution, he created and patented a trash can that could be installed into the elevator without taking up excessive space. This led him to get in touch with one of the largest steel manufacturers in Chicago. He made this trash can from scratch that was ready to go to the elevator. “This project brought out the passion I had for creating businesses,” he recollects fondly. He credits his hands-on real life business experience to the success of his first company, which he eventually sold to a big company.
This further enabled him to pursue his purpose in life — to help transform the environment for the better. Later, he navigated into the energy sector through deregulated energy. “I would partner with third party suppliers that would deliver the same energy at a lower rate,” he adds. He made this possible by offering a superior rate than the market rate. While the utility was still the provider, Charles and his team strictly handled the supply charges.
After selling energy as a deregulated energy broker, Charles transitioned into the renewable energy sector. “I got into the renewable energy sector, as a distributor, because I wanted to learn it, and also work at something that would make an impact in the world,” he says.
This encouraged him to form some very strong connections in the industry, learn a bottom-up approach, and shortly thereafter opened his own company about the work he loved doing.
His Valuable Developments in the Energy Sector
Established in 2013, LUCID SOLAR is a one-stop source solar equipment supplier, offering high quality, high efficiency film modules, with the most competitive pricing and valuable solutions in the solar market. The company has a variety of choices for the customers with state-of-the-art technologies, competitive price points, and excellent customer service.
The Company also supplies some of the world’s best known, full line high end solar products, from panels and inverters to mounting and accessories because of the relationships with the suppliers.
Since day one, Charles’ vision has been to make solar equipment easy and accessible for clients to purchase without having to worry about shipment delays and access to top brands. “I wanted to build a company with a purpose to make the procurement process easy and affordable for every type of client, not just the ones who have large purchasing power,” he asserts.
During a solar panel distributor program, Charles realized that there were disparities in prices and inaccessibility to premium brands for the end consumer. This is why he wanted to democratize the sector by making it affordable for everyone, with the highest quality products. “Through my relationships with the large manufacturers, I could bring the top brands with lucrative pricing to the US, to the everyday customer,” he says.
He dreamt of making a global impact in the sector and the environment, as a whole, and through this vision, LUCID SOLAR was born. Charles is an advocate of transparency and clarity in his business, and this is how the name LUCID was coined. He built his business to disrupt the market in the most comprehensible, direct, and clear way and succeeded in it.
As the CEO and Founder, Charles takes care of the operations, sales, finance, and business development of LUCID SOLAR.
He believes in practicing mindfulness and self-care in the first few waking hours of his day through meditation, reflections, and gym. Thereafter, his workday revolves around checking the product inventory, strategizing future course of actions and plans, and other meetings with the Marketing team, and manufacturers.
One striking frontier that makes it stand out from the competition is the ability to shorten the delivery time from months to days and offer wholesale pricing to the retail market. “We also provide clarity to our partners that the supply will never be a problem due to the structure of our Company,” he adds.
To ensure optimal client satisfaction, Charles’ internal team is in-charge of everything — products, distribution, and delivery— at every checkpoint. “ If something goes wrong during the delivery, or if we need a replacement, we’ll be taking responsibility and we will replace it. This is rarely seen in our industry,” he says.
Delivering Value Amidst Challenges
As an entrepreneur, it is important to make friends with failures fast. Mulling over past mistakes may not produce any results and make the end goal look far-fetched. But Charles Meitus is an optimist and believes in understanding his past to change his future course of actions.
Looking back on his journey, Charles feels his mistakes and the learning process made him the person that he is today. But if there is one thing that Charles wished he paid heed to was trusting people. He states, “giving someone your ultimate trust without learning about who they really are” could lead to inconveniences.
The biggest roadblock for Charles was to establish a direct supplier relationship with a manufacturer. “It is fixed and that was my biggest learning. If you cannot beat them, you join them. And join fast,” he recalls. This hurdle was also his big lesson, and he insists on being friends with the “big guys” to ease the direct supplier relationship.
Every successful entrepreneur is an outcome of their support system. The support system is usually a team that stands by their side through the highs and lows, or most often, a mentor to blaze the trail. Grand success from great leaders becomes easier to achieve when there’s a guide to help read the map of uncertainties and opportunities. And without a mentor, even the most talented people can lose heart.
Charles Meitus also emphasizes the importance of mentorship along his journey. As a transformational leader, he owns his failures. “I know how I would have wanted someone to mentor me during a failure. And if you know how it feels when you fail and you know what you wish someone would have done for you at that moment, just be that person; be that to someone else,” he insists.
The LUCID Future
It is through Charles’ values and impactful vision that he was able to turn his purpose into a sustainable business.
However, there is lots of competition at the moment as several distributors and resellers are in the market. Over the next couple of years, Charles believes that there will be a significant decrease in “legit” distributors as the supply chain gets tighter. “Most distributors at the moment are buying and selling inventory that is already in the US but they don’t have relationships with the actual manufacturers,” he points out. Therefore, a relationship with the manufacturer is crucial.
“We have obtained license agreements with several Tier 1 Brands, to provide the highest quality products at an affordable price,” he adds. Charles will also have his own facility which will produce 1.2GW/Annually in the US.
While discussing this industry’s future, Charles feels that it’s going to come down to the Supplier relationship, because China is ruling the sector as 85% of the world’s solar production comes from China. “If you do not have a relationship with the manufacturer and you’re buying ready stock, ie.what’s in the US , then you’re doomed to be gone,” he says.
Charles hopes to become the largest solar products distributor in the entire US for every client. “We want to be the Amazon of SOLAR energy,” he concludes.
