The 31-year old entrepreneur offers consultancy to corporate clients and free of charge, and gains his money from the supplier of energy that gets the new client.
“Last winter I saw on an international website (makeitcheaper.com), which compiles a ranking of the most profitable companies, a company that helped end consumers cut electricity and natural gas bills,” recalls Marius Moise, who is at his third attempt at launching his own business.
The entrepreneur then researched the sector and found that Romanian legislation allows such a business, as the energy market was liberalized in 2007. Moise also researched how the British company he had seen on the above-mentioned website works and analyzed the possibilities of implementing a similar business in Romania.
“The business was born out of a desire to offer energy consumers a cut on their bill simply by changing the energy supplier. Few energy consumers know that electricity consumption was deregulated in 2007 and they can switch suppliers free of charge and, thus, pay lower fees.”
The initial investment in the business amounted to EUR2,000 and entailed the acquisition of laptops, the rental of an office, as well as promotional activities.
“I started to contact authorized suppliers of electricity. I had no idea if they were willing to seal partnerships with other companies for this service. I didn’t know what types of commissions could be granted or what contracts were involved,” he says.
After many phone calls and discussions with energy suppliers, the entrepreneur drew up a list of suppliers and started the business. He created a website, costenergie.com, which he promoted through Google’s search engine and shortly afterwards started to receive requests from clients. Moise has three full-time employees and four contract workers at Lozici Holding.
“I think we are competing only with energy suppliers. Their disadvantage is they can only present the company’s price offer. Our advantage is we are not dependent on any supplier. We know the market prices and can come up with several price offers for clients.”
The company works with energy suppliers such as Biol Energy, UCM Energy and CEZ.
“When we have a request from a potential client, we send them the best price we get from the suppliers, and the clients then seal the contract with the new supplier. We are paid by the supplier to whom we bring the clients, based on contracts we sealed previously, so costs are zero for clients.”
The cut on the energy bill usually ranges between 10% and 20%.
The clients Moise has attracted include Bridgexim, Zheng Shi International, Agropiete SA Tulcea, and, starting next month, Domeniile Tohani and Caraiman Constanta.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)