This seems to be the question that is on the mind of every Ambit Energy consultant these days. We get tired of answering the question, so this post aims to put it to bed once and for all.
As a founding consultant we’ve been with the company for a while now and every year as convention approaches the rumors start flying about where Ambit Energy will expand next. Every year the rumors have been off, in many cases WAY off. Ambit Energyquite simply does not want to give away their first movers advantage by telegraphing their next move.
The good news is that Ambit Energy has demostrated an aggresive expansion strategy that is leading the industry. Ignite, our nearest competitor, was in business for more than 2 years prior to Ambit and has only recently expanded to Georgia. Zurvita is a newcomer to the field who sells or more accurately resells nearly every product under the sun. Zurvita claims to market energy in many more states but the reality is that they are just a reseller for MX Energy who is a reseller themselves in many states in which they do business. As you can imagine when you are reselling energy that is already being resold there is next to no residual income in the end. Because Zurvita is not an energy company, we do not consider them to be competitors.
There are many more states that Ambit can expand into over the next several years. Our experience says that they will expand on a state by state basis, prioritized on a “which is the next most profitable state” to go to next. You will notice that Ambit started with Texas, the truest free market for energy in the world. Ambit then expanded to New York then to Illinois which were respectively the next most profitable states to conduct business. In the mean time Ignite decided to open Georgia for natural gas, the logic behind that decision has yet to surface. Ambit Energy is also a licensed energy provider in Ohio and had intentions to open it up by now but the current state of deregulation in Ohio has not progressed sufficiently enough for Ambit to begin conducting business.
Where will Ambit go next? With near certainty we can tell you that Ambit Energy will continue it’s expansion within New York and Illinois so that we are maximizing our opportunity there. In Illinois this will most likely mean that the People’s gas territory will open next. In New York we will most likely see territories like Rochester, NYSEG and Hudson Valley open up in the near future. It would be great to say that this will all happen by Ambition 09 but that would be pushing it.
Regarding new states there have been plenty of rumors around the states (in no particular order of priority) of New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Conneticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Georgia, Maryland, Indiana and even California. One thing you may notice regarding deregulation is that more states are deregulated for gas than electricity and this is simply due to the fact that gas deregulated about 10 years before electricity did. Canada is also deregulated and is a very real possibility for expansion in the near future.
Here is a map of the US color coded by status of deregulation:
The thing you have to keep in mind regarding Ambit’s state by state expansion is that opening up a new state for Ambit Energy is like most companies opening up a new country. The logistics, IT, support staff and groundwork are extensive and the barriers to entry are extremely high. This is both a good and a bad problem. It is good because Ambit is the clear leader in the network marketing based retailing of electricity and natural gas and for another company to follow what we have done will be extremely tough. It is bad for the obvious reason that of course we would love to have every deregulated state to work with.
Which state will be next you will likely not know until we know. One thing we do know is that energy deregulation is too big of an opportunity to miss. Maximize the opportunity at hand, very few people have the good fortune of even knowing about an opportunity as big as Ambit and energy deregulation at this stage of the game. Ten years from now Ambit Energy will have done plenty of expanding. The consultants who take advantage timing and build their networks now will get the lions share of the expansion markets to come.
Of course you will want to be at Ambition 2009 to hear all the big announcements regarding expansion territories and much much more. The info and opinions expressed in this post are not that of Ambit Energy and should not be taken as gospel. The goal with this post was to give you a better understanding as to the complexities of the expansion process, and to this end we hope to have succeeded.
Yours in success,
Shawn Cornett
Ambit Energy Founding Executive Consultant
Top 20 Income Earner
Six Time 5-Star Club Qualifier
Pacesetter, Powersurge & Pure Energy Award Winner
(210)232-6032
ambitpros@gmail.com
