LED Lighting Professionals: A New Group of American Entrepreneurs

LED Lighting is, as an industry, a young field; and to be a successful LED Lighting Professional, you have to think of yourself as an American Entrepreneur. The technology is ever improving, and new and better outdoor lighting products are being built every day.

So, why are you an American Entrepreneur and not just a person who designs lights? Some people start a business with the idea that they will be a solo flyer; just one person who runs the show, whatever the show may be. LED Lighting is one of those businesses where that can be possible but with that model, there is no room for growth.

Perhaps a good analogy would be a guy who likes to fish who then buys a small fishing boat to charter out for fishing trips. That’s a nice little business, but unless you dream of bigger boats, in fact, fleets of boats, shipmates, employees, a website where people can log in and choose their boat, date, time and fishing desires, you’re just a guy on a boat.

The Difference Between Making a Living and Making a Fortune:

You can make a living as an LED lighting designer, especially if you take the time and effort to become good at lighting installations, but you can also make a large fortune if you decide to take those next steps to level up and become the next American Entrepreneur.

To do that, you need to dream big. You need to be ready to hire staff, put together crews, obtain sales and marketing personnel and find a good project manager. In the beginning, you may have to wear all those hats but eventually, you will choose the hats that don’t fit you well and you’ll eventually want to place those hats on someone else’s head.

Are you very organized and detail oriented? Maybe you’ll wear the project management hat for a very long time. Do you have the tenacity and charm to be a salesperson? Do you enjoy meeting the new potential clients and making the sale; closing the deal? If that feels right to you, you may be the main salesperson for the company long term. If you hate it, hire someone that loves it and is damn good at it. Lots of people will work on commission if the numbers are worth working for.

Whatever it is that you do best, stick with that for a while and start to hand over the tasks that aren’t suited to you and are wearing you down. No matter what, think big and know that you can grow your lighting business.

Finding a Million Dollar Mentor:

Part of being more than a guy with a boat is mentoring. One of the best adages ever is, you don’t know what you don’t know. No one goes into any business knowing everything. Believe it or not, there are people in the LED Lighting field, and in most fields, who are willing and available to share their knowledge and years of experience. Mentors give back, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because they gain from doing so as well. Keeping your knowledge to yourself helps no one.

At Garden Light LED in Tampa, Florida, we have built a mentoring program we’re very proud of  by partnering with those looking for outdoor lighting inventory and distribution opportunities. Many seasoned lighting professionals, work with our mentees in hands-on, real-life situations. Our mentors, take their mentees out on sales calls, lighting demos, and installs. If you take part in this program, you’re going to get your hands dirty learning how to install complicated, 100 – 200 light systems. You’re going to see the look on the faces of the potential clients when a hundred top-quality led fixtures, in various colors, illuminate their architecture, including landscapes, pools, walkways, decks and even hardscape driveways with led lighting products that your competitors cant provide. You’re going to be there from the sales pitch to the contracts, the demo to the install and you will walk away from what is essentially a hard-core LED lighting boot camp having learned more than you would have ever imagined you could learn in a short period of time to create the best lighting designs your market has scene.

No matter what you do, if you want to be a LED Lighting Design American Entrepreneur, find a mentoring program that suits you and take it seriously.

If you want to learn more about the Garden Light LED mentoring program and about becoming one of our Master Dealers please contact us today.