Shine On

Lawn & Landscape magazine talked to three landscape lighting contractors about trends in this niche market, and how other businesses can take a page from their book. Through the use of LEDs, knowing how to network and even focusing on palm trees, they’ve found bright spots with lights.

Leading with LEDs
For Robert Shomer to win the lighting job at a large development in south Florida, he first had to win over the homeowner’s association with his LED plan.

Shomer, president and CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Nightscapers, had suggested the low-wattage LED lights instead of the more-traditional halogen system because the project was big, and the cost savings would be high. He needed almost 400 fixtures to light the neighborhood’s six entrances and the community park, but the association wasn’t keen on it.

He says a halogen lighting system would have used 15,000 watts; the LED system uses 3,900. The change meant a cost savings of $9,000 in the first year for the association.

“The board immediately appreciated the quality of the fixtures and the light output, and were completely convinced once we showed them how much money they’d save over time,” he says.

After four years in business, Nightscapers does about $500,000 in annual revenue and has five employees. The bulk of their business is landscape lighting – 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial – and they do some holiday lighting in the winter months.

Shomer has used Kichler Lighting products almost exclusively since the middle of last year. He says they have an LED product that doesn’t have the bluish tint of earlier models and is priced competitively with halogens.

“In the past, the color hasn’t been good,” he says. “It was too bluish. It just didn’t look right on landscape lighting.”
In fact, he first became involved with Kichler when he used some of their brass halogen fixtures. But, it wasn’t until the company started producing its LED lights that he moved the majority of his business to them.

He says one of the reasons he likes working with Kichler is that they are easy to deal with and have a good warrantee. “With Kichler, you go get a replacement part and there’s never a question asked about what the problem is. They replace it,” he says. “To me, as a contractor, that’s extremely important. I’ve had companies take two months to get back to me with a replacement part. A client doesn’t tolerate that – they want you to fix it.”
 

Bright ideas
As a one-man, niche operation, Mountain View, Calif.-based Northern Lights can get swamped.
Owner Jim Calhoun acts as the chief installer, designer, technician and marketer at the low-voltage lighting company, and so must make his sales efforts worthwhile.

“It’s a very specialized, niche market. It’s hard for people to make a living doing this kind of work,” Calhoun says. “It’s hard to get the kind of volume they need to make a living.”

But he has a leg up: His wife, Peggy, works as a high-end landscape designer, and through her contacts, he’s developed his own network of contractors and other designers who feed him a few jobs each during the year.
Overall, he’ll do about 20 jobs a year. Last year, he made about $80,000 in profit, and this year is on track to net $100,000.

“It’s lucrative, because I don’t work five days a week eight hours a day,” Calhoun says. “There’s a lot of interaction off-line and after hours and through e-mail. When you’re chief cook and bottle washer … billing, purchasing, administrative, everything rolled into one, it’s just nonstop.”

Northern Lights, in business for seven years, uses FX Luminaire lights. Calhoun says he likes their durability and the support he receives from the company.

Demonstrations also help him close sales. He goes out to a clients’ homes at night, sets up some temporary lights, and then stands with them as he flips the switch. “They see dark, then light. Usually that’s followed by a little bit of silence then a ‘Wow,’” Calhoun says. “I am not a hard-pressure salesman. If you do it right, the lights will sell themselves.”
 

Perfect palms
Steve Middleton has found profit in palm trees.

Middleton, president of Treasure Coast Landscape Lighting in Hobe Sound, Fla., looks at the lighting of his clients’ palm trees like a painter looks at a canvas.

“You’re constantly updating your portrait,” he says. “It’s not as exciting or as sexy to the client. But if it’s not installed properly, it’s just not going to work.”

Palms provide their own challenges and opportunities, he says. A young tree – narrow and short – needs a different type of bulb than a larger, more mature tree. And as the trees grow, their lighting requirements change, which means Middleton has to come out regularly to replace bulbs.

Standard 120-volt installations just don’t do the trees justice, he says.

“You need to get close to the palm,” he says. “Light is shining at the trunk. It doesn’t graze and give shadows to the trunk itself, and it certainly doesn’t light the canopy.”

Treasure Coast, founded six years ago, does mostly residential work and almost exclusively uses Cast Lighting products.

Middleton says the Cast system allows him to use many different kinds of bulbs in the same fixture, saving time on installations and repairs. The lights also use a hub-based wiring system, which gives each fixture a consistent voltage level.

“You have to measure the voltage very carefully when you lay these jobs out,” he says.

Middleton says the bronze fixtures can withstand the salt and hard water of the south Florida climate. And the glass is Pyrex, which he can clean easily and doesn’t get etched. He says: “With all the salt in the air, it’s important that these fixtures are durable.”

The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape. Reach him at cbowen@gie.net.