Lessons From My Grandfather
My grandfather was a key figure in my life. He instilled in me a hard work ethic, often enlisting my siblings and me to help with heavy-duty cleaning chores at his house. He also taught me many life lessons. As a child, one lesson he tried to drive home with my siblings and me was: let your yes be yes and your no be no. It sounds so simple, right? Apparently a lot of business people didn't have someone like my grandfather to teach them about integrity, because I see a lack of it in the business world today. However, I'm thankful for my grandfather's lesson. I attribute my success in the lighting industry to always trying to do right by my customers. Whenever I tell my customers yes or no, I mean it.
As I expanded from my installation business (today, Dayloom) into designing and manufacturing luminaires through the formation of Sterling Lighting, I tried to follow this same, simple principle in all our dealings. I want to be upfront with my customers and tell them how it is.
So when a manufacturer offers a low-quality product at a cheap price, I couldn't care less. Many manufacturers have been doing this for years. While it may save money in the short term, I think it's a dangerous practice to buy from manufacturers who market their products to the general public.
Imagine going out and giving an estimate for a 100-light system. If your estimate includes your design time, proper installation and follow-up service, one would expect the cost to be over $20,000. However, most of your customers aren't savvy enough to understand that product costs should be 20–30% of the overall expense. So while they're researching landscape lighting online, ads from a manufacturer or direct lighting store lure them into buying 100 fixtures for a fraction of that. Suddenly, you've become a commodity. Instead of your customer relying on your knowledge and expertise, you've simply become labor. It might have saved them a few bucks, but they've traded that for a quality lighting system.
A company that sells its products to homeowners is offering a DIY solution, not a professional-grade service. If you're a professional lighting company and you're using a product like this, you do so at your own peril. You're helping commoditize the industry.
At Sterling Lighting, our focus is to enhance the livelihood of other lighting professionals. I know how difficult this business can be. I've spent many evenings away from my family, adjusting a fixture to make certain everything we installed was perfect. The last thing we want to do is commoditize your efforts and disrespect your expertise. We're here to help you thrive, and one of the ways we do this is by having integrity and making the choice to sell only to lighting professionals.
Are you a lighting professional? Sign up for Sterling's contractor perks to get pro pricing and support on your next project.
About the author: Patrick Harders, LC, is co-founder and CEO of Sterling Lighting and founder and principal lighting designer of Dayloom. He has more than 25 years of experience designing and installing outdoor lighting, and he's one of only five landscape lighting designers in North America with Lighting Certified (LC) accreditation. His projects have won multiple international lighting awards, including landscape lighting winners in 2018 and 2021, and he leads design of Sterling's luminaires.
