December 12, 2023 • 34 mins
If you noticed there was no LWL episode last week, it is because I was mid-implementation of NetSuite with not an ounce of energy to spare. Listen now for an update on our process PLUS a great listener tip that I elaborate on to drive add-on services (and a much needed margin boost and competitive advantage) for your showroom. What add-ons does your showroom provide? Let me know!
Thank you to Zastro for sponsoring this episode of Lighting with Lisa!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to another episode ofLighting with Lisa, the Lighting
Industries podcast, sponsoredthis week again by Zastro.
Stay tuned for the middle ofthe episode for more on Zastro
and the solutions that they canoffer for your lighting business
(00:24):
.
Welcome again.
So if you were paying attention, you might have noticed that
there was no episode last week.
I even had every intention inthe world of making a post that
there wasn't going to be anepisode when I realized I had
flat run out of time to do it.
(00:45):
But I didn't even have time forthat.
So if you did notice there wasno podcast last week, I
apologize for not making itclear.
I wasn't quite expecting thatoutcome, but it happened.
So here's the reason for it.
On December 1st we had ourNetSuite implementation.
(01:08):
You know, light switch off onone platform, light switch on on
the other, and that's a lot ofwork.
So I had told everyonelistening to the podcast that
this was coming.
Just full disclosure.
Our implementation partner onNetSuite is Zastro, the sponsor
(01:28):
of this podcast.
We had already planned for themto be the sponsor of this
podcast before I even knew I wasgoing to be talking about this,
just timing being what it is.
So it was a big change.
We're still learning, we'restill tweaking.
(01:49):
It's been, overall, a, as onemight expect, a challenging
experience.
I only almost cried once, maybetwice, but I did almost cry and
it has been just such alearning experience, or, and you
(02:10):
know what?
Let me rephrase that I knew itwas going to be tough, but what
I realized is yet again and I'vetalked about it on this podcast
before and here, just fulldisclosure we're all apt to do
these same things.
You have been potentially usingyour operating system for many
(02:32):
years and it just becomes likesecond nature to you, like, even
when there's flaws in thesystem, you know what the flaws
are and you know how to workaround them, you know how to fix
them, you learn to live with it.
And then you get on a newsystem and it's all shiny and
glossy and has all this funbells and whistles and it's all
(02:53):
amazing.
But then you realize, like veryfrustratingly, that you don't
actually know how to fixanything, or you don't know even
how to do some basic processes,and it's like incredibly
frustrating.
So, yeah, that's probably beenlike my biggest takeaway from
this whole experience.
(03:15):
I anticipated the work, Ianticipated the discomfort.
I anticipated a lot about this.
What I didn't anticipate, Ithink, was my own shortcomings
in how ingrained our operationsin the old system have become to
me and how hard it is to stopthinking that way and to start
(03:40):
thinking a new way.
And to be clear, the process isstill very similar to what we
were doing.
There have been a lot ofcustomizations made to the
NetSuite platform to work theway my business works.
So it's not that everything isbrand new, like, yeah, paperwork
(04:00):
looks different, just some ofthe linear ABC steps of creating
an order and shipping an order.
Some of that is slightlydifferent but it gets you to the
same end result as what we hadbefore.
But I just truly underestimatedhow ingrained our routines had
(04:22):
become and I was almost shockedat how difficult that was.
Not even day one.
Like day one was fine because,well, it was very stressful, but
day one it was like I expectedall the new but it was like by
day seven, like a week in, whereI kind of got in the hang of
(04:44):
things.
But then it really hit me howused to the old system I was.
And, of course, like I said, Ithink this was even a topic on
the podcast even just a coupleweeks ago, and I'm almost
ashamed that I didn't listen tomy own self, but it is a thing
when I was talking about socialmedia and how we do the same
things over and over for noresult and like why do we keep
(05:07):
doing that?
Like it in and you need to liketake a step back and look at
things.
This is all just like a bigreminder of you can seriously
get in a rut of doing the samething day in, day out, the same
way.
You've always done it andthere's comfort in that, there's
(05:29):
reliability in that.
But as business owners andbusiness managers, it's really
worth a step back to say am Ijust doing this because it's
comfortable and easy or am Idoing it because it is the best
thing for my business?
So this has been a trueexperience in broadening
(05:54):
horizons, stepping outside thecomfort zone, trying to just
power through and know that whatI'm doing is the best choice
for my business long term,dragging my staff along with me.
They have all been amazing inthis.
We've had definitely somechallenging moments together,
(06:18):
but by and large, I really couldnot be more proud of how
they're adapting and learningand just adjusting as quickly as
they possibly can.
So that's been like a hugebenefit that they're doing
everything they can to get onboard and be supportive.
So that's been awesome.
(06:39):
But yeah, it's been real, realstrenuous.
But all that said, at the endof the day, if you want my like
top level, take on making a bigbusiness change like this.
If you've evaluated your optionsand you know what you're
(07:02):
currently doing in terms of XYZlike this could be any business
process or operation you havegoing on.
If you've evaluated the optionsand you know that what you're
doing right now isn't quiteworking for you, if it's not
really serving you as the owneror manager, if it's not really
serving your staff, if it's notreally providing the information
(07:27):
and everything that you need,but you've become comfortable
with it, I would reallyencourage you to take a harder
look at that and considerpushing yourself out of your
comfort zone.
I will again have to reportback on this thought and I
definitely will.
What I expect I'm going to findis that in about six months, I
(07:53):
will have become fully adjustedto the system.
All of the little tweaks thatwe're making now and the tweaks
that we're gonna continue tomake over the next few months to
make sure everything is likethe way my business needs it to
be.
I think by the time that's doneand I'm getting some real
intelligent reporting out of mysystem, I'm gonna be so, so
(08:15):
happy for this week ofdiscomfort I lived through, for
the end result, and that wasreally the reason we did this.
It's been a great process in alot of ways.
It's been so uncomfortable Ican't even tell you how many
times it was just like I don'treally have like restless leg
(08:38):
whatever, but I cannot tell youhow many times I caught my foot
bouncing on the floor out ofjust like pure anxiety.
You know, I definitely I own upto it everywhere.
I definitely have a type Apersonality.
I definitely liked for thingsto be in their place and to
everything to be workingproperly or I don't know,
(09:01):
control, right, let's just callit as I like to have like
control or be able to, you know,follow something through.
So living through this week oflike not really being able to do
that and like tweaking everyday and making things a little
bit better every day, it hasbeen eye-opening.
I'm super glad I lived throughit.
(09:22):
I'm super happy with the result.
As of now Again, I think inlike six months I'll be even
happier with the result.
But yeah, this has been anexperience.
So that's why there was nopodcast last week.
I was anticipating last weekendto have a little bit of time to
(09:43):
record, but with all of ourtraining and trying to make sure
everybody was comfortable, Ijust ran out of hours.
In the day there was a bigfootball game I had to watch,
you know.
So not that the outcome of thatfootball game was so amazing,
but it just was.
Like I needed a mental break.
(10:03):
Kind of got to be the bottomline, and I know everyone
listening to this can appreciatethat need for like I just need
to shut my brain off because I'mso overwhelmed.
So that's why there was noepisode last week.
But just to give you a briefrecap of my experience it's
going well.
I really am proud of where weare, even just after a week, and
(10:28):
I know it's going to get betterand better from here.
So, yeah, so there's that.
So let me move on to talkdirectly about our sponsor.
And then the back half of thisepisode is a suggestion from a
listener.
I'm super excited to talk aboutit as it relates to margins and
(10:49):
having an installer on yourstaff for the lighting showroom.
So stay tuned after this adbreak for that, because we have
some really good insights, Ithink so.
As I mentioned, this episode issponsored by Zastro, which is
the firm that I hired to help mewith my Oracle NetSuite
(11:10):
implementation and developmentand production whatever the
right word is.
Apologies to Dean and team forwhatever I might be saying wrong
on that.
So moving to NetSuite, as I justtalked about, has been a
process.
All of you lighting showroomsstart looking at the email
(11:30):
address your orderacknowledgments are coming from.
You're going to be stunned ifyou start paying attention how
many of them are from NetSuite.
And I can tell you there'sreally good reasons for that the
ability to have a huge pictureof your business, the ability
(11:51):
even a small business right Likeyou could have a huge picture
of a small business.
Like you don't have to be amajor company.
Like you don't have to beselling tens of millions of
dollars a year in product forthis platform to be beneficial
to you.
The NetSuite platform gives youso much ability to link things
(12:11):
together and therefore do likereverse tracking and look up and
finding out truly what isimpacting your business and it's
almost I'm not going to sayinfinitely customizable, but
it's extremely customizable totrigger the things that mean the
(12:31):
most to you and your business.
So for every business thatmight be different.
One of the biggest things forme was to have a absolute do not
pass go trigger on new customerrecords of how did you land in
my lighting showroom where youwere referred by a builder, a
friend.
Did you just happen by on thestreet, but how did you end up
(12:53):
in my business?
Because we have historicallyhad a hard time allocating our
marketing dollars appropriately.
So getting an answer to thisquestion on every customer
record that we can go back andtrack over time and find out how
people are finding us, it'sthere, it's built in and any
other customization almost thatyou can dream of it can be built
(13:16):
.
It's the net suite is fullyautomated integration with
lights America via Zastro'sIlluminate program.
Zastro has already done thework to build out this
integration with lights America.
It works beautifully.
All they had to do was turn iton for us done so.
(13:38):
It's definitely worth checkingout.
You can be so much moreefficient.
Net suite is the market leadingcloud ERP software.
There's just no bones about it.
It is what it is Inventorymanagement, job management,
e-commerce, integration,dashboards of metrics, of almost
anything you want.
(13:59):
It truly is a all encompassingsystem.
You add your payroll in.
I mean you have your deliverycalendars, anything that your
business required to operate.
You can make this happen andit's all in one place.
It's all in the cloud.
(14:19):
So if you have any interest,there's a few ways to reach out
to Zastro.
First of all, they're going tobe at light ofation in January
in the spectrum area.
So if you're up on I think it'sthe fourth floor in the
spectrum, look for the Zastrobooth of Dean and his team.
If you want to reach out tothem before then, please do.
(14:40):
They can demo the product foryou at light ofation or you can
get a demo set up before then.
So if you live west of theMississippi River, your contact
is Gail and you can reach her atgail at Zastrocom, gail at
Zastrocom.
And if you're east of theMississippi, you want to reach
out to Thomas Thomas atZastrocom.
(15:03):
And if you let them know thatyou're a lighting with Lisa
listener, you get $500 off yourpurchase If you sign up for a
demo.
If you proceed with the program, you're going to get $500 off
your purchase just for being alighting with Lisa listener.
So please do that and thank you, zastro.
(15:25):
Okay, here's the install bit.
Okay, so I got this email from alistener and I thought it was
super interesting.
We talked, we had a discourseabout several things, but the
thing that popped up to the topof my radar screen was her
question about how many otherlighting showrooms are offering
(15:45):
installation as a component ofwhat you do, as a service
provided to your customers.
Some lighting showrooms, Ibelieve, that have a stronger
electrical tie have probablybeen doing this for a very long
time.
I know some lighting showroomsdo a lot of business in like
(16:06):
fixture repairs or lamp repairsor doing some like custom work
in that field, in that part ofthe business, but the idea of
hiring an installer or having aninstaller on staff could be a
bit overwhelming.
I know it would be for me if Ididn't happen to be married to
(16:27):
an electrician, so I asked saidelectrician what his thoughts
were on this.
Again, at my lighting showroomin the ION originally started
over 25 years ago as a divisionof an electrical contracting
company, and having installs hasalways been kind of a part of
(16:50):
what we do.
We've like, we've done it,we've not done it, we've done it
, we've not done it.
It's always been kind of achallenge of not wanting to
compete with electricians likewe want them to.
We want electricians to feelcomfortable in shopping with us
and referring customers to usand we don't want them to feel
like we're taking any of theirbusiness.
(17:12):
But many times electricalcontractors are not terribly
interested in the quick, likeone off jobs of like just going
to a home and what we call in mybusiness fixture swap.
They would be more interestedin like a bigger all day project
or half a day project.
(17:33):
Just doing a quick fixture swapisn't necessarily that exciting
to most electricians.
But of course if you have agreat relationship with an
electrician who loves to do thatkind of work, I would
definitely encourage keepingthat and not stepping on any
toes.
But in some market areas, kindof like my own right now,
(17:56):
there's so much constructiongoing on in this part of the
world, even with like thingsslowing down.
There's so much industrialdevelopment in Savannah Georgia
right now that electricians arebasically full time consumed
with these bigger commercial,industrial, residential product
(18:16):
projects that getting a greatservice electrician in our part
of the world is really hardright now they're just not out
there.
Or if you do have one that youhave a relationship with, you
might have to wait a really longtime till they can come out to
your home to do an install.
So there is a place forlighting showrooms to have an
(18:38):
installer on staff to be able tohandle this kind of service
work.
So it's just definitelysomething to consider.
Now, of course, I do have togive a big asterisk here for
legal ease, but remember thatelectrical codes are national
but also have local regulations.
(19:00):
So I am speaking, I'm about togive some insight on what you
need to look for with aninstaller and what they should
and shouldn't do, but rememberyou need to check your own local
regulations first.
Okay, so this is just just mydisclaimer right here.
So I did ask Frank, my husband,about what, when he was thinking
(19:21):
about bringing one of hiselectricians on staff at pace
lighting, and when he set up ourkind of rules of what we will
and will not do, what was hethinking?
What?
What code did he have in mind?
You know like, because then youget into whole like permitting
thing.
So the way we operate is just,with fixture swaps, what we call
(19:42):
a fixture swap.
We have a ceiling heightrestriction.
We won't do anything onceilings taller than 12 feet for
a variety of safety reasonswith ladders, and you're just
getting into a whole other worldwhen you're on the like much
higher ceilings.
So your installer can do fixtureswaps when there is no load
(20:04):
being added to a circuit.
So if you're taking down afixture with two so Frank didn't
do a lot much electrical in LEDworld so when he explained it
he said if you're taking down afixture with two 60 watt lamps
and replacing it with anotherfixture that is 120 watts or
less, that can be done by aninstaller with no permits
(20:26):
required.
So that's really sort of likethe key there.
As long as you're not upgradingthe usage of the circuit, then
you're really good to go withdoing like an installer and
fixture swaps.
If it's anything past that,anything else would need to be
done by a fully licensedelectrician or or you know,
(20:50):
potentially would need some sortof permit.
And that's kind of the thingwhere local regulations can be
much different, like myelectrical inspections
department might have totallydifferent requirements about
some things than yours.
So Frank's advice to all of usand it's what we follow and have
never had any issue is thatDoing these easy fixture swaps
(21:13):
or moving replace with you knownothing.
That's expanding the load on acircuit is pretty easy for any
Um lighting showroom to be ableto do and is really where
there's an opportunity topotentially hire somebody to
offer that service.
So we do have an installer onstaff.
He's kind of does a bunch ofstuff for us.
(21:35):
He does all of our installs inour showroom, he does some
warehouse work, he does somedeliveries and he also does
installs for us.
So we don't have enoughinstallation work for that to be
his sole job, but he does do alot of other task force for us
around the store and it reallyworks out very well.
(21:55):
Um, he's gotten to be so adeptat hanging residential light
fixtures because of our showroomthat he has no problem in
customers homes.
He was an electrician before hecame to work for us as well, um
, but I would say that's also akey if you're looking to hire an
installer, um, definitelysomebody that is an electrician,
(22:15):
has electrical experience, um,but one that's really
comfortable working inresidences and is really
comfortable with the sometimesfussy nature of um like a
lighting, so, like our installer, is very, very used to hanging
a chandelier and then you knowdraping, you know 500, what
(22:41):
appears bead strands or crystalstrands, like he just has that
touch needed for dressing out achandelier and making it look
perfect.
Um, so he's very focused on thedetails of residential lighting
and that makes our installs gomuch better because he's not
just trying to Like a typicalelectrical contractor you might
(23:02):
hire to come do a job like thisin your home.
They're probably just trying tolike get in and out so quick so
they can get on to the next job.
Um, that they're not as focusedon the details.
But our installer he wants toget in there, get that fixture
hung and make sure it looks asperfect as he knows it can,
because he does so much hangingin our showroom and we fuss in
(23:25):
the showroom to make all thedisplays look perfect and he
carries that same mindset intoour customers homes and it works
very well.
He gets so many compliments.
It's ridiculous.
It's truly great as a businessowner, but it's like, oh yeah,
they love him yet again.
Of course they do, but he'sreally good at this fine touch
(23:46):
in residential lighting and sothat for us has been a key to
having a great installer andjust like some food for thought
as to why you might considertaking this on Like, because it
does sound like liability andinsurance and another, another
salary to pay.
But if you can work it whereyou can like, mix the job in
(24:09):
with other things and then, ofcourse, pretty heavily promote
that you have an installer onstaff, um, it really can work
great.
And then here's the other foodfor thought.
Right, like it is hard as alighting showroom, given all of
the ins and outs of our industry, it's hard to make up margin.
(24:33):
Right Like it's hard to makemargin appear out of nowhere
when we are limited by so manyother XYZ factors.
But having an installationcomponent or a fixture repair
component has really anopportunity to make margin and
(24:54):
is something that, like, theinternet can't offer.
But you can because you are alocal business of, I was going
to say, real people, but theinternet is all, like, powered
by real people.
Well, I don't know AI now, butbut like the internet, these are
businesses that have real humanbeing employees.
The point being, you have alocal business with a face and
(25:18):
staff, like right there, in thesame town and place these
customers are living in.
So this is really an extrabenefit you can offer.
So if the installer thingdoesn't like jive with you,
there's also like you could alsotake like a designer a
component to this and like Kindof develop a similar concept
around having like a designer onstaff that really can be hired
(25:42):
out to go to homes to do a bunchof design work.
There's just again, you do needto be careful not to compete
with people that you also wantto be your customers, and I just
kind of threw that designerthing off the top of my head.
But there is a way to have addon services like this, like an
installer, design, whatever thecase may be that bring
(26:05):
additional income to yourbusiness that customers are not
going to be able to get off theinternet.
You have the advantage of alocal presence with your brick
and mortar business and ratherthan just try to compete on
price because the price is whatit is, I do really think it's
(26:25):
leveraging these opportunitiesof expertise, of installers, of
local, your local presence.
That is really where you'regoing to get extra benefit.
So one other thing that camethrough in this email that I
wanted to just share because itit it just really resonated with
(26:48):
me.
So she said.
I'm just going to read directlyfrom the email.
A very smart business persontold me the best thing from his
perspective, a verticalintegration model for business
is the best option when you arecompeting on price for products,
add on service and you can domore with each client.
(27:09):
So and then she said and Idon't have this statistic
independently verified, but itdoesn't, you know, doesn't raise
any red flags to me she saidthis is especially important to
think about, based on the factthat people only buy lighting on
average about every seven yearsor so.
So getting as much business aspossible with each client is
(27:31):
vital.
I would almost say every sevenyears is like that's a lot.
Have you made me pick?
I'd say every 10 years, maybe,but you understand, like it's
not, like it's not clothing.
People usually buy clothingmultiple times a year.
There's, there's just so manyother consumable products in our
(27:54):
world that we buy morefrequently.
Hardwired lighting and fans arenot things that we all
typically buy that often.
You know you think aboutyourself.
Even if you own or manage alighting business, probably at
first, when you move into a newhome or space, you, you add new
lighting, you add new fans, butdo you often go back and change
(28:16):
them out.
Maybe some of us do, but youknow I have some places in my
home where the ceilings areobnoxiously high and vaulted
because it's an A frame house.
So whatever I picked to go upthere when we moved in, it's
probably going to stay there fora while unless it breaks.
And that's me who loves thisand would probably swap out
(28:36):
every light fixture in my homeon a yearly basis if I could
manage to do so.
So people that aren't lightingnerds like myself or you,
listening, you know they're notbuying nearest frequently.
So this vertical integrationcomponent, it really does have
some benefit for lightingshowrooms and you could really
(28:59):
take that off in any number ofdirections.
I know like I don't want tocompete with our vendors either
on like supplying our ownproduct, but there are different
ways this vertical integrationpiece can look for your business
.
You know there isn't like acarbon copy model to follow here
, but there is a lot of, I think, interesting concepts and
(29:23):
things to think about in that,in thinking about how can you
make your business morevertically integrated, because
competing on price is it'sreally just kind of a non
starter in our industry and it'snot really needed in a lot of
cases, like the pricing of theproducts we sell is very
(29:43):
competitive, there's just not alot you can do there, right.
So we need to think about otherways to boost our bottom lines
and you know we've talked aboutsome of them before on this
podcast with, like, making keypartnerships and inside
discounts and volume pricing andrebates, like that's all very,
(30:03):
very important.
But also maybe think aboutother ways using your brick and
mortar that you can also achieve, like similar goals with an
installer, some sort of designservice, lighting layout service
, a you know the of a recesslighting, whatever, a task
lighting, whatever some sort ofadd on service that you can
(30:27):
generate income off of.
That adds dollars to yourbottom line and capitalizes on
the things you already know howto do.
And this is where things mightget a little different based on
each different business, right.
So maybe you have a staff thatis just outstanding with task
lighting or tape lightinglayouts or getting the recess
(30:51):
lighting just right in a home.
Well, you should be monetizingthat, not just in the sales of
the recess lighting or theaccent lighting, but but in the
design service itself.
If you have somebody that, like, just loves electrical devices
and knows all the ins and outsof what to put in what location
(31:12):
and use an occupancy sensor inthe closet or the bathroom or
what you know like whatever thatperson kind of geeks out on.
That's a great thing to be ableto like, monetize and sell and
upsell your customers on andbrings in additional margin and
revenue for you as the businessowner.
So again, this thing is goingto look different for everybody.
(31:34):
The installer idea was just aconversation that this business
owner and I had, because we bothhave businesses that kind of
are structured in a similar waywith the electrical background.
But however your lightingshowroom came to be whether it
became from more of a like ahome goods type store, or if you
(31:57):
came from a designer place orwhatever it is whatever serves
the like core profile of yourbusiness I would really
encourage you to think about howyou might move to a more
vertical integration there andmonetize some of the things that
you might already be doing.
But you might also look toexpand upon and charge some sort
(32:21):
of fee, whether it's theinstall fee or a design fee or a
layout fee.
If you know what you're doingand you're an expert at it, you
can quickly get this part ofyour business going and growing.
Word of mouth and things likethis is just really tremendous.
And you know, for like ourcustomers that do opt to do the
(32:43):
installation service, I I'm notgoing to say we're definitely
not the cheapest installer intown.
I'm not trying to undercut anyof my electrician customers but
we are pretty responsive andquick to be able to come out and
get an install done, andsometimes that just makes all
the difference in the world.
I already have the installer onstaff so we deploy him whenever
(33:07):
he is requested and it worksout really, really well for us.
So just some food for thoughtthere.
What ideas do you have forboosting the bottom line of your
lighting showroom?
I would love to hear about them.
I can credit you or not.
Most of the listeners opt tosend me messages and want to
(33:27):
remain anonymous, and that istotally fine, but I love hearing
from you.
I love all your input.
I love all of your questions,no matter how large or small
they are.
They help inform things that Ican talk about on this podcast
and hopefully they help make usall better business owners in
our beloved lighting and fanindustry.
So email me, lisa, at lightingwith Lisa dot com.
(33:52):
I'm always on the lookout fornew sponsors and partners in the
podcast.
I've promised in 2024 thatwe're going to do interviews, so
I'm looking forward to bringingthat to to the podcast.
So please reach out to meanytime.
Lisa at lighting with Lisa dotcom.
Don't forget to reach out toour sponsor, zastro.
(34:15):
You can find them online Zastrodot com.
If you want to learn more aboutthe Illuminat program, it's
Zastro dot com.
Slash Illuminat.
It's definitely worth taking alook.
And don't forget, they'll be atlight ofation in January and
you can visit them then inperson.
Alright, everyone.
Thanks so much for listening.
Until next time, take care.
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to another episode ofLighting with Lisa, the Lighting
Industries podcast, sponsoredthis week again by Zastro.
Stay tuned for the middle ofthe episode for more on Zastro
and the solutions that they canoffer for your lighting business
(00:24):
.
Welcome again.
So if you were paying attention, you might have noticed that
there was no episode last week.
I even had every intention inthe world of making a post that
there wasn't going to be anepisode when I realized I had
flat run out of time to do it.
(00:45):
But I didn't even have time forthat.
So if you did notice there wasno podcast last week, I
apologize for not making itclear.
I wasn't quite expecting thatoutcome, but it happened.
So here's the reason for it.
On December 1st we had ourNetSuite implementation.
(01:08):
You know, light switch off onone platform, light switch on on
the other, and that's a lot ofwork.
So I had told everyonelistening to the podcast that
this was coming.
Just full disclosure.
Our implementation partner onNetSuite is Zastro, the sponsor
(01:28):
of this podcast.
We had already planned for themto be the sponsor of this
podcast before I even knew I wasgoing to be talking about this,
just timing being what it is.
So it was a big change.
We're still learning, we'restill tweaking.
(01:49):
It's been, overall, a, as onemight expect, a challenging
experience.
I only almost cried once, maybetwice, but I did almost cry and
it has been just such alearning experience, or, and you
(02:10):
know what?
Let me rephrase that I knew itwas going to be tough, but what
I realized is yet again and I'vetalked about it on this podcast
before and here, just fulldisclosure we're all apt to do
these same things.
You have been potentially usingyour operating system for many
(02:32):
years and it just becomes likesecond nature to you, like, even
when there's flaws in thesystem, you know what the flaws
are and you know how to workaround them, you know how to fix
them, you learn to live with it.
And then you get on a newsystem and it's all shiny and
glossy and has all this funbells and whistles and it's all
(02:53):
amazing.
But then you realize, like veryfrustratingly, that you don't
actually know how to fixanything, or you don't know even
how to do some basic processes,and it's like incredibly
frustrating.
So, yeah, that's probably beenlike my biggest takeaway from
this whole experience.
(03:15):
I anticipated the work, Ianticipated the discomfort.
I anticipated a lot about this.
What I didn't anticipate, Ithink, was my own shortcomings
in how ingrained our operationsin the old system have become to
me and how hard it is to stopthinking that way and to start
(03:40):
thinking a new way.
And to be clear, the process isstill very similar to what we
were doing.
There have been a lot ofcustomizations made to the
NetSuite platform to work theway my business works.
So it's not that everything isbrand new, like, yeah, paperwork
(04:00):
looks different, just some ofthe linear ABC steps of creating
an order and shipping an order.
Some of that is slightlydifferent but it gets you to the
same end result as what we hadbefore.
But I just truly underestimatedhow ingrained our routines had
(04:22):
become and I was almost shockedat how difficult that was.
Not even day one.
Like day one was fine because,well, it was very stressful, but
day one it was like I expectedall the new but it was like by
day seven, like a week in, whereI kind of got in the hang of
(04:44):
things.
But then it really hit me howused to the old system I was.
And, of course, like I said, Ithink this was even a topic on
the podcast even just a coupleweeks ago, and I'm almost
ashamed that I didn't listen tomy own self, but it is a thing
when I was talking about socialmedia and how we do the same
things over and over for noresult and like why do we keep
(05:07):
doing that?
Like it in and you need to liketake a step back and look at
things.
This is all just like a bigreminder of you can seriously
get in a rut of doing the samething day in, day out, the same
way.
You've always done it andthere's comfort in that, there's
(05:29):
reliability in that.
But as business owners andbusiness managers, it's really
worth a step back to say am Ijust doing this because it's
comfortable and easy or am Idoing it because it is the best
thing for my business?
So this has been a trueexperience in broadening
(05:54):
horizons, stepping outside thecomfort zone, trying to just
power through and know that whatI'm doing is the best choice
for my business long term,dragging my staff along with me.
They have all been amazing inthis.
We've had definitely somechallenging moments together,
(06:18):
but by and large, I really couldnot be more proud of how
they're adapting and learningand just adjusting as quickly as
they possibly can.
So that's been like a hugebenefit that they're doing
everything they can to get onboard and be supportive.
So that's been awesome.
(06:39):
But yeah, it's been real, realstrenuous.
But all that said, at the endof the day, if you want my like
top level, take on making a bigbusiness change like this.
If you've evaluated your optionsand you know what you're
(07:02):
currently doing in terms of XYZlike this could be any business
process or operation you havegoing on.
If you've evaluated the optionsand you know that what you're
doing right now isn't quiteworking for you, if it's not
really serving you as the owneror manager, if it's not really
serving your staff, if it's notreally providing the information
(07:27):
and everything that you need,but you've become comfortable
with it, I would reallyencourage you to take a harder
look at that and considerpushing yourself out of your
comfort zone.
I will again have to reportback on this thought and I
definitely will.
What I expect I'm going to findis that in about six months, I
(07:53):
will have become fully adjustedto the system.
All of the little tweaks thatwe're making now and the tweaks
that we're gonna continue tomake over the next few months to
make sure everything is likethe way my business needs it to
be.
I think by the time that's doneand I'm getting some real
intelligent reporting out of mysystem, I'm gonna be so, so
(08:15):
happy for this week ofdiscomfort I lived through, for
the end result, and that wasreally the reason we did this.
It's been a great process in alot of ways.
It's been so uncomfortable Ican't even tell you how many
times it was just like I don'treally have like restless leg
(08:38):
whatever, but I cannot tell youhow many times I caught my foot
bouncing on the floor out ofjust like pure anxiety.
You know, I definitely I own upto it everywhere.
I definitely have a type Apersonality.
I definitely liked for thingsto be in their place and to
everything to be workingproperly or I don't know,
(09:01):
control, right, let's just callit as I like to have like
control or be able to, you know,follow something through.
So living through this week oflike not really being able to do
that and like tweaking everyday and making things a little
bit better every day, it hasbeen eye-opening.
I'm super glad I lived throughit.
(09:22):
I'm super happy with the result.
As of now Again, I think inlike six months I'll be even
happier with the result.
But yeah, this has been anexperience.
So that's why there was nopodcast last week.
I was anticipating last weekendto have a little bit of time to
(09:43):
record, but with all of ourtraining and trying to make sure
everybody was comfortable, Ijust ran out of hours.
In the day there was a bigfootball game I had to watch,
you know.
So not that the outcome of thatfootball game was so amazing,
but it just was.
Like I needed a mental break.
(10:03):
Kind of got to be the bottomline, and I know everyone
listening to this can appreciatethat need for like I just need
to shut my brain off because I'mso overwhelmed.
So that's why there was noepisode last week.
But just to give you a briefrecap of my experience it's
going well.
I really am proud of where weare, even just after a week, and
(10:28):
I know it's going to get betterand better from here.
So, yeah, so there's that.
So let me move on to talkdirectly about our sponsor.
And then the back half of thisepisode is a suggestion from a
listener.
I'm super excited to talk aboutit as it relates to margins and
(10:49):
having an installer on yourstaff for the lighting showroom.
So stay tuned after this adbreak for that, because we have
some really good insights, Ithink so.
As I mentioned, this episode issponsored by Zastro, which is
the firm that I hired to help mewith my Oracle NetSuite
(11:10):
implementation and developmentand production whatever the
right word is.
Apologies to Dean and team forwhatever I might be saying wrong
on that.
So moving to NetSuite, as I justtalked about, has been a
process.
All of you lighting showroomsstart looking at the email
(11:30):
address your orderacknowledgments are coming from.
You're going to be stunned ifyou start paying attention how
many of them are from NetSuite.
And I can tell you there'sreally good reasons for that the
ability to have a huge pictureof your business, the ability
(11:51):
even a small business right Likeyou could have a huge picture
of a small business.
Like you don't have to be amajor company.
Like you don't have to beselling tens of millions of
dollars a year in product forthis platform to be beneficial
to you.
The NetSuite platform gives youso much ability to link things
(12:11):
together and therefore do likereverse tracking and look up and
finding out truly what isimpacting your business and it's
almost I'm not going to sayinfinitely customizable, but
it's extremely customizable totrigger the things that mean the
(12:31):
most to you and your business.
So for every business thatmight be different.
One of the biggest things forme was to have a absolute do not
pass go trigger on new customerrecords of how did you land in
my lighting showroom where youwere referred by a builder, a
friend.
Did you just happen by on thestreet, but how did you end up
(12:53):
in my business?
Because we have historicallyhad a hard time allocating our
marketing dollars appropriately.
So getting an answer to thisquestion on every customer
record that we can go back andtrack over time and find out how
people are finding us, it'sthere, it's built in and any
other customization almost thatyou can dream of it can be built
(13:16):
.
It's the net suite is fullyautomated integration with
lights America via Zastro'sIlluminate program.
Zastro has already done thework to build out this
integration with lights America.
It works beautifully.
All they had to do was turn iton for us done so.
(13:38):
It's definitely worth checkingout.
You can be so much moreefficient.
Net suite is the market leadingcloud ERP software.
There's just no bones about it.
It is what it is Inventorymanagement, job management,
e-commerce, integration,dashboards of metrics, of almost
anything you want.
(13:59):
It truly is a all encompassingsystem.
You add your payroll in.
I mean you have your deliverycalendars, anything that your
business required to operate.
You can make this happen andit's all in one place.
It's all in the cloud.
(14:19):
So if you have any interest,there's a few ways to reach out
to Zastro.
First of all, they're going tobe at light ofation in January
in the spectrum area.
So if you're up on I think it'sthe fourth floor in the
spectrum, look for the Zastrobooth of Dean and his team.
If you want to reach out tothem before then, please do.
(14:40):
They can demo the product foryou at light ofation or you can
get a demo set up before then.
So if you live west of theMississippi River, your contact
is Gail and you can reach her atgail at Zastrocom, gail at
Zastrocom.
And if you're east of theMississippi, you want to reach
out to Thomas Thomas atZastrocom.
(15:03):
And if you let them know thatyou're a lighting with Lisa
listener, you get $500 off yourpurchase If you sign up for a
demo.
If you proceed with the program, you're going to get $500 off
your purchase just for being alighting with Lisa listener.
So please do that and thank you, zastro.
(15:25):
Okay, here's the install bit.
Okay, so I got this email from alistener and I thought it was
super interesting.
We talked, we had a discourseabout several things, but the
thing that popped up to the topof my radar screen was her
question about how many otherlighting showrooms are offering
(15:45):
installation as a component ofwhat you do, as a service
provided to your customers.
Some lighting showrooms, Ibelieve, that have a stronger
electrical tie have probablybeen doing this for a very long
time.
I know some lighting showroomsdo a lot of business in like
(16:06):
fixture repairs or lamp repairsor doing some like custom work
in that field, in that part ofthe business, but the idea of
hiring an installer or having aninstaller on staff could be a
bit overwhelming.
I know it would be for me if Ididn't happen to be married to
(16:27):
an electrician, so I asked saidelectrician what his thoughts
were on this.
Again, at my lighting showroomin the ION originally started
over 25 years ago as a divisionof an electrical contracting
company, and having installs hasalways been kind of a part of
(16:50):
what we do.
We've like, we've done it,we've not done it, we've done it
, we've not done it.
It's always been kind of achallenge of not wanting to
compete with electricians likewe want them to.
We want electricians to feelcomfortable in shopping with us
and referring customers to usand we don't want them to feel
like we're taking any of theirbusiness.
(17:12):
But many times electricalcontractors are not terribly
interested in the quick, likeone off jobs of like just going
to a home and what we call in mybusiness fixture swap.
They would be more interestedin like a bigger all day project
or half a day project.
(17:33):
Just doing a quick fixture swapisn't necessarily that exciting
to most electricians.
But of course if you have agreat relationship with an
electrician who loves to do thatkind of work, I would
definitely encourage keepingthat and not stepping on any
toes.
But in some market areas, kindof like my own right now,
(17:56):
there's so much constructiongoing on in this part of the
world, even with like thingsslowing down.
There's so much industrialdevelopment in Savannah Georgia
right now that electricians arebasically full time consumed
with these bigger commercial,industrial, residential product
(18:16):
projects that getting a greatservice electrician in our part
of the world is really hardright now they're just not out
there.
Or if you do have one that youhave a relationship with, you
might have to wait a really longtime till they can come out to
your home to do an install.
So there is a place forlighting showrooms to have an
(18:38):
installer on staff to be able tohandle this kind of service
work.
So it's just definitelysomething to consider.
Now, of course, I do have togive a big asterisk here for
legal ease, but remember thatelectrical codes are national
but also have local regulations.
(19:00):
So I am speaking, I'm about togive some insight on what you
need to look for with aninstaller and what they should
and shouldn't do, but rememberyou need to check your own local
regulations first.
Okay, so this is just just mydisclaimer right here.
So I did ask Frank, my husband,about what, when he was thinking
(19:21):
about bringing one of hiselectricians on staff at pace
lighting, and when he set up ourkind of rules of what we will
and will not do, what was hethinking?
What?
What code did he have in mind?
You know like, because then youget into whole like permitting
thing.
So the way we operate is just,with fixture swaps, what we call
(19:42):
a fixture swap.
We have a ceiling heightrestriction.
We won't do anything onceilings taller than 12 feet for
a variety of safety reasonswith ladders, and you're just
getting into a whole other worldwhen you're on the like much
higher ceilings.
So your installer can do fixtureswaps when there is no load
(20:04):
being added to a circuit.
So if you're taking down afixture with two so Frank didn't
do a lot much electrical in LEDworld so when he explained it
he said if you're taking down afixture with two 60 watt lamps
and replacing it with anotherfixture that is 120 watts or
less, that can be done by aninstaller with no permits
(20:26):
required.
So that's really sort of likethe key there.
As long as you're not upgradingthe usage of the circuit, then
you're really good to go withdoing like an installer and
fixture swaps.
If it's anything past that,anything else would need to be
done by a fully licensedelectrician or or you know,
(20:50):
potentially would need some sortof permit.
And that's kind of the thingwhere local regulations can be
much different, like myelectrical inspections
department might have totallydifferent requirements about
some things than yours.
So Frank's advice to all of usand it's what we follow and have
never had any issue is thatDoing these easy fixture swaps
(21:13):
or moving replace with you knownothing.
That's expanding the load on acircuit is pretty easy for any
Um lighting showroom to be ableto do and is really where
there's an opportunity topotentially hire somebody to
offer that service.
So we do have an installer onstaff.
He's kind of does a bunch ofstuff for us.
(21:35):
He does all of our installs inour showroom, he does some
warehouse work, he does somedeliveries and he also does
installs for us.
So we don't have enoughinstallation work for that to be
his sole job, but he does do alot of other task force for us
around the store and it reallyworks out very well.
(21:55):
Um, he's gotten to be so adeptat hanging residential light
fixtures because of our showroomthat he has no problem in
customers homes.
He was an electrician before hecame to work for us as well, um
, but I would say that's also akey if you're looking to hire an
installer, um, definitelysomebody that is an electrician,
(22:15):
has electrical experience, um,but one that's really
comfortable working inresidences and is really
comfortable with the sometimesfussy nature of um like a
lighting, so, like our installer, is very, very used to hanging
a chandelier and then you knowdraping, you know 500, what
(22:41):
appears bead strands or crystalstrands, like he just has that
touch needed for dressing out achandelier and making it look
perfect.
Um, so he's very focused on thedetails of residential lighting
and that makes our installs gomuch better because he's not
just trying to Like a typicalelectrical contractor you might
(23:02):
hire to come do a job like thisin your home.
They're probably just trying tolike get in and out so quick so
they can get on to the next job.
Um, that they're not as focusedon the details.
But our installer he wants toget in there, get that fixture
hung and make sure it looks asperfect as he knows it can,
because he does so much hangingin our showroom and we fuss in
(23:25):
the showroom to make all thedisplays look perfect and he
carries that same mindset intoour customers homes and it works
very well.
He gets so many compliments.
It's ridiculous.
It's truly great as a businessowner, but it's like, oh yeah,
they love him yet again.
Of course they do, but he'sreally good at this fine touch
(23:46):
in residential lighting and sothat for us has been a key to
having a great installer andjust like some food for thought
as to why you might considertaking this on Like, because it
does sound like liability andinsurance and another, another
salary to pay.
But if you can work it whereyou can like, mix the job in
(24:09):
with other things and then, ofcourse, pretty heavily promote
that you have an installer onstaff, um, it really can work
great.
And then here's the other foodfor thought.
Right, like it is hard as alighting showroom, given all of
the ins and outs of our industry, it's hard to make up margin.
(24:33):
Right Like it's hard to makemargin appear out of nowhere
when we are limited by so manyother XYZ factors.
But having an installationcomponent or a fixture repair
component has really anopportunity to make margin and
(24:54):
is something that, like, theinternet can't offer.
But you can because you are alocal business of, I was going
to say, real people, but theinternet is all, like, powered
by real people.
Well, I don't know AI now, butbut like the internet, these are
businesses that have real humanbeing employees.
The point being, you have alocal business with a face and
(25:18):
staff, like right there, in thesame town and place these
customers are living in.
So this is really an extrabenefit you can offer.
So if the installer thingdoesn't like jive with you,
there's also like you could alsotake like a designer a
component to this and like Kindof develop a similar concept
around having like a designer onstaff that really can be hired
(25:42):
out to go to homes to do a bunchof design work.
There's just again, you do needto be careful not to compete
with people that you also wantto be your customers, and I just
kind of threw that designerthing off the top of my head.
But there is a way to have addon services like this, like an
installer, design, whatever thecase may be that bring
(26:05):
additional income to yourbusiness that customers are not
going to be able to get off theinternet.
You have the advantage of alocal presence with your brick
and mortar business and ratherthan just try to compete on
price because the price is whatit is, I do really think it's
(26:25):
leveraging these opportunitiesof expertise, of installers, of
local, your local presence.
That is really where you'regoing to get extra benefit.
So one other thing that camethrough in this email that I
wanted to just share because itit it just really resonated with
(26:48):
me.
So she said.
I'm just going to read directlyfrom the email.
A very smart business persontold me the best thing from his
perspective, a verticalintegration model for business
is the best option when you arecompeting on price for products,
add on service and you can domore with each client.
(27:09):
So and then she said and Idon't have this statistic
independently verified, but itdoesn't, you know, doesn't raise
any red flags to me she saidthis is especially important to
think about, based on the factthat people only buy lighting on
average about every seven yearsor so.
So getting as much business aspossible with each client is
(27:31):
vital.
I would almost say every sevenyears is like that's a lot.
Have you made me pick?
I'd say every 10 years, maybe,but you understand, like it's
not, like it's not clothing.
People usually buy clothingmultiple times a year.
There's, there's just so manyother consumable products in our
(27:54):
world that we buy morefrequently.
Hardwired lighting and fans arenot things that we all
typically buy that often.
You know you think aboutyourself.
Even if you own or manage alighting business, probably at
first, when you move into a newhome or space, you, you add new
lighting, you add new fans, butdo you often go back and change
(28:16):
them out.
Maybe some of us do, but youknow I have some places in my
home where the ceilings areobnoxiously high and vaulted
because it's an A frame house.
So whatever I picked to go upthere when we moved in, it's
probably going to stay there fora while unless it breaks.
And that's me who loves thisand would probably swap out
(28:36):
every light fixture in my homeon a yearly basis if I could
manage to do so.
So people that aren't lightingnerds like myself or you,
listening, you know they're notbuying nearest frequently.
So this vertical integrationcomponent, it really does have
some benefit for lightingshowrooms and you could really
(28:59):
take that off in any number ofdirections.
I know like I don't want tocompete with our vendors either
on like supplying our ownproduct, but there are different
ways this vertical integrationpiece can look for your business
.
You know there isn't like acarbon copy model to follow here
, but there is a lot of, I think, interesting concepts and
(29:23):
things to think about in that,in thinking about how can you
make your business morevertically integrated, because
competing on price is it'sreally just kind of a non
starter in our industry and it'snot really needed in a lot of
cases, like the pricing of theproducts we sell is very
(29:43):
competitive, there's just not alot you can do there, right.
So we need to think about otherways to boost our bottom lines
and you know we've talked aboutsome of them before on this
podcast with, like, making keypartnerships and inside
discounts and volume pricing andrebates, like that's all very,
(30:03):
very important.
But also maybe think aboutother ways using your brick and
mortar that you can also achieve, like similar goals with an
installer, some sort of designservice, lighting layout service
, a you know the of a recesslighting, whatever, a task
lighting, whatever some sort ofadd on service that you can
(30:27):
generate income off of.
That adds dollars to yourbottom line and capitalizes on
the things you already know howto do.
And this is where things mightget a little different based on
each different business, right.
So maybe you have a staff thatis just outstanding with task
lighting or tape lightinglayouts or getting the recess
(30:51):
lighting just right in a home.
Well, you should be monetizingthat, not just in the sales of
the recess lighting or theaccent lighting, but but in the
design service itself.
If you have somebody that, like, just loves electrical devices
and knows all the ins and outsof what to put in what location
(31:12):
and use an occupancy sensor inthe closet or the bathroom or
what you know like whatever thatperson kind of geeks out on.
That's a great thing to be ableto like, monetize and sell and
upsell your customers on andbrings in additional margin and
revenue for you as the businessowner.
So again, this thing is goingto look different for everybody.
(31:34):
The installer idea was just aconversation that this business
owner and I had, because we bothhave businesses that kind of
are structured in a similar waywith the electrical background.
But however your lightingshowroom came to be whether it
became from more of a like ahome goods type store, or if you
(31:57):
came from a designer place orwhatever it is whatever serves
the like core profile of yourbusiness I would really
encourage you to think about howyou might move to a more
vertical integration there andmonetize some of the things that
you might already be doing.
But you might also look toexpand upon and charge some sort
(32:21):
of fee, whether it's theinstall fee or a design fee or a
layout fee.
If you know what you're doingand you're an expert at it, you
can quickly get this part ofyour business going and growing.
Word of mouth and things likethis is just really tremendous.
And you know, for like ourcustomers that do opt to do the
(32:43):
installation service, I I'm notgoing to say we're definitely
not the cheapest installer intown.
I'm not trying to undercut anyof my electrician customers but
we are pretty responsive andquick to be able to come out and
get an install done, andsometimes that just makes all
the difference in the world.
I already have the installer onstaff so we deploy him whenever
(33:07):
he is requested and it worksout really, really well for us.
So just some food for thoughtthere.
What ideas do you have forboosting the bottom line of your
lighting showroom?
I would love to hear about them.
I can credit you or not.
Most of the listeners opt tosend me messages and want to
(33:27):
remain anonymous, and that istotally fine, but I love hearing
from you.
I love all your input.
I love all of your questions,no matter how large or small
they are.
They help inform things that Ican talk about on this podcast
and hopefully they help make usall better business owners in
our beloved lighting and fanindustry.
So email me, lisa, at lightingwith Lisa dot com.
(33:52):
I'm always on the lookout fornew sponsors and partners in the
podcast.
I've promised in 2024 thatwe're going to do interviews, so
I'm looking forward to bringingthat to to the podcast.
So please reach out to meanytime.
Lisa at lighting with Lisa dotcom.
Don't forget to reach out toour sponsor, zastro.
(34:15):
You can find them online Zastrodot com.
If you want to learn more aboutthe Illuminat program, it's
Zastro dot com.
Slash Illuminat.
It's definitely worth taking alook.
And don't forget, they'll be atlight ofation in January and
you can visit them then inperson.
Alright, everyone.
Thanks so much for listening.
Until next time, take care.
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