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Combining Artistry with Cutting-Edge Technology: A Worthy Convo with LUMI Outdoor
“Let your days be merry and bright…”
If you want to keep your days and night bright, LUMI Outdoor has you covered. From everyday lighting to holiday light displays that will make you the envy of the neighborhood, the folks at LUMI are known for their combination of artistry and cutting-edge technology.
On your website’s About Us page, you say you and your husband always wanted to start a business together. What did you both do before and what finally made you take the leap?
Yes! We’ve both always thought entrepreneurship was intriguing – the pride in building something that’s your own is an unmatched feeling and sense of accomplishment. One of the things we love about getting to work together is that Stephen and I have complementary skill sets; throughout his career, he’s held roles in supply chain, operations, sales, and financial planning and analysis in various industries (oil and gas, home building). I’ve worked for the same firm for almost 15 years and have a background in strategic human capital, risk management, management consulting, and compliance. I love that I get to spread my wings in our Fort Worth community to network and leverage resources like Tanglewood Moms, being guests on local podcasts, Google, and Yelp to execute our marketing and social media strategies.
You also describe yourselves as “light geeks”, which seems like a pretty niche interest to geek out on. How did that come about?
Simply put, we love lights and technology. Lighting can set a mood and help to celebrate a season, a holiday, or other special occasions. For us, it sparks joy when you see areas of your home – both internal and external – quite literally brought to life with lighting. We have a lot of fun LED lighting products in our home, from fun lamps to an LED-lit Christmas tree that spins – we “geek out” on this stuff. Spreading joy is one of the main reasons we love what we do at LUMI Outdoor – seeing our customer’s kids’ faces light up as they’re running around the front yard with LUMI lights in the background is such a wonderful feeling. To add, If you’re around Stephen when he gets to share that he “worked at Radio Shack” as a response when he completes a project or fixes something at our home that was not an easy feat, this is usually his response. He’s pretty funny and definitely has some dad jokes up his sleeve. He’s pretty handy, and his happy place is when he has a project to work on at home – so this was a perfect fit for us to marry up the lighting with his artistry. Stephen also completed our first several lighting installations himself and still lends a hand to our install teams.
When did you start Lumi Outdoor, and how have things progressed?
LUMI Outdoor became a concept in March. We officially launched our website and commercial in September and became more active on social media channels then. We love our Fort Worth community and how much friends and family have helped to not only personally support us by having our premier lighting system installed on their homes, businesses, and other outdoor spaces, but also spreading the word in DFW to support our small business. Our competitors are headquartered out of state while we’re right here in Dallas/Fort Worth, and we also install in Austin – we really pride ourselves on being located in Fort Worth, a city we fell in love with and had our daughter in. And we love to support small businesses in our community, as well. In fact, we’re setting up funding channels to give back to local communities where we install.
Things have been progressing nicely – more than we could have imagined in our first four months of operation. We’ve picked up a lot of traction through supporting local ourselves and becoming Tanglewood Moms sponsors, as well as learning about and activating Google and Yelp ads/campaigns. These have all been so impactful for us. We’re so grateful and can’t wait to see what the new year has in store for LUMI Outdoor as we look to prototype and bring other home and commercial lighting solutions to our customers.
The holiday season is likely your busiest time of year. However, with the development of LED lighting options and controls, have you found more people interested in year-round lighting solutions?
It’s been quite busy, and scaling our business to meet the demand has also gotten us to think about our business model for the future. It’s been an exciting time to dig in and continue to plan for the future of our business. Yes, we’ve found that people are really thinking about the investments they’re making in their homes – not just with lighting but with other home and business features. We believe we’ve started our business at the right time, personally for us and with our entry into the market. We’re cost competitive, and we can reimagine the possible with outdoor lighting solutions to make it a solution that works for a home or business – so it’s customizable. Through surveying friends and family, we found that people don’t want the risk of their family members getting on ladders and potentially hurting themselves during the installation, they don’t want to store lights in their home only to be used for one season during the year (and sometimes they don’t own the lights), and rather more people want durable lighting solutions that will last for years to come.
What are some modern LED lighting solutions that most people don’t know about or haven’t considered?
Lighting isn’t just about fun colors and the seasonal holidays. Lighting can set a mood, accent your home, or help provide security when taking out the trash in the evenings. Our LED app-enabled lighting solution is customizable, so you don’t have to choose colors and stick with them through a season. With our outdoor lighting system, you can celebrate any holidays or birthdays, show your school colors, turn on security lighting, and use the everyday accent lighting features or customize your own, so the benefits are many. If you want a rainbow or special effects or to use one of our many presets, you have those options. For our daughter’s carnival-themed birthday, I controlled the color of each individual lightbulb on our home – it was so fun to see the reactions of the children who came to her party. With our Cloud-based app, you can control your lighting from anywhere.
What are the most popular solutions you are installing these days?
We launched our flagship lighting system for homes and businesses, which includes holiday lighting, everyday accent lighting, security lighting, and features to suit your taste. We love that there’s a daily timer you can set, and you can brighten or dim. We have some customers who love all the colors and others who use everyday accent lighting and security lighting settings for the most part. We’re finding that the businesses we’ve installed are getting more traffic, including foot traffic, which has been great to hear. We’re looking to add some other “tools to our belt” for residential and commercial uplighting where our customers want to work with us specifically but may not want the downlighting effect on their business. We have other products and services we’re planning for as well!
What should people anticipate regarding upkeep, maintenance, and repairs of modern outdoor lighting solutions, and is that part of your offering?
What a great question. Our premier lighting system is built to last, and our lighting tracks are custom-matched to the color of your home or business. We guarantee a three-year warranty on our products. Our tracks are aluminum and weatherproof. Because of the efficiency of our LED lights, you can get 50,000+ hours of “lightspan” on your system, which should last 20 – 25+ years if you have them on for four hours per night every night. There’s no upkeep, and this is why we’re seeing people flock to our solution: there’s no installation or take-down on the part of the home or the business owner. We have maintenance plans that can be purchased, and repairs would be a one-off housecall or virtual call, depending on the issue.
