By Mike Gambino Two types of clients — or perhaps non-clients — have long been a thorn in the side of landscape lighting design build businesses. First, there are the property owners who buy products from the Internet at a lower cost, then want a local professional...
By Mike Gambino This week's blog was written by Mark carlson of Avalon Lighting Design in Roseville, CA. He had some interesting points in a private e-mail to me after I posted last weeks blog article so I asked him if he would like to guest blog...
By Mike Gambino The simple definition of Persona Non Grata is an unacceptable or unwelcome person. I have always felt a responsibility to give back to the industry, although some may disagree, in my own way I feel that I have. Going back 15 years or more I...
By Mike Gambino Imagine your sticker shock when our company’s price is 50% higher than other firms for what you may perceive as essentially the same layout and product quality. Let’s say the project is for a new backyard landscape lighting system; the proposals from each...
By Mike Gambino There are a lot of conversations about pricing in our industry. Most of the conversation is around whether or not the influx of general trades contractors are driving the overall price down - and what it means for each of our businesses. There are...
By Mike Gambino For most homeowners, the hardest part of any home improvement project isn’t the work itself, it’s finding a competent and reliable contractor to do the job. Installing a landscape lighting system requires many skills so you want a quality contractor who will perform at a...
By Mike Gambino Designing and building Low Voltage Landscape Lighting Systems is an interesting and challenging area of construction. There are estimates claiming that approximately 80 percent of the systems built nationwide fail within the first year — and 80 percent of those fail within the first six months!...
By Mike Gambino There was some very poor advice given recently in a public message forum by two individuals who don't have service providers best interests in mind but their own. They represent a company that sells landscape lighting products. Frankly they have no business offering...
By Mike Gambino Every experienced and successful custom Landscape lighting design builder has most probably crossed paths with I know it all type of clients. Working with Landscape lighting pro's is not like managing an employee. As professionals, we don’t like clients who micromanage our team; clients...
By Mike Gambino First of all there is no Landscape Lighting Industry standard pricing there are just too many variables to consider. Every system is unique in its own way and every service provider varies in their talents, client experience they provide, products they use, warranty...
