Jason Palat of Palat Landscaping in Monroeville, Pa., wasn’t in the habit of adding lighting projects to his jobs. When it came time to talk about that aspect of a plan, he’d generally turn it down or outsource the work. After taking a few classes on installing outdoor lighting, he had decided that it just wasn’t for him.
“I never wanted to get into landscape lighting because it required essentially to learn everything about it and splicing wires,” says Palat. “I figured, if I have to get into it, I might as well start a whole separate division, and I didn’t want to do that.”
At the time, he wasn’t seeing the leads to justify his investing in it. But after trying out some new samples of a more simple system he could install himself without an electrician present, he’s been using outdoor lighting as a way to both grow his business and get more out of existing jobs.
“I know there’s a market for lighting,” he says. “It’s not as big a market as landscaping, obviously, but it was there. I wouldn’t have considered it because I have enough going on already, and for me to worry about making $400 when I have a $10,000 to $20,000 job, it’s not worth it. But for a simple system, this is a nice way to add a little money to a project.”
Even though lighting only makes up a small portion of his work now, he’s adding an outdoor lighting system to more jobs as added service to customers. Currently, outdoor lighting only makes up about 10 percent of his revenue, but he’s aiming to increase that in the future.
He uses his website to talk about how he works with lighting systems to add to landscape projects, as well as the different aspects of saving energy and using LED lighting. He also advertises his lighting work in the newspaper alongside other landscaping working, and tries to get information about the client’s options in front of them when he’s working on the overall plan.
“I’ll hand them a pamphlet when I’m out looking at another job and say, ‘Hey, you might want to consider lighting if you’re going to do all this. You might want this lit up at night.’ I don’t push it. Face-to-face is where I’m selling the most, with other work,” he says. “I get some organic leads from my website, but these are people who have already seen my offers and work.”
Palat answers questions from clients to establish himself as the landscaper to go to when planning a project that involves outdoor lighting. Even though the margins aren’t huge, being able to pull in jobs he normally would’ve had to pass up is worth it, he says.
“I definitely want to increase it tenfold in the future,” says Palat. “Not that many people are lining up for lighting. Way more people are lining up for the retaining wall that’s falling onto their driveway, but this is easy work to connect to that, and that’s why it appeals to me.”