Lighting - a bright idea

Much of what I share is about things that small businesses can do to gain more market share and also keep customers coming back. That's something I'm passionate about. This is a blog post about light bulbs. 

What the heck is so important about light bulbs? Simple. 

Have you ever been in a business where a noticeable number of light bulbs are burned out? Makes the business look terrible in my opinion. ​

I've heard that Disneyland calculates the life expectancy of the light bulbs at the park and then replaces them when there is about 20 percent of the estimated life still in them. That's smart. You don't walk down Main Street USA and see a bunch of bulbs burned out. ​

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If Disneyland keeps things well illuminated, small businesses should, too. To walk into a business and see the lights burned out makes me think they don't care about other areas of the business. How clean are the restrooms? How good is the inventory? 

I went into a restaurant and they had about half the bulbs out in their ceiling fans. I asked them about this, and they said that it was too bright and hot in their establishment when all the bulbs were on. So, my next question to them was why they don't just buy lower voltage bulbs? Seems logical, right? 

Today you can get bulbs of all kinds in al sorts of configurations. If you want compact fluorescent (those curly bulbs) that are dimmable in candle shapes, they're available. Seriously, I have them. They're in my ceiling fan, for example. If this restaurant had these they could have all the lights on, save some electricity and also make the place look better kept. 

Lighting is something I really notice when I go into a business. Cool lighting gets a lot of points, but just having what you have work is a big thing, to me. An occasional burned out bulb is no big deal, but having a big portion of the lights out makes me wonder if the business owner is asleep at the switch.