Scaling Seasonal Success: Inside the Growth of Lang Lighting and Decor

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Brandon Lang – Lang Lighting and Decor

 

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Neighborhood Halloween Maze Tradition
05:48 “Haunted House Dream Deferred”
08:00 Haunted House Revival Idea
09:24 Classy Holiday Light Installation
14:25 Festive Neighborhood Light Rivalry
16:00 “Lang Lighting’s Commercial Expansion”
20:10 Seasonal Income Solutions Pursuit
23:46 Investing in Quick Product Turnaround
27:54 Streamlining Quoting Efficiency
30:25 Hiring Decision: Seasonal Part-Timer
33:59 Dad Joins Family Business
35:30 Hiring Struggles and Decisions
40:46 Business Growth Through Networking
41:29 “Embrace Strengths and Delegate”
46:50 Training Challenges for New Employees
50:39 Lighting Services

Podcast Transcription:

Brandon Lang [00:00:00]:
Yeah. I think the what’s great about the work that we do is like we get to see almost instant gratification. You put lights on the house, you turn it on and boom.

James [00:00:11]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found On the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today, we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Brandon Lang of Lang Lighting and Decor. So Brandon, how is it going today?

Brandon Lang [00:00:37]:
Today is going good. Weather’s weather’s nice.

James [00:00:40]:
It’s a good day for lighting and decor.

Brandon Lang [00:00:42]:
Yeah. It’s always a good day for lighting and decor.

James [00:00:44]:
Nice. Tell us really quick. How long has Lang Lighting been around?

Brandon Lang [00:00:48]:
So, we established the company in 2018. Okay. And, it was just me and my brother starting off as a hobby and today, we have three full time employees, two part time and then Dustin and I.

James [00:01:04]:
Nice. So. How do you get into the lighting business?

Brandon Lang [00:01:08]:
Wow.

James [00:01:09]:
I didn’t mean to be that extreme but

Brandon Lang [00:01:12]:
Where to begin? Alright, so, Dustin and I, we started off essentially decorating for the holidays. That was kind of, where the love and the passion came from.

James [00:01:24]:
Your own houses?

Brandon Lang [00:01:25]:
Yeah. So, just growing up, dad’s house, mom’s house, we just had this love of like, most of the time parents would handle the indoor stuff and we were like we’re On to just tackle the outdoor stuff. Like Lang Christmas lights, you know, the store bought stuff, either on the roof lines. A lot of times we would put up big trees or wrap the trunks, the bushes, you know, very simple simple stuff like that.

James [00:01:51]:
What are we talking about age wise? Are you five, 10?

Brandon Lang [00:01:55]:
Age wise as far as

James [00:01:56]:
Yeah. Like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

Brandon Lang [00:01:57]:
oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, man.

James [00:01:59]:
Like you’re two years old barely walking. You’re like, dad give me that ball of lights. We’re gonna make this happen.

Brandon Lang [00:02:04]:
No. I would say it’s, it’s close to almost like the Christmas vacation, you know, where he has boys come out to help him. It was like probably eight to ten is kind of where it all started from. Alright. Yep. So, we just, we love decorating for, and it actually started off as decorating for Halloween.

James [00:02:21]:
Oh. That

Brandon Lang [00:02:21]:
was kind of our main gig. So Okay. Halloween and then obviously Christmas. So, what had happened was is every year we would have a Halloween party, for the neighbor kids, and we would have these games Call, like, you know, put the spoon in your mouth and like have, like egg runs and all that stuff and pin the pin the tail On the donkey and, bob for apples, all that stuff. So, we would decorate for this, for this Halloween party. So, we actually started putting up a haunted house out of my dad’s house. Right? So, cardboard boxes that we’d get down the street in the recycling bin. And we ended up creating this like elaborate maze, for the first few years and then we actually bought tents and so from like I think 02/2005 to 2010 we were creating this huge elaborate maze.

Brandon Lang [00:03:11]:
Right? So, and then we would have it through, Halloween and then, we actually ended extending it for a couple days. So, anyway, so we had this Halloween, this haunted house for like ten years. Right?

James [00:03:24]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:03:24]:
And, the last year that we did it was in 2014. And, we we would blast it to the public. It was open for five days, including Halloween. In that five days, it was free to the public and we ended up sending 2,000 people through this thing.

James [00:03:40]:
You’re kidding.

Brandon Lang [00:03:41]:
I’m not kidding. Yeah. And

James [00:03:42]:
this is On driveway

Brandon Lang [00:03:44]:
or garage?

James [00:03:44]:
It is in

Brandon Lang [00:03:44]:
a residential home.

James [00:03:46]:
In the house?

Brandon Lang [00:03:47]:
In the house in Oregon, Wisconsin. It’s called the Lang Family House Of Terror.

James [00:03:51]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:03:51]:
So, so we would, set up this huge probably, 15 by 25 foot tent in the front in the driveway. So, they would go through that, through the garage that we created the maze, then up through the house. And then we actually had a whole pallet Kademan then two big tents out in the back. Back. It was like a twenty to twenty five minute walk through. Woah. Yeah. So, yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:04:13]:
Two two thousand people, we ended up raising $5,000.

James [00:04:17]:
Just donations?

Brandon Lang [00:04:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, obviously, it was free

James [00:04:19]:
and we were just

Brandon Lang [00:04:20]:
taking donations at the end. It was all volunteer based. At one point, I remember one night we had 55 actors.

James [00:04:27]:
50 five people Lighting?

Brandon Lang [00:04:28]:
55 people acting in the house and in the tents and pallet James and all

James [00:04:34]:
that stuff. In the world.

Brandon Lang [00:04:34]:
Yeah. So, that’s kind of where essentially like the love for decorating started, decorating for the holidays. Then we started doing this haunted house thing. Right? So, anyway, last year 2014. So, in 2015, we’re, we’re starting to decorate and this is going to be the It’s called the final chapter. Because we’re like, oh, we’re out doing it. We might have to get a bigger space. So we labeled it the final chapter.

Brandon Lang [00:05:01]:
The town knew about it. So, On, August So, we start building this thing in like April.

James [00:05:06]:
Holy cow. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:05:07]:
Right? So, the garage starts first. Cars go out and they don’t come back in until like November, December. Right? So, we started in April. We’re starting to build some of the outdoor stuff. And in August, the town of Oregon, ended up coming in and they were like, hey, some of this stuff isn’t,

James [00:05:26]:
Fire code. Fire Call

Brandon Lang [00:05:28]:
that stuff. Yep. So, we we essentially, met with the city and we said, hey, what what would it take to kind of get this thing going for our last final hurrah? And we weren’t able to have have it. And then, they shut us down and it ended up taking us about a month to take down all this stuff.

James [00:05:47]:
Holy cow.

Brandon Lang [00:05:48]:
Yeah. So What a heartbreaker. I know. 2014 was our big finale. You know, it’s always been kind of our dream like when it got shut down it was heartbroken. Right? But it Call always actually kind of been our dream On the back of our mind to actually have a haunted house. We would obviously charge money and we would have a like a place with fire code safety and you know Right?

James [00:06:14]:
Exit signs and all that. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:06:15]:
Yeah. For sure. It would be it would be a Call, like a full business for sure.

James [00:06:19]:
Yeah. It’s interesting. It’s one of those things where you’re like, I kind of see where they’re coming from. But on the flip side Right. If someone can’t figure out how to get out of the house through cardboard, they’ve probably

Brandon Lang [00:06:28]:
For sure.

James [00:06:29]:
Darwin’s working right there, you know. Just let it happen.

Brandon Lang [00:06:32]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think, the the town had to do what, you know, I think what happened was somebody complained. You know, it was The thing that was really a bummer is that it was free.

James [00:06:46]:
Mhmm.

Brandon Lang [00:06:46]:
And it and it really brought the community together.

James [00:06:48]:
Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:06:49]:
But I get it. Safety reasons, all that stuff. And I think we were a little, you know, resentful and at least at the start. But now we as now business owners, we understand, you know, liability, insurance, all that stuff.

James [00:07:01]:
Yeah. Because I imagine if everybody does it and all of a sudden you got a bunch of people not following regulations, stuff like that.

Brandon Lang [00:07:06]:
For sure.

James [00:07:07]:
Then it’s like, why do we even have laws? And then, we’re on a very slippery slope.

Brandon Lang [00:07:12]:
Right. Yeah. I and it’s funny because what started off as something so, small Mhmm. Turned into this like big gigantic thing. Yeah.

James [00:07:21]:
To have 55 actors, I’m just trying to think where you put them.

Brandon Lang [00:07:24]:
Yeah. Oh, it was so wild because you know you’ve got to put everybody in makeup and costume. Yeah. So, in our basement we had like an assembly line of like, alright, you’re getting makeup. You’re in costume. You’re doing this and we had everybody doing each other’s makeup

James [00:07:37]:
and Yeah. Dang. It was managing that.

Brandon Lang [00:07:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Holy cow.

James [00:07:41]:
Yeah. But I imagine that prepared you for owning the business because now managing a handful of people is nothing compared to managing.

Brandon Lang [00:07:47]:
Yeah. It’s it’s a little different when you pay

James [00:07:49]:
them. Sure. For sure. The 50 or the 55 actors, they’re staying there because they’re enjoying it.

Brandon Lang [00:07:55]:
Right.

James [00:07:55]:
They’re the people you gotta pay and sometimes they don’t even show up.

Brandon Lang [00:07:57]:
For sure. Yeah. For sure.

James [00:07:59]:
Yeah. That’s the game.

Brandon Lang [00:08:00]:
Yeah. So, shutdown in 2015, 2016, ’17. You know, we we decorated for parents still. Right? We’re we’re, mid twenties at this point. My brother’s five years younger than I am. And, but we we just knew that we were, like, missing something. So, after 2017, we’re just like, oh, yeah. Like, should we try and do something On house? Should we try and act in another haunted house that like, some of these local ones? And, I’ll give I’ll give full credit to Dustin.

Brandon Lang [00:08:34]:
Mhmm. He was actually the one to come up with this idea. And he said, hey, I noticed that like people really struggle putting up Christmas Lighting, you know. Whether that’s they’re incapable. Well, you know, old old age. They’re not able to climb ladders. Safety. And Call, also the time that it takes.

Brandon Lang [00:08:53]:
Right? And as you know and many people know that like, when you get out there, it’s always the last thing. Right? You’re like, Christmas presents bought, wrapping paper, all the festivities. We got all the everything planned and then you’re like, oh, crap. I gotta get my Christmas lights up. And by that time, it’s usually late.

James [00:09:09]:
Mhmm. In

Brandon Lang [00:09:10]:
the season, the snow is on the roof. It’s freezing and all that stuff. So Dustin had this idea. Let’s go to Menards. Let’s buy a whole bunch of box lights and let’s try and see if anybody’s interested in having us put them up.

James [00:09:23]:
So just go door to door and say, hey.

Brandon Lang [00:09:24]:
Where how it started is it was, we started off with the parents’ house. So, instead of just doing what we normally do is just like, you know, making like loops. I mean, it was it was very poor quality. Right? We really, we really focused on quality of work. We wanted all of our bulbs to be clipped to create that nice straight Lang. And we wanted it to just look classy. Right? Because a lot of times you see these people that just throw on the lights because it’s the last thing they’re thinking about.

James [00:09:53]:
So it’s One string over a tree.

Brandon Lang [00:09:56]:
Right. And then it’s like it’s plugged in on the side of the house. So, it’s got this huge long, long line. So, started with the parents and then, friends and family.

James [00:10:07]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:10:07]:
That’s essentially how we started the business the first year. And we started, I think it was probably the first week in November, maybe second week in November. So, and then, you know, we would go to the customer. They would be like, hey, I want these colored lights. We’d run them Menards, put the lights up for them. Alright.

James [00:10:27]:
And the

Brandon Lang [00:10:27]:
rest is history. Now, we did this starting off as a hobby. Right? So, we started off, I was working full time. I was delivering pizza at the time and then my brother was working at Rogers Memorial. Full time work, you know, both of us were working forty hours and then on top of that we would do this on like afternoons and the weekends. Okay. So And

James [00:10:50]:
were you getting paid for it or is it just they paid for the lights and?

Brandon Lang [00:10:53]:
Yep. For sure. We were getting paid. They were paying for the the full service which is they’re paying for us to buy the lights which essentially comes out of their pocket, us to install, maintain and then remove the lights and store them.

James [00:11:07]:
Oh. Right off the bat you were doing that?

Brandon Lang [00:11:08]:
Right off the bat.

James [00:11:09]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:11:09]:
Yep. So, what’s funny is we actually used our dad’s garage to store it. So, we’re back in dad’s garage again.

James [00:11:15]:
Thanks, dad.

Brandon Lang [00:11:15]:
Yep. Thanks for the haunted house and now we’re back to the store of the Christmas Get

James [00:11:19]:
your cars out of here. Store this.

Brandon Lang [00:11:22]:
So, the first year, 2018, it was still a hobby. We ended up getting 17 customers. Right?

James [00:11:28]:
Nice. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:11:29]:
17 is pretty good.

James [00:11:30]:
It is.

Brandon Lang [00:11:30]:
Right? We did include my mom and my dad with that as well. Still counts. 17 customers. Yeah. So, and then obviously, you gotta take them down. So, after, January 1 or second, I think we started taking them all down. And On course, it only takes like, you know, less than a week to take all those lights down. And then, 2019 was kind of our big year.

Brandon Lang [00:11:53]:
We we got the business license. We got the LLC. We got insurance. We got more, ladders. And then, that’s actually when we transitioned from store bought lights because we realized they’re garbage. Absolutely.

James [00:12:08]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:12:08]:
Have you ever bought lights from like

James [00:12:10]:
We buy them every year.

Brandon Lang [00:12:11]:
Oh, okay. Every year.

James [00:12:13]:
Because every time You’re gonna be my point. Every time you pull them out, you’re like, well, these don’t work.

Brandon Lang [00:12:17]:
Right.

James [00:12:17]:
And you don’t know if that are those the ones we bought last year? Are these the ones we bought twenty years ago? I don’t

Brandon Lang [00:12:21]:
know. Whatever. And then you got different shades too. Right? Oh, yeah. Like, all different styles of white. Yeah. Oh, this one’s super dim.

James [00:12:27]:
It’s like a sock drawer. You have 50 different socks. None of them match. Right. And they’re all from different like what what are we doing here? Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:12:37]:
So that’s when we switched over from store bought lights, and just running just regular extension cords to commercial style lights. Right?

James [00:12:47]:
Tell me so a few things here. Yep. What is a commercial style light?

Brandon Lang [00:12:51]:
Commercial style light is basically, retrofit bulbs.

James [00:12:55]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:12:56]:
Lighting? So, a lot of times when you buy from the box store, they come in a string of lights. You pop one off and the whole strand is dead. Right? Call, in the retrofit bulbs, your socket cord comes in a whole spool, let’s just say a thousand feet.

James [00:13:11]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:13:11]:
And then your bulbs come separately. So, you can screw in each individual bulb.

James [00:13:15]:
So, you’re adding the bulb On that cord

Brandon Lang [00:13:18]:
Onto the

James [00:13:18]:
screw. Wherever you want

Brandon Lang [00:13:19]:
it. Correct.

James [00:13:20]:
So, you want every three inches, every six inches, every foot, whatever?

Brandon Lang [00:13:22]:
Yes. So, you buy it from this, you buy it, it comes in a spool of, let’s just say, 500, and then you buy it, for spacing. Right?

James [00:13:30]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:13:30]:
So they make six inch, 12 inch, 15 inch.

James [00:13:32]:
Got it. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:13:34]:
So bulk of our stuff is 15 inch spacing.

James [00:13:36]:
And are they higher quality?

Brandon Lang [00:13:38]:
Higher quality. Yep. The the LEDs are so much brighter and you can tell.

James [00:13:42]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:13:42]:
When you’re driving in the neighborhoods and you can tell or you’re like, oh, that’s professionally done. Oh, that was obviously store bought stuff. So, yeah. Retro Lighting the bulbs, creating the line and then actually being able to cut and then put plugs on each end to create that nice Lang, clean look. Right?

James [00:14:00]:
So, custom for whatever part of the house you’re doing.

Brandon Lang [00:14:03]:
Correct. Yep.

James [00:14:04]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:14:04]:
I would say, I mean, a majority of customers are like they start off with the front face of the house and then they kind of build from there. Oh, I want this tree done. Oh, I want these bushes done. I want a star. I want a reef. You know, all that stuff.

James [00:14:17]:
I suppose is they get compliments.

Brandon Lang [00:14:18]:
A %.

James [00:14:19]:
They gotta step up their game. A %. Step up their game.

Brandon Lang [00:14:21]:
Yeah. For sure.

James [00:14:22]:
And then their neighbors. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:14:25]:
Oh, it’s great when especially when neighbors start to almost have competitions. Right? This neighbor did Oh, this neighbor did multicolor. This neighbor did warm white. Oh, we’re going to up our game. We’re going to do all four sides and ridge lines and all that stuff. I will say that like, it’s a it’s a luxury item. Right? Christmas lights is, is is fantastic. It just it it really it’s just it’s so elegant and beautiful on the house.

Brandon Lang [00:14:54]:
But it is a luxury item. Right? And so, like, when people think of spending on Christmas lights that might not be, a a viable option.

James [00:15:03]:
Sure. It’s good for everyone?

Brandon Lang [00:15:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. Also, like, you know, people are spending money on Christmas presents and all that stuff. But a lot of times we see, you know, you know, it’s just like, oh, why not? Why not? You know?

James [00:15:15]:
People certainly spend money on other things that are probably more money and less joy out of it. Sure. Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:15:22]:
Yeah. And I think that that’s the On, obviously downfall I’d say. With the leasing Christmas lights as opposed to this new product that we’re starting to offer is the permanent Christmas lights.

James [00:15:32]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:15:32]:
So, because they’re Lighting, right? So, you’re paying that annual thing every year for us to put them up, take them down. So, we looked into a viable option of like, well, how do we get a permanent solution and be able to change the Calls? Like let’s just say I don’t want to do Christmas. Let’s just say I want to do St. Patty’s Day. Alright. You know, or, breast cancer awareness. Oh, it’s James’ birthday.

James [00:15:58]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:15:58]:
Let’s get some colors on there.

James [00:16:00]:
Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:16:00]:
So Party lights. Yeah. But, yeah, backing up. So, we started working with commercial grade lighting and essentially that was like a big pivotal moment for Lang Lighting. So, we went from 17 customers and then we James to 37. Right? Nice. So, we James another roughly 20 or so customers and most of them were, I mean it was 20 new commercial grade customers and that’s like the direction that we wanted to head. So, we Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:16:32]:
We ended up having to keep on the store bought lights for a couple of years before we ended up having to phase those customers out. So, yeah. In 2019, still a hobby. Right? So, we’re still doing the full time work, full time this and, but having 37 was, it was a lot. Right? That’s a

James [00:16:49]:
lot because you’ve got to figure out how to organize all that.

Brandon Lang [00:16:51]:
Correct. Yeah. You’ve got to buy the supplies. Yeah. And Call, we don’t have the infrastructure to just buy all the stuff in bulk and then just put it on the house. We had to like, we had to get the deposits then send in the order and then it was like another week for stuff would come in and stuff like that. Yeah. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:17:07]:
So, yeah. So, then, fast forward in 2020. You know, obviously the pandemic happened.

James [00:17:17]:
Yeah, rough day. Yeah. Rough. Rough day, year.

Brandon Lang [00:17:20]:
It was rough day, years, couple years for sure. I will say that our business did thrive on COVID only because people were at home.

James [00:17:30]:
Yeah. They see it and they get it.

Brandon Lang [00:17:31]:
Were at home. They were like, oh, man. I I a curb appeal. Oh, we’re spending the home or we’re spending the holidays inside, you know. We’re not be able to see families. So, our our customer base went from 37 to 80.

James [00:17:48]:
Wow. Nice. Somewhere

Brandon Lang [00:17:50]:
in there eighty, eighty seven. And then that was a big moment for us because it was, we have all these lights out there. And I was able to take off, two months, off delivering pizza Mhmm. To actually focus on just hanging Christmas lights. Shout out to Glass Call West.

James [00:18:07]:
Nice.

Brandon Lang [00:18:08]:
Thank you, Katie. For sure. Yeah. It was, yeah. She knew what I was doing. She was like, I was trying to like get this business Lighting. But obviously, it was so seasonal. I was just like, okay.

James [00:18:19]:
I see the Christmas lights would

Brandon Lang [00:18:21]:
be Right.

James [00:18:21]:
By definition. Be seasonal bits of bits.

Brandon Lang [00:18:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So, yeah. We built 87 customers. You know, obviously Lighting models so it’s returning revenue. And we’re like, Lang, I think we might I think we really might have something here. And so, On, I can’t remember if it was ’20 or 2021, Dustin and I, I was like, Hey.

Brandon Lang [00:18:47]:
I’m ready to pull the trigger if you’re ready to pull the trigger. And he was like, you know, he graduated from Whitewater, was in his career field Call also now it’s like oh this business is viable and we can go full time with this. So, I think it was I actually think it was 2021. We went full time in September.

James [00:19:07]:
Nice. Yep. So Call throttle. You both quit your day jobs?

Brandon Lang [00:19:11]:
Both quit day jobs and we’re doing Lang Lighting full time.

James [00:19:14]:
Tell me about the marketing aspects. You’re doubling essentially for the past few years.

Brandon Lang [00:19:19]:
Yep.

James [00:19:20]:
Is that just word-of-mouth? Or what are you doing to go from 17 to 30 to 80, whatever?

Brandon Lang [00:19:29]:
Lot of word-of-mouth. A lot of, oh, neighbor down the street got it done. Oh, who’d you use? A lot of referrals.

James [00:19:36]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:19:36]:
A little bit of social media, but we weren’t really paying for ad space at that point.

James [00:19:41]:
Okay. So just post. Yeah. Look at these lights before and after.

Brandon Lang [00:19:44]:
Yeah. Also, what really helped us is that there’s not a lot of companies out there that’s doing this. There’s still No. Not a lot of companies that are doing this, for sure. You’ll see, a few companies out there that offer it on the side. Right? Landscapers, a few window washers out there that are like, oh, yeah. We do this, you know Yeah.

James [00:20:01]:
You want to buy a watch? What do you need?

Brandon Lang [00:20:03]:
Yeah. For sure. What we really On to focus on is when we went full

James [00:20:10]:
full time. We were like, oh,

Brandon Lang [00:20:10]:
we wanna we really On harness the light aspect. So, we we were looking into all sorts of different things to supplement income. You know, Christmas lights is only Let’s just say we’re starting in October. Brings us to December. Then we gotta take them down. Well, the money is not coming in like after January. So, it’s just like Call, how do we make money? So, we looked into window washing. We looked into car detailing.

James [00:20:33]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:20:33]:
And then, we’re like this doesn’t make sense for our company. We don’t want to be two different things. We don’t want to be the Kademan, gutter cleaning and all that stuff. So, we harnessed in on lighting specifically. So, we are a So, we install landscape lighting. So, essentially highlighting homes with low voltage wiring. We’re either highlighting homes. We do like trees, ponds, Calls.

Brandon Lang [00:20:56]:
Basically Call exterior low voltage wiring Lighting, excuse me, and then we do the permanent Christmas lights Call like I had mentioned. Stuff’s called inception. It gets permanently installed to the roof Lang. You’re color changing. You’re able to schedule all your holidays. And, it looks nice and discreet underneath. Usually, it’s either mounted either Lighting down or pointing out and usually that mounts like right underneath the gutter lines.

James [00:21:22]:
So Okay. So, it’s still a string?

Brandon Lang [00:21:25]:
Yeah. So, it’s actually it’s a three piece system. It’s a track piece that gets permanently installed to the house. Lights snap into the track and then the covers go over the top of it. And the covers come in five different color options to blend into whatever like trim level. Gotcha. So, obviously, people get weird.

James [00:21:41]:
It’s hidden. So, you’re not necessarily seeing the screen.

Brandon Lang [00:21:43]:
Correct. Yep.

James [00:21:44]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:21:44]:
Yep. And obviously, like from the street view you can’t even tell it’s there. Alright.

James [00:21:49]:
It

Brandon Lang [00:21:49]:
blends in that nice. Yeah.

James [00:21:50]:
Very cool.

Brandon Lang [00:21:51]:
So, yeah. So, 2021 we go full time with this thing and the I will say that the landscape lighting and the inception lighting was, it was slow.

James [00:22:03]:
A little

Brandon Lang [00:22:03]:
bit slower to take off. We did some trainings. We wanted to come well versed in this stuff. We went to a lot of, we went to some trade shows and just like really got our hands wet, hands dirty with the product and all that stuff.

James [00:22:16]:
This is you and your brother?

Brandon Lang [00:22:17]:
Correct.

James [00:22:17]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:22:17]:
Yep. So, it’s still just us.

James [00:22:19]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:22:21]:
I’m trying to remember when we moved into our first shop too. Yeah. Because Your dad’s backing up. Yeah.

James [00:22:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:22:27]:
So, we got 87 clients in dad’s garage and he’s not able to get I think he got one car in there and the rest is just taken up by all these totes. Right? Because we’re storing all this stuff. So, yeah. We ended up moving into Stoughton. We got a Brandon new shop too that they had just built. So, we rent and we love it out there.

James [00:22:46]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:22:46]:
Yeah. So, we we were in that shop for about two years, and then we just we just started busting at the seams.

James [00:22:53]:
Nice.

Brandon Lang [00:22:53]:
So, now, we’re in a we’re in a double shop right now.

James [00:22:56]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:22:56]:
It’s about 27, 20 hundred, 20 eight hundred square feet.

James [00:23:00]:
Very cool.

Brandon Lang [00:23:01]:
Two doors. Nice. And we don’t park any vehicles in there because we need it for all the space. Yeah. Tell

James [00:23:07]:
me a story. I’m looking at just imagining my desk. It’s full of crap. Organizing just isn’t my jam. So I’m thinking like, hey. We gotta organize 17 Lighting. We Call 17 totes. Slap some masking tape like Joe’s lights front or whatever.

James [00:23:24]:
But I mentioned that’s not something that’s gonna scale. So, when you have 80 and we’re like, okay, where is Nancy’s Lighting?

Brandon Lang [00:23:30]:
Sure.

James [00:23:31]:
And we got these spools. Where do these go? These are the garage whatever. Yeah. How do you organize all that?

Brandon Lang [00:23:36]:
Yeah. So initially, when we were in our dad’s space, it was we didn’t have a lot of overhead product.

James [00:23:45]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:23:46]:
It was we were buying stuff for the customers still at that point. When we moved into the shop, obviously, we had all this space. So, we’re like, okay. Well, let’s really let’s invest more in product. So, that way come next year we would have the product on hand. Right? Oh, we can actually do this job and we wouldn’t have to order and that way the turnaround time can be you know, let’s just say a day or two. Right? And people like quick. They want their stuff done yesterday.

Brandon Lang [00:24:14]:
So, yeah. That was one thing. We started investing in more product to be able to go out on the job sites quicker. The inventory and the just lining up our customers. Right? We were using This is so funny. I can’t I We’ve come so far. Right? Because we were using Google Drive. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:24:33]:
And we would have an excel sheet that had all of our customers on it and what gets done and then we were invoicing through Google Docs and

James [00:24:41]:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:24:42]:
And Google Excel. Yeah. So, we actually we have a new CRM that we’ve been using for the last three and a half years and that tracks so much more than So, right now, what it looks like is there is probably four rows of bins of customers and then we have I don’t know. There’s probably at least 25 to 26 in a row and there’s eight high.

James [00:25:08]:
Oh, wow.

Brandon Lang [00:25:08]:
So, I mean the the bin space takes up a lot. So, we actually labeled the floor of like number and then so each customer you go into our database. Each customer is like, let’s just say customer name is Brenda. So, she’s in Row 173 High. So, we can actually find her. Oh, she’s On to be on the schedule.

James [00:25:29]:
Gotcha.

Brandon Lang [00:25:30]:
Okay. It’s a grid. Correct. Yep. Okay. And then a lot of James, so, you know, not to get super complicated, but what happens is is when we start installing, we go usually town to town. Obviously, that’s the easiest way to do this. Sure.

James [00:25:43]:
Because you’re not getting paid for windshield time. Correct.

Brandon Lang [00:25:46]:
Yeah.

James [00:25:46]:
Just this we’re gonna knock out Oregon.

Brandon Lang [00:25:48]:
Yep. So we’ll start Especially

James [00:25:49]:
instead of city council’s house.

Brandon Lang [00:25:51]:
Yeah. For sure. So we start, we always start in Stoughton

James [00:25:55]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:25:55]:
And then kind of branch out from there. Mhmm. And we start with roof lines first. We usually start the day after Labor Day. Now, so fast forward. Now, we’ve built this company where we have to start early to get them all done. Alright. Right? So, we start the day after Labor Day and we’re doing just almost nothing but roof lines.

Brandon Lang [00:26:14]:
Because obviously, you don’t have to turn them on. Mhmm. Right? Don’t turn them on until you’re ready. And then the power cords get ran like if they’re going across grass we’ll wait until November to install that stuff. So.

James [00:26:24]:
Gotcha. So, you can just run over and make another trip. Right. Run over and plug it in.

Brandon Lang [00:26:27]:
Yep. And we do this also because On weather is just chaotic. On day

James [00:26:33]:
it’s raining.

Brandon Lang [00:26:35]:
On day it’s like, you know, snowing snowing a foot. So, we want to be sure we’re on the roof lines first.

James [00:26:41]:
Mhmm.

Brandon Lang [00:26:41]:
Right? To eliminate lift rentals potentially or dangerous ladder moves, all that stuff.

James [00:26:47]:
Got it. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:26:48]:
So, yeah. Our system now is is way better than it used to be. You know, just Yeah. We were doing that. We were putting pieces of duct tape and being like Joe Schmo.

James [00:26:58]:
For

Brandon Lang [00:26:59]:
a bin On of one or something like that, you know. And we had no idea like how they were It started off as like towns. Right? It’s like, okay. Oregon’s in this pile Lang Stoneman’s On this pile and Janesville and Madison and all that stuff. And now we have a way better system. Obviously, bigger space is very helpful Oh, absolutely. For organization.

James [00:27:18]:
Absolutely. But you figure out what’s gonna scale. Right. So initially, you’re just like, whatever. We got 17 bins.

Brandon Lang [00:27:25]:
For sure.

James [00:27:26]:
But as you grow essentially you gotta be like, woah. We gotta figure this out.

Brandon Lang [00:27:30]:
Right.

James [00:27:30]:
Otherwise, we got a bunch of lights and a bunch of bins and we don’t know where they go.

Brandon Lang [00:27:33]:
Yep. Exactly. I would say one of our, if I had to do it over again. On of the things specifically is maxing out dad’s garage was, it was a lot of work. So, let’s just say somebody’s like way in the back corner. Right? You’re pulling out all these bins. Oh. I know we save money.

Brandon Lang [00:27:54]:
Right? But time and stress and all that stuff. So, like, getting a space sooner, I think. And then Call Lighting a more Call a CRM, customer database. Because like invoicing and all that stuff was taking us so Lang, you know, to go through each sheet and just like type in. Now our system is so set up where we actually have templates where I can just literally click and then click the footage and then it just becomes this like quote and I can get a quote done in like three to five minutes.

James [00:28:26]:
Oh, nice.

Brandon Lang [00:28:26]:
You know. So much so much time wasted doing that. Yeah. You know, when a customer is like wanting their lights up. So,

James [00:28:34]:
you save money in the front end but Correct. Back end it’s really

Brandon Lang [00:28:37]:
costing you. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then the other the other thing that we actually just hired for On August of last year was an admin. Nice. Yep. So, I was doing all the phone answering, all the quoting, all the like follow ups and then On top of that installing.

Brandon Lang [00:28:58]:
Oh. Yeah. And then obviously Dustin was doing ordering.

James [00:29:02]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:29:03]:
Inventory and then, installation. Okay. So, hiring that person to take the phone calls, to take that huge weight off of our shoulders for sure. And then, you know, obviously now we are in this growth phase. Right? So, it started off with Dustin and I installing lights. Well, we got to a point where we were like we need help. So, we’d actually use our parents to help us out a little bit.

James [00:29:31]:
You said, Hey, Dan. Besides the garage, we’re On need your ladder

Brandon Lang [00:29:35]:
For sure.

James [00:29:36]:
And your labor.

Brandon Lang [00:29:37]:
Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:29:38]:
Really quick.

Brandon Lang [00:29:38]:
And I know that you’re working this full time job and you’re almost ready to retire but we need you

James [00:29:42]:
to Yeah. Don’t fall.

Brandon Lang [00:29:44]:
No. No.

James [00:29:44]:
No. Don’t fall.

Brandon Lang [00:29:47]:
On his in in our defense is that we won’t we’re not putting the parents up on ladders. We’re just like, hey, can you put a Yeah. Big strand on a bush or something like that.

James [00:29:54]:
Trust me the ball.

Brandon Lang [00:29:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very helpful like, hey, get this bin for me, all that stuff. And then Are you

James [00:30:01]:
living with your dad at this time?

Brandon Lang [00:30:02]:
No. No. No. Okay. No. We’re just using his space. Yep. Because he had space.

James [00:30:06]:
Alright. You

Brandon Lang [00:30:06]:
know, he’s a bachelor. He’s been, you know Sure. Single for a long time and he God bless him. You know, really, like he helped us build this business, for sure. So, yeah. As far as like growth mode, we, we were running ragged.

James [00:30:25]:
I bet.

Brandon Lang [00:30:25]:
It was time. It was time to hire. Let’s hire a part time guy. So, that’s, you know, that’s usually how companies start. It’s like, we’re not going to hire a full time guy. We can’t we don’t have full time work for this guy. So, we hired essentially a seasonal guy for the year and Lang, so he would work some nights and then like on a Saturday, we would work these Saturdays and I will say that we used to work like eighty hours. During the season it was eighty hour work.

James [00:30:52]:
Yeah. Boom boom boom. Right? When he helped while the sun shines. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:30:55]:
Yeah. And then, yes. So, we heard the guy. He helped us take down a few lights and then it was just like back to us. Right? Because we didn’t have the infrastructure to for the It was just seasonal. Right? Like Christmas Lighting, big boom in business. The landscape Lighting, the inception Lighting. It is still slow where we could handle the infrastructure.

Brandon Lang [00:31:17]:
So now fast forward is last year was the first year that we actually hired on people, in the hopes of keeping them year round. Right? Nice. Okay. We hired the admin and now we have two laborers that are actually out doing work while I’m sitting here in this nice chair.

James [00:31:34]:
Juaquin: The joys of business ownership right there, right? Yes.

Brandon Lang [00:31:39]:
Yeah. It’s so crazy to think. I never thought Call always thought I’d be on every job. I’d always thought I’d be talking to every customer. I’d always felt like I could never like let go of that sort of like control. It’s like my baby. Right? Or it’s me and Dustin’s baby. Right? This is We built this thing from nothing.

Brandon Lang [00:32:00]:
My brother took actually a loan out. Oh, wow. From his own personal. Yep. Alright. $5,000 he took it out. We paid ourselves back. Oh, this is a funny story.

Brandon Lang [00:32:09]:
First year in business, 2018. 17 customers. We take all that money and we go on vacation to a roller coaster park in LA.

James [00:32:19]:
Nice. And

Brandon Lang [00:32:20]:
we spend all of it. Yep. Smart move.

James [00:32:25]:
All done. Yeah. Oh, that’s funny.

Brandon Lang [00:32:28]:
Yeah. We’re big roller coaster nerds. We love all that stuff. Yeah. That’s what not to do. Right? Right.

James [00:32:36]:
Why don’t you reward the city? It was

Brandon Lang [00:32:37]:
a hobby. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll justify it

James [00:32:39]:
for sure. I’m not On say it’s wrong. No.

Brandon Lang [00:32:42]:
No. It was a great trip for sure. Yeah. It’s just funny

James [00:32:45]:
like this is what we made.

Brandon Lang [00:32:47]:
Oh, yeah. I know.

James [00:32:48]:
What should we do with

Brandon Lang [00:32:48]:
this? Yeah.

James [00:32:49]:
Go On LA.

Brandon Lang [00:32:52]:
Yeah. And you know, I wouldn’t say it was like the worst decision but we just were, you know, we just didn’t think it was like going to be anything. We’re still in that mindset. Right? We’re like, oh Lang. This is crazy. I can’t believe people want to pay for this service for sure. Yeah. So, we went in and we 2019 is really when we started like okay invest, invest, invest.

Brandon Lang [00:33:17]:
That’s why we kept the jobs too. It is just like okay we were just we made the money and it is going to stay here and then we are going to build Lang then we are going to build and then that way we weren’t having to take money. I mean we didn’t start paying ourselves until probably 2020. Really is when we started paying ourselves just anything. Right?

James [00:33:35]:
Sure. More than a roller coaster money?

Brandon Lang [00:33:37]:
Correct. Correct. Yes. Yeah. And then because then when we went full time, we obviously have to make up for

James [00:33:42]:
Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:33:42]:
You know, what we were making out of

James [00:33:44]:
the house. Rent, mortgage, food, whatever, for all the stuff. And so, yeah. Now it’s not

Brandon Lang [00:33:48]:
a hobby. Yeah.

James [00:33:49]:
Now it’s a necessity kind of thing to make it work.

Brandon Lang [00:33:52]:
Yeah. Absolutely.

James [00:33:52]:
That’s cool. Tell me about your first employee. How did you find someone that would be seasonal, but also would show up and do the job?

Brandon Lang [00:33:59]:
Yeah. So, first off, our dad’s been with us. This is funny. So, he he was working at full time gig warehouse, warehouse operator manager. He, he was like Lang I really want to quit my job and I’m like, you know, we could pay you. You know, we’ll we’ll pay you Call he wanted to go part time too and we’re like, we’ll just pay you salary and you can be your part time guy and he helps with like prep for the jobs. Right? And how we got our first employee is through my dad. He worked with a guy and he was looking for some side work.

Brandon Lang [00:34:38]:
And he came in and my dad is a good judge of character. He knows good workers and the guy was like an easy easy interview, easy hire. And then training a guy you know training Call be tricky especially if you don’t have any ladder experience. But yeah he did Call. And he really liked the work that we were doing.

James [00:34:58]:
Nice.

Brandon Lang [00:34:59]:
Yeah. I think what’s great about the work that we do is like we get to see almost instant gratification. You put lights on the house. You turn it on and boom. No. It’s right there. Right? You’re not at job like I I don’t know how some of these construction guys do it. Right? Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:35:15]:
When they’re like they’re at a house for six months, a year, two years, you know. I I understand like the final product, but it is really nice. You get that dopamine hit every time you install the line.

James [00:35:25]:
You’re there for a day or half day or something like that? Exactly. Boom. It’s good.

Brandon Lang [00:35:28]:
Exactly.

James [00:35:29]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:35:30]:
Yeah. So, we we found, his name is Lang. We found him and then, the the following year we actually hired, we hired somebody for, our landscape stuff. Because I was like I should be less on the job so what we can get more work. So, we hired a guy through through the summer who just didn’t end up working out. And then we put this big this big blast together. We were actually considering because we we we had tried employees before. If these guys didn’t work out we were like, Call, we’re keeping it small.

James [00:36:03]:
Oh, just two of you? Yeah. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:36:05]:
Yeah. Maybe maybe an Kademan. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s just like can’t find good work

James [00:36:12]:
No. No doubt. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. I guess, from my point of view, business owner, when they’re the business owner and business runner, you essentially own a job. In the case of the business that you have is a physical job.

Brandon Lang [00:36:24]:
Right.

James [00:36:24]:
So one of you has a rough day at the basketball court. Oh. And now you’re like, hey. Funny story about that whole money making thing because I can’t climb a ladder now or I can’t move around the warehouse or you know what I mean? Like, it’s one common thing. I twisted my ankle, so I’m off for a week. Yeah. Like, a little thing like that that could ruin your season.

Brandon Lang [00:36:44]:
Yep.

James [00:36:45]:
And it’s not like, hey. I can’t do anything because I don’t wanna break myself for work. Yep. It’s a physical thing.

Brandon Lang [00:36:50]:
You could

James [00:36:51]:
break yourself at work.

Brandon Lang [00:36:52]:
For sure.

James [00:36:53]:
So it’s from my point of view, it’s a huge risk to put all of it on you or all of it on you and your %.

Brandon Lang [00:37:00]:
Yep. And and we that that’s a that’s a great thing that we’re learning too of like, having things in place. Right? Life insurance policies, all that stuff. Right? Where you don’t even think about it. You’re just like, I’m making money and I’m insured. So, like, in case anything happens, right?

James [00:37:15]:
Yeah. Don’t break your Lang. Just die.

Brandon Lang [00:37:18]:
But as far as like, yeah, workman’s comp like it’s so expensive to get it through as an owner, right? Like and short term disability and like, you know, having people On, like, accidental plans and all that stuff. It’s, we’re just it’s just like this opening of

James [00:37:35]:
more Well, it’s insane.

Brandon Lang [00:37:37]:
Yeah.

James [00:37:37]:
Insane. I was looking at workers comp yesterday and today because they’re shifting companies.

Brandon Lang [00:37:43]:
Mhmm.

James [00:37:44]:
And they have this thing on there. It’s terrorism coverage and catastrophe coverage.

Brandon Lang [00:37:48]:
Yeah.

James [00:37:49]:
In my case, I got people working from home.

Brandon Lang [00:37:51]:
Okay.

James [00:37:52]:
And I’m like, are we expecting some evil terrorist to drive something through my employee’s house? I wouldn’t even make the news. Like, what do I need this terrorism insurance? But apparently, in Wisconsin, you have to have it.

Brandon Lang [00:38:04]:
Oh, interesting.

James [00:38:05]:
So, it’s a couple hundred bucks that I won’t ever get back.

Brandon Lang [00:38:08]:
Cool.

James [00:38:08]:
So, I’m like, this is why we make fun of insurance people. Yeah. What is

Brandon Lang [00:38:12]:
this? Yeah.

James [00:38:12]:
For sure.

Brandon Lang [00:38:14]:
Yeah. I, you know, I it’s weird because in this business too like people spend thousands of dollars on Christmas lights. People spend thousands of dollars on insurance too.

James [00:38:24]:
And our Christmas lights look cool and you

Brandon Lang [00:38:25]:
can check On insurance. I’m just

James [00:38:27]:
like, here’s a promise that I don’t expect anyone to do.

Brandon Lang [00:38:29]:
I think, yeah, too and the workman’s comp with our industry is so high because we are on ladders and it is so unfair.

James [00:38:36]:
Fair. Totally fair. Yeah. I can see that.

Brandon Lang [00:38:39]:
Either way it is like, yeah, I get it. But that is Call part of being a business owner.

James [00:38:44]:
Yeah. It is

Brandon Lang [00:38:45]:
like the hustle You know like On hustle the humbling experience, right? You Especially when like you have these successful years and you’re just like fruits of your labor and able to like, you know, me and my brother both bought a house within the same year. Nice. It’s all because of how good Lang Lighting did. Right?

James [00:39:01]:
Very cool.

Brandon Lang [00:39:01]:
Brandon, and yeah, it’s just the the cost of like, okay. Well, we have these employees. Okay. Well, we got to train them. Right? And that costs money. Oh, and then they’re On to be slower than we are. Right? Much slower than we are at first. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:39:16]:
Oh, well, we got to pay them, you know, and like incentivize them. Oh, well, if you make more money or if you do harder work and it’s faster than we’re we’re On pay you more.

James [00:39:25]:
Mhmm.

Brandon Lang [00:39:25]:
And obviously, the goal right now is, where we’re at now is we have two laborers and the plan is for me to and and so far I had to do one week of take downs because my brother went on vacation which is totally fine. But I’m all sales right now.

James [00:39:41]:
Nice. Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:39:42]:
I’m just Lighting, you know, we’re getting a lot of phone calls and I got a lot of appointments for all sorts of different services, Christmas, landscape, inception. Dustin’s overseeing the operations with these two guys On training and the hope is that I stay all sales until like kind of the November.

James [00:40:03]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:40:04]:
Where I have to get up on a ladder for a couple weeks. Got it. Right? And then, the hope is is that next year we have guys that are just doing the work and I stay full sale.

James [00:40:13]:
Oh, very cool.

Brandon Lang [00:40:13]:
And then, Dustin is less on the job and more like overseeing, like he’s the general manager of the warehouse. So we do have we do have a warehouse guy and a phone person, and then our hope is to actually have two crews that go out this

James [00:40:28]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:40:28]:
This, season, so to speak.

James [00:40:30]:
Tell me a story. It sounds like you and your brother have arranged that you both have your lanes and you stay in your lanes.

Brandon Lang [00:40:37]:
Correct.

James [00:40:38]:
Who was smart enough to figure that out?

Brandon Lang [00:40:42]:
You know, I don’t think that was either one of our ideas.

James [00:40:45]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:40:46]:
I think it was a combination of meeting with other business owners. So, all across the country there is businesses exactly like ours and we’ve met a lot of these business owners at these trade shows that we go to on a yearly basis. There’s a big one out in Saint Louis and that was a big seminar topic. It was like how do you get off the roof essentially and really, oh Lang, I almost remember the conversation now that we bring it up is, super successful guy. He’s got like 20 people. So, he’s got like five to 10 crews that go out regularly. Nice. Big operation and he’s like harness what you’re good at.

Brandon Lang [00:41:29]:
Harness your strength and stay within that. And then I was telling the guy, I was like, wow, I know I like I talk to people really well. I’m great. I’m a people person. I’m an extrovert for sure But I really like doing the work too. And so, that was that’s one big thing that I’m Lighting this year is like, no Lang. This is like you got to let the guys do it. Right? And now, I’m going to have to go into the gym unfortunately Lang actually start working out because like it was great because Oh, you’re now wrong.

Brandon Lang [00:42:00]:
Ladders and stuff and now I’m sitting back and having coffee, you know, or

James [00:42:04]:
Just chilling on your desk?

Brandon Lang [00:42:05]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Me and Dustin joke around. He’s like, oh, what did you do today? Like, you know, and he’s up there on ladders and stuff.

James [00:42:13]:
Oh, funny.

Brandon Lang [00:42:14]:
But yeah Punch

James [00:42:14]:
some keys Lang.

Brandon Lang [00:42:17]:
It’s funny too because I actually taught him how to maneuver a ladder.

James [00:42:20]:
Oh.

Brandon Lang [00:42:21]:
So, he had no ladder experience and I come from, I worked at a window cleaning company for two years.

James [00:42:26]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:42:27]:
So, I had ladder experience. I knew how to operate and move ladders, and being on roofs and gutter cleaning and all that stuff. So, I taught him and now he’s actually, I would say, just about equal to my level of ladder maneuver but he definitely handles roofs better than I.

James [00:42:42]:
Oh, nice.

Brandon Lang [00:42:43]:
For sure.

James [00:42:43]:
So You know, you mentioned the ladder stuff and I’m like, I don’t know if you throw the ladder up there and you climb it but there’s probably a science to it so you don’t fall.

Brandon Lang [00:42:53]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, harnesses are really important. We have cougar paws. Basically, they are like couch cushions for your feet.

James [00:43:01]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:43:02]:
We have hooks that actually hook on to the peaks of the roof. We have stabilizers. I can’t tell you how important stabilizer is for a ladder. Don’t use a ladder without one. So Stabilizer. Stabilizer.

James [00:43:19]:
Right? Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:43:20]:
So, you got the you got the ladder here. Yeah. And then you got this thing that attaches to the ladder that basically creates these feet that go right On the roof. Okay. And what’s great about this is that when you’re climbing up to essentially hop on the roof, the ladder doesn’t slide. Right? It’s like catching on the shingles.

James [00:43:36]:
Oh, because it wants to tip one or the other depending upon which way you step on.

Brandon Lang [00:43:39]:
So, that’s one of the benefits. The other benefit is that you’re not scraping the gutter. Okay. So many people just go bump.

James [00:43:46]:
Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:43:47]:
And then you’re scraping the paint off the gutter. This way, it doesn’t hit the gutter. It’s creating like a gap like this and then you’re able to step onto the roof much more safely.

James [00:43:56]:
Alright.

Brandon Lang [00:43:56]:
Yep. So we do So we use that On, every one of our jobs if we’re getting up on the roof.

James [00:44:00]:
Okay. So And then the couch cushions for your feet, is that to prevent damage to shingles?

Brandon Lang [00:44:05]:
Couch cushions for your feet is to stick to the shingles.

James [00:44:09]:
Oh.

Brandon Lang [00:44:10]:
Yep.

James [00:44:10]:
Okay. So,

Brandon Lang [00:44:10]:
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it where you’ll be in a neighborhood and roofers will use, like couch cushions. Right?

James [00:44:17]:
Literally couch cushions.

Brandon Lang [00:44:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. Like the padding that’s in a couch cushion Brandon they’ll use it because it sticks to the shingles.

James [00:44:23]:
Oh, I didn’t know this. Okay. Yeah.

Brandon Lang [00:44:25]:
So, yeah, and they’re great. They just like they Velcro on this boot and, yeah. You’re just able to walk a lot of these steeper pitches without any issues. Yeah.

James [00:44:36]:
Lang, I had no idea.

Brandon Lang [00:44:38]:
For sure.

James [00:44:38]:
I had no idea. So, we pay people to do this. Right?

Brandon Lang [00:44:41]:
Right. Yeah. Exactly. Well, it’s funny too because we weren’t using cougar paws to start. We were using just regular boots. Regular snow boots, you know. Okay. Or or even just just laddering the whole Lighting.

Brandon Lang [00:44:52]:
But usually, if we can get on the roof, it’s much quicker.

James [00:44:55]:
Because you just lean over and

Brandon Lang [00:44:57]:
lean over.

James [00:44:57]:
Yeah. Over

Brandon Lang [00:44:57]:
and just knock it out. Yeah.

James [00:44:58]:
Okay. Interesting.

Brandon Lang [00:45:00]:
Yeah.

James [00:45:00]:
So are you doing this still when the roof has snow on it?

Brandon Lang [00:45:04]:
Yeah. Unfortunately. You’re just like. Alright. I don’t On promote it but No. No. So, if there’s snow on the roof, we just we have to ladder every move.

James [00:45:15]:
Okay. Lighting? You’re not just walking around a snowy roof

Brandon Lang [00:45:17]:
and No. Okay. No. Unless it is like completely flat like commercial buildings, right?

James [00:45:22]:
Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:45:22]:
Yeah. If it is Lang, if it is rubber we’ll just get up there and able to clip on. So, yeah. You know, knock on wood. But On, the last couple of years have been really good for us as far as like weather wise.

James [00:45:36]:
Well, it’s been chill winter.

Brandon Lang [00:45:38]:
Chill winter. Not a lot of snow. A little bit I mean like pretty normal temperatures.

James [00:45:43]:
Mhmm.

Brandon Lang [00:45:43]:
I’d rather work in like frigid temperatures than snow. Snow, you’re just moving slower. Alright. You’re

James [00:45:50]:
like, you

Brandon Lang [00:45:50]:
got to be more careful.

James [00:45:51]:
Sure.

Brandon Lang [00:45:51]:
Jobs take Call, you know, twice as the amount of time.

James [00:45:55]:
I suppose, because you don’t necessarily know when you’re setting that ladder down in snow what is underneath all that snow.

Brandon Lang [00:46:00]:
Exactly.

James [00:46:01]:
Do you have some garden gnome or is there a hill or something like that? You know what I mean? Like, you don’t know.

Brandon Lang [00:46:05]:
Right. Yeah. And a lot of times if we’re, we have to have another guy there to like foot the ladder. Alright. Especially if we’re going on On, if there’s snow, ice, Call that stuff. Yeah.

James [00:46:14]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:46:15]:
Yeah. We’ve seen it all. Yeah, and the ladders have like feet too that like kind of sink into the bed or the grass and stuff like that. But if the grass is, you know, if it’s frozen Mhmm. Then it’s harder to

James [00:46:28]:
Oh, right.

Brandon Lang [00:46:28]:
Maneuver for sure.

James [00:46:30]:
James On it all you want. Got it. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So the the employees On dealing with all that, has that been what you would call easy or has that been a challenge? Where are you at there?

Brandon Lang [00:46:43]:
I think it’s obviously it’s I would say every day it’s like a learning experience for sure.

James [00:46:49]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:46:50]:
So, it’s I don’t know if it’s gotten I think initially when we started employees it was just like it felt so daunting because it’s like we have all this knowledge, right, in here and it’s got to like be portrayed one On paper to create these systems and two like into these employees and train them well and train them safely and, yeah, it’s just a It’s a long road is what I’m realizing is that like I thought it would be so, like, oh, they’re gonna get it. Right? And and we’ve had employees, like, pick up traits and stuff like that, but we’ve had we have seven years of doing this. And these guys have, like, three months. So I also have to, like, humble and be, like, okay, these guys aren’t gonna get this within the first year. Sure. Maybe not even the first like two or three years.

James [00:47:39]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:47:39]:
Just to get the experience of like, Call, this is how you move a ladder and like, oh, these ladder moves and these roof moves and all the stuff that comes with the installation process. But, I would say having employees is taken so much more like, even though it’s a little stressful because you’re like, oh, I gotta keep these guys busy and I gotta train them well. It’s been a blessing.

James [00:48:03]:
For for

Brandon Lang [00:48:04]:
us to grow and for us to become, a bigger company. And me and Dustin have always talked about like, we’re a family owned company. We On keep it family owned. We also want to keep it small. So that’s why

James [00:48:18]:
How small is small?

Brandon Lang [00:48:20]:
Five to 10 employees.

James [00:48:22]:
Okay. Tell me why?

Brandon Lang [00:48:25]:
More manageable.

James [00:48:26]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:48:27]:
I think and you know if I don’t know. Seems a little bit more stressful. There might be more money to be made, but I mean how much money is I don’t know. I don’t know.

James [00:48:37]:
I don’t know. I’m asking I guess as far as that goes because that’s it’s interesting because me was a call answering service.

Brandon Lang [00:48:44]:
Right.

James [00:48:44]:
When we had three people in my head, well, I guess back then when I had a business partner Brandon our collective heads, we imagine, well, we have 10 people, man. This is gonna be so much easier because if one person calls out, we’re still cool.

Brandon Lang [00:48:57]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:57]:
Back then, if one person called out, that’s 33% of your workforce. That’s a huge deal.

Brandon Lang [00:49:02]:
For sure.

James [00:49:03]:
Then we get to 10, and we’re like, it’s a little better, but it’s not three times better.

Brandon Lang [00:49:09]:
Yeah.

James [00:49:10]:
So it’s just, I call it just higher quality problems.

Brandon Lang [00:49:15]:
Mhmm.

James [00:49:15]:
You have Right. Still problems, but they’re just not as extreme. And, yeah. But it’s so I get it.

Brandon Lang [00:49:24]:
Yeah.

James [00:49:24]:
I understand because it’s it’s a challenge. Employees are a challenge.

Brandon Lang [00:49:27]:
For sure. And I think it might be with the type of business that we have.

James [00:49:32]:
Okay.

Brandon Lang [00:49:32]:
I mean, there’s there’s plenty of there’s plenty of homeowners and and, commercial clients that need all of the service that that we offer.

James [00:49:41]:
No doubt.

Brandon Lang [00:49:41]:
But I think keeping it small and controlled Mhmm. Growth is what we want. So maybe maybe in like ten years, maybe we have ten.

James [00:49:52]:
I’m not saying you’re wrong.

Brandon Lang [00:49:53]:
No. No.

James [00:49:54]:
It’s just that curiosity more.

Brandon Lang [00:49:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I think that, we’ve managed to create this company, you know, we have not a lot of, not a lot of employees but our quality like speaks for itself.

James [00:50:12]:
Mhmm.

Brandon Lang [00:50:12]:
And that’s what we want. Fair. I don’t wanna I don’t wanna be the cheap guy. I want quality and then we wanna train our guys to do quality work.

James [00:50:22]:
Oh, I get it. Something that when you drive past that house that you can be proud and say I was part of that.

Brandon Lang [00:50:26]:
For sure.

James [00:50:26]:
Instead, I don’t know how the people that do shoddy work drive past the house that they did terribly.

Brandon Lang [00:50:31]:
You’ll know. You’ll know.

James [00:50:33]:
And they’re like, don’t tell anyone I did that. Right. Brandon, where can people find you?

Brandon Lang [00:50:39]:
So, our shop is in Stoughton. You can find us on social media. We’re on Facebook. We’re on Instagram. If you want to get a quote, the best bet is to go to our website www.langlightingllc.com. There’s a perfect book quote, request form on there. Just a simple first name, last name, address, phone number, and let us know what you’re looking for. And then me personally Call be out there to, greet you and to show you what we can do.

James [00:51:09]:
Nice. I love it. So Lang lighting l l c dot com.

Brandon Lang [00:51:12]:
Correct.

James [00:51:13]:
Easy enough. This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re watching or listening to this on the web, which I’m sure you are, please give it a big old thumbs up, subscribe, Brandon, of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends and those friends that may need a little bit of decoration for the holidays, seasonal lighting, landscape lighting. What was the other On? The year round stuff?

Brandon Lang [00:51:43]:
Permanent Christmas lights. Lights.

James [00:51:44]:
Permanent Christmas Lighting that they can obviously celebrate my birthday, whenever that may be. We’d like to thank you, our wonderful listeners, as well as our guest, Brandon Lang of Lang Lighting and Decor. Brandon, can you tell us the website one more time?

Brandon Lang [00:51:56]:
Yes. Www.langlightingllc.com.

James [00:52:00]:
Awesome. Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night at the podcast Lang, part of drawincustomers.com. Lang you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.