Effective Outdoor Landscape Lighting Principles for Small Businesses

Southern Landscape Lighting Systems of Marietta, GA, designs, installs, and services residential and commercial outdoor lighting systems in the metro Atlanta area. Most people envision landscape lighting in the context of a home or subdivision. However, architectural outdoor LED low voltage lighting offers many benefits to the small business owner.

The Small Business Environment

Many small businesses start the day before sunrise, end the day after sunset, and operate out of the owner’s backyard or at a small shop or facility. The only lighting may be an outdoor light on a telephone pole installed by the power company and activated by a light sensor.

Here are nine compelling reasons for small business owners to proactively and intentionally illuminate the daily onboarding and offloading processes at their business.

   1. Improve worker efficiency loading in the morning and unloading in the evening

Working with adequate lighting improves efficiencies. Workers can find equipment, tools, and materials more quickly with adequate, bright illumination. Employees are more likely to offload equipment, tools, supplies, materials, and debris and put them where they belong when they have adequate lighting. These efficiencies create value and strengthen ROI.

Business owners, CEOs, or site managers would do well to consider documenting pre-dawn and post-dusk workflows with an eye to pinpoint inefficiencies and safety hazards related to inadequate lighting. Then, schedule a consultation with Southern Landscape Lighting Systems to cure inefficiencies and enhance productivity.

   2. Reduce wasted working hours

Intentional lighting solutions mean less time is wasted searching for lost or misplaced equipment, tools, and materials. Fifteen minutes spent looking for supplies or tools translates into unbillable labor costs and unearned revenue. Improved efficiencies add up to more time spent on billable activities. Loading the wrong materials, shorting quantities, or missing items altogether can diminish profit margins.

   3. Improve vehicle and equipment maintenance

Proper fleet and equipment maintenance requires daily visual inspections, lubrication, fluid checks, tire pressure checks. Before any vehicle, skid steer, backhoe, or light equipment is started, the fluids and tire pressures should be checked. A well-positioned spotlight will both remind and enable employees to accurately complete and record vehicle and equipment maintenance protocols.

   4. Promote safety

A well-designed lighting plan will remedy safety hazards in the workplace, reducing the likelihood of worker injuries and lost-time accidents. Safety enhancement and accident prevention in and of themselves justify the expense of designing and installing LED low-voltage landscape lighting in the shop and staging areas of a small business.

   5. Reduce spoilage and product damage resulting from insufficient lighting

Adequate lighting enables workers to properly load, stabilize, and secure products and equipment on vehicles and trailers. A load shift can cause thousands of dollars in damage to delicate equipment and expensive products such as an HVAC unit, countertop, cabinets, plants, power equipment, or custom artwork.

   6. Improve employee attitude and productivity

Innovative LED lighting improves workforce attitude and productivity. The scientific evidence undergirding the health benefits of LED lighting is solid. Attitudes, attention, and work pace improve when the workplace is illuminated with innovative LED low-voltage lighting.

   7. Avoid light pollution for neighbors

Many small business owners stage their operations from their backyards. Employees arrive pre-dawn at the residence, load vehicles, depart, and return post-dusk to unload vehicles, equipment, and products at the owner’s home or backyard shop area. A professional lighting specialist from Southern Landscape Lighting Systems can design and install a LED low-voltage lighting system that delivers maximum illumination without disturbing or annoying neighbors with unwanted light pollution.

   8. Provide strong ROI

LED lighting requires one-fifth of the energy of typical incandescent lighting. The bulbs last as long as thirty thousand hours or more. The durable, moisture-resistant fixtures are constructed of brass and can withstand the rigorous punishment meted out in an industrial environment. Maintenance is minimal. LED lighting is safer than the higher voltage, higher temperature halogen lights that can more readily create fire hazards where combustible materials, chemicals, and fuels are present.

  1. Allow for versatility

An LED lighting system can be easily expanded or adjusted to adapt to changes in workflow. Changes in the parking lot, maintenance areas, storage locations, or building additions can be easily and quickly accommodated. Systems can be programmed to fit schedules. Motion sensors can create safe and effective work environments without creating unnecessary light pollution. Workflow disruption is unnecessary with innovative LED technology.

For more information about outdoor landscape lighting installation and service, contact the office by phone at (678) 616-9166 or email [email protected].

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