Text by Joanne M. Anderson
Photos courtesy of Blue Ridge Lights
The National Enquirer was launched in 1926 as the New York Enquirer primarily covering crime stories. When the publication changed hands in 1952, the new owner transformed content to a weekly tabloid of sensationalized (but verified?) stories, vastly increasing its appeal.
The phrase “enquiring minds want to know” became so popular that the National Enquirer copyrighted its slogan. It’s a meaningful phrase others like to use. The solution? Changing the more British spelling to “inquiring minds want to know”, avoiding any copyright infringement.
Launching a Small Business
And what does this have to do with a trio of Virginia Tech students, now graduates, who started Blue Ridge Lights? For starters, they are all engineers. This writer has an inside scoop on the engineering mind, being the daughter of one, and married four decades to another. They have “inquiring minds” and they “want to know” … how to do this, how to fix that, how to use their hands to improve life, build things, re-wire half the house, move doors, level things, run a small business and much more. They are a creative lot.
The best way to learn about business? Start one, ideally one that fills a need so there will be customers. Two of the three, twins Matthew and Thomas Callari, remember driving around as kids looking at Christmas lights and loving the sparkles and glimmers in their hometown of Chesapeake.
They grew up working with their hands, figuring things out and building swimming pools for summer jobs. Along with their pal Jacob Williams, who brings along his own hands-on experience in electrical work and problem-solving, they decided on a seasonal enterprise lighting up houses and businesses for the holidays. This would work well given that they each have day jobs in engineering fields.
Defining Services
They brainstormed everything from the business name, services, equipment they’d need, supplies and marketing angles. “We figured that offering an all-inclusive service – providing decoration plans, leasing out the lights, installing them, and then taking them down and storing them after the season is over – we would take away the homeowner’s hassle and provide an easy way for people to bring some extra magic to their homes and businesses during the holiday season,” Matthew relates.
“Plus,” adds Jacob, “we knew we could do things on a professional level that most people aren’t able to do for their house or business. We learned some good lessons early on and, by trying to go above and beyond, we have kept our customers happy.”
They tossed around ideas for getting customers on a slim sales budget. “We thought of door hangers, flyers and a digital video on Facebook before landing on the sign idea,” Thomas explains. “We checked out sign rules, ordered some signs, and strategically placed them at stop signs [ah, where this writer saw one!].”
Like any industry, lighting for buildings has niche markets for specific tools and supplies. “We need the correct clips, for example, to match gutters and attachment places,” Matthew explains. “We wear specialized roofing shoes, and have ladders, ladder hooks and, of course, a wide variety of lights, wire and other gear.”
Expanding from Seasonal
Blue Ridge Lights started as a seasonal business. “The majority of our work is Christmas lighting,” Jacob declares, “but we also are doing more permanent light installations throughout the rest of the year, such as Govee or Eufy branded products.” Govee and Eufy lights are smart technology lighting products which can be controlled remotely via Bluetooth or WiFi. You put them up once and use them year-round for holiday or everyday lighting.
It is not likely that the Blue Ridge Lights engineers will find themselves in some sensationalized story on the cover of National Enquirer. However, they are dedicated to sensationalized lighting for the holidays or year-round, the latter especially to emit a wonderful glow to your business after dark or simply to creatively enhance the home lighting scene.
No doubt, their inquiring minds, wanting to know [fill-in-the-blank], could lead them into improving the lighting décor industry with inventions of their own. Remember, engineers are a creative lot.
Blue Ridge Lights
Blueridgelightingllc.com
blueridgelightsllc@gmail.com
540-251-4947
This story appears in the November–December issue of New River Valley Magazine.
