John Kelly jokes he may need neck surgery one day. “Whether I’m in an airport, office building, car dealership, mall or just walking through a parking lot, my head is always looking up at the lights,” he explains in Business Report’s current Entrepreneur feature in its new issue.
It’s one way he spots potential clients for EcoLite International, his business that manufactures and installs light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
In the company’s first year, EcoLite International, located at 7910 Wrenwood Blvd., generated between $2 million and $3 million in revenue.
Kelly has already set his sight on doubling the number of sales agents working for the company to 100 by the end of 2016 and becoming a recognizable LED brand.
Kelly first started incorporating the low-energy, long-lifetime LED lighting about 15 years ago in his development projects.
“Everybody thought I was crazy for using LEDs. They couldn’t understand why I spent so much money on technology that not many completely understood,” Kelly says. “Today I look a whole lot smarter than I did back then, because most of those lights are still burning.”
About three-and-a-half years ago—prior to the final 2014 stage of the federal mandate outlawing American incandescent bulb manufacturing—Kelly was ready for a change and started getting more involved with LEDs. “The mandate was the number one motivating factor for me to enter the LED manufacturing business,” he says.
Before EcoLite could begin operations, Kelly realized he had to make LEDs risk free. He worked for two years to secure a 10-year product and labor warranty with an insurance carrier, a warranty he says is an industry first in the U.S.—and possibly the world.
“The warranty companies were very wary of my unique request. We had to prove that all of our manufactured products were worthy,” he says.
Since opening last September, EcoLite has already expanded beyond the U.S., establishing offices in India and the Caribbean. He also believes there’s opportunity in India, where 3.3 billion people live and which has the world’s fastest growing economy.
“One of our biggest advantages over all the large national brands is providing clients with the absolute most efficient and cost-effective products available at the time of order. We don’t inventory or sell two- to three-year-old LED technology.”
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