PLSN caught up with Mokry and Pugh as the partners were marking 10 years in business to learn more about how they parlayed their years of industry knowledge, experience and trust into a thriving enterprise that serves an important industry need — to optimize the mileage of entertainment technology instead of just consigning older gear to the junkyard.
PLSN: What does LightParts do?
Don Pugh: LightParts is about service — not only providing parts and repairing PCBs and fixtures, but keeping the ball rolling on older technology — [lighting gear that] may not be the newest, or brightest, but can still generate revenue, and get the job done.
Robert Mokry: We are about service in every aspect of what we do, from answering the phone to taking orders to the right stuff being in the box and showing up at the right place, on time. We have a later shipping cutoff time than every manufacturer in the business. I will drive a box of parts to FedEx at 7 p.m., if that’s what it takes.
Most everyone here has of 10-plus years of experience in the lighting business. Lots of us have 20-plus years and have worked for High End or another lighting manufacturer. We also try to have fun with what we do, and make doing business with us as pleasurable as possible — “professional, but not corporate.” If you’ve ever seen the LightParts calendar, you’ll understand where we’re coming from!
What else makes LightParts unique?
DP: Being a smaller company, we can usually provide faster service than the large manufacturers for repairs, and offer the “one stop shopping” approach for repair and parts sales as we support so many different brands of products. We also buy and refurbish fixtures for sale on the used gear market. Unlike some of the “broker” operations out there that simply list some ones products sight unseen and hope they work as detailed by the seller, we clean, update, repair, and thoroughly test each piece of equipment to ensure reliable out-of-the-box function for our customers.
RM: To get really nuts and bolts, we perform component level repairs that usually manufacturers would do on control PCB’s and electronic ballasts used in automated lights and LED fixtures, with a faster turnaround time and lower cost than manufacturers can offer. We don’t flat-rate repairs, we charge for what was actually required. You pay for what you eat, so to speak. And if you rent lights by the week, if the fixtures gets back in service faster, you make more money. We also stock about $1M of automated lighting and console parts on the shelf, so each company doesn’t have to hold parts stock at each shop. We buy and sell tons of parts.
How did LightParts come about?
DP: After leaving High End and setting up shop in a friend’s underutilized building, Donco LTG (Lighting Technology Group) began providing service and support for all of the older HES products including Intellabeam, Viper, Laser Chorus, and Color Pro. A few months in, I got a call from Robert Mokry, whom I had enjoyed working with at HES and had always shared not only a passion for lighting and sound, but for hard work, and entrepreneurship. With Robert’s extensive contacts in the industry, work ethic and business knowledge, it was a no brainer to join forces and start LightParts together. Everything clicked from day one, and we soon had to hire some industry friends to keep up with the demand. In two short years, we moved to our own 6,700 square foot building, which has just managed to keep up with 10 years of growth.
RM: Don was the service manager at High End when I started back there in sales in 1988. Don was (and is) the world’s expert on old High End products like Intellabeam, Emulator, Dataflash, etc., and had worked out a deal with High End to buy all the remaining spare parts, make more when necessary and start a company to provide service for their discontinued (legacy) products. I went to visit Don in Jan of 2004 to see how his new parts and repair business [Donco] was going. I answered the phone while he had his hands inside a light fixing something, sold some parts to some old customers I knew from the High End days, and we had the idea that was probably a good arrangement. Don would fix stuff and dispense technical knowledge, and I would handle sales and accounting. It was just us for the first year. Pretty soon, people started asking for parts for current gear and from other manufacturers besides High End. The name “LightParts” was determined by what was available as a URL for our website.
Based upon the overwhelming response we received, there was clearly a need for what we were doing. But it wasn’t like we were starting from scratch in a new industry – we both knew a ton of customers from our days at High End, and they trusted us. That really helped. We also knew the products, knew the parts, where to get the parts, all the intimate details only people that built and repaired and sold this stuff would know. Since then, our incredible staff has fueled our growth. We are really lucky to have such great people. They are LightParts now.
What changes do you envision for entertainment technology and the parts/repair business?
DP: LEDs are the obvious future for our industry in so many applications. Manufacturers are still in the “figuring out how and what to do” phase with this new source, which is leading to newer brighter and more useful products each year. And although not as complex as some products, even your basic LED mover has two motors, a couple of belts to break and a PCB to repair, so there will be plenty of demand for parts service even as the older, more complex discharge lamp/dichroic mixing type fixtures are retired.
RM: LED is taking over our industry. We’ve been developing our LED fixture repair capabilities to go along with that. The use of optics in LED lights to create different effects is finally happening, with Martin’s Aura and the Clay Paky B-Eye. But it will be a while before we see 50,000+ lumen LED hard edge lights, so metal halide based fixtures will still be part of the business for all of us. Video is here to stay. We already repair Element Labs Stealth video panels and will be expanding that to other products.
Any words of advice for up-and-coming professionals in the industry?
DP: Be dedicated to what you do. There are plenty of posers and hackers out there all competing for the same job, gig, or contract. If you learn your craft, work hard, and provide a valuable product or service the world should beat a path to your door!
RM: Not everyone will be the designer or LD, so learn Ohm’s Law, how to handle automated lights, balance power, install and format a hard drive in a media server, tie a knot, solder, etc., You can’t be too technical or knowledgeable about your trade, and there is always something new to learn.
If you don’t know as much or more about what you’re doing than your customer, what do you really have to offer? The ability to sell, whether it’s your abilities or services or product, is crucial. Selling is not a dirty word nor activity.
Nothing ever happens until someone sells something – like tickets to shows, for example. I understand Hartley Peavey said something like, “if you can’t clearly state your product or service’s points of difference or utility, all that is left is to discuss price. And there will always be someone cheaper.”
By being able to clearly articulate why you’re the better choice than your competitor, it help you to understand what you’re doing even better too. If you can’t do this, get to work figuring out how to offer something more or better than your competitors.
