Think Big to get Big

A strategy shift that began as far back as spring 2015 at Tampa-based Garden Light LED, which designs, engineers and manufactures architectural and outdoor lighting, could produce big results in 2017.

Michelle Mueller, who co-owns the business with husband, Reto Mueller, says the company, with $10 million a year in sales and around 50 employees, had grown “too big to remain small.”

Mueller, also the chief marketing officer of the business, spoke about Garden Light LED's transformation at a recent Tampa Bay Innovation Center Tech Talk event. First the company hired Stewart Schaffer of Tampa-based CSuite Solutions to perform a SWOT analysis, a process that took some 200 hours. The gist of the report: The company made great lights, but, says Mueller, it was “missing out on many channels of distribution.”