It’s not easy to stand out in the lighting industry.
There are thousands of variations for products, with different shapes, sizes, colors and power. A few large companies bask in the glow of global brand names, leaving many smaller companies to try to catch the eyes of customers by undercutting the prices of the big brands.
But Overland Park-based SARIN Energy Solutions discovered a niche focusing both on value and customer service.
“Let’s say there are 100 customers on the market,” said SARIN Energy founder Inayat Noormohmad. “About 25 or 30 will only buy a name brand like Philips or General Electric. I’m fine not serving them. Another 25 of those will just buy the cheapest of the cheap. I’m OK not serving them. I’m focused on the middle, the customers who want quality with additional value attached to it. That’s where we come in, and it’s a huge market.”
SARIN specializes in commercial LED lighting. Its products include bulbs in a variety of sizes and shapes, ceiling and vanity lights, flood and pole lights, signs, and a variety of what it calls novelty fixtures.
Noormohmad said his goal early on was to ensure that customers who came in SARIN's doors were satisfied enough to stay. The company enticed prospective customers by guaranteeing that its LED products would last long enough to cover installation costs through energy savings.
“Our focus has always been on quality,” he said. “I know we get beat on pricing on a lot of things, but we’ve stuck to our guns. We don’t do shortcuts. And sure enough, the same wholesale customers who initially turned us down for a cheaper option are now returning. We constantly hear from customers who bought some cheap LED light on Amazon that burned out within a year or two and now they want us to come out and change it.”
Colin Goodwin, general manager for Furniture Deals, said he checked out several companies but ended up picking SARIN Energy because it specialized in energy savings for commercial clients. SARIN retrofitted lighting for Furniture Deals' distribution center and now is converting signage and other lighting.
"There were a few hiccups we had on the ordering process where they messed something up, but they couldn’t have handled it better," Goodwin said. "They jumped on it and fixed it, making sure everything was fixed in a professional manner. You can never say everything is going to go perfectly, but the way you respond when something goes wrong is what makes the difference in growing companies. They definitely know how to do it the right way."
SARIN Energy initially had a wider focus on the market, but that created challenges to maintaining a high level of customer service. The company's banker provided some sage advice on that front, advising that SARIN concentrate on specific types of commercial clients, such as hotels and retail stores.
“I had a conversation with my banker at Landmark Bank who asked me why most companies fail," Noormohmad said. "I thought it was because they didn’t have enough orders. But no, the majority of companies fail because they grow too fast. I can see that now, because I was in that position. We grew so fast that we had challenges meeting customers' needs. So we put the brakes on a bit, only focusing on certain areas and industries. It enabled us to manage everything far better and keep our clients happy.”
Today, Noormohmad is busy growing a nationwide presence. He recently opened a production plant in Houston, enabling SARIN to build custom products for clients. He switched from a in-house sales staff to field representatives and began contracting out for installation rather than having it done by staff. This freed up time and resources for innovation.
Noormohmad is working on advancements in solar lighting, creating vivid new color offerings and interesting new fixtures for inside and outdoors. He’s applied for several patents.
“One of our products can now have nine variations,” he said. “So I don’t have to carry nine different products in inventory to serve those nine different needs. It’s just a switch, and so easy to change that our clients can do it themselves. Bulbs have been doing that for awhile, but not in the commercial market. It increases our costs a little bit, because you’re adding more chips to it, but it saves us in terms of carrying inventory and gives clients more versatility, which they like.”
The technological side of the business comes naturally to Noormohmad, who earned an aerospace engineering degree from Georgia Tech. Instead of taking a job offer at Lockheed Martin, he went back to school and graduated from the London School of Economics. He spent most of his career as an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, which is what brought him to the Kansas City area.
In 2012, he launched SARIN Energy Solutions, with the name coming from the initials of his family members. The idea for the business came from his dad, a serial entrepreneur who saw the savings in installing LED lighting.
“My family has started several businesses since we moved to America from India many years ago,” Noormohmad said. “This is a family affair, for sure. My dad is great handyman and my brother is a banker. When you have strong support from your family, you know you’re not alone and that feeling is priceless. It enables you to take risks like starting a lighting company, which is an industry I had no experience in.”