After spending 22 years in the telecom industry and facing a transfer to an unwanted location, Rick Popio decided the time had come to change industries and take his career in a different direction. Rick acted upon the opportunity to retire from his former company and began researching businesses to purchase.
Before long, Rick learned of an opportunity to purchase a successful and flourishing existing Outdoor Lighting Perspectives franchise in Richmond, Virginia. Outdoor Lighting Perspectives is the largest landscape lighting franchise in the world offering professionally designed, installed and maintained residential and commercial low-voltage landscape lighting systems as well as holiday lighting services. As part of Outdoor Living Brands, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives has locations throughout the United States as well as a few international locations.
Rick was more than familiar with Outdoor Lighting Perspectives and he thoroughly understood the client experience since he was a happy client himself. In fact, the client experience is a focus for Rick and he regularly looks for ways to improve it. He knows that one of the most important aspects of his business entails meeting and exceeding the expectations of his clients. With this in mind,it is not a surprise that Rick opens every client meeting by asking “what is your vision for this project?” What follows is “really just a conversation as I walk the client through the entire design process.” Rick maintains his emphasis to ensure that the client feels good about the purchase in all phases of the project.
From Rick’s background in the telecom industry, he brought many years’ worth of experience in sales and in understanding the importance of customer service. Rick felt that learning the technical aspect of the Outdoor Lighting Perspectives business would not be too difficult and as a result he knew that he had a good foundation to be successful as a franchisee.
Since acquiring Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Richmond in early 2018, Rick’s experience as part of franchise system has been “nothing but positive and has been refreshing coming from the corporate world” noted Rick. He appreciates the level of support from the franchisor and from other franchisees and further states “the support group at Outdoor Living Brands is impeccable and makes is easy to be successful.”
The journey from client to franchisee continues as Rick recently expanded beyond the Richmond area by acquiring additional territories which include Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and Lynchburg where he continues to make the client experience and pre-eminent customer service a central focus of his business.
About Outdoor Lighting Perspectives
Established in 1995, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives is the nation’s first and largest full-service low voltage outdoor lighting company. With over 150,000 installations across the United States and abroad, the franchise is known for skillful, custom design for the hospitality industry, commercial businesses, and residences. Featured in Lodging Engineer, Lodging, Architectural Digest, Garden Design, House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, Coastal Living, Country Living, HGTV Magazine and Martha Stewart Living, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives features stunning handcrafted copper and brass LED outdoor lighting fixtures saving clients up to 75% in energy costs with bulb life between 5 to 10 years. As a part of Outdoor Living Brands, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives’ sister brands include Archadeck, Conserva Irrigation, and Renew Crew. Visit OutdoorLightingFranchise.com or OutdoorLights.com to learn more.
