William D. Light
Bio
Bill Light is a former US Army Special Ops Scout Dog Handler who served in Vietnam from 1968-1969. When Bill returned, the entrepreneurial spirit consumed him and propelled him towards success. The love of his home town and the desire to make it a better place with the business he created. He bought and operated the largest hardware store in Summerville, GA. His desire and love of historic buildings motivated him to buy the Summerville Train Depot and restore it to its former glory and establish business space within. Mr. Light opened and equipped the Energy Conservation Center approved by TVA, this company built and installed thousands of storm windows for TVA, he later sold the company. He purchased a local cable broadcasting station and using his marketing skills, brought life to another failing business.
In 1987 Mr. Light turned his marketing skills towards the home goods industry. A graduate of the business school of the University of Alabama, Light said he "always had a burning desire to become a true entrepreneur, to seek out a niche in the marketplace that had potential, one that is unique."
He first came across the wallpaper industry when he operated his own hardware store in the mid-1970s. Wallpaper was among the store's stock, but sates accounted for less than two percent of the store's revenues. Then, in the late '70s, Light noticed that his wallpaper sales began to climb dramatically. "I did some research and I discovered that wallpaper sales had reached their heyday in the U.S. in 1949, and that the current number of rolls of wallpaper being sold was only five percent of the sales from 1949. I was fascinated," Light recalled. "I saw that the wallpaper industry was about to make a comeback, due to improved production and application techniques, and an enormous increase in quality, so I sold my hardware company and went into the wallpaper business fulltime." In 1981, Light formed Paige Wallcovering, Inc., in Mentone, Alabama, wholesaling wallpaper to dealers only. The company became so profitable that in 1987 he opened a retail store.
Over the next 20 years, he built one of the largest and most successful wallpaper and window treatment companies in the US. He drop ships blinds and wallpaper and direct ships from his warehouse in Chattanooga Two of his crowning achievements were being recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. 500 Magazine and establishing the wallpaper industry in China with what is now the largest retailer there.
Mr. Light is an accomplished senior-level professional who demonstrates expertise in the areas of Finance, Operations, and Staff Management. Bill exhibits the ability to coordinate multiple projects and teams simultaneously with the skills to effectively manage staffs of all levels from diverse backgrounds.
Dates of Interest
- February 1997: Light opened a 14,000 sq. Ft. Wholesale Wallpaper showroom in the same building as Home Depot prototype Expo Design center in Miami, Florida. Began cross-merchandising with Expo in this location. The venture was very successful.
- May 1997: Bryant Scott, President of Home Depot Expo Design Center offered to negotiate to buy Wholesale Wallpaper and hire Light to head up all marketing of wallpaper for Home Depot. Light was in a partnership at the time with Baita and was not free to pursue the offer.
- October 1998: Light began to research doing business via the Internet
- March 1999: Light contracted with database and website Development Company to build an .asp database and state of the art website for Wholesale Wallpaper.
- September 2000: Database and website completed. Began loading 1,500,000 wallpaper images and product information into database.
- January 2001: Wallpaper Wholesaler.com went live testing the database.
- May 2001: Light began interviewing and hiring Internet sales and customer service staff.
- July 2001: Light began selling via the web. The Internet venture was an immediate success.
Annual Sales
Wallpaper Sales ONLY!
- 2001 $ 653,500
- 2002 $ 4,175,600
- 2003 $ 5,619,274
- 2004 $ 7,676,960
- 2005 $ 8,509,726
Other Core Competencies
- Negotiating Real Estate contracts (Purchase, Sell, and Lease)
- Rental Property Management to include complete maintenance
- Call center development to include all equipment, hiring and training of all staff
- September 2014 - August 2018, Light and engineers from Auburn University developed software that allowed blinds, shades, and shutters to be custom made via the markeplace platform that all "Big Box" retailers have as their base platform, see the videos below!
Videos
Target Demo Number 2
Interview with Bill Light on Chinese television
How to Measure Windows for Blinds
Blind/Shade Installation Instructions
How to install Cordless Roller/Solar Shades - Outside Mount
How to install Solar/Roller Shades with Continuous loop lift and cassette valance-Outside Mount
How to install Solar/Roller shades with Continuous Loop Lift and cassette valance - Inside Mount
How to install Wood and Faux Wood Blinds - Inside Mount
How to install Solar/Roller Shades with Continuous Loop Lift - Inside Mount
How to install Solar/Roller shades with Continuous loop lift - Outside Mount
How to prepare existing windows to install new solar shades
1. Locate extreme left window in the area where the new solar shades will be installed
2. Enter the entrance door turn to your right, walk to the furthermost window, this is the extreme left window when looking from the inside out.
3. This will be labeled Window A1. Now with your cell phone, take a picture of this window then move to the next window and take a picture of this window. This window will be labeled A2.
Moving down to the next window, repeat the process of A2. This window will be A3 and continue this process in this area until you reach the final extreme right window. Now return to A1 and remove existing blind or shade bond for A1 window.
4. Remove brackets and screws as well, these items will be disposed of in the dumpster of this building. (Arrangements for this will have been preapproved.)
5. Now you will get a bucket of hot water and wash down the frame with the hot water completely washing all of the area. Then with fresh water, rinse the area clean. Use Windex and paper towels, clean the entire inside of the window twice. if the window after the cleaning shows flaking of any material (tinting usually) that may be on the window, you must stop then. An observer will be observing your progress via photos you have previously took. You will now email all of these photos to your observer. Your observer will be in charge of how you go forward.
6. Proceed to the next window and repeat the steps above until all of the windows are complete in the extreme right.
7. We will now measure each window for the installation of an inside mount cassette valance of a solar shade. This cassette valance is very streamlined and recommended. We will Watch the video entitled "How to Measure for Inside Mount" listed above. after you watch the video, we will begin at the extreme left window and measure it according to the directions from the video "How to Measure-Inside Mount".
8. After the measurement are marked on the worksheet, we will take a picture of the worksheet and wait for their reply. If the observer agrees with the measurement we will move to the next window and all remaining windows. Once the observer informs us area A meets their approval, we will then move to area B and repeat the same process as we did in area A. If there is an area C, D, etc., we repeat the same process as we did in Area A.
9. If there are differences in the windows in the proceeding areas, the observer will be shown the differences by emailing a photo of the differences. Once all the measuring is complete on the whole job, you will return to area A Window 1 and repeat your measuring throughout the whole job on each window providing a separate worksheet as to the area and window and the photos of these worksheets will be emailed to the observer.
10. Once all things are satisfied by the observer, the order for the solar shades will be placed with the manufacturer and each solar shade will be side marked on the carton in a very viewable way as to what window it is to be reinstalled, the observer will be emailed the installed via photo emails as was the case with the proper person. The measuring team and the installing team will be aware of the building's occupant's safety at all times keeping the empty packing boxes in neat and non obstructive piles which are to be disposed of in a regular routine to be determined by the observer.
11. Upon the completion of the job, a final inspection will be done by the installing team and the observer.