On Season 5 of The Profit, Marcus Lemonis travels to Chicago to check out the cool lighting company Hangout Lighting. The company is known for its unique “design-it-yourself” pendant lights, sconces, and chandeliers. You can mix and match components – shades, sockets, bulbs, cords, ceiling plates – made of different materials and available in different colors.
[left: Marcus Lemonis’ Broken Heart Sweater on The Profit — What’s the Deal?]
According to The Profit, the big obstacle for Hangout Lighting’s expansion and future success is a lack of clear leadership from the owner and founder of Hangout Lighting, Jennifer Brown. She got turned onto lighting design during college (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and opened her own Etsy shop where she rolled out her mix-and-match components concept. Now she’s running a 4,000 sq. ft. workshop and showroom in Chicago with 10 employees — with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Hangout Lighting has been in business for the past four years; now Jen just needs to learn how to trust her employees more and let go of some of the responsibilities and the anxiety that comes with those responsibilities. The Profit airs Tuesdays at 10pm on CNBC.
