Book Review: Lighting the Way to North America

Steven J. Parker, LC is an entrepreneur, industry leader, author, teacher, mentor, and licensed captain. Steve has 36 years of experience primarily with start-up companies, which now total seven. As president of the last two startups in Tampa, he has created gazelles (as defined by Verne Harnish in Scaling Up ),  jobs and award – winning industry leaders in both the power supply and luminaire market.

Inspired by a career disruption of a year-long non-compete Steve had time for introspection and focused on giving back, reading and studying. Steve was appointed to the advisory board for Stay In Step, a spinal cord and traumatic brain injury recovery center and for the last 15 months has been chairman (www.stayinstep.org). The center has grown in patients, profile and financial stability with his guidance.

During the non-compete period Steve read a book every single day in preparation to writing his book. Steve is the author of Lighting the Way to North America – from startup to EBITDA.  The book is a step by step approach to setting up a lighting company in North America. The 19 chapters in the book cover a brief history of light sources, guidance on where to begin, product selection, legal, warehousing, building a team, leadership, reporting, safety compliance, performance, going to market, representatives, distributors, media, trades shows and lighting associations, prevention and lastly, how to measure and improve the multiple of EBITDA at point of exit (for privately held corporations).

Steve is interested in getting involved in one more startup or a company interested in scaling up.

Books are available at www.stevenjparker.com or www.lightingthewaytonorthamerica.com