We are TEXAS BRIGHT IDEAS, a family here to help you with all your lighting and ceiling fan needs.
Our company, providing clients with lighting solutions since 1999, is committed to maintaining its deep-rooted family tradition. Owned by a trio of Monckton siblings who grew up in the great state of Kansas, all have lived the homebuilding lifestyle in one way or another since they were old enough to go to work - some would even say before that! Dad spent 40+ years in the building material industry, starting as a truck driver out of high school and winding up as VP running the show statewide. Everybody learned early on what taking care of homebuilders and their clients was all about. We owe all our success to the loyal customer base we've been so lucky to grow and serve through the years. So if you are just learning about us, please join us - but fair warning: our clients come back again and again.
Connie was our Texas pioneer when the Boose family came to the Harker Heights area to build some of the finest homes in Central Texas. Doug arrived soon after and leveraged his building material expertise into years of building homes and raising a family with his wife Angie. Raising the family stays at the top of the list, but as the kids get older Angie has found more time to be involved in the daily operation, and if you visit the Harker Heights location you're bound to run into her. When Pam came from Cincinnati to join us in 2005, she and her husband had decided the time had come to get out of the world of corporate politics, the kids were grown and gone, and it was time to do something together. Investing in Texas Bright Ideas was a perfect fit.
The opportunity first knocked in 1999, when Doug and Connie bought a little lighting showroom in Harker Heights that provided lighting and ceiling fans with mediocre sales, a copy machine, an Internet-free computer, an oil-guzzling delivery van, a tiny warehouse, and three employees. The invoices were handwritten, the database was a box of 3 x 5 cards, and the purchase order system was Doug's guess at what would sell next week.
Doug remembers the days when orders were stacked on the showroom floor and taken out the front door because the warehouse was too small. Connie's favorite day was moving out of the crammed 8 x 8 office into the spacious new showroom in 2002. Angie gets her fondest memory over and over again: the look on a customer's face when they say: "Thank you! You have helped me so much."
We always figured homeowners, builders, decorators and business owners would get turned off by the big-box stores and online retailers and switch to the local shop where everybody is certified by the American Lighting Association. Lighting is too complicated and too important to choose by guesswork or to buy without a chance to actually see the light. You need to consider how much light you need, how different colors impact light levels, and you need to focus on your project with somebody you trust, somebody enlightened about the latest fashions, colors, trends and products - energy efficiency, compact fluorescents, LEDs and other technological innovations.
We were right. We grew fast enough to build our own store in Harker Heights 2002; we could now display fixtures in beautiful vignettes, and keep large inventories to satisfy the growing customer's demands. When Pam and her husband Kelly joined the partnership in 2005 we opened a location in Georgetown, just a few miles down the road from Harker Heights and north of the Austin metroplex, so we'd be positioned for success in one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Success is never easy, but in the midst of a struggling economy in late 2010, the Georgetown location doubled its size by moving to a great new showroom in Wolf Ranch Shopping Center. Consumers did want someone they could trust. The most common comment we hear from customers on their first visit: "Wow you guys have a beautiful showroom, who knew!"
So here we are today; thousands of projects under our belts, sales in the multi-millions annually, computerized systems from purchasing to delivery and every step in between, a beautiful website where you can shop 24/7, a fleet of delivery vehicles, and lots of American Lighting Association certified employees. Again, we owe it all to the diverse mix of clients and will never be able to thank them enough for the opportunity they've given us to serve them. Home Builders, Decorators, Designers, General Contractors, and many of Central Texas's finest Homeowners pass through our doors every day, and we'll always be ready to provide the solutions they've all come to expect.
Our customers want their money to stay here at home, and we do, too. Because they fit with our core beliefs we are supporting the following charities and movements:
Independent We Stand: A movement of locally-owned business and people across the country dedicated to educating their communities about the importance - and strong economic benefits - of 'buying local.'
Habitat for Humanity: Through the work of Habitat; thousands of low-income families have found new hope in the form of affordable housing. Churches, community groups and others have joined together to successfully tackle a significant social problem: decent housing for all.
Autism Speaks: An organization dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.
You won't find a group of people more eager to be a part of your project in central Texas than Texas Bright Ideas. We love to talk about lighting specific to your needs and ceiling fans. Come see us. We'll put you in the best light.
