Light It Up

Light It Up

COMPANIES by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

Installing home theaters and a remote control for 350 light bulbs can be lucrative. It's all about 'taming technology.'

A business that relies on the luxury homebuilding industry for a bulk of its work isn't a likely candidate to be growing these days, much less building a new corporate headquarters.

But that's exactly what's going on at Tempus Electronic Lifestyles, a Sarasota-based company that installs high-end home movie theaters, lighting systems and alarms, mostly for new homes.

The firm, which also has an office in Fort Myers that serves Naples and Bonita Springs, had about $10.5 million in revenues in 2007, 250% more than the $3 million in revenues it had in 2004, its second full year in business.

What's more, Tempus founder and president Brett Price says the firm's quarterly contract signings - a better indication of sustained growth - are up 80% in 2007 over 2006. That's partially a result of Price's acquisition strategy, which revolves around buying one or two smaller, mom-and-pop home theater installation firms a year, so Tempus can bolster its employee base and client list.

And by growing, Price says the 68-employee company can become more proficient.

"We grew because we wanted to excel," Price says, "not just because we wanted to be big."

Either way, the reward for all this growth is a new corporate headquarters: Price is having a 62,000-square-foot complex built on land he bought earlier this year for $1.4 million, just north of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on Pennsylvania Avenue. The four-building project, spread over nearly six acres, will house the company's offices, its warehouse and a state-of-the art showroom when it's completed, likely by September 2008. It will also provide ample parking space for the company's fleet of 25 trucks and vans, says Price, a problem in past locations.

The headquarters, to be called Penn Station, is a necessary milestone for Tempus - not just a glossy showcase for potential clients. The company is currently squeezed into a temporary office that's one-third smaller, in an industrial neighborhood a few miles north of downtown Sarasota.

Price, 43, acknowledges the current surge Tempus is enjoying in revenues and expansion stems directly from the Gulf Coast housing boom. He founded the company at the right time, in 2002, and quickly realized east Manatee County and the Lakewood Ranch area would be a hot spot for the type of work Tempus does. Says Price: "We were probably as lucky as we were good."

Globe traveler

This is Price's second turn in an executive role at a fast-growing Gulf Coast-based technology company. Prior to Tempus, Price worked for Bradenton-based Cheetah Technologies, a company he co-founded in 1992 with his father, Ben Price.

Cheetah, which made software and hardware for monitoring large cable television and other communication systems, grew from seven employees and $400,000 in sales its first year to 325 employees and $70 million in sales in 2000.

The Prices sold the company to another technology firm in 2001 for $162 million. It has since been sold to another firm, and is now part of JDS Uniphase, a Silicon Valley-based tech firm.

When the Prices' owned Cheetah, it was a true international company, selling its systems in 20 different countries and, in addition to the U.S., running operations in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Brett Price spent about 70% of his time with Cheetah traveling worldwide on sales presentations and other executive roles.

So when the company was sold, he knew he wanted his next job to be something closer to home, for both himself and his family, including his young daughter.

Soon after coming to that realization, while having a home theater installed in his Sarasota home, Price came to another realization: Sarasota-based Advanced Audio was essentially the only big player in the audio-video market in the area.

And that meant there was a budding opportunity - which the recently semi-retired Price took to start his own company.

Tempus, which gets its name from the Latin word meaning tempo, allows Price to stay local while also utilizing his technological background.

He has both an MBA and a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and he worked in testing for Bell Labs before starting Cheetah Technologies.

Tempus has several other employees who come with a high-education background, including two others with master's degrees in engineering - a rare sight in the industry. Says Price: "We are not a typical AV contractor."

Surviving the market collapse

The fragmented, $2 billion-plus audio/visual industry is typically made up of smaller one- and two-truck operations, both in Florida and nationwide.

All it takes to make the list of the 100 largest audio/visual businesses in the country, Price says, is about $3 million in annual sales.

That puts Tempus in the top 15, with its $10 million-plus in 2007 revenues.

Still, with the housing market slide, a customer base has virtually vanished.

"You have to go where they are building homes," Price says, "and the $1.5 million to $3 million market has pretty much collapsed."

Tempus in turn has switched its focus to more high-end homes. The margins are higher, the overhead is lower, and logistically, managing 10 large jobs, Price says, is easier than running 100 small ones.

And, just like many other residential real estate companies dealing with the downturn, the company also hopes to increase its presence and revenues in its commercial division, installing satellite camera systems for businesses, for instance.

Turns out through all the growth and adapting to new markets, Tempus has become more than just a technology business that installs movie screens and lighting remotes.

The company is also a pseudo-manufacturer, as it manages and assembles all of its pre-ordered parts and systems in its warehouse, putting the equipment through rigorous tests prior to installing it.

Overall, on a new home, many Tempus jobs end up becoming combinations of technology, interior design, pre-construction and electrician work.

Take a lighting system Tempus installs.

A 12,000-square-foot home, for example, might have as many as 350 light switches, Price says.

Setting up a one-panel system to control all those lights aren't just bells and whistles on an otherwise extravagant home, says Price, but a necessity.

Add pool lights, an alarm to fit dozens of doors and windows and outdoor illumination, and the work becomes even more complicated.

"All of this technology can be unruly and overwhelming," says Price. "Our job is to tame technology."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Business: Tempus Electronic Lifestyles, Sarasota

Industry: Technology, residential real estate

Key: Company is expanding, despite being heavily tied to the residential housing market.