Small Biz Survival

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Control your business holiday lights with smart home tools

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Quick! Where is the switch for the outdoor lights? With an older building, it can be hard to tell. Via Pixabay

 

Older downtown buildings in small towns are a good use for “smart home” technology. Small businesses struggling with vintage or outdated electrical systems can use smart outlets to control displays more easily.

I thought of this when I was in a local retail store at closing time. The owner and a clerk were talking about which switch controlled which holiday lights and how some of the lights don’t have a switch because they’re plugged into an outlet, but the outlet is high up on the wall and hard to get to. If they put smart switches into the the outlets then plugged the lights into those, they could control all the lights from their phone. No step ladder required.

What else could you control in your business using a smart switch or outlet? Could you set up automated lighting routines that come on and off without you having to remember? How else would you use smart home or smart building tools in your small business?

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband own a retail liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, and a small cattle ranch nearby. Becky is an international speaker on small business.

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