Hartford local’s home lighting consultation service strives to help homeowners
Melissa Voss | Editor
For Jessica Evans, feeling cozy at home is an essential for her and her family. So when Evans opened her at-home business Cozy Home and Lighting back in January 2019, her hope is to bring her clients that same level of cozy comfort through picking the right lighting for their space.
Evans is a Madison native who graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities as a communications major who settled in Hartford to be a stay-at-home mom to her children after living in Colorado with her current husband.
After being a stay-at-home mom for a while, she did not know where to go. So she went back to her Madison roots to work at her father’s electric company and then went into accounting. But after some time, she found that her position as an accountant was not what she was meant to be.
“I told myself, “I was a communications major, I was a communications coordinator, I have worked in marketing, this is so not working for me,”” Evans states.
She then took on her dream of starting her own business and for her, it was now or never. In December of 2018, Evans quit her accounting job and started up Cozy Home and Lighting in January 2019 in her home office in Hartford.
“I am at that stage in life where it is now or never. So, my husband told me “you can do this” and was super supportive, so I went ahead and took the leap,” Evans stated.
The idea to create Cozy Home and Lighting came from Evans’ background working at her father’s electrical business. Evans saw that many customers did not know what light fixtures worked best for a room either aesthetically or functionally. She worked with a lighting consultation service herself when working on lighting for her own home and did not have a good experience. So, with her experience in communications, marketing, advertising, and electric, she found that curating her own home lighting consultation service was the perfect fit.
“I was thinking of what areas do I have at least a little expertise in that I can do. And I realized that this was the right avenue for me. If I can help someone who is building or updating their house, I can help them pull it all together. I am not an interior designer, but I can help them get what they want and also work with the electrician and help get everything installed,” Evans said.
Now a year and a half after launch, Evans finds that a lot of the process has been trial-and-error, but she finds the process fun and enticing; from the advertising to working with customers.
All in all, Evan’s philosophy with Cozy Home and Lighting comes from an at-home comfort that she wants to bring into her customers’ homes.
“Cozy is a big thing in my house, I have three kids and since they were little, they have to be cozy. So, when it came to this business, it was the thought of what do I want to do for people and their homes. I want them to be cozy. And lighting is what creates it,” Evan said.