It\u2019s September, and that means my holiday catalogs have already started arriving. That used to bug me, but now I appreciate the chance to get a jump start on that very busy season. There\u2019s so much to do; shop for gifts, bake cookies, decorate, throw parties and make travel plans. Somewhere during that six-week time period, the holiday lights need to go up, too. That\u2019s where you come in.<\/p>\n
For landscape and irrigation contractors looking for an additional revenue stream, installing holiday lighting can be a big, bright package wrapped up in a shiny bow of profit \u2014 especially now that the economy is strong. In the colder parts of the country, it\u2019s a great way to keep your best people working during the off-season, when you might lose them to other employment.<\/p>\n
Who are your customers? Your own client list, for starters. It includes the too-busy modern families and single-mom households; the grandparents who don\u2019t want to climb ladders anymore but still want the house to look festive for the grandkids; highend people with large estate homes; shopping malls; office parks and municipalities.<\/p>\n
Mike Marlow, vice president of Holiday Bright Lights, Omaha, Nebraska, says the state of the holiday lighting industry can be described in one word: rocking. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be another great year because we\u2019re starting to see all the early indicators of more commercial properties requesting holiday lighting as well as more residential-type customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Rentz, president and owner of The Perfect Light, Dallas, with branches in Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Denver, can attest to how profitable lighting up homes for the holidays is. \u201cOur most expensive residential install ran just over $100,000. And it\u2019s not uncommon for people to spend in the $10,000 to $20,000 range the first year they buy Christmas lights.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s plenty of money to be made in residential decorating, municipal and commercial decorating runs much higher. \u201cThere are some municipal jobs that are several hundred thousand dollars, some malls and things like that that are half-million dollar jobs,\u201d Rentz says. \u201cThere are projects around the country that cost a couple million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going with an established company as an affiliate or franchisee can be the fast track to getting on board the North Pole Express. That often comes with discounts on products, sales leads, help and training.<\/p>\n
Certainly, you can do it on your own, says Brandon Stephens, CEO of Christmas Decor, Irving, Texas, noting that there are some excellent training programs available. But, as he puts it, why do it the hard way?<\/p>\n
He compares it to starting your own restaurant or opening a McDonald\u2019s. The latter comes with a framework already built, with replicable systems for doing everything in the most efficient way possible.<\/p>\n
Holidynamics, Omaha, Nebraska, works with contractors through an affiliate approach. The company provides the contractor training. It also holds new product training classes \u201cbecause a lot of it is moving toward the [more advanced] LED and RGB (red, green, blue) now,\u201d says President and CEO Scott Heese.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just get you into our program and offer rewards. We have tiered discounts, because one flat price doesn\u2019t serve everyone. For instance, there\u2019s a contractor in Chicago who purchases over $80,000 worth of product from us every year. We don\u2019t think he should get the same pricing as the guy who only decorates two homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rewards, in the form of trips, are offered to contractors who buy a lot from them \u2014 this year, it\u2019s to Los Cabos, Mexico.<\/p>\n
Christmas Decor works by the franchise model. In exchange for a startup fee and a yearly royalty, \u201cwe help the contractor get there fast,\u201d says Stephens. \u201cWe teach you all the fundamentals in our five-day training, and after that, we have a full support team that will answer any questions you have.\u201d The company also offers business software, territory protection and marketing help to its franchisees.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job as a franchisor is to help you command the highest price for your jobs while operating at the greatest efficiency so it adds points to your bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arnie Arsenault, president and CEO of A. Arsenault & Sons Inc., Spencer, Massachusetts, has been a Christmas Decor franchisee since 1998. He originally signed up just to keep his landscape employees busy in the winter; now holiday lighting comprises 30 percent of his business. \u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of the franchisees throughout the U.S., and the system seems to work very well everywhere, especially if you follow it and don\u2019t fool around with it or try to make it your own,\u201d Arsenault says.<\/p>\n
Village Lighting, West Valley City, Utah, and Holiday Bright Lights are manufacturers who sell to contractors either directly or via distributors. Holiday Bright Lights also offers tools to help decorators build their businesses. \u201cWe have an app for designers where they can take a picture of someone\u2019s house and see how different lights would look on it,\u201d says Marlow. \u201cWe also have an estimating program and a website with marketing templates for flyers and so forth. All a contractor has to do is put his own business logo on them, print them and send them out.\u201d A training program is also in the works.<\/p>\n
Contractors sometimes go astray offering too many discounts to customers. \u201cYou really don\u2019t need to do that,\u201d says Marlow. \u201cThis is a premium service, and people expect to pay for it.\u201d It\u2019s a good idea, though, to set a minimum charge. Rentz\u2019 is $1,000.<\/p>\n
Marlow also warns against buying inferior quality lights from the local big-box store or online. The contractor-grade outdoor holiday lights will have thicker wire, sturdier bulbs and more reliable connectors, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some factories overseas that we just won\u2019t deal with because they cut corners,\u201d says Marlow. \u201cWe make sure all of our light sets are waterproof. They last seven to 10 years. We warranty them for three years, straight up. No questions asked, we\u2019ll replace them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Systems, or the lack of them, is what Stephens says keeps some contractors from making money at holiday lighting. Instead of following a replicable blueprint, they reinvent the wheel with every new job. That costs them money.<\/p>\n
Training in efficient, repeatable systems is part of what his company offers to its franchisees. \u201cWe break down every job into five different decorating techniques, roof lighting, for instance. Whether you\u2019re lighting a 100-foot roof line or a 3,000-foot one, it\u2019s the exact same technique every time. If you break things down into replicable systems, a two-day job can become a one-day job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, before you start installing holiday lights, check with your insurer. You may not be covered for climbing high ladders, using cherry-pickers or climbing on roofs.<\/p>\n
One of the challenges of hanging holiday lights is that there\u2019s not a lot of time in which to do it. Most people want them up before Thanksgiving and down after New Year\u2019s Day. The more clients you have, the earlier you need to start. Leave some wiggle room in your scheduling to allow for bad weather days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard, because you do have a short window,\u201d said Larry Jones, designer and lighting division manager at Wingren Landscape Inc., Downer\u2019s Grove, Illinois. \u201cEven though 98 percent of my clients renew every year, a lot of them don\u2019t do it right away. Then they all want them up before Thanksgiving and that\u2019s not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make sure everyone gets their lights up on time, Jones offers incentives. \u201cThose that sign up early will be the first to get them. But there\u2019s a point at which you have to say, \u201cI can\u2019t do any more before Thanksgiving, sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Client preferences complicate this. Rentz says. \u201cSome people think that putting a garland up before Thanksgiving lacks sophistication; others associate Thanksgiving with Christmas and kind of mix it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the most difficult things about this business \u2014 scheduling so that everyone gets what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some contractors lease lights to clients, others sell to them outright. Most prefer to store the lights for the clients, in labeled bins with the installation maps, extension cords and timers ready to go for next year and charge a nominal storage fee for doing it.<\/p>\n
Cost of installation for the first year is often halved for subsequent years. The price includes a guarantee of free servicing and replacement of bulbs through the season.<\/p>\n
One advantage of storing lights for a client is that he\u2019ll probably return as a customer next year. If the lights are in a client\u2019s garage, he can misplace them, damage them, call a different installer or have his nephew put them up.<\/p>\n
Holiday lighting is expanding well beyond just the month of December, says Rentz. \u201cThere are many people in Houston and Dallas that celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. They want their lights up in early October.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies are starting to offer Valentine\u2019s Day, St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Easter, Fourth of July and Halloween displays. There are even permanent lights that are durable enough to stay up all year long. The owner of the home or business can change the colors and motion to fit the season or mood via a smartphone app.<\/p>\n
Should you choose to start installing holiday lighting, you\u2019ll probably find it a satisfying business, and not just monetarily. You\u2019re trafficking in nostalgia, in people\u2019s precious memories.<\/p>\n
One of Jones\u2019 clients is a family with three girls.<\/p>\n
Every year, he would put up lights and a 15-foot nutcracker for them. Then there was a divorce, and for one year, nothing went up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next year, the mom called and asked, \u2018Could you put up some lights? Here\u2019s my budget.\u2019\u201d \u201cI said, \u2018We\u2019re going to stick our necks out and give you a little extra.\u2019 Well, we\u2019ve done it for the past three years, and you should see the tears that come out of those girls\u2019 eyes, even though they\u2019re grown up now, as they see the lights going up on the house and the trees like they used to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, it\u2019s hectic. Sure, it\u2019s hard work,\u201d says Jones. \u201cBut I get to bring people joy. Even if we\u2019ve been out there 12 hours for seven days in a row, putting a smile on people\u2019s faces is what it\u2019s all about. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m still doing it after 23 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, contractors have a large range of holiday lighting products to offer their clients such as strings of lights that change color, chase and strobe and drop lights that look like falling snow. Every year brings more goodies.<\/p>\n
RGB (red, green, blue) LEDs are the newest wrinkle. From those three primary colors 16 million more can be made. \u201cWe can write a program for the RGB lights to make them dance, and we can add music to it,\u201d says Scott Heese, president and CEO of Holidynamics.<\/p>\n
That company also offers \u201cspritzers,\u201d big 3-D stars in multiple colors that flash, and \u201cArtisticks,\u201d lights in the form of wrapped presents and other objects, and lighted yard pieces such as ice-skating polar bears.<\/p>\n
Mitch Hendricks, vice president of Village Lighting, says \u201cWe\u2019ve got one product that I\u2019m super excited about, an app-controlled C7 bulb. It\u2019s a retrofittable RGB. If you\u2019ve got C7s on your roof, you can simply unscrew those bulbs, screw in these and run them off a smartphone app. You can create themes, whatever you want \u2014 the sky\u2019s the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christmas Decor also has app-addressable RGBs. Company President Brandon Stephens has them on his own house. \u201cI can turn them orange and purple for Halloween or make them do patterns and animations. They can ping-pong back and forth, fade in and out and change colors. One of the coolest things we have this year is a 30-foot RGB tree with over 12,000 bulbs. It comes with software that makes them dance to music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yard figures add that extra touch of fun, whimsy and magic. Photos: Holiday Bright Lights<\/p>\n
Very few holiday lighting contractors these days deal much with incandescent bulbs anymore. It\u2019s no surprise considering how much well LEDs perform now. They\u2019re better and brighter (and cheaper) than ever, adding more dazzling special effects every year.<\/p>\n
Earlier LEDs, particularly the clear white bulbs, were not liked by many people because they had a cold, bluish tone. That\u2019s no longer true, and the clear LEDs come in a range of color temperatures to satisfy even the pickiest client.<\/p>\n
Larry Jones, designer and lighting division manager at Wingren Landscape Inc., Downer\u2019s Grove, Illinois, has just one client who still uses incandescents. \u201cAll my municipalities have converted to LED. We try not to sell anybody incandescents anymore because manufacturers don\u2019t like to supply them; that window is going to close quickly and soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Rentz, president of The Perfect Light, won\u2019t install incandescents for new clients. \u201cBut our existing customers who still want them, we\u2019re not forcing to change. That\u2019s about 10 to 15 percent of our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another advantage of LEDs is their drastically reduced power draw. A standard incandescent C9 bulb draws seven watts of power; its LED equivalent, just 0.45 watts. They\u2019re easier to install and last years longer. An entire design can be put on a single 20-amp breaker without fear of blowing a fuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can connect so many more strings together without using a ton of extension cords,\u201d adds Jones. \u201cAnd they have resistors and rectifiers so they don\u2019t flicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Installing holiday lighting is a great way to keep your crews busy in the off-season and keep your cash flowing year-round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":3931,"parent":0,"template":"","main-categories":[30],"class_list":["post-3711","features","type-features","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","main-categories-lighting"],"yoast_head":"\n