How To Start A Christmas-light Decoration Business
Since the mid-1950s, Americans have brightened up their homes and neighborhoods with Christmas lights. It has become a holiday tradition for many families to decorate their houses with cheerful and sparkling Christmas lights. Unfortunately, this tradition comes with a lot of work. And some Americans may impartial be too busy, too exhausted, or physically unable to complete this task. That’s what a holiday lighting business is for! If you enjoy decorating homes with Christmas lights, this seasonal job (with some year-round work) may be for you! The following steps might help you launch a Christmas/holiday lighting decoration service.
Determine If This Business Is For You
Ask Yourself:
Do you have a lot of experience in decorating homes?
Do you have an additional source of income to make it the rest of the year?
Do you have enough time during the winter season to dedicate yourself to this job?
Are you motivated?
Can you handle some picky, and possibly irate customers?
Are you physically able to climb on roofs, etc?
Do you have some extra money to invest in advertising, supplies, etc?
If you answered “yes” to all of the above questions, this business might be for you. This service would make a great supplement for a lawn care business, house cleaning business, and more. It could also be an valid seasonal job for a college student.
Contact the SBA
As with starting any business, the SBA (Small Business Administration) is a valuable resource. Visit www.sba.gov to find the nearest plot in your area. They offer classes, workshops, and one-on-one counseling. They can assist you with launching the business, marketing ideas, and more. Another great site to try is www.asbdc-us.org. Dinky Business Development Centers also provide assistance for entrepreneurs.
Choose a Name for Your Business
Now it’s time to come up with a catchy name. It could be as simple as “Mark’s Merry Lights”, or “Hill Valley Holiday Lighting”. Depending on the regulations in your area, you might need to get a DBA – “Doing Business As” license. Ask the SBA for more information.
Produce Business Cards
Business cards are a necessity to help promote yourself and your business! You can make them at home with a kit (can be purchased at Wal-Mart), or there are several sellers on eBay that would be thrilled to print them for you. Just a side note: if at all possible, put your cell phone # on it. Not all callers will leave messages. Having a cell phone could mean more business for you!
Create a Web site
This is not essential, but it could help bring you a little more profit. It is really not that difficult to fabricate a web-site through sites such as Yahoo and Homestead. This web-site could be used to display your portfolio, list client testimonials, and more
Gather Up the Supplies You’ll Need
This is an expensive, but necessary step. You’ll need to gather up the supplies you need. You definitely need a ladder. You will also need lights (of course), and hooks. You can either lift them now, or wait until you have your first client. Although it’s best to use your own lights, if the customer already has them, you might be able to use their lights instead.
Residence Your Rates
Now’s the fun part, deciding on how mighty you’ll earn! Truthfully, this rate is up to you. Since you are a novice to this business, you want to retain them low but don’t underestimate yourself either! You could charge by the hour, however, as you become more efficient, you’ll end up getting paid less. Your fees should depend on the cost of living in the area, and perhaps the size of the house. (Note: If you’re just getting started out, you might want to avoid decorating large mansions. Wait until you are more experienced to accept those jobs.) A typical job could steal between 3-5 hours. The minimum you should charge should be $125, but truthfully it’s up to you! If you use your contain lights, you of course will need to remove them, and will need to charge for that as well. You might consider an “early bird discount” for families who are willing to have their homes decorated in October/November.
Hire a CPA
If you’re not tax savvy, it’s wise to hire a CPA to help you with your taxes. He/she can (hopefully) make sure that the IRS doesn’t bang on your door next year.
Start Advertising and Promoting Your Business
You can start as early as September, although you probably won’t begin getting calls until October/early November. Here are some ideas to advertise your business –
Place a Newspaper Ad
Most newspapers have “Yellow Page Ads” where you can run an ad every day for a month. Those are the most effective, since customers may miss a one-time-only ad. Alternately, you can run both types of ads if you can afford it – perhaps one one-time only ad, and a full months worth (say November) of ads in the Yellow Pages section.
Bustle Ads In Free Local Publications
If you live a in a bigger town or city, your budget will probably not allow you to advertise in the local paper. Another great option is advertising in free local community publications. Most larger towns and cities have at least one magazine/paper specifically for the elderly. Senior Citizen publications are perfect places to advertise since they may not enjoy or be able to decorate their homes. There are also family publications you can advertise in, or free classifieds such as the “Thrifty Nickel”.
List Your Business On CraigsList
This one’s free – take advantage of it! Craigslist is a free online classifieds site available in most communities. The downside is you might need to post your ad every day, or every other day.
Send out Mail Outs
Another idea is to mail postcards advertising and discussing your business. You can purchase mailing lists for a very reasonable fee from sites such as www.infousa.com. For example, if you want a list of senior citizens living in a home that’s valued at $150,000 or more, they should be able to send you a list, or something very terminate to it. Don’t don’t form cold calls though – you’ll unprejudiced annoy a lot of people!
Hang Up Fliers
Fliers can be very effective, but very low-cost advertising. Create fliers and hang them up wherever it’s allowed – coffee shops, grocery stores, libraries and more.
Make Yard Signs
Decorate your own home and assign a sign in the yard promoting your business. You might try this with friends/families homes too. It might not bring you much business this year, but people passing by might remember it for next year’s season.
Rent a Booth at a Home/Garden Show
Most cities have a Home and Garden Present every year, where owners can rent booths to promote their businesses. This might be something you’ll wait to do until you have developed your portfolio. Many craft shows would probably be more than willing to rent you plot as well. Some holiday craft and gift shows begin as early as October.
Truthfully, the best advertising is word-of-mouth. If you do an excellent job, and provide friendly, top-notch service at each home, customers might spread the good news with their friends and neighbors. It is very important to beget a good reputation.
Patiently Wait for Your First Customer
Hopefully, you’ll receive at least a few calls after you start advertising. When the first job comes in, provide A+ quality service, be very friendly – after all it’s the holiday season!
Compose a Portfolio
At each home, takes lots of photos of your work. Collect them to form a portfolio (a simple photo album is great), and add them to your Web site.
Help Your Business Grow Every Year
As the business grows, you might want to hire an assistant or two to help keep up with the jobs. In addition, it might be a good idea to look for new ways to advertise and promote your services. Perhaps you could even do some charity work as well – hang lights on a group foster home, for example.
Hang in there! (No pun intended.) Good luck as you begin your unusual business adventure!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_lights#wikipedia
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Feb 21st, 2011. 