Christmas Lights

[Matther777]

Hello again fellow gophers. I am getting closer on my business starting off.
A great friend of mine is letting me hang Christmas lights for him and later in the spring he has lots of landscaping projects. This is good to know I will have some projects to look forward to. Now back on the topic of lights. If this goes well and I can get good at hanging these for other people I may want to start adding this as a service in the winter rather than snow removal. I say this since it hasn't really snowed at all this year. Do any of you offer hanging Christmas lights to your service and how do you charge? I find this may be great in the future.

Once again have a great day!

[Steve]

The friend you are working with, will he tell you how much he is billing the client to perform the job?

[TurfWerks]

This is a question I am also interested in myself. I have helped do a few lights in the past, and What I have learned is prices vary on different situations..

For example..

If you install, take down, and store the lights its more than a basic install and removal.

Also if you provide the lights there is that added costs..

Pricing by the job is probably best for the customer than pricing by the hour.. BC the customer can get a realistic price instead of guessing how long it takes times your hourly rate. You just have to have a good feel for how long it takes to do the work.

This is just my thoughts, anyone else with more exp wanna give an opinion?

[Matther777]

Well since this is a guy helping me get started and a fellow friend we settled on an hourly rate. In the future I can see that pricing the whole job would be a lot easier. I am having an issue finding a cherry picker to rent. Does anyone know how to do that?

[Steve]

I would think most rental centers have them. Would these be jobs you could use a ladder for or no?

[Matther777]

I have been looking around and all I can find are the scissor lifts. Which would require a big trailer to haul around. This project wouldn't be able to handle a ladder since we are trying to hang lights on a 50+ foot tree. This was just the customers idea he said "yea see what you can find" but I have been striking out. This wasn't like he needed the tree done it was more of a if you can it done great, if not no worries.

[Steve]

Is it possible that one of the local rental centers could drop off a cherry picker for you to use?

http://www.renthire.com/RHI/hirecompany_display/7CD9E5060124FF9E917C2A1A01240777.jpg

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Get some climbing gear. My arborist would be up that tree in 2 mins flat.

[luvs2ski]

My wife and I are doing Christmas Lights as well as decorations for any holiday through out the year. Since we are just starting our business we will put up and take down the customers decorations. Later on as our business grows we will be looking into providing decorations and storage. We charge $20 dollars per hour.

[Steve]

What has been your thoughts on providing this service so far? Anything you like or dislike about it? Or maybe even anything you would do differently so far with it?

[luvs2ski]

We love providing this service. Our customers enjoy not having to worry about having them put up to early or taken down to late, especially when they don't have the time to do it them selves but still want to decorate. I would like to expand to providing lights and decorations and storing them off site.

[Matther777]

As I am new to this I can see it being very profitable. I only did a few houses but in the future I could see myself having a bigger scale size operation.

[Steve]

As I am new to this I can see it being very profitable.

How do you feel the profitability and the time spent per location compare with that of your mowing clients?