Holiday Decorations

[DJSOUTDOORSERVICES]

i was just wondering what everyones opinion on the best way to price holiday decorating?

[Ducke]

Lawn care business tips

Depends Is there any big Franchise type decor installers in your area? Are you going to Sell ,install, take down and store the decor? Are you paying for insurance against injury doing this work? Do you need to have training ? Fall Arrest Training ? Layout and Design Training ? Is there any equipment that you need to invest in? I say price you labour by the Hour allowing for your expenses (above) and any materials needed.

[op25ttfd]

I don't see much of this advertised in my area and as far as the fall protection training, I go through this all the time at my full time firefighting job so I have the training for it. I can invest in ladder's and the gear to get into this. I also have high angle and rope rigging training so maybe I can find a way to put this to use also. My best way to start out I believe is to put up clients existing decorations but how should I charge?

[Steve]

Ducke,

Do you have any pictures of jobs you have done where you could give the readers an idea of how long such jobs take to perform? That might help them a lot.

[jford1995]

is it better to do franchise or on your own?

[dclawnfl]

Originally Posted by DJLAWNCARE

i was just wondering what everyones opinion on the best way to price holiday decorating?

we love this stuff we have been doing lights for about 4 yrs.we charge by time,them they have to pay for the lights.but the lights are ours make that clear.why make them pay then keep the lights?simple profit and supply.average house here is 1200 to 1500,its about 10.000.time 6 to 8 hrs.not bad for 3 guys.

[Steve]

we charge by time,them they have to pay for the lights.but the lights are ours make that clear.why make them pay then keep the lights?simple profit and supply.average house here is 1200 to 1500,its about 10.000.time 6 to 8 hrs.not bad for 3 guys.

How do you explain that to the customer where you charge them for the lights but you keep them?

Also, are you saying the average house is $1,200 - $1,500 to decorate?

I didn't understand what the 10.000 meant?

[Ducke]

The way we do it is we charge for the lights clips etc. once the customer pays for the light they are theirs
We offer a storage service at a reasonable price. and then we just charge a install fee and a service call fee anytime we need to go out and do a service.
Not many services calls since we went LED.
Then there is a take down fee and the cycle starts all over again.
The first year is the most expensive as you have to buy the lights any were from $100.00 to $100,000.00 just depends on what you want.
We are part of a national franchise Christmas Decor. This is more cost effective as you can get all the gear and supplies in bulk and at good discounts.
Training is supplied and marketing is already established.
Here are some of the jobs we do.

[Steve]

Those jobs look fantastic!

How long does it take to get those different buildings looking like that?

[Ducke]

Well that all depend s on the size ,difficulty and the number of guys you have working on the job.

Picture #1 is Ashburn Golf Club that is two guys with a bucket truck to help on the tall peaks 8 hours.

Picture #2 the main entrance of the Halifax Shopping Center. This is a big job and takes 3 to 4 guys two days. We do 4 entrances 7 Pine trees and 7 Spruce trees some were around 20,000 mini light

Picture #3 is a private home and takes two guys 3 hours.

Picture #4 is another private home and takes two guys around 2 hours.

Picture #5 is a home in central Halifax and take two guys about 3 hours ,
There is some roof work and deck work that is not shown here.

It is a lot of work to get a house looking nice time frigging around with the lights to get them straight and spaced right, garland hung evenly etc.
We have been lucky that last two weeks have been above average warm and sunny , I know this won't last and then the cold weather will be here and that can make this job miserable There is nothing like putting up lights in -30 c weather