You may be sitting around wondering how you’re going to afford those Christmas gifts this holiday season. Although last year, store purchases were down, the Christmas lighting business was as strong as ever. What I mean is, people may be frugal about buying luxury items, but they still want to enjoy the holiday spirit.

Part of that holiday spirit is the tradition of decorating and lighting. You may be saying to yourself “but don’t people decorate their own trees and their own rooms?” Ask any photographer if their business is hurt by cell phone cameras. The market for well produced Christmas holiday lighting is strong because many affluent people take pride in their homes.

Many prefer to leave the job to an expert for several reasons. Safety is a very big issue when it comes to outdoor Christmas holiday lighting. If you can provide the level of professionalism that will ensure an outstanding Christmas lighting experience, clients will not have to concern themselves with climbing onto a roof.

Let’s face it, some people would love to have the ability to layout, design and implement a great Christmas lighting scheme but lack the skill, tools, time and materials. When looking at your local market, don’t neglect the seniors. They may have been putting Christmas lights up forever but now are not in the best shape to do what they envision. This is where you can come in and fill the gap.

There are quite a few overlooked markets that you can tap into once you have a few testimonials and samples under your belt. Residential homes can be a staple for your business but don’t forget commercial opportunities as well.

In order to conduct this business properly you’ll want to invest in the right training. The right tools and the kind of marketing will get you up and running with profits in your bank account starting with your first job. There are people who try to transition into Christmas lighting decorating without being fully aware of the pitfalls that may occur. This can be a disaster.

In order to avoid making the classic errors in this unique business, you need to study experienced players in the field. This means taking the time to learn from the experts. Find out what the proper methods of running the Christmas lighting business are to make the most money with the least amount of headaches.

If you’re self-employed in the contracting field, you know that the winter months are usually reserved for catching up on your television viewing. If you are smart and socked away as much as you could during the regular season, you might coast through Christmas and New Year’s on your savings.

I discovered something amazing a few years ago that made all the difference in how I looked at the holidays. If you know anything about the window cleaning business, it’s very much like landscaping and painting contracting businesses. In the wintertime, there’s usually not much work to look forward to. Sure, there are a few loyal customers will want something done but your chance to make a killing for the holidays is very slim.

That’s all changed now after taking the time to do some research on the Christmas light installation business. This growth industry has weathered the worst recession in modern history and is still growing by leaps and bounds. Every year businesses and homeowners are hiring experts to handle the job of outdoor lighting during the holiday season.

They are doing this for any number of reasons; chief among them time and safety concerns. Affluent homeowners are now competing with each other with elaborate Christmas light displays. Elderly homeowners who wish to continue their traditions are hiring professional installers to do the job rather than risk injury or electrical mishaps.

Some Christmas lighting installation owners have been so successful at this that they are now booked way in advance of the season and even make themselves available for special events year-round.

So what does it take to get into the Christmas light installation business? Some people have started on a small budget, using their existing equipment and buying supplies as they need it. Because this is a cash business, they’ve been able to canvass prospects, set appointments and use their immediate income to fund the business.

There are easy ways and difficult ways to make this unique business opportunity work. Successful Christmas light installation operators have taken the time to study the business and learn the tips and tricks necessary for avoiding problems and creating immediate profits.

Without this knowledge, the learning curve can be quite steep. Many have avoided the outrageous franchise fees in favor of the more common sense home study courses that allow them to get quickly up to speed and manage their own business.

Many contractors, painters and landscapers find the holiday season to be fairly slow. The late fall and winter months can seem like an eternity if you’re not doing much work. Why not turn that around and start cashing in on one of the most lucrative holiday businesses?

If you want to create a solid income during the holiday season a Christmas lighting business is definitely one to investigate. What many don’t realize is that homeowners and businesses spend over $200 million a year on Christmas lighting installation. This was money spent on having someone else do their installation!

This is the kind of business that landscapers, roofers, painters and others who work with residential and commercial customers throughout the year can begin to seriously use to impact their bottom line. You can retain your customers all year long while adding new and exciting services to your portfolio.

Many entrepreneurs who decided to include this service in their roster, have realized earnings of over $1000 per day during the season and in some cases have been raking in up to $3000 a day on commercial projects. Many contractors are transitioning from seasonal projects to year-round services.

Their new revenue source is being used in a number of situations:
•    nighttime party lighting decoration
•    evening wedding lighting design
•    special events lighting design

There are folks who’ve taken the time to research the market and take appropriate courses to build a year-round service model. They hire the right people for the job; thus allowing them to continue to work at what they are good at.

Like any new business venture, it is prudent to investigate the business model thoroughly. Get proper training in managing the Christmas holiday decoration business. Go online and study with those who are already successful in this venture.

It is unwise to make the same mistakes others have when you can learn from their experience. Avoid the expensive franchises because you will be investing more money in them than in you and your family. This business can be started on a small budget if you know how to do it properly.

If you take the time to study the holiday lighting installation business, you can start making money doing your very first week. There are experts available to teach you the proper way to do it. This venture can bring you and your family many happy holidays.

Right around this time of year many people look forward to increasing their income by $30-$40,000. How do they do this? They have their own holiday decoration business. What would it take to create this kind of income in three months?

Many holiday lighting decoration specialists have been doing this for years as a part-time business. They have a regular number of projects that they do every year and they get so many referrals that they are guaranteed a healthy income even in January.

Quite often, seasonal business owners such as landscapers, roofers, and even painters transition to Christmas light decoration. They often get their contracts from their existing pool of customers. Many of these business owners can realize $2-$3000 income in a single day from their holiday decoration business.

What does it take to put together a holiday lighting and decoration business? If you have an existing client base that you work with from year to year, you might have a willing market. Many new Christmas lighting specialists will contact their friends, families and neighbors with flyers announcing a discounted special as a means of introducing the new business.

Once you’ve started your first project, be sure to put up a sign while working that promotes your business as you work. You should have your website and your business information so that people in the neighborhood can contact you. Be sure to get permission from your client of course. Since you’re giving them a discount for the project, there shouldn’t be much of an objection to you promoting yourself as you work.

Take photos of the finished project for promotional purposes. Get a testimonial from your new satisfied client and place that on the website as well along with a picture of the home or business. Once you do have your first job and testimonial, place those on another flyer and get out there and promote like crazy.

Once you know exactly how to set up your business, you can be making money in your first week. In order to conduct your business properly, you’ll need some guidelines. There are ways to conduct business that will bring you a lot of money and a lot of referrals, if you start out on the wrong foot, you can end up with a lot of headaches. That’s why it’s important to get started properly with all the right tools and information.

If you have a strong desire to secure more money for your family over the coming holidays, pay close attention. You see, many people proudly display their Christmas lights every year but hold a secret they don’t usually share with their neighbors. If you are like me, quite often during the holiday season when driving the family around you’ll go to those neighborhoods where the light show is spectacular. I discovered their secret years ago at a party.

A prominent doctor had a Christmas party in his home in an exclusive part of town. While enjoying the festivities my wife and I took a walk through the neighborhood and gazed at all the gorgeous Christmas lighting. We got back and commented to our host how beautiful the lighting was on all the streets in the area and he commented that several of the companies that come out each year compete unofficially against each other for the best lighting display.

When I remarked why his neighbors would hire someone to do the lighting for them, he looked at me as if I had three heads on my shoulder. My wife later commented that there was no way any of the people in this neighborhood making half a million a year would risk going up on their roof for the sake of Christmas lighting and decorations. Many of his neighbors would not think twice about spending $3,000 or $4,000 to get the job done properly.

That’s when I understood why there is over $200 million a year spent on professional Christmas lighting installation. The truth is, if someone is busy, stressed out, or just plain tired, they don’t want the headache of putting up Christmas lighting if they can hire someone to do it for a few hundred dollars. If they have a huge home, that makes matters even worse but the job even more lucrative.

So, if you thought that every one of your neighbors actually do put up their own Christmas lighting, you would be in for a pleasant surprise. The more affluent the areas, the less likely it will be that they’re putting up their own Christmas light display.

If you want to make $10,000 a month during the holiday season I suggest you take a close look at becoming a commercial Christmas lights installer. The market is definitely out there for that service and growing more each year.

How can you make a lot of money in the Christmas Holiday lighting business? If you follow the right system and layout your business plan according to the expert trainers in this field, it’s not very difficult to be successful.  There’s a lot of money to be made in the Christmas holiday lighting business.

Trained holiday lighting installers make this look easy. As in any profession, there are rules to follow and the right way to do things. What a well trained holiday lighting installer brings to the table is a solid program for working with a customer, knowing the products and the tools that will do the job and do it well. If you are interested in becoming a well paid holiday lighting installer, take the time to get proper training in operating your business.

Starting out with no existing clientele? You can still do very well. Because the start up costs in this business is relatively low, it is easy to get started with a simple strategy. For instance, start with your own home. One of the biggest holidays that you can use to draw attention is Halloween. Get your home decorated, in a brightly lit Halloween theme and take lots of pictures.

Get your home in the local newspapers as a news item and send out press releases to get further attention. Place your ads in local circulars and start talking to local businesses about Christmas decorations and lighting design. Start drumming up business in the fall and you will have a great Christmas season.

Grow your business the right way from the start. Get the right information and training in the business model to make your business a success from the beginning without suffering through the pitfalls of learning as you go. If you are low on funds, invest in the education that you need to secure profits right away. There are proven systems available for those who are looking to create a profitable holiday lighting business without having to spend close to $100,000 on a franchise.

If you have a head for business but cannot do the work yourself, you can still take home study courses in Christmas lighting installation. Hire and train your installers and management the business.

After this brief introduction to the Christmas light installation business, you can see how with you can create a profitable business with very little initial capital.

If you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to survive financially this coming holiday season, I’ll let you know now it doesn’t have to be that tough. There are some answers out there and many of them are better than others. I’m going to give an example of how you can turn a small investment in a part-time business into a seasonal cash cow.

Here’s a secret for you, the holiday season never stops; even in a depression. Sure, spending might slow down a bit; but the truth is people save all year to enjoy their Christmas. One thing that many people continually enjoy is the festive holiday lighting. The majority of people you know may string their own lights but I’m going to tell you right now that not all of them do.

I’m an incredibly busy guy. I’m also not that fond of manual labor. I calculated what I make a month against what I would lose in the event of an accident; say, falling from my roof. I’ll tell you right now I can pick up the phone and make an appointment and have a local guy come out and do a much better job. My wife and kids will be happy, I will be happy and a few hundred dollars later my installer will be happy as well. (more…)

The holiday season is approaching with the speed of Santa’s sleigh. Before you know it, the sound of carols will fill the crisp winter nights, and the familiar smell of Christmas trees will permeate the air. Even the curmudgeonly among us will become infused with the holiday spirit.

For those of us in the landscape contracting business, it can often be difficult to revel in the good cheer that has become so closely associated with the holidays. The winter months bring with them a work slowdown. But you don’t have to let the winter months turn you into a Scrooge. There are a number of services you can offer your clients that will ensure a busy pre-holiday business rush.

In recent years, the installation of holiday lights has gone from being a burdensome do-it-yourself chore into a thriving niche market. People want their homes to be decorated with Christmas lights; they just don’t want to deal with the aggravation that comes with hanging them. As a result, they’re willing to pay someone to do it for them. There is no reason why that person shouldn’t be you.

“Holiday lighting is a wide open market, and it’s a great way to keep revenue flowing when business drops off in the winter months,” says Steve Christie, president of Automatic Irrigation Supply Company in Indianapolis, Indiana. “In a lot of markets, there is more demand for the service than there are people who offer it. I just can’t think of any reason why contractors couldn’t make money right off the bat.”

For landscape contractors, the transition into holiday lighting is a pretty easy one. You already have most of the tools you’ll need, and, more importantly, you have an existing clientele you can market to. “You have a captive audience that you’re associated with, so you’re not going to have to spend a lot of time trying to drum up new clients, and that’s half the battle right there,” says Mark Borst, president of Borst Landscape and Design in Allendale, New Jersey. “I’d say that about 90 percent of our holiday lighting customers were landscape maintenance customers first.”

Even in the lagging economy, the demand for holiday lighting remains strong. “Last year, with things the way they were, our numbers were up,” says Robert Evans, president of Property Creations, Cumming, Georgia. “They were not up as much as the previous couple of years, but the growth remained pretty solid.”

While holiday lighting of homes and residences will still be a mainstay, the commercial market holds tremendous potential. Retail stores, restaurants, shopping malls, etc., need to make their stores look festive. “Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a lot of businesses that used to install lights themselves—whether in a mall, a restaurant or a homeowner’s association—are now deciding to outsource the work,” says Evans.

“These companies need holiday lights—they’re not going to go without them, but it’s such a stressful and busy time of year that they don’t want to deal with the hassle of installing them. For this group of people, it’s worth the cost of having someone come out to do the installation for them.”

Initially, Borst got into holiday lighting as a way to retain his best employees. “Come November, we kind of ran out of work, but I didn’t want to have to let my guys go,” says Borst. “So we looked into some of the different things we could do to keep ourselves busy. When we came across holiday lighting, it was very obvious that it was the best route to take. It was a no brainer.”

Today, thanks to holiday lighting, the winter months are one of Borst’s most profitable times of year.

This story is not unique. “We’ve really used holiday lighting as a way to take advantage of the winter slowdown,” says Evans. “In our market, the winter can be tough for landscape contractors. It’s really a great way to keep your crews busy during the holiday lull.”
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A great way to make money around Christmas time is to install Christmas lights for homeowners and businesses. In fact, you can make enough money in just a couple months to last you the entire year. However, many people think they need to join an existing Christmas light company and become a franchisee. This is isn’t true. In fact, you don’t need a franchise to start your own Christmas light installation business.

Just about everybody loves Christmas lights. That’s why they are on homes, businesses, and in public places. But many people and businesses don’t have the time to put up their own Christmas lights. The holiday season is just too busy. This is why a Christmas light installation business is a great business to go into.

There is a lot of people right in your own neighborhood who would be willing to pay someone else to put up Christmas lights for them. There is also a lot of business in your city or town who would pay to have the outside of their business decorated. You can be that person who does the decorating and makes all the money. You can make well over $1000 a day every day for just about two months.

It’s true that there are Christmas installation businesses who will allow you to become one of their franchises. However, they will charge you a lot of money to become a franchise and then you’ll also pay them royalties every single year. It just isn’t worth it. (more…)

During the holiday season lights are everywhere. They are a great way to celebrate the season and impress your neighbors if you’re a home owner, and they’re a great way to celebrate and attract customers if you’re a business owner. However, many people and businesses lack the knowledge and the time to decorate their place the way they want. This is why you should start a holiday lighting business.

The holiday lighting business is something that many people don’t know about. It’s actually a very well kept secret. So when someone hears about how great the business is and that they should start their own business, their initial reaction is usually: Why start a holiday lighting business. Well, here’s why:

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