Christmas Light Business Off Season: A Month-by-Month Plan

What does January actually cost?#

$5,688 on the 40-job plan, and it is the only month with nothing coming in. The line is takedown wages for two, the drive, 12 percent payroll costs and the truck, $142.20 a house, and the plan holds it back out of December's $54,057 balance so January closes at $48,369. Takedown is 2.5 crew-hours and a second drive on every job, about $150 of the $864 in per-job costs, and a plan that ends in December is hiding it.

Two things make January cheaper. Route it by neighbourhood, two-storeys in the morning, so the crew does the ten or more houses a day that Geiman's takedown numbers assume; the takedown pricing and scheduling guide has the route and the window. And write the storage record at the truck, one customer per labelled bin, condition noted, because the asset record written in January is the repair list for July and the buyout number for the renewal call.

What do you do with the strands in February and March?#

Test them, tag them, and price the dead ones onto next season's quote before anyone asks. Every strand comes out of the bin in the shop, not on the customer's driveway in November: dead sections get a replacement line, worn clips get counted, the timer that drifted gets binned. A plan that carries storage, $2,000 to $3,000 a year for a 10 by 20 unit on Geiman's storage post, should also carry the time it takes to test what is in it.

March is the rate card. Pull every quote from the season, signed and lost, and put the price per foot beside the crew-hours the job took. The run types that lost money get a new number; the premiums that nobody paid get looked at; the minimum job gets checked against what the truck actually costs to leave the yard. Then the card is closed until August, and it goes into the renewal message with the reason in one sentence. LightQuoter's rebook guide says 3 to 5 percent a year is expected, with no source; our lease template's default escalator is 3 percent, and the re-book pricing guide shows why year two on customer-owned lights is a labour line by run type, not a discount.

What fills April to August?#

Permanent lighting, on a second product line. The plan puts it in as year two's service line because the same two-storey front that sold for $2,134 seasonal prices at $5,357 on GlowBid's default track card, roofline $25, ridge line $25, peak $28 and jump $12 a foot, with no takedown trip and no re-install revenue. Installs run from the thaw to the first hard freeze, which is the seasonal installer's empty calendar exactly. The plan leaves the margin blank because dealer cost depends on the brand and the agreement; starting a permanent lighting business has the dealer programs and the first-job numbers.

The other off-season revenue is next season's, pulled forward. Geiman's post offers a 90-day payment plan and 10 percent off for paying 50 percent up front before the season. Big Star Lights suggests 10 percent off for pre-booking by March. On the plan's house the 30 percent deposit is $640, and every re-book signed in August moves that deposit from the September and October columns into August, which is the month the fall product order goes out.

The rest of the spring is paperwork: the working at heights refresher, due every 3 years on Ontario's page; the insurance renewal with ladder and roof work disclosed; the fall helper's name lined up before anyone is busy. The ladder and roof safety page puts the card date on the crew file for a reason.

What are the lease renewal touchpoints?#

A lease has no re-book conversation, only dates, and the dates come from the signed agreement. When a 1, 3 or 5 season lease is signed in GlowBid, every season's install job and takedown job is created that day. The touchpoints are what the homeowner hears between them.

The 60-day clause is the one to watch. If the term ends with the February takedown, the notice date falls inside the season, so the conversation happens in September when the last season's invoice goes out, not at the door in January. Our multi-year lease template has the wording, with a note that it is sample wording, not legal advice, and that some jurisdictions limit auto-renewal. In Canada a paid install gives implied consent for two years under CASL; every message above still carries the company name, a way to reach you and an unsubscribe line.

Worked example: one off season on the plan's book#

The 40-job seasonal book from the business plan template, with two permanent fronts sold in the spring and 30 of the 40 customers re-booked in August. Seasonal figures are the plan's; the permanent line is revenue on GlowBid's default track card with the margin left blank, as the plan leaves it. Installers set their own rates.

Without the permanent line and the early re-books, the same seven months are -$5,688 and a wait for September. With them, the fall product order is paid for before it ships and the crew has worked from April. The 30 August re-books are also 30 houses that do not need a door hanger, and the customer acquisition guide puts August re-books first among its seven channels for that reason. If a spring customer sends a photo of the front of the house, draw and price the roofline in the free tool before the site visit.

What does year two of the same house look like?#

Better than year one, which is the point of the whole calendar. The plan's mistakes section has the number: the two-storey that netted $1,270 on $2,134 in year one nets $1,587 on $2,089 in year two, 76 percent, if the bin comes back. The lights are inventory with the customer's name on it, and the off season is where that bin gets tested, recorded and sold again in August. Count the re-book rate on October 31, split by who owns the lights; LightQuoter says the best shops rebook 60 to 80 percent and gives no source, so write your own number down every November.

Mistakes that waste the off season#

• Testing strands on the driveway in November. The July hour per bin becomes a December service call.
• A rate card changed on the invoice. The March number belongs in the August message with the reason. A November surprise costs the re-book.
• The first message in October. August customers take the good weeks; October is a booking request.
• No January in the plan. $5,688 of takedown costs with nothing coming in, and a December balance that looks like profit.
• The deposit spent as profit. The $640 deposit buys $394 of lights first; the plan shows it leaving in the install month.
• Permanent lighting with no rate card line. Quoting track by the foot off the seasonal card underprices every job; it is a second product line with its own rates.
• No skip option in the August message. "Not this year" with no easy reply becomes "never".

Where the calendar lives in GlowBid#

Every date above hangs off a customer record and a drawing. A signed lease creates each season's install and takedown jobs on any plan; the seasonal service product line prices year two off last year's runs; the March rate card refresh is the per-foot rates, premiums, minimum job and deposit rules every later quote uses. On Pro the pipeline carries a Takedown stage and a Re-book stage, so the January photo and the August offer are cards on a board, and quote-view tracking says who opened the August email. Photo measurements are estimates confirmed on site, and every quote says so. Founding pricing is on the pricing page: Core $299 a year, Pro $499, 7-day trial, no card, 100 founding places until November 30, the full product open now. The free roofline tool runs the same drawing with no login until export.