Commercial Christmas Lighting Contract Pricing: 3-Year Math

How is a commercial quote different from a house?#

Four things change the price and one changes the paperwork.

Long straight runs. A strip plaza is 300 to 600 ft of single-storey roofline with returns at the ends and a jump over every unit divider or sign. Straight feet go up faster than gables, so a rate that is fair on a two-storey is generous on a plaza. Draw it and let the footage decide; if your crew does plaza roofline at twice the feet per hour, that is a product line, not a guess.

Trees, planters and parking lots. Parking-lot trees wrapped to 10 or 12 ft, planter beds, bollards. Ground and tree runs on the card, and where the ticket grows.

Power. A plaza has whatever the landlord's electrician left on a timer years ago. Walk the building with the manager, find every circuit you will use, and write "power supplied by the property" into the scope, with an electrician's line for anything new.

Access. Above one storey on a commercial building is a lift, not a ladder. LightQuoter's guide puts lift rental at $200 to $500 a day without a source; get your own quote and put it on the estimate as a line.

The paperwork. A certificate of insurance naming the property as additional insured, a WSIB clearance in Ontario or WCB elsewhere in Canada, a purchase order number on the invoice, and net terms instead of a deposit and a balance. None of that changes the footage. All of it changes how long the money takes.

What does a three-year commercial contract look like?#

Season one is the full quote. Later seasons repeat what recurs, then a schedule applies. GlowBid's lease engine has three, the same three as our multi-year lease template:

What the market does: DFW sells 1, 3 and 5 year agreements with 5 to 10 percent annual savings, year one buying the system. Holiday Heroes takes 5 percent off in year two, 10 in year three and 15 from year four, and promises no increase ever. Outdoor Lighting Perspectives sells the lights in year one and services them for about 25 percent less after. Strandr says 10 to 15 percent off for three years; LightQuoter says a locked rate or a small annual increase. CT Acquisitions, which values these businesses for sale, says the books that trade highest carry three-year auto-renewing terms with written escalators of 3 to 5 percent.

Those are two different products. The first three describe a customer who owns the display after season one and pays for service after, so the price falls. The escalator describes a customer who rents a display you own, store and repair, so the price tracks your costs. Pick the product first and the schedule follows.

Worked example: a strip plaza over three seasons#

A single-storey plaza with six units: 420 ft of roofline across the front and both returns, six jumps over the unit dividers totalling 60 ft, four parking-lot trees wrapped at 40 ft each, 80 ft of planter bed at the entrance, two timers. Drawn from a photo the manager sent, scaled from a 36 in entry door, confirmed with a tape before anything was ordered. Every rate is GlowBid's default on the Seasonal C9 line; installers set their own.

Lit footage is 660 ft, so the all-in price is $7.65 a lit foot, inside DFW's $7 to $12 and well under Strandr's $12 to $28. The timers happen once, so $4,960 recurs. Here is the same plaza under each schedule, with a fourth column for the customer who buys the display in season one and pays labour only on the seasonal service line after ($3 a foot of roofline, $1.50 on jumps, $2.50 on trees, $2 on ground, $1,910 a season).

Now put Strandr's advice beside it. Ten percent off a flat three-season lease is $13,473; fifteen percent is $12,724.50. Against the escalator that is $1,948 to $2,696 given away on one plaza, for a customer who was going to budget an increase anyway; on ten plazas, $19,000 to $27,000. A discount has a place, and it is the fourth column: the customer who bought the lights pays a third as much because you do a third of the work.

On a five-season escalator the plaza runs $5,050, $5,108.80, $5,262.06, $5,419.92 and $5,582.52, $26,423.30 in all, with a renewal at the last price plus 3 percent if nobody gives 60 days' notice. Tax is zero on the default card. In Ontario that is HST at 13 percent on top, and the manager's bookkeeper will want your registration number on the quote, which our HST on quotes guide covers.

What does the contract have to say?#

The same thirteen clauses as a residential lease, four of them written for a building. Sample wording, not legal advice; have it checked for your province or state.

• Term and ownership. Three seasons, lights yours for the term. On a declining schedule, say who owns them after.
• Price schedule. Every season's price in a table, the escalator percent named, one-time items marked. GlowBid computes this from the signed quote.
• Payment. Our default invoices each later season 14 days before install; for a managed property write net 30 from the install date and get the purchase order number before the truck rolls.
• Service response. Forty-eight hours, 24 in December, is our default. A restaurant with a dark run the Friday before Christmas will hold you to it; size the crew or write 72 hours, which is what Outdoor Lighting Perspectives promises.
• Takedown window. January 2 to February 28 by default. Plazas often want lights down by mid-January; write the date they want and price the early trip.
• Insurance and access. Your liability limit, the certificate naming the property, who supplies the lift, and that power is the property's.
• Renewal. Auto-renews one season at a time at the last price plus the escalator unless either side gives 60 days' notice. This clause is the asset.

A signed lease in GlowBid creates each season's install job and takedown job on the day of signing, so season two on a plaza you quoted in July is on the board before the first November. The clause library is in the lease template.

What insurance do commercial properties ask for?#

More than a homeowner, and they ask before they sign. The installer pages that print a number both carry $2 million in general liability: DFW issues certificates naming the property as additional insured, and Holiday Heroes adds full WCB coverage in BC. LightQuoter's guide says $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, with some large properties requiring $5 million; Strandr says $2 to $5 million and $1 million auto; neither gives a source. Gemstone Lights requires a minimum of $2 million from its dealers. Ask the manager for the property's certificate requirement in the first call; it is cheaper to learn you need $5 million in July than in November.

How do you land the contracts?#

Through the people who manage more than one building. LightQuoter's guide says a property management contact can mean 5 to 10 properties, and CT Acquisitions' worked example is a 38-account commercial book with 11 HOA management companies in it. Strandr puts the decision at 30 to 90 days against 2 to 7 for a homeowner, so quote in June and July, when the manager is building next year's budget and your crew is free, and expect to sign in September.

The quote needs two things a residential one does not: a mockup on their own building, drawn on a photo you took or they sent, so the board sees the plaza lit; and an itemized estimate, which is what Grey Rock in Calgary leads with, lights, accessories, labour, maintenance and takedown each a line. A manager comparing three bids can only compare lines.

Mistakes we have made or watched others make#

• Discounting a lease because the customer is commercial. The building is bigger, not cheaper. If the straight feet are faster, set a plaza product line with an honest rate; do not take 15 percent off a card that was right.
• A flat price on a five-season term. Labour and product will not be flat in season five. Escalate, or write the renewal bump.
• No purchase order number. The invoice sits in accounts payable until someone asks. Get it before install.
• Deposit and balance terms on a managed property. They pay net 30 on invoice. Write that, and invoice early enough that the money lands before the crew does.
• Quoting from the parking lot. Six jumps over unit dividers and a return nobody saw from the road. Draw from a photo, then tape it.
• Power that is not yours. The timer circuit trips on December 1 and the manager calls you. Write whose power it is and what a new circuit costs.
• Missing the takedown date they wanted. A plaza lit in February looks abandoned, and the renewal conversation starts badly.
• Signing the lease and losing season two. Six jobs from one signature are only useful on a board. If your tool does not create them, a calendar the same day.

How GlowBid prices and runs the contract#

The plaza was drawn once on a photo the manager sent, the scale came from the entry door, and the footage, the material order and the price all came from that drawing; change a run and all three change. The rate card holds the rates, add-ons, minimum, deposit and tax; the lease settings hold the term, the schedule, the percent, what is included and the disposition. The quote PDF carries the drawing, the footage by run, the line items, the scope block and the measurement disclaimer; the manager signs with a SHA-256 fingerprint on the signed document, and the season schedule, the install and takedown jobs and the later-season invoices come from the signed agreement. You can draw the plaza in the free tool with no login until you export; the lease chain is on every plan at the founding price, Core $299 a year, 7-day trial, no card.