i have been in the Christmas lighting business for 4 years now, the first year i made up some cheep flyers and got a few jobs and did all the work by myself.

The next year i spent more on flyers and neighbor hood newspapers and had a helper.but i knew i should be making more money.

The third year i got a dvd from Brad Finkle at CEATIVE DECORATING called bidding a job and that gave it a B12 shot , my average job went from $600 to $1200.

Last year i took out an add in tampa bay magazine for $1000. AND THAT took me into the HIGH END neighbor hoods.(where i need to be).

I need a crew – a good crew , i have 2 other guys , but they are slow as grand ma.
i bought your book to gain know-how as to go about doing this , and managing 1 or 2 crews.

Where do you go to get good people? lobor pools?( down hear they have day laborers), but you never know what your going to get, news papper adds?. i am not good at that part of it.

This is where i need help, there is a lot of VERRYrich people in tampa, and i need to take this thing to the next level, any help wood be so help full and verry appreciated

Roger Karr Down From The Mountain Christmas Lighting

I have a few things to say here:

First off: PROMO is key The way you LOOK, is the most important thing. You personally, and your company.

You have to remember that PRICE is not an issue. These are people that have plenty of money. Just because they have money, doesn’t mean they’re going to throw it away thought.

They want to feel like they’re getting the BEST. (not the best DEAL, but the BEST designer, the best service, the best looking house on the block).

You can’t Cheap out on things like FLYERS, your website, ads, gifts (yes, give your big clients a gift – we give santa hats with our logo on them or LED keychain lights).

My invoices and quotes are PDF’s from our website that I print out on a portable color printer that runs off my van battery and is velcro’d to my dashboard.

I’ve been told that I charge as much as 4X what my competition charges. But I still get the job. Because I don’t show up with a receipt pad from walmart and a pencil drawn sketch and quote.

These are the things that they will look at when deciding if they want you to be climbing around on their roof and paying you a small fortune to do it.

The price is almost the last thing they’ll look at.

—-—about labour-—-

I pay top dollar for guys that are fast and know what they’re doing. I don’t hire day labor unless it’s a really big job and I have no choice. These people represent you, they are the face of your company, you want to make sure that they represent your company well.

I find that I get my best guys by advertising to CLIMBING GYMS

There are indoor climbing gyms now all over the place, and I find that they are great places to find people that like to climb. They think it’s cool to repel off of houses and that’s the guy you want.

Getting a process down is important to:

- I run power first

- Unwind the lights
- Clip them

- Do all the runs that you can do on short ladders

I break out the teams into “low guys” and “climbers”

Often the climbers are a “fly crew”. They do the “finishing” work, we’ll roll on a house with the “low crew” and then the “climbers” will come and “wrap up” 2 or 3 jobs in a day.

I find climbing to make things much faster than ladders, you need harnesses and rope and some climbing gear, but it’s well worth the investment in the time that it saves.

Can you tell me more about this harness system and how it works. We had a lot of trouble last year getting on roofs and also using really tall ladders. Thanks. Any other suggestions would be great.

Scott … I need you to do your own homework just from a liability point of view.

There are 2 types of harness the “safety gear” vs. the “climbing gear”

Much of the safety stuff is made for things like construction, window washing etc..

It’s clunky, heavy and can be hard to move around in when you’re on a roof.

While the rock climbing gear is generally not Workers Comp approved, it’s often much more comfortable and easier to wear. You can find ones that are both, but it takes some digging.

Look for safety equipment suppliers in your local area you should find ones.

Then you just need some good long static lines to run from a tree in the back yard over the roof .. or some such.

You anchor yourself to that line with a second and slide along it so you can walk the roofline.

Someone that can do rock climbing or has done repelling in the reserves is your best bet. They’ll know how to do it and it can be really valuable to your time line.

Hope that helps.

Riel