One of our customers wants us to put her lights up this year. She has all the lights and clips. Her husband normally does it but he is tired of getting on ladders. This is a picture of their home and what they are looking for. They said they just want the house done, not the trees. What would you charge? How long should a job like this take?
I think you should go with a per bulb rate. Make it as complicated as possible.
Joshua Latimer
www.WindowWealth.com
“Success is not complicated but its also not easy”
I charge by the foot for doing lights. This year it is $1.50/ft for 1 story, $2.00/ft second story and $2.50/ft for tall peaks. So for that house it would be about $280 for the upper including around the windows and $218.00 for the lower including the railing and windows. So a total of $498.00. I also including taking them down for that price. That usually does not take me long as I have a 24’ extension pole rigged up with hooks on the end to pop the clips off. The house would probably take me about 6 hours on my own. Probably 2 - 3 to take down. I actually started doing Christmas lights and added window cleaning a couple years ago. Still only part-time but have been doing to for almost 20 years.
Good info! Thanks
If people are going to spend $400-500 to put up lights each year… Man some people have too much money to burn.
We just cater to the wealthy, some people just make way too much money…
I agree. That $400 - $500 to them is like $4 - $5 to us. Really not much money at all
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Ohhh!! Mr. Rich guy, huh? $5 is nothing to you, huh? I guess I need to become a window cleaner like you.
LOL. $5 barely buys a gallon of gas.(And that SUCKS!!) I would never say I am rich. I wish $5 would buy a lot, but it doesn’t anymore. That was my point. Sorry if you took my statement the wrong way.
Derryll all Chad was saying is some people have way more access to spendable money then others.
I have to agree with Chad’s comment “$5 barely buys a gallon of gas.(And that SUCKS!!)”.
I also agree with you Derryll…i think more people should be like Chad “I guess I need to become a window cleaner like you” if it fits in your plan and life style, he has a solid business structure.
Sorry guys, I should have added that I was being very sarcastic. The humor was lost in the medium. I guess it was funnier in my head. Most things are.
Although, I do aspire to be like you someday. Lol
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It is, last week I was cleaning a gorgeous home… And a big nice 18 wheeler drives and drops 2 brand new Maseratis(hope I spelled it right) a red one for the wife and a white one for the husband… I know what I was charging them for my service was pocket change.
The best kind of pie is the piece of pie someone else baked.
I have no illusions as to there being a huge market out there of people who have money to burn. And I have no issue charging a fair, albeit high price for service.
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For 5 bills I’d do Christmas lights! That might be something to look into for sure.
I think it’s more a matter of hassle vs price. If it saves them a bunch of time and maybe they’re too old to be out on a ladder then it would be worth it to hire it out. Especially if take down is included.
Throw on a window cleaning and you’ve got a good day.
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Since adding window cleaning to my Christmas light business a couple years ago i have found that the demographic for both services is very much the same. Those that either don’t have the time and can’t be bothered doing the work themselves or are physically not able to do the work or risk doing it (ie. Up on ladders). At least that is who i target my services toward. The area i live in has a strong economy with lots of people in those demograpgics who have the disposable income to pay for it. Most of my residential Christmas lights range from $200 - $500. Commercial is about $650 - $2800. So there are almost as good margins in Christmas lights as windows. As long as you don’t mind working when it is -20C because its a little more time sensitive than windows. Plus thats when the phone usually gets really busy. Lol.And i already have a large Christmas light customer list to sell window cleaning to and already many have taken me up on window cleaning. I wish i had stumbled upon window cleaning about 10 years ago now.
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Very nice. What is included in your service besides takedown? Do you just roll up the lights? Box them? What’s your normal procedure for something like this. So you sell them clips if they don’t have any?
Also, do they require specific dates for take down or do you just give them a “I’ll be there the second week in January to take them down” sort of timeline?
I usually phone the customers the week before i come to take down to give a heads up and ask them to leave out their boxes. Usually tgey have rubbermaid containers tobput them in. Sometimes i will get containers if they are a new customer and add it on the bill. I come take down and leave the lights outside the house. Usually hidden away a bit. Or the customer may ask for them to go somewhere. I have a couple customers where i just go grab/put away in their shed. I always like to try to have all my lights down by end of feb with exception of a couple that have to wait till the snow is gone because of using rope access techniques on a steep plastic tile roof. Not fun with ice on it! Then its only a month or to till windows starts getting busy again. Some companies charge a fee of 40% of instal to take down. I prefer including it although it would be nice to have that little extra income in mid winter. So my per ft price includes instal, clips and take down. It is sure nice to have that boost of income right before Christmas. And it keeps a guy busy all year as there is not much window cleaning when we get to -20C.
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Today’s customer asked if I hang Christmas lights. It hasn’t been a service I offer, but she said it is a lucrative business. Bad thing is this is already a tough house to do; stringing lights on a 3 story might not be what I want to do. :-/
