Some companies have all the fun. At Christmas Décor by Senske Lawn and Tree Care, Chris Senske and his employees get to play
Santa's helper every year.
Senske had been looking for a way to keep his landscape crews working during the long, cold inland Pacific Northwest winters.
He discovered Christmas Décor, a franchisor that installs Christmas lighting and decorations, and bought his first franchise
in 1998. He now has franchises in three states: Washington, Idaho and Utah.
"It fits in with the seasonality of landscaping," Senske says. "It keeps employees employed." Being part of a franchise eliminated
a lot of the risk of starting a new business, and Christmas Décor supplies most of the essentials to make his company a success.
Christmas Décor provides Senske's company with design consultants — sales people who create lighting and decorating plans
for each property. Customers choose the style they want and Senske's company installs it. Christmas Décor also sells his company
the products. The holiday timeline
Thanksgiving is the peak time for installations. "A lot of folks want theirs up by the time family comes by for Thanksgiving,"
Senske says. His company does two maintenance checks, but if something as minor as a light bulb burns out between visits,
they'll be over to replace it.
They begin taking decorations down the week after New Year's Day. Some customers leave their lights up all year round and
pay a service fee for maintenance. Senske's company stores all the rest in built-in storage spaces and shipping containers.
About 80% of Senske's clients are repeat customers who tend to add a little more décor each year. There's some crossover between
his landscaping and Christmas clients, he says, "but for the Christmas décor, we market to a little higher-income customer."
Find your customer
A significant challenge, Senske says, is attracting new customers. Christmas Décor helps out here, too, by developing advertising
pieces companies can use. Companies can use their own advertising and can choose how to advertise.
Since most of Senske's customers are residential, he focuses on consumers, mainly with direct mail and newspaper inserts.
He also advertises with a Christmas Décor sticker on the sides of his trucks. "Sometimes it's on year round, sometimes it
isn't," he says.
Installing Christmas décor fits in well with the skills that Senske's employees already have. Most of the work is outside
and on the ground, although there is more work on ladders during the holidays.
"Most of the folks that do Christmas décor for us don't work on ladders in the summer," Senske says. "One of the biggest challenges
is the safety issue, making sure people are protected from falling."
Christmas Décor provides training in ladder safety and fall protection. Employees are also trained in how to handle power
and apply power correctly. Senske's company uses safety gear and has worker's compensation and liability insurance.
"It's a good counter-cyclic business," Senske says. "This has really worked for us."
— The author is a freelance writer in Altadena, CA. Contact her at janet.aird@earthlink.net
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