Hi,
Does anyone ever bother installing christmas lights or is it too much trouble?

how would this work? service call over...then hourly--then smae thing to take down or flat rate?

thanks

Mustang

Just got home from doing that today. I charge time & material. I bought the strings of lights from a festive display guy. He told me they charge $3/bulb for material and roughly $3/bulb labor ($6/bulb).

This is for a commercial building, all the areas to be lit are accessible from the roof.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. How does anybody get away with charging $6 A BULB?

Simple math would allow anyone to calculate that if I install 1000 bulbs that is $6000. 1000 bulbs is not much when we are talking Christmas lights.

I dont think it would work out for me asking that because a 100 bulb string would be $600!

Somebody is going to have a nice christmas.

I was planning on charging a trip charge and my hourly rate for both trips.

-regards

Mustang

To answer your question of is it too much trouble, I'll wash people's windows if they pay my rate. I had someone ask me to do their fall furnace maintenance today. If I was qualified, I would have done it for her.

Dave

Hi,
If I charge $45 trip charge that covers my trip and the first 30 min.

I had a client call the other day and I ended up wading through knee deep insulation to tighten up a loose wire nut and to take down a ceiling fan and install a switch.

All of this took less than 1.5 hours.

Do not get me wrong, I am in business to do electrical work and to make a profit but myself I sometimes wonder if it is not better to flat rate a job. Sometimes the degree of difficulty does not match the charges.

A lot of the time I will just give a flat rate if the job is too small or it is a more difficult task..like digging a trench by hand...are you going to dig 8 hours a day for your hourly rate or would you rather troubleshoot a wiring problem at an old nasty restauant for the same money?

I will only do electrical work, I will not clean windows for my hourly rate ($45).

thanks for the comments..

-regards

Mustang

Have you seen the christmas movie of Steve Martin?!
He had a switch in the kitchen, that was the "on" for the roof lights, about 6000. He turned it on and it hasn't work. He went up to the rooftop and checked the bulbs one by one, and when he finally fount the wrong one, her daughter (or I remember not well, it was long ago) switched off the light in the kitchen, and the same time lights on the rooftop.

LMAO!

I prefer contracting in many situations over T&M (it's almost always more profitable). However, there are so many instances where I can't bid it because I can't see it. Is that outlet dead because there's a loose connection in the box, or did the wire buried in the wall fail?

My worst case of T&M (when I had a 1 hour min. at $25/hour...no trip charge) was driving 1.5 hours round trip and doing 1 hour work. I made $10/hour that trip (less gas, insurance, taxes, etc.).

On the other hand, I'll still reset breakers or other short jobs and walk away without charging. It's good for business and you never know when it could bring you a $10,000 job. I consider it an advertising expense since I don't have any advertising expense.

Dave

Are you talking about Christmas Vacation? If so, that was Chevy Chase, not Steve Martin. Maybe there are 2 movies like that.

Personally, I'd do any job if the price was right and I was qualified. However, I'm not going to ask my employees to wash windows when they were hired to wire stuff.

There is a franchise called Christmas Decor. They do killer business in my area. I talked to the 1 of the guys and he said there average job was over $8000 with some going over $20k. I'm still kicking myself for not getting into it while i had the chance.

You are probably right.
But if you ask me about christmas deco I see on TV, it is a joke.
It may be some sort of show-who-I-am, but we just laugh about it, how people don't know where to put their money.
I talk about houses with lights, and some animal in the garden all lighted up, and so on.
I prefer one chainon the tree that's all.

Geez Gloria. Bah humbug!

... I HATE Christmas lights!!!!! I have a good account,it's a Diner,and every year,the Owner insists on putting up those crappy icicle-hanging lights around the entire perimeter of the building.He gave me a reprieve last year,'cause he left them up all year,but this year,he turned them on,and of course half are lit,while the other half is dead.I truly dread it,but if I want to keep him as a customer,I'm gonna have to indulge him.As if to add insult to injury,he said when we were finished,he'd like his house done as well....RATS!!! BAH HUMBUG INDEED!!!
Russ

Mustang, I would say it depends how busy you are. I do the Chistmas lights on two commercial buildings because I know and like the owner, and because I already know where the timeclocks and GFI's are, and also because he asked me to. I did the original installs and now just maintain them.

I probably wouldn't do Christmas lights under different circumstances unless I needed work. I can't imagine hanging minibulbs at someone's house. But I guess if someone felt they really wanted me to, I would consider it.

Electric Eagle, Christmas Decor sounds like the same type of place I got my C-9's and bulb holder clips. They hang the lighted canycanes and decorative trees from the light poles in the parking lots for different and light the shopping centers. I have pressed him about what he does the rest of the year and from what I gather, his seasonal windfall gets him through most of the year.

Gloria, it's all about taste. Some dispays are classy, and some just gaudy. Simpler is usually better, but that won't get you in the paper or on the news.

Thanks for all these great replies. I read in Electrical Contractor Mag that there was a pretty large market for doing this. Most of the folks who I have spoken to want high end decorations...NO ICICLES..These folks are upper middle class and retired.

Myself I am pretty busy but I read the article and added a line to my ad in the newspaper and got quite a few calls asking about the service.

I would say the degree of difficulty, the variables involved and the liability involved would have to govern the fees.

The commercial angle is a good idea.

It would be profitable if you start at $250 and go up.

For a reasonable example:

40 jobs @ $250 ea. doing 4 per day (2 hrs. ea.) for 10 business days..(two weeks) would come to -

$10000.00 then charge $100 to remove the lights.. that would come to

$4000.00 thats $14000.00 for one months work given 2 hours per job.

I would say that is good money. I could see selling that.

Gloria, your message was not very clear but I saw the movie and I thought is was funny too. Christmas is what you make of it..it is not all about gifts and decorations..it was originally the time to celebrate the birth of jesus..but thats another thread..some like a lot of decorations some just a little and some none at all..me, i am old fashioned and like a country style christmas...i even cut my own tree and use the old big fat bulbs and old timey decorations..and a goose and ham for dinner..

Merry Christmas..

-regards

Mustang


[This message has been edited by mustangelectric (edited 10-31-2004).]

[This message has been edited by mustangelectric (edited 10-31-2004).]

Mustang, what mag did you read this in. This sounds like a pretty neat niche market. Does the customer supply the lights, decorations, etc. Is this 2 hr rate for your labor only. If possiable could you point me in the direction of that story. I may like to entertain that one this christmas season.

Hi,
i saw the article in an old issue of Electrical Contractor Mag or EC&M I am not sure.

-regards

Mustang

One of the xmas light contractors here in Winnipeg keeps busy with a city contract to paint all the traffic signal light poles in the summer.

Has one guy in a pickup scraping off the road salt scale and painting the lower section with a roller on a pole. He then has his ladder truck come behind to do the high parts and the arms over the traffic lanes.

We have a neighborhood where everyone tries to do a Tim Allen: more lights, MORE POWER!! I'm sure your town has the same phenomenon.
These homes often need special, additional services installed just for these lights. After the holidays, it all comes down. Even the Poco stuff.
So, this -and the lift needed to do a large tree- makes me think that perhaps there is a need for real electricians to get out in the cold and freeze their watts off installing themhttps://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/icons/icon7.gif https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/icons/icon7.gif