The Christmas Decorators: A Year-Round Franchise With a Seasonal Twist

Sophie Cole, writer

Published at 14/12/2020, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 6 min

The Christmas Decorators: A Year-Round Franchise With a Seasonal Twist — Photo © Christmas_decorators.jpg

Have you ever wondered what it's like to run a season-focused business year-round? We find out more about what keeps The Christmas Decorators' franchisees busy throughout the year, even when the festive period is the last thing most people are thinking about.

There are a lot of misconceptions about businesses that offer services or products geared towards a specific season or event. One of the most common is that there's nothing to do outside of the busiest season, leading many people to question the profit potential of the business or franchise. But, as we found out from successful franchise The Christmas Decorators, that couldn't be further from the truth.

A Year-Round Operation

Work for The Christmas Decorators' franchisees never really stops. A typical year begins in the post-Christmas period, where there's plenty of work to be done taking down decorations for the franchisee's many clients. There's also admin and invoicing to sort out, making sure all the loose ends from the festive season are tied up before another busy year begins.

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Franchise Sales Manager, Gill O'Brien, explained that many franchisees then choose to take a well-deserved holiday to unwind after such a busy Christmas. And that's the beauty of a business like this – outside of the hectic winter months, you can choose to organise your time to suit your family or lifestyle.

However, there's also plenty of business planning to be done when Christmas is still almost a year away. If a franchisee has a client base of large commercial clients, such as shopping centres and high streets, or is looking to target them, the process of winning those types of clients starts straight after Christmas into early spring with many tenders coming out in the early part of the year.

Perfecting the planning

During the months when client-facing work is quieter, there are plenty of tasks for seasonal franchisees to get on with. For example, The Christmas Decorators says spring and summer are key times to market to potential new clients, as many commercial clients sort out their decorations up to six months before the big day itself.

During the early part of the year, many of The Christmas Decorators' franchisees will visit events and network with influential members of their local community to spread the word about their services. They spend time hand-delivering brochures to larger commercial clients, and when they're not doing that, they're likely to be found talking to clients on social media or drawing up plans for their biggest clients. Franchisees work on numerous marketing strategies at this time of the year, so it is the most important time to be getting their name out into the marketplace

"Some love going to networking events and get loads of business from it while others don't find that as easy to do and get more from delivering brochures. Our business development managers work with every franchisee to help them put an individual marketing plan in place to ensure they're able to reach their personal goals for the following year."

Preparing for the busiest period

One of the best ways to guarantee success is to be prepared. For seasonally focused franchisees like those in The Christmas Decorators' network, this is especially important. The franchise revealed it's not unusual for franchisees and their install teams to work up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week during their busiest November and December weeks.

To minimise stress during these times, it's vital for franchisees to get prepared as early as they can. If they're lucky enough to have clients with six-figure contracts, planning an extensive decorating job could involve far more work than actually installing it. With the install period being so short, it is vital that all franchisees are organised and do as much preparation in advance as possible. The larger clients want to get their schemes signed off as early as possible in the year, so install dates are planned, and preparation can start.

Whether the client requests a challenging set of decorations, like a huge reindeer and sleigh set that is light enough to be suspended above shoppers' heads or wants to supersize traditional decorations, making sure these products are manufactured to an exceptional standard can take weeks or even months.

Even if a franchisee is installing traditional, residential decorations, it still pays to be prepared.

Most of the decorating of trees, garlands and wreaths will be done in advance. Only the glass ornaments, tree skirt and tree toppers will be added on site. This allows the franchisee to be able to include more clients in their diaries for that season

Diverse income streams

Despite its name, The Christmas Decorators' franchisees aren't limited to festive decoration work. In fact, a number of its 50 franchisees have diversified into offering decoration services for different occasions. These include other celebrations like Diwali, Valentines Day, Halloween, corporate event decorations, year-round lighting, and décor for hospitality venues and private special events, including weddings and parties.

However, if you're drawn to a business in which the bulk of your work can be done around Christmas time, The Christmas Decorators' profit potential is still incredibly impressive, and it is more than possible to retain up to a six-figure profit solely offering Christmas decorating services.

The most successful franchisees work at this all year round, and more franchisees are developing their businesses now to operate all year round, but for those who keep their business purely Christmas-focused and make most of their income in the Christmas period it is still highly lucrative, and they can choose to enjoy the fantastic work/lifestyle balance during their quieter, planning months.

Operating flexibly

As a lot of The Christmas Decorators' services are focused on the festive season, it's important for franchisees to be as flexible as they can. For example, the challenges of Covid-19 have meant that some franchisees have allowed clients to stretch three-year contracts over five years instead. This has allowed clients to go ahead with their festive decorations and ensure franchisees still have a healthy amount of income rolling in. It has also led to a much higher number of residential enquiries this year because people really want to have something ng to look forward to this year following such a difficult 2020 due to Covid-19.

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It is also very common for last-minute requests to come in during December, meaning the support team is a vital part of each franchisee's success.

"Even at head office, we're on call seven days a week from October to December to make sure franchisees have what they need. In our busiest periods, in the time it takes to respond fully to one enquiry, another six enquiries may have come in."

Not just for Christmas

As you can see, a seasonally focused business like The Christmas Decorators is a fantastic way to enjoy a healthy income year-round. By completing the majority of client-facing work over the festive period, you'll be able to enjoy a fantastic work-life balance for most of the year offering a service that will never go out of style and grows in popularity year after year.

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