Christmas Decor is a very interesting franchise, and one of the classic examples of making a business from providing a service people are willing to pay for that makes lives easier (like the weekly dog cleanup services). The franchisees are Christmas house and yard designers, with any kind of lighted scene you can imagine. The franchise is great to provide winter income for those who make most of their money in warm weather (lawn care, nurseries, fence or irrigation builders, etc.). The minimum project is about $3,000 for the customer, and that includes installation and removal of the lights and decoration. The web site claims:

$200 million last year was spent on decorating services during the holidays. With over 800% growth in the past six years, now is the perfect time to begin your Christmas Decor franchise.

It looks like a high margin rental and services business, especially business clients. The concept is a winner, I believe. The devil is the numbers, of course, and a franchisee would have to figure out how many homes can realistically be done and what contribution margins would be to make the personal income worth the time and aggrevation. Most home and business owners are unaware of the service so advertising and PR are important and expensive. But, word of mouth advertising is likely very high.

Here is an article (and another and another) from Entrepreneur Mag.

From Christmas Decor’s web site:

Start up Costs/Working Capital?
This is one of the least expensive businesses to get into because costly equipment is seldom required. For each full service installation crew we estimate ladders and tools at $750-$950, and a start up inventory of $3,000-$5,000. Each additional crew will have about the same cost in ladders and tools, but inventory should be increased about $2,000 per crew.

More Financial Requirements:

start up capital: $10,000 to $30,000
total investment: $45,000 to $100,000

Fees:
-Franchise: $17,500 for terrirtory of 100,000 customers
-Royalty: 4.5%
-Advertising: $180 a year or 20% of the royalty payment