Founder-operated holiday lighting company that I ran for four Christmas seasons, grossed more than $100,000, provided jobs for five people each Christmas season in the local community, and turned into a real operating system spanning website buildout, pricing proposals, satellite-based measurements, marketing, scheduling, and client storage.
Customized Christmas Lights was a residential and commercial holiday lighting business serving North Metro Atlanta, Georgia. I owned the sales and operations loop end to end: attracting leads online, measuring homes, sending pricing proposals, coordinating installs and uninstalls, and keeping stored client inventory organized for the next season.
Founder / Engineer / Owner / Manager
4 Christmas seasons · $100K+ gross revenue · Provided jobs to 5 people each season
The work was much broader than hanging lights. I built the customer acquisition and fulfillment system around the service, which meant the website, quote flow, proposal process, measuring workflow, marketing presence, and crew coordination all had to reinforce each other.
1. Pricing proposals and quote intake
2. Confirming jobs and coordinating install schedules
3. Seasonal installation execution
4. January uninstall scheduling
5. Storage and repeat-client setup for the following year
This company sharpened the same instincts I still use in software: build trust quickly, remove friction from the customer path, price work clearly, and keep operations tight enough that the back office does not become the bottleneck. The surface area was Christmas lighting instead of apps, but the underlying work was product, systems, and execution.
