Holiday Lighting Bid Calculator

Holiday lighting is a 10-week sprint where one bad bid can eat a whole week of installs. This calculator covers roofline and ridgeline per-foot rates, tree and specialty pricing, the company-owned vs. customer-owned margin math, and a bid worksheet that amortizes product cost over three seasons.

What's inside

Per-linear-foot rates: rooflines, ridgelines, hedges, trees, wreaths
Lease vs. customer-owned: full-service vs. install-only pricing
Season structure: minimums, early-bird, takedown, storage, service calls
Bid worksheet: product amortization, install and takedown labor, overhead
Renewal playbook: locking 70%+ of customers before the season starts

Quick questions

Company-owned or customer-owned lights?

Company-owned is the industry standard. Product amortizes over 3 seasons and renewals run 60-70% gross margin. Customer-owned installs price at 50-60% of full-service rates with workmanship-only warranty.

What margin should a first-year install hit?

Target 45%+ net contribution in season one after amortizing a third of the product cost. Renewals in seasons two and three carry the real margin.

How operators use this

Build a real price book

Use the worksheets to set base rates, minimum charges, and add-on pricing so every quote follows the same system.

Find the jobs that lose money

The margin-per-crew-hour math is designed to show which job types quietly underperform, so you can reprice or drop them.

Put it on every truck

Print the checklists and give one to each crew so the same standards apply on every job.