‘If a customer is loyal to you … be loyal to them, too’

Bill Frey makes his living lighting up homes, neighborhoods, businesses and even cities for the holidays.

His company, Illuminating Design, earns 90 percent of its revenue during the holiday season. The company erects Christmas trees in office lobbies, wraps poles in lights, hangs wreaths and creates elaborate displays in front yards.

The rest of the year, Frey (pronounced Fry) works with vendors on new products, comes up with marketing plans and handles lighting for a few non-holiday events such as weddings.

The tough economy has dampened some trade, created other opportunities and demanded a smart business response, he said.

Q: What percentage of your customers are commercial versus residential?

A: We do 10 to 15 municipalities and commercial jobs, as well as 35 to 40 neighborhood fronts and roughly 100 residential clients. We have 150 to 200 customers.

Q: Do you have year-round employees or do you hire seasonal workers?

A: I bring in subcontracting crews that have been with me for many years. I handle everything during the year.

Q: On the residential side, who is your typical customer?

A: The target market is $500,000 homes and above but we do get some homes that are more like $300,000. Homeowners are anywhere from 40 to 55 and most have children between the ages of one and ten or twelve. That is really the market that we go after.

Q: How do you market your business?

A: I am spending a lot of money on marketing this year. I have a master’s degree in marketing and that is really my strong point. I have always known that in a down economy, you always advertise more. You never advertise less. You are picking up customers from companies that can no longer do it. I braced myself and was ready for this recession.

Q: How is the economy affecting your business?

A: Customer loyalty, and company loyalty, really is very important. By that, I mean that if a customer is loyal to you, you need to be loyal to them, too. If they are struggling this year and having a problem, work with them. Cut them a little discount if possible. Being a business you still want to make some sort of profit, but if you can cut a few dollars off to keep the customer happy, even if you break even that year, it is worth it to keep the customer happy in the long run. …I have seen a restructuring of how the jobs are coming in. We are finding that a lot of the neighborhoods and apartment complexes are really going above and beyond this year because of the down housing market. They really want to attract people to their neighborhoods. …And we’ve found businesses trying to generate a little more business. I have been told that the lights pay for themselves ten times in additional sales from some of our commercial clients.

Q: What about on the residential side? Have you lost customers there?

A: The not-so-elaborate jobs have gone down, yes. Even the customers who have been with us for years, some just can’t justify it this year, which is understandable. So what we do is we just hang on to their lights until next year.

Q: The higher-end customer is not as affected?

A: It does affect them, but not to the extreme. When we are dealing with a million-dollar home, the economy hits their future earnings more than their day-to-day living.

Q: How does the service work? Does it cost more the first year because the customer must buy the lights?

A: Yes. The first year, you purchase the product, the installation, the take-down, the service and storage. We do everything. We don’t want you to even have to think about the Christmas lights. The next year, you are usually paying 60 percent to 70 percent of the first year.

Q: What is the range of what clients spend?

A: We have some clients that are spending tens of thousands of dollars. We do work with downtown Atlanta, through Central Atlanta Progress, and light up Woodruff Park, which is an expensive job. We light up the city of Braselton and that is very expensive. So projects range from $700 to $800 to tens of thousands.

Q: How’d you get into this line of work?

A: I went to Clemson University and graduated with a small business management degree and then I went back to school and got a master’s degree in marketing. I went to work for another company doing this, but I saw them treating it as a second-tier part of the company. …I saw an opportunity to come in and open a company that was solely holiday lighting.

THE BILL FREY FILE

> Title: Owner of Illuminating Design

> Age: 31

> Home: Duluth

> Family: Wife, K.C.; son, Elijah (four months)

> Education: Degree in small business management from Clemson University; MBA in marketing from Georgia State University

> Favorite books: Anything by Dan Brown (best known for “The Da Vinci Code”)

> On iPod: Jam bands such as the Grateful Dead and Phish