Decorating Tips & Tricks for Your Small Business

Best Practices for Decorating Your Small Business for the Christmas Holidays

Q:   How do I begin?

It’s a very good idea to have a “masterplan” for your decorating goal in 3-5 years, then you can invest and implement a little at a time each season and learn as you go.

Q:   How do I create a masterplan for holiday decorating?

First determine your goals and priorities. Do you want to attract attention to your business or simply look more attractive to current customers? Is your holiday décor most important during the day, after dark, or both? From what direction and distance are you hoping to catch customers’ attention? Answering these questions will help you determine what kind of décor you need, where it should be placed, and how big it needs to be. Then make a map of your business and assign your top three priority locations. Take photos of the locations too, making sure to capture the highest impact points-of-view.

Next, look online and in person for holiday décor that accomplishes similar goals for businesses like yours (in terms of size, daytime/evening priorities and viewing distance desired.) Gather images of holiday décor that you like and fits your goals. Google search those items for vendor options and prices.

Q:   What if I’m too busy to do all this myself?

Even Santa has helpers! Identify an employee who loves Christmas and has a good eye for color, design and quality. Maybe a spouse or family member can lend a hand too? Several small businesses get help from landscapers, sign companies, cleaning services or other local service vendors they use and trust. Local commercial décor vendors and service providers are available at BransonChristmas.org too.

Q:   How much should I expect to spend on holiday décor?

Your investment is entirely up to you. The biggest driver of expense is the size of your building or of the area you want to decorate. It’s always a good idea to start small with quality décor. Buying décor and lighting designed and manufactured for commercial use will allow you to build your display over time with consistent and warrantied materials. Small local businesses have gotten started with as little as $5,000 with a great impact in year one. Chick-fil-A’s first year intense lighting cost about$30,000 and generated an estimated 7-9% growth in sales that season.

Q:   What décor will have the most impact for the money?

If after dark hours are when you want to attract new customers or “wow” your current clientele invest in lighting existing buildings, structures, trees or bushes already located on your property. Good quality LED light strands can provide an impressive look for not much money. Net lighting looks especially nice on mowed lawns and well-shaped shrubbery. You are always better to heavily light one tree or small area rather than trying to stretch fewer strands over a too large of an area.

Consider good quality, large scale inflatables. Giant Santas, reindeer and even Yeti’s are available at a very reasonable cost per foot. The Branson Christmas Coalition can help with vendors.

Plant one or more evergreens in highly visible locations that can be decorated for years to come.

Use a grouping of fresh cut trees and decorate for day or nighttime impact.

Pick a limited number of colors to use for lighting and décor to improve the impact, visibility and professional look of your display. This works especially well if it’s a color that is already featured predominantly on your property or in your branding.

If you have large, visible windows at your business, create a banner or hire a window painter to add festive color and attract attention during the holidays. Either option is very economical.

If you can’t go big, be unique. Branson has had Christmas trees made from books, wine bottles, giant metal butterflies, kayaks and used go-kart tires. Literally anything that can be formed into acone or triangular shape can be a Christmas tree with some festive lighting and a topper. One auto supply store in town even made a giant evergreen tree air freshener for their one-of-a-king Christmas Tree display.

Q:   How can I make my Christmas tree look bigger, better, and more professional?

Don’t skimp on lights or décor. If you are using the 5mm wide angle mini lights, the rule of thumb is 100 lights per foot of tree – and more is always better. If you’re decorating a 10’ tree, buy enough strands to equal 1,000 lights. You can use fewer if you’re buying the larger C7 bulbs.

Size up your décor in proportion to your tree size. Your 6–7-foot tree at home looks great with 4 -5-inch ball ornaments, so your 10 – 12-foot tree at work probably needs 8 - 10-inchornaments. Smaller trees generally look full with 10-15 ornaments per foot, but again, when trees get taller than 9’ they also get much bigger at the base and generally require 20 or more right-sized ornaments per foot.

Find a beautiful tree topper for a quick and easy way to add height and importance to your tree.

Locate your tree near a smaller sign, entry, gateway or door to make it look larger. A 14’ tree looks small in an open field or parking lot but looks huge next to a 10’ doorway.

Elevate your tree on a platform, ledge or even your roof! Every tree looks bigger and better when sitting higher than ground level. Platforms give Christmas trees a certain status and give you a place for a special message about your business or wishes for the season. It can also protect your tree, lights and décor from curious hands and clumsy spectators.

Q:   Why shouldn’t I buy my Christmas décor at a big box store or online?

Those stores and many online sites provide great selection and variety for residential use. For your business, you need the quality, durability, consistency, and warranties provided by commercial quality décor and lighting suppliers. If you’re adding to your display annually, you’ll need light colors to match exactly. If you’re decorating outdoors, your items need to resist sun, wind, rain, cold, ice and heat (for three full months of exposure in Branson!) If your customers or employees are within reach of any décor, you’ll want to make sure electric connections are safe, durable, and up to American Standard Electrical Code. Less expensive imported lights don’t always conform to US standards.

Q:   What other factors should be considered when creating a holiday décor plan?

Your masterplan should consider power access, installation and removal access and labor, any need for commercial lifts, and storage availability.

If your plan includes lighting as most do, you want to make sure your power supply is adequate for the additional load and located where you can easily and safely connect your display. LED lighting takes very little additional electrical power, but if you are already maxing out your supply or doing very intense holiday lighting you’ll want the specs for the planned lighting and the advice of a trusted electrician.

Some décor plans take more labor hours during installation and removal than others. For example, wrapping (and unwrapping) the trunk and branches of a large tree is labor intensive and requires a suitable lift. Installing colored up lighting fixtures at ground level takes much less time and may even be able to stay in place year-round to enhance your landscaping for other holidays and seasons.

If storage space is limited, select décor that is flat, designed to fold, stack or otherwise uses minimal space for the other nine months of the year.

If you'd like help with design, planning or resources -- contact the Branson Christmas Coalition.