How JD Light Co. Grew a High School Side Hustle Into 180+ Christmas Light Installs a Year

How did JD Light Co. start?

Jackson Marburger started JD Light Co. as a sophomore in high school, before he could drive. He and a friend hung Christmas lights on homes in their Dallas neighborhood, and their dads drove them to the jobs.

He picked up the idea from a few juniors and seniors who were doing it for side cash. They were headed to college, some to play sports, and did not want to turn it into a business. When they left, they handed their clients down to him.

The first customers came from people who already knew him. He went through the family friends in his contacts, and his parents posted in their Facebook groups. “We were obviously super cheap with our first few clients,” he said. “We just wanted to get the experience, get on some roofs.”

Jackson turned 22 a few weeks before the episode and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May. JD Light Co., based in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas, is going into its eighth holiday season and lights more than 180 residential and commercial properties a year.

What changed when the side hustle became a real business?

The prices went up and the goodwill discount went away. Once Jackson wanted real growth and real profit, he could no longer rely on neighbors hiring him to support a kid. He started running ads and took on clients in areas like Highland Park and Preston Hollow. The company expanded to Fort Worth, where it now does more than 40 homes.

The paperwork was new too. Forming the LLC was not hard once he knew how. Insurance was the big jump, an overhead cost he had to decide whether to finance monthly or pay outright, and the company has since moved up to commercial coverage.

The timing was rough. He made the switch going into his freshman year of college, while busy with classes and a fraternity, and he hired crews because he could not be there. It was a tough year. “We didn’t do that well with our customer side. We didn’t do well with our quality,” he said. He has not been in Dallas for the peak of the season in about four years. This will be his first in person.

What is the customer service approach that changed the business?

Tell clients what is happening, and fix problems fast for free. Jackson figured this out about three years ago and said he watched the business change drastically.

• Weather delays get a text right away. If rain or ice stops a job, clients hear right away, along with a new window of the next day or two. It feels like a message that could lose the job. Instead, he said, the first reply is always thanks.
• Fallen lights are fixed within 24 to 48 hours at no extra cost, whether the cause was squirrels or bad weather.

Good customer service, he said, will win a client over no matter what you charge.

What should homeowners know before hiring a Christmas light installer?

Three things come up with nearly every new client.

The company will not hang your lights. JD Light Co. uses only commercial grade lights. They look better and last longer, the crew knows what it is working with, and customer-supplied lights fall outside the company’s insurance.

Cheaper is fine, but pick carefully. When a client wants a lower price, Jackson refers them to a cheaper company he trusts. His warning is about the random landscaper who puts lights up and never comes back to maintain them or take them down. He gets those calls all the time.

Full service includes storage. The company designs, installs, maintains, removes and stores the lights, wrapped and labeled for next year.

How does JD Light Co. win commercial and HOA work?

By starting early and knowing people. Jackson called commercial hard to break into in Dallas-Fort Worth because there is a lot of competition and a lot of money. His approach is to email property management companies in the spring, when they are setting HOA budgets and holiday plans. In June the company quoted a large municipal property, and the quote alone took about a month.

Relationships do the rest. He recently signed a residential client who runs an HOA, and the two were talking about a discount on the client’s own home in exchange for help landing the HOA’s contract. Referrals are among the company’s biggest sources of leads.

What is next for JD Light Co.?

More commercial work and more acquisitions, without giving up residential. Two years ago the company acquired a Christmas light company in Godley, south of Fort Worth, and Jackson said it has done really well. He expects to buy other small Christmas light companies and add them to the book of business.

He is not adding permanent lighting for now. It is expensive to get into, the brands are still sorting out quality, and traditional lights are still selling well in his market.