Mayhem with Marlin: Christmas Installs 101 — Pricing, Process & Profit
Vonda and Lori welcome back friend and designer Marlin Hargrove AIFD for what turns into a genuine masterclass on holiday installs — a service more and more florists are getting back into, judging by the questions flying around the Flower Clique Facebook group and Shop Talk. How do you charge? By the hour or by the job? Solo or with a crew? How do you even find these clients? Marlin — who once said his autobiography would be titled "Marlin: The Madness and the Mayhem," hence this episode's name — answers all of it from his own Atlanta-market experience: residential clients under his own company, commercial work contracted through another company that handles the leads while he "does the pretty."
Finding install clients: raise your hand, then get seen
Marlin's first rule hasn't changed: you have to raise your hand. Most customers know a flower shop does funerals, weddings, and birthdays — nobody knows you do Christmas until you tell them, ideally in late summer with a menu of services: mailbox installations, tree trimming, or full-house work. His other client-getting moves:
- The mailbox note. Spot a porch that "needs your help" and attach a Christmassy postcard to the mailbox — legally on the outside, not inside — offering your services. Land five homes in one neighborhood and you've got two or three days of work without driving across town.
- Get seen in the right living rooms. One of Marlin's best accounts is a fashion blogger who shoots content at home with his decorations in the background — her followers ask who did them, and he'd gotten two calls that week alone. Tour-of-homes work does the same thing.
- Target new builds. New homeowners often tossed the old tree in the move and won't think about it until Thanksgiving Eve — and they're the most open to a custom package designed for their interiors, where you profit on both product markup and labor.
- Every install is an ad. Holiday parties put a whole new set of eyes on your work. When someone calls too late this year, keep their name and call them in August.
The consult: listen for the code words
The centerpiece of the episode is a live role-play with Lori as the client — glass ornaments collected since 1990, many from her mother's tree, every one with a story. Marlin's questions come fast: Do you have your tree? Your decorations? Pictures of past Christmases? Is the tree pre-lit, and are the lights actually working? And crucially: will you be at the installation? — because, as he laughs, he has made real money off clients who narrate the origin of every single ornament as it comes out of the box. He treats it exactly like a wedding consultation: get personal, because Christmas is personal and nostalgic for everyone, then check your ego at the door and listen for the code words. "Subtle" means scale it back. "We use this stairwell every day" means no exploding newel-post arrangement. A toddler means ornaments start waist-high — or leave the bottom of the tree for the kids to fill in.
Interpretation has a pricing rule, too: if Marlin has to come back and change something because the client changed the order, that costs more; if it was his own interpretation that missed, he doesn't normally charge. And yes, it happens to the pros — hours before recording, he was removing a velvet-pumpkin garland from a dining table because the client had told him "my dining table is my office now" and he hadn't fully listened.
Pricing: start with what you want to make for the day
Marlin wishes there were a formula, but the honest version is this: he starts with a half-day rate and a full-day rate — the number he wants to have made when the check arrives — then builds in the scope (a tree versus a whole house), staffing, and product. His staffing lesson of the year: payroll is expensive and worth it. He keeps "a pantry full of folks" — tree lighters, designers, fluffers — pays them a little better than market so they always say yes, and budgets for lunch, snacks, and water. Details that move the number: hanging a client's inch-and-a-half heirloom ornaments takes far longer than 12-inch balls; last-minute panic ("I'm booked until the second week of December") commands a premium, and those clients will pay it; and tree lighting alone is a moneymaker — Marlin keeps couples together by handling the job that, more than one client has admitted, is the only thing they ever fight about. Vonda's warning for shop owners: don't think "$25 an hour." You're out of the shop, paying someone to cover you, and delivering a once-a-year specialty service — walk a decor store and look at what people happily pay for a ten-inch Santa.
Takedown is gold, and timing is everything
While you're installing, book the takedown. You packed the tubs, you labeled them, you know where everything is — which makes you the obvious call next year. Even if someone else did the install, getting the takedown gives you the inside track on next season, because nobody changes their decorations mid-December. Timing rules the whole calendar: installs stack up from the first weekend after Halloween (Marlin was on his fifth home already, and works both Thanksgiving and New Year's Day), most clients want everything down by January 2nd — one wants it gone the day after Christmas — and Thanksgiving installs can be layered so you pull the turkeys and drop in Santas without redoing the house. Charge for takedown too: it's your organizational skill and your time out of the shop.
Two parting trends from Marlin: his installs this year have been surprisingly clean, tailored, and edited — even this lover of big "parade float" tree crowns is scaling back — and the color his clients want most is champagne, because it goes with red and green, white, gold, bronze, copper, and every home. And one gift for shops that don't do installs at all: when customers bring in ribbon and ask you to tie a velvet bow — charge for it. It's a talent, the window is short, and don't give it away.
Key takeaways
- Raise your hand: publish your Christmas services list in late summer — mailbox tags, blogger and tour-of-homes visibility, and new builds are proven client sources.
- Consult like it's a wedding: listen for code words ("subtle," "we use this stairwell"), ask if the client will be present, and check your ego at the door.
- Price from a half-day/full-day rate you want to earn, then add scope, markup on product, and properly paid staff — never a shop-floor hourly rate.
- Book the takedown during the install — labeled tubs make you next year's automatic call, and takedown time is billable too.
- Ride the calendar: installs run Halloween weekend through New Year's, late-panic clients pay premium, and champagne is the color of the season.