Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Lubbers.
Justin began helping his family, friends, and neighbors with their Christmas lighting needs at the young age of 14 in his small hometown of Bullard, TX. Fast forward 15 years, and Justin has now turned his passion into a thriving business, Premier Christmas, which serves commercial and residential clients in the northern Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
While Christmas designs, custom decorations, and Christmas lighting still remain the primary focus of the business, Premier Christmas also helps clients with auxiliary projects throughout the year, including pole banners, landscape lighting, RGB lighting, and lighting maintenance for commercial clients.
Premier Christmas has designed and implemented hundreds of Christmas projects. Our illuminations and decorations can be seen on shopping centers, malls, cities, churches, restaurants, office buildings, hotels, HOAs, and residences.
Premier Christmas has grown from a one-man show into a business that has approximately 30-35 employees during peak holiday season. Justin attended the University of North Texas where he received his BBA with a major in Economics.
Throughout college, Justin always looked forward to working the busy Christmas season – and depended on that Christmas season to fund college expenses.
After graduating from UNT, Justin decided that his career path would be to focus on growing the Christmas business and hasn’t turned back since.
“Most everyone loves the Christmas season, and especially Christmas lights. I get to wake up and be a part of that joy year-round in this business. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.
My success in the growth of this business has been tied to relationship building more than anything. I take a genuine interest in my client’s needs and create impactful ideas for illuminating and decorating their property. Our focus on quality service and the level of pride we take in our work has opened many doors over the years.”
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The largest obstacle that Premier Christmas has faced is the challenge of managing employees in an industry that poses inconsistent work hours, a high density of seasonal workers and managing the operations which can include 20-30 jobs per day during the peak season.
These problems have been addressed by continuing to grow in other auxiliary services that were mentioned, (pole banners, landscape lighting, RGB lighting, and lighting maintenance).
The growth of this company has also been entirely organic. Justin has learned the industry and grown the company through “blood, sweat, and tears”. There have been a lot of early mornings, late nights, and all-nighters to accomplish this.
Please tell us about Premier Christmas.
We are primarily known for large scale Christmas lighting & decor. We design and implement full scale projects for mainly commercial properties. A normal package from us would include:
-Consultation/Design
-Product Provision
-Installation
-Guaranteed Service
-Removal
-Annual Storage of Product
I am most proud of the growth we have been able to achieve. Since graduating from UNT in 2013, our sales have increased by %1,100. We have had the honor to design and install projects for some of the most notable shopping areas and master-planned developments in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
While this may not be popular advice – looking back, I would not have attended college.
I would have liked to had my full focus on this industry and began to gain market share earlier than what I did. My drive, passion, and interest for this industry is what has led to success, not the college degree.
I learned the industry and best field practices through trial and error over the course of many years. Mistakes were certainly made early on and they were all learned from.
When I started in this business it was something that was almost unheard of. Fifteen years ago, most people didn’t know you could hire someone to do your Christmas lights – there just weren’t many people doing it. As a result of this, there wasn’t much information available on how to buy, sell, and install Christmas lights on a professional level.
Pricing:
- As we continue to take on larger projects each year, our average job price has also continued to grow. We have significant variation in pricing. We have projects that range from $500-$325,000. We have bid on projects in excess of $3,000,000, so that gives you an idea that there is no standard.
Contact Info:
- Website: premier-christmas.com or premierchristmas.com
- Phone: 855.426.4544
- Email: info@PremierChristmas.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Premier-Christmas-262090960500961/
