Hanging on to employees in a workforce crisis is an even greater challenge for seasonal business owners. So, the husband-and-wife team of Dan and Kris Bernard looked for a way to keep their employees on the payroll longer and increase the chances that they’d be there at the start of the next season.
Their core business is Mosquito Joe’s of Southern NH in Auburn, which provides outdoor pest control, says Kris Bernard. “We opened in 2017 and started what we thought would be a part-time family business. When a business grows as fast as ours has, it comes with a lot of difficulty, but we made it through. We have an amazing staff with 16 people on the payroll in 2021 and revenue of $1.6 million, which is both insane and awesome.”
Bernard says they needed a way to pay their workers for a longer period of time during the offseason and increase the chances they would come back in the spring. They decided to add a Christmas Decor franchise, providing holiday decorating and professional Christmas light installation services.
“It’s very difficult now to find and keep good people,” she says. “We preempted that a little bit in 2021 and were able to keep them on the payroll for several more weeks. It’s really been fun for everybody learning a new business.”
The Mosquito Joe season ends on Halloween and Christmas Decor takes them through New Year’s. “It gave them another 10 to 12 weeks of pay that we weren’t able to offer them before, so it’s been great.”
Christmas Decor has a warehouse in Texas and Bernard says she supplemented that with some online purchases to add to their supply. “Our goal was to decorate 34 houses and we did 42.”
The first COVID summer was a big one for Mosquito Joe because people weren’t traveling and were instead outside in their backyards. She says it was more important than ever for families with young children and pets to be able to limit the ticks and mosquitoes and make it comfortable outdoors.
“I think that it’s definitely a big part of the boom in business. With Christmas, people wanted to get more joy out of the holiday and were willing to spend a little bit more. Families have been struggling for so long through the pandemic, working and trying to teach their kids at home, and many really just wanted to make the holidays special,” Bernard says.
She says they’ve had year-over-year growth between 30% and 40% and will look for more technicians who can stay on for decorating. “We have multiyear contracts with most of our Christmas Decor clients this year, so we anticipate decorating as many houses next year and then maybe even doubling that.”
For more information, visit southernnh.mosquitojoe.com or christmasdecor.net.
Current Issue - May 2024