227 - He Built a $200K Newsletter. Then launched a $100K Christmas Lights Biz with Jas Singh

0:00We just launched it like a week ago. No website, no nothing. In about a week, we'll sold about$5 ,000 worth of jobs. So you want to do$100 ,000 in your first season, I'm assuming? Yeah, so about 80 homes. 80 homes. And you're at five? Five, which will be done before the season even starts. I said, hey, I'm thinking of starting a Christmas lights company so we can keep this news that are free for you guys forever. What do you guys think about it? What a cool use of your social capital, man. That's awesome.

0:30Jazz, you are my first second time guest. You are now my first third time guest, and I'm freaking stoked to have you. So you're one of my first conversations when I started podcasting. Then you launched a local newsletter. That local newsletter now has 106 ,000 subscribers. You're doing between 10 and$15 ,000 a month in revenue just on that newsletter. So you built a great business. Episode 105, it's one of my most listened to episodes with you. In fact, it's the episode that plays on my YouTube page. So go listen to it. It's a freaking great episode where jazz goes through the economics of newsletters, how he grew it, how, how he acquires customers, how he's monetizing all that stuff.

1:04Well, you're starting to kind of change your philosophy from just being a newsletter to can I launch businesses off of the audience that I've created off of this local newsletter in Winnipeg? Is that right? Yeah, yeah. That's about the gist of it. I would say just as a little difference as we have, so it's 106 ,000 people audience about 72 is social media and then about 35 is our newsletter. Was that always the plan with the newsletter? It's like, hey, let's launch a local newsletter and then build a business on top of the distribution? Yeah, I mean, we've always wanted a portfolio of companies, obviously much easier said than done.

1:39What we started doing was, before we used to just do plain out ads, they would pay us money, we would do advertising for them. And then we started seeing, okay, it converts really well. So this summer was the first summer where we partnered with a local market who used to do one market a summer, maybe two if they had the time where now we've taken all the marketing off their hands so that's facebook ads and creating content so on and so forth so we do all of that in return they're going to do five markets this summer they already did four our fifth one is this weekend and in return they're going to do five markets where a 30 70 profit split with them right so we make money when they make money you know they handle all the logistics talking to vendors collecting payments talking to the mall, the location, the permits, insurance, A to Z.

2:29And all we're doing is we're the marketing partner for them. We come in with the marketing arm. Yeah. So basically that's what we've done. And that's ideally what we would like to do with future businesses, whether it's acquiring equity or getting equity in return of our audience. And yeah. So of all the businesses that you could have chosen after you prove the model of, okay, cool, we've got an audience, we've got distribution. I did this market thing where somebody else did 100 % of the fulfillment. I just did the marketing of all the businesses you could have chosen after that experience. What business did you choose, Jazz?

3:01I ended up choosing the holiday Christmas lighting. Why the freak would you choose holiday Christmas lighting after that experience? Tell me about it. Yeah, I mean, especially in a place where it's like minus 40 in the winters, you know. not the best place to be outside in the rinkers and for sure but my thought process behind it was pretty simple it was i wanted a seasonal business because if it didn't work out i wanted to shut it down second thing was yeah the high ltv part third was i needed something that i can piggyback off my audience so 70 of our audience is females women right if i went to especially let's say plumbing or something.

3:42First, I didn't have the certifications for it. Right. And for, for those, like, I feel like generally the guy is the one making that decision. So I wanted a type of business that the female was the main kind of decision maker in it. And so lighting was the one that we kind of ended up. That's why. Okay. Well, I mean, I'll give the pros as well. The pro side of lighting is a lot of cash collected in a very short period of time. You have a setup cost. It's hot and heavy for a short window, but then really nothing for the rest of the year. If you do it right and you're targeting high income neighborhoods, you can make, I mean, do you know who Ann McGinty is?

4:21Right. So I just had her on for the second time in my podcast, but she started a seasonal Christmas lighting business 10 years ago. In her first year, she did 150 grand and like it was an eight figure business by the time she sold it. So she loves that business. I think it's, that's a great business. So like there's a bunch of pros to it, but why decide to actually do the business itself? Like why not just be the marketing arm for a seasonal Christmas lighting business? Yeah. So, I mean, we were very, well, okay. First thing first in Winnipeg, there is no one actual brand behind Christmas lighting.

4:51So I was like, okay, that's a big kind of gap in the market. I mean, you can also, there might be a con that there's just not enough business here, which I don't think is the case for a million people city. There was not a specific company that just had a brand around Christmas lighting. It was like lawn maintenance companies doing Christmas lightings in their off season just to like, I guess, keep their workers hired with the winter and stuff like that. So that's why we started to I was like, OK, there's a gap in the market. Right. And then the second thing was we can easily keep getting sponsors right for the newsletter.

5:26Like we'll probably charge 10, 15 thousand dollars for the whole year to an annual sponsor of ours. the downside to that unfortunately was that we can't just go and acquire equity in these companies right like we we need to almost prove out the fact that hey uh we can deliver value if we come on as a advertising partner right so i was like you know i'm gonna start this business it'll also act as a case study for future partners right so let's say come second business yeah let's say the portfolio whether that's landscaping or any other company right then they know that i've done this for my previous company already.

6:02So it's a lot easier. Jess, this is so good. This is so freaking smart, man. You know what I love about this? You're bringing people along the journey with you. And this now is a perfect use case to build in public because you're going to go and sell other people and they're going to be like, well, I don't know. Can you actually sell? You're like, that's a great question. Check out this link. And it's just all your posts. And it's showing very transparently what you did, how much revenue you generated, how many customers you got, what the LTV was, how much it costs to acquire them, et cetera. And it's no extra lift on your part because now you've already done all the work.

6:36I just do that as that was, that was very smart, my friend. That's awesome. Okay. So tell me, when did you launch the Christmas lights business? We just launched it like a week ago and no website, no enough. Okay. Yeah. Tell me what you did. How did it launch? Yeah. So first thing we did is I had heard liquor Mosey say to, I think, um, Sean about doing like a giveaway of some sorts, right. And doing a giveaway and And you're just using the leads that you get from them and just think, hey, you didn't win the giveaway, but here's$100. You still want to get Christmas likes? So that's what we did.

7:05Reached out, got two, I think got like seven or eight leads from that. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. First of all, first of all, Sean and Harmozy said, I love that you're on a first name basis. He's talking about Sean Puri and Alex Harmozy. They just did an episode on My First Million where Sean interviewed him. Friggin' Jazz is on a first name basis. Apparently, he and Alex Harmozy are thick as thieves. he says this is one of the marketing tactics offer a giveaway even if they don't get the giveaway you then follow up and say well actually would you be interested but where did you place that was it on social media or did you go through your own newsletter no that was just on the newsletter i said hey i'm thinking we're starting a slides company so we can keep this newsletter free for you guys forever what do you guys think about it that's awesome how about 150 people say yeah we would love to do it and then based on that the following day i just did like a giveaway i was like, Hey, you know what?

7:55As a first thing, I'm just going to do it. What a cool use of your social capital, man. Thank you. That's awesome. Cause it wasn't just an ad of like, Hey, I do Christmas lights or this company does Christmas lights. It was a personal, like I'm thinking of doing this so that you can still enjoy free content, man. That is really cool. Wow. That is very freaking smart. All right. So you've got 150 people respond and say, I'm interested of that. What did that whittle down to? Yeah. So, I mean, we, we actually messed up on that giveaway a little bit where we took too long to then call everybody up right so i only was able to hop on calls with like i don't know 35 people or something out of which we ended up booking i think something like 10 consults or something three canceled whatever we're just figuring things out and then two ended up booking for about like a job of 12 1300 each which was terrible right and then And following that, we ended up doing two more ads in the newsletter.

8:55We just said, hey, if you get Christmas lights done before October 7th, with the whole goal of just extending our season a little bit and getting the extra practice reps, then we'll give you$150 off. So just straight to a calendar link, nothing like that. And then so since then to today, so in about a week, we'll sold about$5 ,000 worth of jobs. So three jobs. Dang. I forget the newsletters daily or is it five days a week? it's three times a week three times a week so you learned from that first experience speed the lead yeah i was like oh we we should have we should have hopped on these calls a lot sooner yeah what's the price point so 150 off of what a thousand five thousand ten thousand generally i mean i bought a course about christmas lights before i ever thought this it was generally for christmas lights we're charging anywhere from our minimum is about eight hundred dollars for going out there you know and then it can range usually depending on how if they want trees don't want trees anywhere from like a thousand to like 1600 per season it's a leasing model it's not we're not selling the lights to them we're leasing the lights to them so then the following season they get like a 10 15 discount but then if they want that then again they're gonna come back to earth so you want to do a hundred thousand dollars in your first season i'm assuming yeah so about 80 homes 80 homes and you're at five five which will be done before the season even starts how many do you think you'll get natively from your newsletter and how many do you think are going to have to go through paid ads first like i mean i was focused on building a website and stuff like that but i don't even think i'm going to go down that road i'm probably just going to do first season without a website anything like that simply based on yard signs referral and um you know the jobs we do i think we'll get to about 25 to 30 jobs just through the newsletter and then the rest will be referrals and yard sites interesting so in your first week you've done three jobs three jobs are closed five thousand dollars in revenue and you think you'll get to 20 or 25 jobs is it just like as it gets closer and there's more reminders people will pull the trigger yeah like right now it's very hot here you know it's we're nowhere near um christmas season most people start talking about lights when it's like october november that's another reason why i'm pretty sure that we will get an increase in the amount of people that are wanting leads that launch so you did the launch your week past the launch what were you hoping it would be and compared to the to the three that you sold was that like yes and no like i think it was we understood the fact that this is like very early in the season most christmas lights companies don't even start advertising until mid-September or later, right?

11:38So we're way before that, first thing first. And so the colder it starts to get outside, the less people want to climb ladders and the more leads we're going to get. There's not a doubt in my mind that we'll get to the 100 ,000, right? And by no means did I expect that all of that will come from the newsletter. Like I understood that we'll have to probably do other forms of advertising and stuff as well. But I'm pretty sure we'll get to 25, 30 just from the newsletter. Are you planning on doing any paid through like Meta, Facebook? Yeah, just depending on how many leads we have. Like I'm just planning on doing everything myself and like with one other person this season, right?

12:14Just so then I get hands-on experience following years and I get hired out and so on. So for the first thing, I don't think I'll need to do Meta ads. If I do, probably like a few thousand. Hey, I don't know if you remember this, but when we started this podcast, we entered into a social contract. I would spend time, energy, and money producing this podcast, interviewing these individuals and giving you insights into how to build, buy, start, grow your business. And you would like, subscribe, and leave me a five-star review. Now, out of that, we both get to talk to really cool people and hear really cool insights.

12:45We both get a ton of value. But I just want to help you keep your word. So would you do me a favor? Will you go leave a five-star review for me on Apple or Spotify? It would really help. And if you want, even share this with a friend. Do you take all the calls right now? I do everything. You do everything. And so you're doing the fulfillment as well. You're getting up on the roof. You're putting the lights up. Yep. Everything. Everything soup to nuts. How much did it cost to get into this? You did the course. You probably bought some materials. I think I saw some of your posts. Yeah. Had some Amazon packages delivered to your house.

13:16Yeah. So about give or take, our first order was for$3 ,500. Tariffs kind of messed us up on that a little bit, but like$3 ,500. And then the course, I spent another four grand. But I would say well worth it though. Just because like the three that even we closed, I think it would have took a lot longer for us to, you know, go through all the mistakes and that sort of thing. So if you do 80 homes, how many of them are you going to do yourself? All of them. You're doing all of them? No crew? Like a little crew? You don't have like an assistant? One person with me. That's it, right? We have a truck, a ladder, and that's it, you know?

13:57Oh, dude, I am rooting for you so hard. This is so cool. Oh my gosh, this is so cool. It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting. I mean, I might be underestimating it, but I don't think so. I think one home a day is not too hard. And then the local newsletter, I have it kind of on autopilot. So I don't need to do too much work there. So I've, I always make a joke. The famous last words of any entrepreneur, how hard could it be? How hard could it be? Get a ladder. I go on a roof, put up some lights. How hard could it be? i'm excited to talk to you after the season is over have you you haven't put up any lights yet though you've just sold the jobs oh no no we basically sold the job on saturday and then we told them that we'll do it first week of september they're like i have 40 guests coming tomorrow it'll be great advertising for you can you just put them up tomorrow which was yesterday so we went and did the first show yeah good for you man yeah so so three five thousand so your average ticket cost is about 1650 yeah okay 1600 is that where you think your price point will end up higher lower i think trees add a lot to it so if we just do roof lines which are like the quickest thing to do if we just do roof lines then um the average order value will be actually lower so probably like a thousand twelve hundred or something any house that gets the trees done it's going to double our average order value just because those take just as much effort is the plan you're going to do this the first season get some experience and then hopefully do it again because it's seasonal right like it seems like you kind of built in optionality for yourself yeah so the idea is that we do this the first season I do everything the first season I have like a cousin of mine with me who's just going to be with me on all jobs ideally I can just like get him to you know do the more operations part come season two which I think I should be able to, you know, and then offer them whatever, some sort of vested equity or something.

15:54And then with the idea that then I can just handle the marketing and sales and everything comes season two. If it goes poorly, you could also be like, I'm pulling the ripcord. Like we don't need to do this next year. Yeah, exactly. So if it goes poorly, we don't ever touch it again. What we are doing right now is I'm pretty sure it will go well. Right. And, and then I think we should be able to do permanent lights the summer so sometimes a lot of the customers or leads are saying hey well we want permanent lights instead so now we're actually kind of starting to upsell them permanent lights already so i'm kind of forcing myself to go start that business girl yeah what are you the most nervous about obviously this is a test to see if you can do one of these businesses right but you want to do this again with other businesses so So how are you kind of looking at this, finding the signal through the noise?

16:47Execution, you know, I think marketing is failed. I should be able to crush that. That's not the issue, I think, for us or the constraint by any means. I think the more issue is going to be like executing on the jobs, creating those SOPs as we bring on more people, you know, and just making sure that we're delivering a good product. And honestly, like yesterday was a great tech for that. and it allowed us to see, okay, so this is where we need to work on. But then at the end of the day, the homeowners were really happy. They loved the end product. And that's a big plus point for us as well. Yeah.

17:23Did they pay right then? Yeah. So we got, we get, I know most people say 50 % first and then 50 % after the job is done. We got about 30 % before the job and then we got about 70 % after the job was done. How do they pay? Yeah, I mean, we have an iPad jobber. Some people pay through check. They pay through e-transfer. Others pay through credit card. So it's like we take everything. And you said this is a leasing model. So basically, you're buying the lights. You're putting them on the house. But then do you take them down and store them? Yep. So we take them down in January, store them. And the following year, they're kind of incentivized to obviously go with us again.

18:02On average, I think a business like this has about an 85 % year-over-year repeat rate. with their customers. So that's the model that we're also taking. And then if they don't end up, let's say, going with us, we're just going to unscrew all the bulbs that we applied for them and just use it for our job. So this will be a lot more profitable next year. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Although it won't be owner-operator if you have somebody else who's doing the majority of the fulfillment. You'll be paying a team and a crew. So yeah, probably whatever margin you would have gained there is kind of eaten up. That makes sense, right?

18:35Dude, that's really interesting. what other businesses are on your radar to launch on top of the newsletter permanent lights we have i am a thousand percent sure we could crush it with that it's not even a doubt in my mind because anyone that i've talked to christmas lights about is interested in permanent lights so basically what we're doing is we're telling what are permanent lights i don't know what that is it's the led lights that go under your like the trim of the house right but you can change with like a remote control and things of that nature like they're just like year round yeah they're just year round it's like a strip of lighting be a light basically and then but the average it's a one-time job but the average order value is like four to five to x higher than christmas lights right so christmas lights over a year whereas that's just a one-time job but if i might charge a thousand for christmas lights i'm going to charge four or five for that because it's not recurring.

19:34It's not recurring. Yeah. And then I think I'm not sure exactly on how much it costs and stuff. That's something I'll get into come next sprint. Yeah. How did you decide on lights? Did you survey your newsletter? And they said, this is what we would buy from you? Or like, how did you decide? Yep, this is the best thing to leverage my distribution. For me, it was seasonality was the biggest thing. You know, I wanted something seasonal, especially because it snows so heavy here. I wanted something seasonal that if it doesn't work out, I can just get rid of it. That was like one of the biggest factors for me.

20:04And for me, it was like, okay, if it works, great. If it doesn't, that's okay as well. So seasonality was the biggest factor. Moving forward, is it always going to be seasonality? What's your other buy box criteria or whatever launch box criteria? Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day for us, like we know home services will work because 75 % of our readers are homeowners, right? So at the end of the day, we're just using the audience as a marketing platform right and technically like it should work and it's worked for other home services that are current advertisers as well so a lot of the times because we see into that data we can exactly see hey we're getting this many leads for this client and so on and so forth right after this stuff i can just go to them and say hey either you're going to let us buy into your company or something along those lines or we will just go with another company and they will be the exclusive advertiser for us right yeah that's kind of the ultimatum that a lot of great advertisers will see eventually dude i'm really excited to follow along because like i said you spoke the newsletter into an exit into existence which is amazing to see you crush here i think you're gonna do the same thing with the christmas lights business i don't know if you'll do it again next year maybe you'll hate actually doing all of the fulfillment but maybe i'm i'm just excited I think it's an exciting, I think it's definitely exciting, right?

21:25Like if it ends up working out, then I'm going to try and replicate it in other industries, like landscaping and whatever and so on and so forth. But if it doesn't, that's totally fine too. We never talk about it again and we just go and start it. Yeah, it's true. That's true. That's true. We never talk about it again. Where's the best place for people to come find you? Yeah. Yeah, so people can reach me at Twitter. CreatingJazz is kind of the username there, so they can find me there. Okay, that's awesome. I'm going to check back in with you at the end of the season. You're going to tell me how it went.

21:57Or we'll never talk about this again. Amazing, yeah. It's one of two options. All right, man, good luck. Thank you, brother. All right, hopefully you liked that episode. And if you've made it this far, you're either really committed or you're stuck doing yard work and you can't actually skip on your phone. So while I have you, the show is growing, but I have a favor to ask of you. will you please help me grow the show i want to reach more people there's a couple things that you can do like and subscribe is the simplest thing obviously you want to get notifications for when the next episode is coming out but if you go the next step will you leave me a review five star on spotify or apple what that does is it tells the algorithm that oh hey this is a high value podcast because more people are leaving reviews for it and it then pushes it out to more people.

22:41So that's why when people are like, will you log and subscribe and put the five-star rating? It's not just to make themselves feel better. It's actually to get more exposure for the show. So if you do that for me, I would greatly appreciate it. And I'll see you next time.