Every Christmas business starts somewhere — and for most owners, that's a cellphone, a notepad, and maybe a ladder. In this episode, host Lindsay Sutherland and co-host Heather Lundervold, founder of the Christmas Design Institute, break down exactly what tools you need to run a Christmas business, from the bare-bones basics to the systems that let you scale.

Heather shares what it was like decorating trees with nothing but clippers and a stepstool, and why skipping tools almost drove her to quit the business altogether.

Lindsay makes the case for setting up an LLC, a separate business bank account, and simple accounting software before you think you need them. They also dig into liability insurance, ladder safety (and the china cabinet near-miss that changed Heather's rules for good), and why a CRM tool becomes non-negotiable the moment you're juggling 50 clients.

Plus: what Heather and Lindsay have planned for the Christmas & Holiday Expo in Dallas next week. If you're building your Christmas business from scratch — or wondering what comes next — this episode lays out the roadmap.

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

Not all Christmas clients are created equal — and that's actually a very good thing.

In this episode, Heather and Lindsay break down one of the most practical topics for anyone building a holiday design business: the difference between budget clients and luxury clients, and how to decide which lane is right for you. Spoiler — the answer might be both.

Heather pulls back the curtain on how she structures jobs at every price point, from a two-hour tree install that pays $1,000 with nearly 100% profit, all the way up to five-figure luxury projects for names like Fox Broadcasting. And she makes a compelling case for why new designers shouldn't write off the budget client — because four of those in a day is four thousand dollars, and that math hits different when you're just getting started.

They also tackle the question Lindsay gets asked constantly: what if I love the business side but I'm terrified of the design side? Heather's answer is simple: the Designer for Hire program exists exactly for that reason. You don't have to be the one holding the ornaments to run a profitable Christmas business.

From reverse-engineering your income goals to understanding the rental model, knowing when to send a designer instead of going yourself, and building a business that fits your lifestyle instead of the other way around — this episode is packed with the kind of straight talk that actually moves the needle.

Plus, Heather announces the six-week certification kicking off August 3rd — and for podcast listeners, there's a special discount you won't want to miss.

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

The decorating is the fun part. The invoicing, the taxes, the "wait, did I even get paid for that?" — that's the part that burns people out.

This week, Lindsay Sutherland and Holiday Heather Lundervold break down exactly how to get paid without the headache: the three job types every decorator needs to know (install only, install + supplemental decor, full design), how to price and invoice each one, and the sales tax rules most business owners get wrong.

Heather also opens up about 26 years of running her business on Google Docs and a notepad — and why this is the first July of her career she isn't panicking. Plus: details on the six-week certification launching August 3rd for anyone ready to build a real Christmas business this season

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

Last week we covered the basics of pricing your holiday decorating services. This week, Lindsay and Heather go deeper — into all the things most new decorators forget to charge for, and exactly how those overlooked costs quietly eat your profit margin alive.

In this episode of the Holiday Pros Podcast, Heather Lundervold draws on 26 years of trial and error to walk through the hidden costs that don't show up in a basic estimate: storage, delivery, trailer wear and tear, packing time, tax planning, and the two extra hours on both ends of every job that most designers never bill for. Lindsay brings her business consulting background to the table to explain why pricing per project often protects you better than hourly billing — and how the "rule of thirds" can keep your cash flow healthy no matter how big your season gets.

They also tackle one of the most common early-career mistakes: celebrating a $12,000 job before calculating what it actually cost to deliver it.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How to price storage — even if you're using your own garage
• Why delivery and pickup labor can add up to four unbilled hours per job
• The "rule of thirds" for managing your money as a self-employed decorator
• Package pricing vs. hourly: when to use each and how to protect yourself either way
• How to present a three-tiered proposal so clients can choose their own investment level
• Why asking for a "budget range" (not a budget) changes the conversation immediately
• How taxes can blindside new business owners — and what to do about it
• When to charge the same hourly rate for yourself as your install team (and when not to)
• Why Biz in a Box Solutions has a done-for-you system that walks you through every stage from first call to final install
• Heather's book in progress: Six Figures in Six Weeks with the Business of Christmas

Upcoming Events — don't miss these:

• 🎄 Holiday Design Master Class — Scottsdale, AZ at Sherwin-Williams | July 17, 1–5 PM (4-part series: July, Aug, Sept, Oct) | christmasdesigninstitute.com
• 🎄 Christmas Expo — Dallas, TX | July 20–25 | Heather's 3-part workshop series July 20–22, conference July 23–25 with 12 design sessions | christmasexpo.com
• 🎄 Las Vegas Market — Last week of July | Las Vegas Market Center | Must have resale number; Heather's students can attend as her guest
• 🎄 HollyCon — International Conference for Holiday Design | St. Louis, MO | Feb. 25–28, 2027 | In conjunction with Transworld

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

Pricing your holiday decorating services is one of the most common questions new designers ask — and one of the most expensive mistakes they make when they get it wrong.

In Episode 9 of the Holiday Pros Podcast, Lindsay Sutherland and Heather Lundervold pull back the curtain on exactly how to price your services as an interior holiday designer: from the initial phone call all the way through installation, takedown, and everything in between.

Heather has spent 26 years learning this the hard way — undercharging, forgetting to bill for takedown, giving away consultations for free — so you don't have to. She walks through her complete process step by step, including what she charges, why she charges it, and how she handles clients who push back.

Lindsay brings her sales and business consulting expertise to the conversation, unpacking the psychology behind pricing with confidence, how to position your value in the luxury space, and why the mindset shift of "they want this" changes everything when it comes to closing a client.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How to decide what services to offer before you price a single thing
• The step-by-step client process: phone call → in-home consult → mood board → proposal → deposit
• What Heather charges for consultations ($200) — and when she waives the fee
• Why you should never email a proposal before getting paid for the design work
• The #1 mistake designers make when building proposals (and how to pad for it)
• Why forgetting takedown can cost you an entire day's pay
• How to handle clients who say "I'm already paying you $12,000 — why is there a consultation fee?"
• The key difference between pricing for residential luxury clients vs. resort and commercial bids
• How Biz in a Box Solutions takes the guesswork out of the entire process with pre-built templates, stages, and proposal verbiage
• Why shopping services are one of the most fun (and profitable) offerings in the business

Whether you're just setting your rates for the first time or you're ready to stop undercharging, this episode gives you the full picture.

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

If social media feels overwhelming, inconsistent, or just plain out of place when you're posting about Christmas in June — this episode is for you.

In Episode 8 of the Holiday Pros Podcast, Lindsay Sutherland and Heather Lundervold break down exactly what holiday decorators and Christmas business owners should be posting, when to post it, and how to stop overthinking the whole thing. Whether you're brand new to social media or you've been flying by the seat of your pants (Heather's words, not ours), you'll walk away with a clear, actionable framework you can actually use.

Lindsay draws on years of social media consulting across nonprofits, startups, and contract companies to lay out a step-by-step process tailored specifically to the Christmas industry — including tips for capturing content on the job, what to do when your clients don't want cameras in their home, and why B-roll footage of your work is more powerful than any polished talking-head video.

Heather shares real-world lessons from her own journey as a luxury holiday decorator and what she's learning inside a high-level social media coaching program — including why you should post before you're ready, why consistency beats perfection every time, and why the algorithm is actually your friend when you stop fighting it.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The "spaghetti approach" to posting 3–5x per day and what to do after 90 days
• Why niche, consistent content outperforms variety every time
• How to create a month's worth of content from a single job
• The tripod hack that makes filming on-site effortless (and affordable)
• Why B-roll + voiceover beats on-camera talking for most decorators
• How to use scheduling tools (including Biz in a Box Solutions) to post all year without the stress
• Why you should be building on multiple platforms — not just one
• The Hook Point principle: you have 3 seconds to capture attention
• Personal page vs. business page: what actually works on Facebook

This one's packed. Grab a notebook.

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Did you know there is no college curriculum, no degree program, and no formal training anywhere in the world for holiday design? Not even a single course inside a four-year interior design degree. Until now, this has been an entirely self-taught industry — and this week, Heather and Lindsay dig into what that means for you and your business.

In this episode they tackle certifications, professional associations, and credibility markers — what they're worth, why they matter to clients, and how they give you the confidence to walk into any room and close the deal. Heather shares a behind-the-scenes look at her recent conversation with Scottsdale Community College about bringing holiday design into academia, and why the Professional Association of Holiday Designers is filling a gap that every other industry has had for years — except this one.

They also get into a conversation that might just change the way interior designers think about their business model entirely: why pairing holiday design with interior design creates the holy grail of recurring revenue, stronger client relationships, and the freedom to be picky about the projects you take — sooner than you'd think.

Plus, Heather's coaching gold for anyone who's ever talked themselves out of a big job before even trying: stop asking "Can I do it?" and start asking "How can I do it?" — because if Heather can land an 11-year resort account without knowing what she was doing on day one, so can you.

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

Every designer faces it. That moment when a potential client asks, "Can I see your work?" — and you have... nothing.

It's one of the most common fears holding new holiday designers back, and in this episode Heather and Lindsay tackle it head-on with practical, confidence-building strategies you can use right now, even if you've never decorated a single tree for a paying client.

Here's the truth Heather drops early: she built a 26-year, seven-figure business and still doesn't have a formal portfolio. Because what clients are really asking when they say "show me your work" isn't prove yourself — it's can you make my space beautiful? Those are very different questions, and knowing that changes everything about how you walk into a room.

Heather and Lindsay break down exactly how to present yourself with confidence using inspiration images, AI-generated visuals, and mood boards — without misrepresenting yourself or your experience. They cover how to flip the portfolio conversation into a design consultation, why asking clients to share their inspiration pictures is actually a power move, and how the custom nature of luxury design means cookie-cutter proof shots barely matter anyway.

They also pull back the curtain on two brand-new tools coming out of the Christmas Design Institute and Biz-in-a-Box: a curated 2026 trends lookbook you can use on your website as a lead magnet, and access to Heather's personal library of 26 years worth of client photos gifted directly to students.

If you've been stalling on launching because you don't have photos to show — this episode is the green light you've been waiting for.

Christmas Callers was founded to solve one problem - Helping Holiday Professionals land commercial contracts. We pull lists, enrich data, and baby sit leads all to help you be in the right place at the right time.

Book your consultation with us now at ChristmasCallers.com

The Christmas Design Institute was founded by Heather Lundervold to help you become an interior Holiday Designer.

Choose Your Path:

Path 1: Become a certified decorator and join the designer-for-hire program

Path 2: Launch your own Christmas Business.

Explore both at ChristmasDesignInstitute.com