This time of year, you hear a lot about Black Friday: big stores offering big sales. This had our NBC 5 Responds team thinking about the smaller businesses in our community.
Read on for the stories of three North Texans building businesses that started with a holiday side hustle.
BRIGHTENING THE HOLIDAYS
Working from the top of a ladder, Daniel Usrey, founder of Deck the Halls Lighting Services, aims to make the holidays brighter.
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“Whenever they first turn them on, people stop by and that puts them in the spirit. They're ready to start Christmas,” Usrey said.
Usrey started the company five years ago as a firefighter looking to make a little extra money around the holidays.
“We didn't own a ladder,” Usrey said. “We went to a pawn shop and bought a ladder.”
Usrey said he started with 25 clients, “It went from 25 to 75. From 75 to now: we're at over 200 houses.”
Usrey said he left his day job three months ago and is focused on his lighting and roofing companies full-time. With help from Usrey’s father-in-law, they install outdoor Christmas lights on up to eight houses a day – starting in mid-October.
“Sometimes it calls for full days and working seven days a week for a month and a half. In my opinion, it's worth it,” said Usrey.
'WE’VE GOT TO FIGURE SOMETHING OUT'
Erica Greer is also putting in overtime.
“We are putting in a lot of elbow work,” said Erica Greer.
NBC 5 Responds chatted with the small business owner as she filled orders for her company, Black Wrapped.
It’s an idea that came to her two Christmas’ ago while searching for images of Black Santa to wrap her nephews’ gifts.
“I wanted my nephews to have the Santa that we grew up with,” said Greer. “We’ve got to figure something out.”
Greer said she commissioned an artist and printed up a few sheets of gift-wrapping paper.
“I wanted to do something for my family. I see a problem, let's fix this problem. Then my girlfriends are like, 'we need it, too,'” said Greer
Now, it’s a year-round venture, offering gift wrap and bags for baby showers, Pride, graduation and Christmas.
“I get people say it's so pretty, I don't want to open the gift, which is a good thing,” said Greer. “But, it's also it's so pretty because we haven't seen anything like this. My goal is for this to be such a norm that it's representation and you're not afraid to open it up because you're used to seeing things like this on the shelf.”
This season, Greer is expanding the business with mobile gift wrapping. She’s purchased and decorated a trailer she can take directly to clients and pop-up events.
“We'll wrap it. We'll take the hassle out of the holidays,” Greer said.
When Greer isn’t running her side hustle, she’s a full-time occupational therapist. She said she would tell anyone with an idea to rally their support system and go.
“The hardest part is starting. What God has for you is for you. You just have to start,” said Greer.
'BELIEVE IN YOURSELF'
Tamara Fisher said that’s what she did when founding the Rockwall Christmas Company last year, selling Christmas tree kits with ornaments, ribbon and trim. Each is coordinated around a theme and designed to come straight out of the box and onto a tree.
“It's all ready to go,” said Fisher.
Fisher said she developed the concept after moving houses around Christmastime in 2020. With her decorations packed away, she searched for an all-in-one curated kit for her tree.
“I started shopping and I found it extremely difficult to find all the ornaments I wanted for the tree to put the theme together,” recalled Fisher.
The real estate agent designed her own and sold her first Christmas crates last year.
“The idea that my trees, that I designed in my own home, could be in their home and that they find joy in it, it couldn't be better,” said Fisher.
She said the company doubled orders since 2021 after taking a chance on a side hustle.
“Believe in yourself. It's going to be hard. There are going to be so many things that you don't know how to do, but don't let that deter you,” Fisher said.
The U.S. Small Business Administration counted 3.1 million small businesses in Texas, employing 44.5% of Texas workers. Some with a story that started small.
“Who would have thought sitting on the floor wrapping gifts for these little boys would turn into all of this?” said Greer.
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