From what I understand, a mom in Dallas, TX, is making over +$1 million annually decorating front porches. Each fall, stay-at-home mom of three Heather Torres would get her husband and father-in-law, who own and operate a produce company, to bring her home pumpkins, gourds, corn, etc., for her to create a fall pumpkin display on their front porch. Neighbors and friends loved what she was doing and asked her to decorate their front porch. The rest is history!
Heather started a company called “Porch Pumpkins” by making up a flyer that showcased the different packages of service she would offer. The Pumpkin Porch basic, which targeted the DIY crowd, started at $250 for a porch drop-off of 30 colorful pumpkins, then the clients designed and decorated the porch themselves; she was delivering the supplies they would need. Her most extensive full-service design package was $1,000 and included more elaborate items like 75-pound gourds, decorative corn, hay bales, and more. Torres shot photos of each package she was offering, simply using her own porch and a nearby friend’s to model the designs. She took to Instagram and Facebook to explain the concept and show the before and after shots. The next day, her phone started ringing.
How did it go… The first year, her goal was to design and decorate about 35 porches; she ended up doing just over +250 porches. She has now hired porch designers and has +10 delivery guys and a warehouse staff.
A few details that I found interesting…
- Last year she did about 900 porches, some clients paid over +$2,000 each.
- Over half of her clients pay her to haul the pumpkins away when the season is over. She donates them to a hog farm.
- She starts taking deposits in July and is sold out by August.
- Most of her clients live in $600 to $800k homes
I suspect she could hire some skilled pumpkin carvers and charge extra for some really cool carved pumpkins or extra for some spooky stuff to enhance the Halloween theme. Bottom line, this was a great idea and I tip my hat to this stay-at-home mom! (Source: DMagazine)
