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When the air gets crisp, mosquitoes die off for the winter. Most people love that. But for Chris Snead, who owns five Mosquito Joe territories in Northern Virginia, it once meant that business died off too.

Snead bought his first Mosquito Joe franchise in 2014, and kept expanding. But eventually, the seasonal aspect of Mosquito Joe began to feel limiting. He wanted businesses that operated year-round.

The solution: In 2022, he opened a Wonderly Lights franchise (formerly known as Grand Illuminations). Demand surges during the fall and winter, when people want their holiday lights up, but it also provides year-round service for landscape lighting. It's why the company's tagline is literally "Making Every Season Brighter" — reminding customers that it's not just seasonal. So, what's it like running separate franchises that peak in the summer and winter? Snead explains.

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How compressed is the holiday lights business?

The holidays really start with Halloween now; it's become such a big holiday. Everyone wants their installs right around Halloween, and that creates a huge push in a short time — and each year it starts earlier.

Do you cross-sell between Mosquito Joe and Wonderly Lights?

Absolutely. Last year, we did door tags — Mosquito Joe on one side and Wonderly Lights on the other. Our technicians would put them on the doors they were treating.

How do you handle staffing between the two businesses?

Initially, I maintained some of the staffing from the pest control business for the lighting. But as opportunities in year-round lighting and landscape lighting have become more robust, I'm starting to use separate staff for the two.

How do you maintain quality and consistency across six locations and now two brands?

I tell our people all the time that we have two sets of customers. We have our external customer, who relies on us to provide wonderful service, and internal customers — our employees and technicians — who we have to train. So the customer service is just as important to us as the tactical training of pest control or physically lighting a property.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an entrepreneur but isn't sure where to start?

Figure out what you truly love to do. I love training, selling, and talking with customers. Whatever it is you love, align your opportunities with that.

Is being a business owner important to your identity?

My grandfather was a farmer in Georgia. He got a $6,000 loan, which wasn't easy in the 1940s. He worked a job from 5 a.m. to noon and then farmed from noon until dark. My father was the first in the family to go to college. He became the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior. So I love what I'm doing. It drives me, you know? I would love for my sons to take over someday. Either way, I'll continue to build.

What's the most memorable lighting installation you've done so far?

Decorating for a customer whose father passed away, and whose mother insisted they still needed lights for the holidays. There was one tree that her father always took extra care in decorating, but her father's lights were in bad shape. So we replaced them with a brighter white strand, just for that tree. When we turned on all the lights, and saw the one tree shining brighter than the rest, we both broke down in tears. It was a deeply personal and emotional moment. That's the kind of experience that you don't have any other time of year

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