By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Two Perham High School seniors decided to start a local Christmas light business to help fill their wallets during the holiday season. Trystan Larson and Logan Guck recently started Northern Light Co. and what started as a paycheck has quickly evolved into a fulfilling service for the community.  ¶  “It started out as our pockets would dry up in the winter,” said Larson. “Logan and I were both in wrestling—he started his own business this summer and I was working for Hillside Lifts—we just got tired of not having money in the winter, so we were tossing up ideas: what is something that people need in the winter?  ¶  “Christmas lights came to mind,” he continued. “People can’t put up Christmas lights because they don’t have the time, or it’s too hard on them, so let’s do that! So we figured out the lighting companies and the brands we wanted to go with and we came up with what we wanted to be as a business. After the first couple of installs, it turned into so much more than a money thing, people are genuinely so happy to have Christmas lights.”

Lakes Family Eye Care was the first customer of Northern Light Co. and asked Larson and Guck to come out and work their holiday magic at their business in Perham. Though the anxiety of delivering a quality service was at the forefront of their minds, Larson and Guck joined the Lakes Family Eye Care staff in wonderment at the final product.

“They were so nice to work with and when they got done, it amazed all of us,” said Larson. “They were our first job and they were the first ones to give us a chance and it turned into so much more than doing this for a paycheck. Lighting up people’s Christmas means a lot, the reactions we get mean a lot to us.”

Their second client was a homeowner that they had known from attending school at St. Henry’s who gave them her vision and the trust to deliver while she was away in Maryland. Upon her return home, she was beyond satisfied with the results of her new permanent lighting on her lake home.

“She was so nice to work with, it turned out to be such a great experience working with her. It turned out so much better than we ever thought it could have, just turning a nice house into something that you can see from the lake, definitely putting her house on the map.”

Northern Light Co. offers services putting up seasonal Christmas lights, as well as taking them down, but they specialize in permanent lighting, which is able to be utilized year-round and can be customized by the homeowner at their own volition throughout the year. The company’s service area is localized within about 30 miles, but for a small travel fee, they will accept jobs around the 50 mile mark around the Perham area, noting Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids and Wadena as rough boundaries.

“If you have pre-existing lights, we’ll come out and install them, depending on the layout of the house and height of the soffit,” said Larson. “If you want Christmas lights or permanent lighting, we’ll come out and install that too, we give you a rough quote and estimates are free within about 30 minutes of here.

“We estimate about $7.50 a foot, just to get us really close to what the actual final price will be,” he continued. “Then we come out and measure everything exactly, tell you how much lighting we need, we’ll write up a bill for price of material, labor, and any additional fees that might be needed like extensions or stuff like that. Then we order it for you, we’ll shoot you a text and come and install it for you. That takes roughly one to two days, depending on weather and conditions.”

Despite the extra money in their wallets, Larson said that the business has brought a lot of fulfillment to him and Guck as they’ve lighted up the rooftops around the community. The reactions that come from each satisfied home or business owner makes each job all the more special.

“The reactions,” emphasized Larson. “The reactions and the support. It’s reassuring that this actually makes a difference and people enjoy looking at this stuff. I’m still getting texts saying, ‘hey, Lakes Family Eye Care looks great!’ It’s definitely like ‘wow, we did that’ at the end of the day.”

With several lighting jobs under their belt and a growing list of customers, Northern Light Co. is always looking for homes, businesses, or special projects to light up for the holiday season. Contact can be made with either Larson at (218) 457-2907 or Guck at (218) 849-0797 and they can also be reached on Facebook and Instagram.

Though the two are both seniors in Perham this year, they are already planning to continue this business into the future. In fact, summer estimates and installation are already being planned for the summer months.

“Absolutely we are,” said Larson of continuing to offer these services. “If people want permanent lighting, we’ll offer that this summer too, because it looks great year-round. The Govee app is super user-friendly, you can change it to themes for certain days, or colors to match the season, or even their white lighting looks great year-round. It’s also adjustable, it doesn’t just have to be one theme like Christmas, you can have it on a constant color, say you have a back patio with no permanent lighting, it just enhances that area so much more.”

As Christmas and New Years start to arrive on the doorstep, Larson and Guck are always willing to fit a customer into their busy schedule in order to make their holiday lighting wishes come true.