Start A Handyman Business

12.05 2010

Start A Handyman Business

Love DIY? Fancy yourself as a bit of a handyman? Then perhaps starting a handyman business is could be the perfect business idea for you.

Despite the growing DIY market that’s made B&Q and Focus such well known brands there are still a lot of people out there that are stumped by a screw driver. And those of us who feel comfortable being our own ‘handyman’ are sometimes just too busy to assemble our latest flat pack furniture purchase. So who are we going to turn to? A handyman of course.

So if you’re a dab hand with a screw driver and fancy starting your own business read on. You never know becoming a handyman might be the business idea for you.

How to start a handyman business

To start a handyman business you’ll need two things:

Tools - lets face it you’re not going to get far without them and no a Leatherman isn’t enough, you’ll need a good range of proper tools.
Skills – you’ll need to be a practical person, with a least a good basic level of skill at most DIY tasks.

I would urge you to consider starting out part-time, that way, assuming you already own the tools and that you base the business from home your start-up costs are practically zero!

So once you’ve decided to give it a go, you need to start thinking about how to find some customers, so lets know examine how to create a simple business plan for your new handyman business.

Writing a business plan for a handyman business

As you need nearly no money to start a handyman business, you won’t need to raise finance and so you’ll have no need for traditional business plan. It is worth however taking the time to write a simple business plan which focuses on who, where, how and how much:

Who – you’ll be targeting as customers.
Where – those customers will be based. In other words the geographical region(s) that you’ll be targeting.
How – how you’ll find those customers. For example, by advertising in the local papers or marketing via leaflets.
How much – how much you are going to charge for your services.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get out there and start telling everyone you know that you’re now in business as a handyman and asking them for referrals. After that contact your local paper and see if you can get a story written about you, then enquire about advertising – and never pay the first price, negotiate a better deal.

How much will you make as a handyman

As part of the process of writing your handyman business plan I suggested you decide how much you are going to charge. Easy for me to say, but harder for you to do as it all rather depends, because what you can charge will depend on your area – you can probably charge more in an affluent area than a poor area, the level of competition, your level of skill and your reputation.

A quick Google suggests that £40 per hour seems to be the going rate in London and prices drop to around £20 in the smaller towns. Day rates seem to range from £100 to £300 again depending on location. Now some of those rates sound pretty good, but before you rush out to buy the new Ferrari remember that £40 per hour isn’t great if you only get a few hours per week and it’s even less once you deduct the cost of marketing and then account for tax etc.

Initially, in the first month or two, expect to be busy for only 10 or so hours per week, and aim to increase that steadily to 40+ hours per week within 6 months. By then you could be taking in between £1,600 and £6,000 per month depending on your local market. Assuming you’re costs (including tax) are around 30% that would leave you an income in the region of £1,120 to £4,200 per month.

How much does it cost to start a handyman business

If you fancy setting up in business as a handyman you’re probably already either a tradesperson or an avid DIY enthusiast so you’ve probably already got most of the equipment you need, if not you’ll need to budget sufficient to purchase them. Beyond tools you’ll need to set aside a budget for marketing. I’d suggest you set this initially at £100 per month.

You should also take into account the general costs of starting a business which are explained in the article how much does it cost to start a business.

Buying a handyman business

I would argue against buying an existing handyman business, as most of them will be built around the principle personal reputation, thus once they leave and you take over there isn’t really any value left.

On the other hand if you’re keen to have some help starting out then purchasing a handyman business franchise might be worth exploring. There are a few about and they’ll provide you with some initial marketing and possible a national brand. However I’d urge you to go it alone as I believe you’ll do better keeping the money you’d have spent on a franchise and using it to do more marketing and if you’re really unsure about business paying for some good business books http://www.businessopportunitiesandideas.com/675/top-10-must-read-business-books-for-entrepreneurs.

Marketing a handyman business

As I found out when I wanted a deck built , there’s a niche market for those with deck building experience or even those who could assemble a decking kit. So I’d suggest you start out with a fairly general advert in the local papers, or dropped by leaflet distributors looking for business and then keep an eye on the type of jobs you get. Once you spot a pattern consider specialising in that area, i.e. decking. By specialising you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert which makes you more appealing to customers and allows you to charge a premium for your service.

Always remember that as a handyman the success of your business is going to depend on word of mouth, so make sure every customer is happy and tell everyone, everywhere what you do – get some business cards made up and give them away like they’re going out of fashion! Advertising should only be seen as a way of reaching additional customers not your sole route to market.

Running a handyman business

Once you’ve started-up your handyman business the day to day running will be fairly simple. You need to make sure you answer the phone, your email and any website enquiries promptly to maximise the benefit of your marketing efforts.

In response to those enquiries you’ll need to book in time to provide quotes and visit potential customers as well as allowing time to do the work that customers have already booked in. Then once you’ve done the jobs that have been requested and you’ve got a happy customer you need to ensure that you invoice them promptly and collect payment from them.

I would advise you to always ask the client to complete a written ‘job report’ at the end of each job and sign it. This doesn’t need to be anything complicated, just a short description of the job and a few check boxes to with questions like:

Has the work been done to your satisfaction?
Are you happy with the work?

This serves two purposes:

It provides you with feedback which you can use to improve your service and to market yourself.
It provides you with proof should a customer ever decided not to pay after accepting the work.

Useful books

The following books provide further information on starting and running a handyman business:

Start & Run a Handyman Business
How to Start a Home-Based Handyman Business
Handyman’s Handbook: The Complete Guide to Running a Successful Business

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