Cash In On Home Repair Business

Hello everyone.

Today I just want to take a few minutes and write about why I am doing this blog, and why I wrote the book Handyman to Businessman: How to start a Handyman Business.

I started blogging about this subject because for several years my husband and I operated a handyman business. We learned a great deal in the years we had this business and I want to help share what we learned. I also blog because I want people who are either thinking about starting such a business or have already started a handyman business to realize that this is a real business.

What do I mean about this being a real business? It is the type of business that almost anyone can enter into without a lot of upfront cost. This alone has its good and bad points, and its the bad points that cause problems for this industry as a whole.

Because it is so easy to enter, you have a lot of fly by night people starting handyman businesses. These people are the ones who go around and do shoddy work and/ or just plain scam people. This will then get reported on the news and its another black eye to the industry. What you do not hear about are all the good people out there doing good work and providing a much needed service.

Everyone needs to realize that this business needs to be treated as a real business. You need a legal structure, you need a separate bank account, you need to give great, and I mean great, customer service. You need to take this business seriously. If you do, then you can make money doing this. If you do not, then you will just end up giving everyone else in the industry another black eye.

That is why I wrote the book. (see link on the right) It will give you step by step instructions on how to get started and what it takes to have a great handyman business. Get the book, if you do not get mine then get someone else's, but be sure that is gives you straight talk about the industry, not just how to fix this and that. You need to know that this will take work, a lot of work, and you need to be prepare to spend the time to really build a great business.

Hope this helps. Until next time.

Hello,

Today I would like to discuss a topic that I believe is somewhat misunderstood by a lot of people. When you start your handyman business it will take time, usually a lot of time. Which mean you will have to sacrifice doing other things.

When some people realize that they will have to "sacrifice" things in order to start a handyman business, or any business they become discourage and decide that making a "sacrifice" is not worth starting a business.

This is to bad, because if people really understood what it means to "sacrifice" in order to start their handyman business, they would not think of it as a "sacrifice" at all.

So what does sac rife really mean? All it means is that you are going to give up doing something that will not help you reach your goal and start doing things that will. For instance is it really a sacrifice to give up watching as much mindless TV in order to have time to work on your business?

Bob Proctor, a speaker in the personal development field commented that, "Sacrifice was giving up doing something of lower value, for something of higher value."

Think about this statement. Is watching TV going to move you toward your goal of starting a handyman business? (Lower value) Will researching what areas of the handyman business are not being meet in the community help you reach your goal? (Higher value)

Re-thinking how we think about what a sacrifice is will really help you not only start a business, but in everything you wish to accomplish in life.

Hello again,

Today I think we need to touch again on the importance of advertising in your handyman business. When you start a handyman business getting your name out into the community is vital to your success. Why? Because when things start to slow down, people will start to cut back on spending. What does this have to do with advertising?

This area is the place that should help you bring in new business. However you need to be sure that the cost of where/how you are advertising is justified. You need to keep track of where your new customers are coming from. For instance, word of mouth, cost to you is zero, return to you is priceless. So spending time getting more people to refer others to you should be where you spend as much time and if needed some money.

If advertising in the local paper cost you $100.00 per month, but it only brings you in a couple of jobs a year, then you may want to evaluate whether it is worth the cost.

Remember advertising is suppose to bring in new customers and revenue, if what you are doing is not accomplishing this goal, then you need to come up with another plan.

Starting a handyman business is all about service to your customers and a nice income for you.

Great Day!

Its another great day in the life of a handyman. When you start a handyman business or really any business, you have to make sure you look into what types of business licenses you may need. Quite a few businesses will not need anything more than a business license from the municipality that you are located in.

However, that may not be the case with a handyman business. Since a handyman business will deal with doing different type of jobs, you may need some specialty type licenses. What do I mean by that?

Depending on how your state classifies your business, you may need a state license. One example of a license by a state is for general contractors. Some states require general contractors to have a license. If you do home inspections, some state will licensing requirements for that.

Then there are the local licenses. As I said above, some municipalities will require a business license, just for having a business. If you do plumbing or electrical you may need a license to do certain types of jobs. For instance, we did water heater installation. Some of the municipalities requires us to have a plumbers license for installing water heaters. For us this meant taking a test at the local planning and zoning office. Along with the plumbers license we also had to carry a bond.

The main point to remember, you may not need any kind of license for the work you are doing however, you need to make sure that you are in-compliance with your local and state requirements. Doing work with out the proper license could cause you a lot more headaches than just getting license you need.

Until next time.

Great day to everyone.

I was recently asked a question about how much to charge for helping someone clean out their house. When you start a handyman business how much should you charge for services can be a difficult question to answer. It really boils down to research; see what your competition is charging.

You need to know what people who are already in business are charging and then decide what pricing works for you. Get on the phone and make phone calls, including the big retailers like Lowe's and Home Depot. See what they charge to install a faucet, replace a light, install a storm door or what ever it is that you will be doing.

What if you get a job like the one above, someone needs help cleaning out their home because they are moving. Then decide on what you want to make an hour and go with that figure, giving the customer an approximate time on how long it will take. Pricing is not set in stone and their will be times when you may not charge enough. Learn from that experience and adjust accordingly. Just be sure to always give your customer the very best service, even if you did price the job wrong.

I had a comment posted that ask why should someone write a business plan? No matter what type of business you are starting, be it a handyman business or something else, if you do not know where you are going how will you get there?

That is the real reason for writing a plan. A business plan will keep you on track. A business plan will help you achieve what you want to achieve. Most people who take a trip will map out their route. You start with where you are and you map out a route to where you want to go. That is what a business plan is for. It will help you get from point A to point B.

A business plan will also get you to think out your strategy. It will help keep you from running your business by the seat of your pants. Business owner tend to get caught up in the day to day operation of their business, focusing on what is the current fire. A business plan will help you keep your eye on the big picture.

Yes it takes work to write out a plan, but if your are starting a new business, or if you already have a handyman business (but do not have a plan) you need to start today working on your plan.

If you are wondering how to start writing a plan. your local library will have books about writing business plans. They may even have one on starting a handyman business or something close. Also I will be doing further blogs about this topic.

If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment and I will answer you.

Have a great day, and get going on that plan.

Wow, I can not believe that summer is already half over. However this is still a great time to start a handyman business. A lot of people will want to get outside projects finished before the weather turns. Fall is  a big time to do projects around the home. Where does that leave you?

Are you ready to take advantage of this? Do you have your business set up? Do you have your insurance? What about your pricing? Have you developed your advertising? Now is the time to be getting your name out their so people can find you when they need you.

Are you ready?

Ok, you have made the decision to start your own handyman business. Now what? For some, you may start to having a case of doubts set in after making this decision. You may have family and friends tell you its not a good idea, that this is not the time to go to start a handyman business, or any business. You may not really know where to start.

This is call fear and it has stop more people from achieving what they want than anything else. Do not make this mistake. Yes it is scaring to start your own business, however if you have been reading my blog, I have posted lots of helpful tips to help you get started.

If you let fear keep you from going after your desires you will never achieve that which you truly want in life.

There are a lot of reason why someone would want to start a handyman business. I believe the number one reason is because a handyman job can never be sent over seas to be done. Think about this, you can never loose business because someone overseas is doing it cheaper. The work you do can not be shipped over seas to be completed. This may sound a little silly, but with everything going on in the economy right now, wouldn't it be nice to know that you are starting a business that can not be lost to oversea workers. Yes workers from other countries can come here and get hired to do handyman work, however you will never loose your job to your work being moved overseas.

Think about this.

Everywhere you turn people are talking about the economy and how bad things are. So is now really a good time to start a handyman business? Well according to a news article with Dave Ramsey, an adviser on Fox Business Network, now is a good time to start your own handyman business. He makes some good points about competition being lower, being able to start without a large amount of money and about how if you get laid off, that might just be the push you need to start your handyman business.

You can read the article here http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/MakeMoney/Story?id=7638829&page=1.

If you have been sitting on the fence, maybe its time to get off.