Naming a handyman business can be challenging since so many names have already been taken.

I remember struggling for weeks to lock down a name that was professional and memorable when starting my business.

However, in this article, I’ll share a quick and easy way to generate a unique and professional name for your new handyman business. I’ll also share some great examples.

This process has helped thousands of people worldwide, so you’ve found the right place.

Let’s start with some examples…

Now, listen to the podcast version of this article, which includes extra content. Listen right here or on your favorite podcast app!

HS033 – Finding the Perfect Name for Your Handyman Business

Handyman From Mars

Oak Tree Handyman

Mr. Handyman

Himalayan Handyman

Diamond Home Services

Kalamazoo Home Repair

As you can see in the example above, handyman business names range from creative and catchy to direct and to the point.

In many cases, pros will simply name their business after themselves. Mike’s Handyman Services or Paul Jones Home Repair are two examples.

Regardless of the route you take, here are some essential things to keep in mind, so you avoid common naming mistakes and come up with a great name that helps, instead of hurts, your marketing efforts.

If people can’t pronounce your business name, it will be more difficult for them to recommend you to others. Not only will your name be less memorable, but people also don’t like to sound dumb, so they’ll just avoid saying your business name.

Additionally, if your business name is hard to spell, it can confuse customers searching for your business online. Since online marketing is the most effective way to attract customers, having a name that is easy to spell can make a big difference in your marketing efforts.

If you plan on eventually scaling your handyman business into a nationally recognized brand, then choose a unique and catchy name. You want your business name to stick in your customers’ heads and be memorable. Odd Job Bob is a great example from above that does this well.

Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and Zoom are examples of large-cap companies that did this well. However, I don’t recommend modeling your name after these large tech companies because you won’t have the marketing budget to build brand recognition as they have. And that leads me to the third tip.

Being catchy or memorable is great for big businesses with a worldwide audience. But for a local handyman business, it’s typically better to simply communicate what you do with your name. You’ll never have the marketing budget to gain the recognition that bigger brands have. Catchy names may just confuse your potential customers unless the name also indicates what services you provide.

You want your customers to know what services you provide by just reading your name.

For a handyman business, that usually means including words like “home repair,” “handyman,” or “handyman services” in your name.

However, you don’t have to be this obvious. Look at the name HandyPRO for example. It’s relatively clear what services are provided while being unique and catchy.

Are you specializing in a particular niche? If so, try to work something in that says what you specialize in. A good example of this is the franchise Shelf Genie. It’s pretty obvious what they do. They install shelves.

Are you planning to target a specific area or neighborhood in your city? Let’s say you live in San Antonio. San Antonio Handyman would be a great business name, but it’s probably already taken.

But, let’s say you also live in the suburb Whispering Oaks, which is your target service area. Choosing a business name like Whispering Oaks Handyman would be a great name, and the chances of it being available are much higher.

Of course, you can still offer services outside Whispering Oaks, and you probably will. But this would be an excellent way to attract customers who live in your ideal service area and choose a great name.

Online marketing is where most of your new customers will come from, and your website is the hub of your online presence.

Ideally, you’ll be able to get the domain name that matches your business name with a .com. Domain names that end in .com are always better than .net, .repair, or any other URL extension for business websites. This is because .com carries the most authority, it’s the most common (over 50% of websites use it), and it’s what customers are most likely to type in.

I highly encourage you to read this guide (the part on choosing a domain name) before making a final decision on your business name.

Finding a good URL is going to restrict your name options significantly. When brainstorming names for my business, I would fall in love with a name only to discover that the URL wasn’t available. I eventually found one I was happy with, and the URL was available, but it took some time. Patience is essential here.

Choosing a name that you think is cool may be fun, but your focus should be on the customer. Choose something that will increase their trust in you or resonate with them in another way. If you’re planning to target dual-income professional parents (a great market, by the way), make sure you pick a family-friendly name. You don’t want to scare them away with a name like “Hardcore Handyman.”

Also, remember that you don’t have to appeal to everybody. Just make sure your name appeals to somebody. Read Targeting the right customers for tips on choosing profitable customers you want to work with.

Here, you’ll generate dozens of unique and professional name ideas (even if you aren’t creative). Then, you can follow the rest of this step-by-step process to choose the perfect name.

As you answer these questions, write down your answers. Try not to filter your ideas. You can edit your list later, but for now, just write them down (even the bad ones).

Now that you have a long list of name ideas and words, run them through a thesaurus to discover more. Do a Google search with any word from your list and then the word “synonym” (for example: “repair synonym”).

Write down any good synonyms that you come up with from the thesaurus.

Once you have a large list of words, start combining them and see if you can find something clever. Don’t be afraid to modify a word slightly or combine two words into a single word.

If you get stuck, re-read the list of examples above for more ideas.

From this exercise, try to come up with at least 20 decent names that you may consider using.

Now that you have a decent list of potential names, it’s time to quickly see which ones are already taken to widdle down your list.

The easiest way to do this is to search in google for each business name. To help eliminate irrelevant search results, use the following search modifier:

allintitle: “name idea #1”

This will only show results for web pages with the business name in the title and exactly how you type it in.

If a name is already taken by another business in your area, cross it off your list. If the name is taken by someone in another city or the .com is already taken, then consider crossing it off (unless it’s a perfect name that you want to investigate further).

Go through all of your name ideas to widdle down your list.

Share your name ideas with friends and family. This is helpful for two reasons. One, it will give you feedback on the quality of your ideas. Two, your name ideas may inspire a friend to come up with a good name that you would have never thought of.

After this process, you’ll likely have one or two favorites. Now it’s time to dig deeper, find a good URL to match, and make sure you can legally move forward with that name.

It took me several weeks to decide on a name for my handyman business. I had plenty of excellent ideas, but most were taken. Don’t get discouraged by this because there are plenty of good names still out there.

Many handyman business names are already trademarked, or at risk of being trademarked, so you’ll want to ensure your choice is safe.

In a perfect world, you would just go to a website, type in your desired business name, and it would tell you whether or not you could use that name. Unfortunately, this website doesn’t exist (that I know of), which makes this process a pain in the ass.

I’ll try to make it as simple as possible for you. Please note that I’m not an attorney, and this is not legal advice. This is information from my experience.

If you have cleared all the checks on this list, you should be good to go! Congratulations!

If you want to be extra safe, talk to a patent and trademark attorney and have them do a more extensive search. Have it trademarked if you want to lock down your new name and protect it. This is optional, though. If you will be running a single-person operation and never plan to expand, trademarking is a waste of time.

The name of your handyman business won’t make or break your business, but it can impact your ability to attract customers.

It’s worth your time to put some effort into choosing the right name for your situation, but spending too much time here is just plain ineffective. If you never plan to sell or franchise your business, there’s nothing wrong with simply naming it after yourself or a local geological feature.

Just keep it simple and easy to spell, make sure it tells people what services you offer, and that you can lock down a decent domain name related to it.

Then move on to more important stuff, like building your website.

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