The Handyman Startup Podcast

Welcome to my May 2013 monthly income report!  I’ve been writing these reports each month since I started my business and this marks my 18th month in business as a handyman.  1.5 years baby!

For those of you that enjoy my podcast, good news!  This month, you can listen to my monthly report as I’ve featured it on the Handyman Startup Podcast.  You can find it in the itunes store or listen to it directly from this page (bottom of page).  Enjoy, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!

In these reports I share my income for each month, how I made that money, how much it cost to make that money, and anything interesting that happened along the way.  I also share tips to help you dominate the home service industry.

If you are first time reader of the blog, I’m not rich (yet :)).  In fact, this is my first business and I still have a lot to learn.  However, I’ve successfully created an income stream that supports my lifestyle doing something that I enjoy and have complete freedom over.    I used to work as a mechanical engineer and absolutely hated what I did.  Somehow, I mustered up the courage to quit and start something on my own.  It was the best career decision I’ve ever made.  Now, I’d like to help you create the same level of freedom that I’ve created. 

May was an awesome month for my handyman business.  I continued to grow my client list despite the fact that I limited my schedule to only 3 days a week and have put zero effort into advertising in the last several months.  Not only did I gain customers, but I was more profitable than I have been since January of this year.  Old customers that I thought I’d lost were even calling me for more service.

I’m really exciting about this…

In last month’s income report, I discussed limiting my workdays to only 3 days a week.  I did this so I could pack my schedule into less days giving me more time to work on this website and a product that I’m working on.  My goal was to only schedule customers on Monday through Wednesday while answering the phone the rest of the week.  Now that I’ve been doing this for over a month, I’d like to share my results, which are pretty awesome.

Previously, I’d been scheduling jobs throughout the week and even work an occasional weekend.  When I did this, I’d leave a ton of time in between jobs just in case one of my jobs ended up taking longer.  Additionally, I would usually schedule one job a day until I filled up a week and then start stacking jobs up once I had a job for each day booked.  This naturally led to a lot of downtime in between jobs where I wasn’t making money or doing anything else productive.  I was wasting a LOT of time.

Now, with my new schedule, I only schedule jobs Mon-Wed and pack the jobs much closer together.  This takes a little more finesse to avoid scheduling mis-haps, but it’s way more efficient.  I’ve scheduled up to 5 customer in a single day so far – a significant increase over the the 2 I’d have scheduled before.  Take a look at the pictures below to see the difference between the two schedules.

Example of a weeks schedule using my old scheduling method. (16.5 Billable Hours)

A weeks schedule using my new method. (21 Billable Hours)

As you can see, my old scheduling method wasted a lot of time in between jobs and took up the entire week.  My new method of scheduling doesn’t waste much time between jobs and packs the same amount of work into just three days!  So I’ve managed to work less days and make just as much money.

Another benefit of this is that I’m now consistently scheduled out at least one week.  That means I know exactly what I’m doing for the entire next week and allows me to make fewer trips to Home Depot.  If I do everything right and plan accordingly, this could reduce my trips to the hardware store by half.

Sound enticing?  Why not apply this to your business and have more free time to spend doing other things you enjoy?

Spring is THE time for home improvement projects.  Just go to Home Depot next Saturday and you’ll see what I mean.

With my handyman business it was no different.  Sometimes it felt like I couldn’t get away from the phone for 5 minutes without it ringing.  Since I’m only working 3 days a week, I ended up turning down a lot of business.  In fact, I could have easily done another 2 to 3 grand in work if I was as hungry as I was last year.

While constantly answering the phone can get annoying at times, there are some good side effects of being too busy.

One, I could be much more selective about jobs.  If a customer lived too far away or was asking for work that I don’t like to do, I would just turn them down.  I’d either say that I didn’t service their area or that I didn’t do that kind of work.  Existing customers are an exception to this, however.  If a customer is willing to hire me over and over, I’ll do my best to help them whenever I can.

Secondly, I could bid a little higher on jobs without having to worry about losing the business.  If I didn’t get a job, I was sure I could fill my time with another.  If I did get the job, I made good money doing it.

Last year, I also did very well in the month of May.  Even though it was only my 6th month in business, I was able to bring in $5,300.  It had to work a whole lot more than I do now to get make that, but I was still able to make really good money because there is so much business during spring time.

Times may be good now, but…

Even though things are going awesome right now, I can’t let myself get too confident.

When business is going this good, it’s really easy to think you have everything figured out and that it will always be this way.  Just like when things are really slow and you wonder if they’ll ever pick up.  Like I’ve said before, it’s a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows.

And just like not letting the slow times get to you, it’s also important not to get too cocky when business is flourishing.  This could lead to getting sloppy with customer service or not treating clients the way they should be treated.  This has happened to me in the past and trust me, I regretted it during the slower periods.

I’ve found that if somebody is your ideal client, you should do whatever you can to service them to a high standard.  But, this doesn’t mean you should serve everybody.  Wasting your time on the wrong customers will lead to failure just as fast as not treating the good clients well.

Either way, it’s important to realize that there are other people that are willing and able to swoop in and take your best clients.  No matter how busy you are, always provide the same quality of service and treat everyone with respect.

Income:

Expenses:

Total Income:          $5,586.25

Billable Hours:  70.5

I’m not sure it can be any more ideal than this (other than making more per hour).  I was able to stick to my 3 day a week schedule and still have the second most profitable month of the year.

Sure, I could have made more money if I work all 5 days, but like I’ve said a thousand times before, money is not my only goal.  I can always make more money, time is the one thing I can’t make more of.

Some of the numbers that I find really interesting here are my income numbers compared to my vehicle mileage.  By reducing the number of days I work, It looks like I’ve also been able to reduce the ratio between driving and working.  Not really sure how, but the numbers don’t lie.  This was the cheapest month in terms of vehicle mileage out of the whole year.

In addition to the fact that packing jobs closer together is more efficient, I think that turning down jobs that were too far away was a contributor to the decrease in driving.  Also, I turned down jobs that seems like they were a waste of time (even if they were close) instead of driving out, quoting, and then not getting the job.

Overall, I think the change I’ve made to my schedule was a great choice and I plan to continue with this schedule to see how it works out.

This month I met both of my goals – To maintain a $60/hour rate and to only work 3 days a week.  Feels good when it works out that way.

But, how can I make this business even better and more enjoyable?

I’m thinking the next step is to limit my service area for new clients.  I figure that by making my service area smaller and smaller I will save a ton of time and will be more profitable.  I’ll always continue to service my existing clients even if they live outside of that area, but maybe I can filter out new clients with this method?  I guess it’s worth a try.

I don’t think it’s a smart move to just jump into this big of a change head first.  So, my goal for this month is to investigate the possibility.

The post My Monthly Report – May 2013 appeared first on Handyman Startup.

It’s no secret that internet marketing is where it’s at these days whether you are selling a product online or trying to generate new leads for your handyman business.  Other marketing methods such as direct mail and flyers are also effective, but they cost more and are (in my opinion) more difficult to execute properly.

In this episode of the Handyman Startup podcast, I share my most powerful online marketing strategy for my handyman business – blogging for business.

The blog posts I have created for my handyman business website have driven customers my way starting as early as my third month in business.  Not only  that, but blog posts I wrote over a year ago are still bringing me high quality customers every week.  The beautiful thing is that each blog post I write only takes a couple of hours maximum.  Talk about ROI!

These blog posts have allowed me to turn off all other forms of advertising and still have more than enough business to keep me satisfied.

How to build a website

Recommended Website and Blogging Platform:  WordPress

Thank you for listening.  I’m honored to have the ability to share my experiences and knowledge to help you along your path to dominating your business ventures.  Be sure to subscribe in iTunes so you don’t miss an episode.

The post HS 005 – Blogging For Business (How to Turn Your Knowledge Into Leads) appeared first on Handyman Startup.

I’d love to tell you that starting a handyman business is easy as setting up a website, putting up ads on Craigslist, and slapping “Bob’s Handyman Services” on your truck.

This is certainly a good start, but if you want to have a profitable and enjoyable handyman business, then you’ll need to learn the strategies for doing that.

The truth is that some handymen work very hard, dirty jobs that nobody wants for table scraps.

Others, who understand marketing, positioning, and the tools necessary to attract the right customers can easily make a six-figure income while demanding respect and doing projects they enjoy.

How can you get into the latter group?

It starts with targeting the right customers.

So in this article, I’ll teach you how to identify the target market for your handyman business so you can build a thriving business that you actually enjoy.

In a previous article, I discussed how to evaluate your skills and determine which services to offer. If you haven’t done that yet, I recommend you do it because understanding your current skill set will help with this exercise.

Let’s jump right in.

Most successful small businesses don’t become successful by trying to please everyone. They become successful by becoming the best option for a specific group of people.

For example, Walmart is heavily focused on the price conscientious shopper. Their whole business model is based on having the lowest prices.

Apple has taken the opposite approach. They are a premium brand that focuses on creating solutions for people who want the best of the best and aren’t as concerned with price.

Some people love Walmart and hate Apple. Other people love Apple and hate Walmart.

Some people love Apple, but can’t afford it. Some people love Walmart’s prices but hate the shopping experience.

Hotels are another great example.

Some people will spend three hours shopping for the cheapest hotel, often spending hours just to save a few bucks per night. Many motels do their best to have the lowest price to serve these customers. Other people are glad to pay $1,000+ per night to stay at the Four Seasons and would never consider staying at a Motel 8. Then, there are all the different levels in between.

Everyone has a different set of values and a different view of the world which affects what they are willing to buy.

When it comes to hiring contractors or handymen, there are people who don’t have much money and will only hire a handyman if absolutely necessary. When they do hire a pro, they find the cheapest option available.

Then, there are more affluent customers who have more money than free time and are happy to pay $100+ per hour to have someone handle minor repairs on a regular basis. These customers may not be totally insensitive to price, but they are certainly willing to pay more.

But even beyond the willingness to pay for services, there are a million other ways to differentiate customers, and each group of customers values slightly different things in a handyman.

For example, a stay-at-home mom is going to value trust over skill level. They’ll often hire someone less skilled as long as they feel safe with the pro in their house.

One of the keys to having a profitable and enjoyable business is to identify an ideal customer who is willing and able to pay for your services, and then design your business so it aligns perfectly with their values and needs.

But before you can design your services for a specific customer, you first need an idea of who that is. Answering the questions below is a good start to doing so.

You can also listen to the podcast on this subject which includes:

List people that may need your services. No, not individual people, but groups of people. This can include groups of people such as single women, the elderly, property owners, or apartment complexes for example. There are thousands of options here.

It’s OK to be general right now, but later we’re going to want to define these groups more specifically.

One example could be a single businesswoman, 25-40 years of age, with an annual income of $100K+ that works 40-60 hours per week. This is an excellent target customer because they are very busy and don’t have time for home repairs, but have enough money to pay for them.

Brainstorm a list of whoever else you can think of and write it down.

People don’t just go out and hire a Handyman because they are bored (unless you are offering those types of services as well).

Most are looking for somebody to solve a problem that they can’t solve. This can be for a number of reasons including lack of skill, or even better, lack of time. They may even hire you to upgrade their kitchen because they are in an unspoken competition with their best friend who just remodeled their kitchen. They have an irrational need to outdo their friend.

Put some thought into why they need your services because it will give you hints on how motivated they may be to hire you. The more motivated, the better.

If you are targeting the elderly, they are going to want different services than an overworked single mother. You’re going to need to offer handicap ramp maintenance and elderly assistance hardware (grab bars) as opposed to drywall repair and childproofing.

If you are targeting wealthier clients, you’d be surprised at how often they will hire you to simply hang pictures, shelves, TVs, or mirrors on the wall.

Another way to approach this is to first define your skills, and then figure out which customers need those skills the most.

This is a great question to ask to refine your target market.

Just because somebody needs your services doesn’t mean they can afford them. You’ll have a really hard time making a profit if your ideal customer is on food stamps. Now, there’s nothing wrong with helping people, but if you started this business to make money, then you’ll want to set it up so that’s actually possible.

One thing I’ve noticed over the last ten years in this industry is that most successful home service businesses are designed to serve more affluent clients. They have a focus on quality instead of price, and they let the “cheaper” customers either DIY or hire unlicenced friends to help them.

This might be the most important question to ask yourself. The income from working for wealthy old ladies could be higher, but you’ll be dealing with a picky and demanding crowd.

Working for property owners or apartment complexes will usually mean lower profits, but the work will be more consistent and you’ll rarely have someone looking over your shoulder while you work.

Maybe you are dedicated to Christianity or another religion and would prefer to serve people with similar beliefs. If that’s the case, then targeting customers from your church is probably your best option.

These are just a few examples of many to illustrate the point. The key is to do some brainstorming for yourself to figure out who you would enjoy working for most.

Once you understand who needs your handyman services, what services they need, and why they need them, marketing your services becomes far easier.

But the benefits of identifying your ideal customer go beyond just marketing. It allows you to craft every feature of your services to fit their needs to a “T.” The better you fit their needs, the more likely they are to pay you higher rates and hire you repeatedly.

Once you have your ideal customer figured out, you will use that information to determine everything from how much to charge to what advertising methods to use.

Just don’t make the mistake of trying to appeal to everyone. You’ll end up suffering emotionally and financially if you do.

The post How to target the best customers for your handyman business appeared first on Handyman Startup.

Have you ever wondered why some handymen are booked solid at $75/hour while others are struggling while only charging $25/hour?  Sure, level of skill plays a major role, but there is  much more to the equation.

In this episode of the Handyman Startup Podcast, I discuss strategies that you must implement in order to demand a solid hourly rate.  There are 5 things that have allowed me to go from charging $25/hour to demanding $60/hour and having customers be more than happy to pay that.  I discuss each in detail so you can start making more money with your handyman business.

Here’s what to expect in this podcast:

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to put these strategies into action right away.

If you find this information helpful, be sure to subscribe so you can receive my podcasts as soon as they are released.  Also, a quick review on iTunes is very much appreciated!

How to subscribe:

The post HS 003 – 5 Strategies To Increase Your Hourly Rate appeared first on Handyman Startup.

Episode #2 of the Handyman Startup Podcast comin’ at ya!

In this episode, I give away some of my best secrets for determining which services to offer.  I walk you through 4 methods that I personally use to find profitable, in-demand, high dollar services to gain new customers.  Whether you are brand new or have been in business for a while, what I have to share with you will not disappoint!

Here’s What to Expect in this Podcast:

Resources Mentioned:

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

If you find this information helpful, please leave a positive review on iTunes by clicking here.

The post HS 002 – 4 Easy Methods to Uncover Profitable Services appeared first on Handyman Startup.

Here it is!  The first episode of the Handyman Startup Podcast!

In this episode, I talk about 3 common misconceptions that many handymen who are new to this business may have. When I first started my handyman business, these three myths slowed me down and almost kept me from succeeding. That’s why I want to put it out there and squash these myths once and for good.

Prefer to read instead of listen?  Here is a post I wrote covering this same topic:  3 Handyman Business Myths Exposed.

Here is what I cover in this Podcast:

Resources I mention in the podcast.

Interview with a 20 year handyman.

Calculating your hourly rate.

Also, I’d like to hear from you.  Whether you just want to comment on the podcast or recommend an idea for a future podcast, let me know in the comments below!

The post HS 001 – 3 Handyman Business Myths Exposed appeared first on Handyman Startup.