Handyman business

[handiman]

Hi all,
thinking of advertising in the local paper as a Jack of all Trades. Do everything from flat pack assembly, small jobs about the home, rubbish clearance etc, maybe even gardening. Don't have a trade as such e.g. plumbing or electrician, but do have the skills to do smallish plumbing and electrical jobs and limited carpentry skills
Anyone got any idea on how much per hour on average I could charge for such a business and if there would be a demand. I am based in Southampton.

 

[sabian1982]

Welcome to the forum, i can't advise on a price per hour (i suppose essentially as you have no specific skill it won't be as high as a qualified labourer). I think perhaps if you went on a plastering course (or similar) and got a recognised qualification this would provide you with the edge to get more clients and higher rates of pay. I know someone who does plastering, brick work and decorating in the Nottingham area; he has a website, he's done a little basic SEO and has a top ranking in Google for specific search terms - he gets more work than he can handle! Essentially if you can get the skills the world (or more accurately the area of Southampton) could be your ouster if you are able to market yourself effectively. The best of luck to you!

 

[handiman]

Thanks for the reply
I am trying to keep the service as simple as possible so do not want to have to train up in plastering or other skills. I am actually looking on this as a bit of spare cash income as I will have a small private pension which i could live on totally if need be. This service would be to bring in a bit of extra income for the luxuries in life. I have heard that a lot of professional couples do not have to to build up flatpacks and do a lot of other kinds of DIY jobs so I thought maybe there is a niche market there. i would probably charge about £25 per hour on average

 

[estwig]

£25 per hour to put flat pack together

err no!!!!

 

[dave_n]

£25 per hour to put flat pack together

err no!!!!

where do i sign up for a job with handiman!!!!

 

[Lisette]

There was another poster on here recently talking about doing something similar and he was charging £6-£8 per hour.

 

[dave_n]

people buy flatpack knowing they can put it together surely!

 

[saracen]

if my memory serves me correctly, im sure electrical jobs have to be carried out by certified sparks. They have to fill out appropriate documents and the local council informed ? Im sure i read that somewhere last year when i was having a new electric shower put in. It may only be regs in England. Likewise for plumbing, a snipf approved plumber has to carry out nearly all jobs.


Im sure the handyman/person business isnt as straight forward as applying personal DIY skills on other peoples homes.

I would certainly do plenty reasearch prior to advertising so you know exactly where you stand. Or in other words, cover your butt.

£25 per hour for carrying out jobs such as flat packs - no chance. Maybe £5, You will probably get a fiver per hr carrying out garden maintenance jobs.

 

[estwig]

if my memory serves me correctly, im sure electrical jobs have to be carried out by certified sparks. They have to fill out appropriate documents and the local council informed ? Im sure i read that somewhere last year when i was having a new electric shower put in. It may only be regs in England. Likewise for plumbing, a snipf approved plumber has to carry out nearly all jobs.

Sorry mate that is all completely wrong.

 

[saracen]

ahh, then my memory doesnt serve me correctly, must be an age thing lol

 

[estwig]

In fairness mate it is a complicated area, some jobs can be done and some can't, and unfortunately sparks does tend to bullshit about the regs in his favour, and no idea what snipf is for plumbers!!

 

[PS Business Solutions]

In my local area we have a company called Dial A Hubby. They are a truly fantastic business offering exactly the services you are talking about. They basically market themselves as 'hubbies' you can call upon to do all the stuff you would ask a hubby to do if you had one (or he won't/can't do it). And I'm not talking rude stuff here I mean odd jobs etc! lol

It isn't a one man band though, he has a team of people with different expertise, but things like building flat pack furniture is extremely popular. I live on my own and wouldn't be able to build anything, so for me, and the many others like me, it is a godsend,

What makes them very popular is that when you've told them what you need, you get a price before they come out. That price is fixed, and if they underquote, they carry the loss. I believe their pricing per hour works out about the price you had in mind.

Google them and see if you can get any ideas from their site. Last time I spoke to the founder, he was thinking about Franchising, so if he has, that might be a route for you to consider maybe

 

[creospace]

People hate doingflat pack i bet in this day and age they would pay a small fortuneto have someone else do it. Gardening £8 an hour I guess.

It depends what part of Southampton you're from, I grew up in Totton so know the area very well.

 

[saracen]

i've just had a deeper look and yes, its complicated.

Snipef = [SIZE=-1]Scottish & Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers' Federation
Only relevant to Scotland and NI, soz forgot bout that.

[/SIZE]

 

[JustOneUK]

Handiman services - £20 first hour £10 for every hour after - easy.

If that scares you just go for a flat £10/hour and say that normally you charge £20 for the first hour however, just for them........

Make sure you get public liability insurance (approx £70/year)

James.

 

[An Oasis]

... £25 per hour for carrying out jobs such as flat packs - no chance. Maybe £5, You will probably get a fiver per hr carrying out garden maintenance jobs.

Yup that's right employ a butcher who will massacre your lawn by scalping it and crucify everything in sight, shesh I love comments like this. With absolutely no knowledge about a subject some muppet can make a statement like this in public.... It confirms why we have to go into a garden which whilst badly done could have looked OK (if maintained properly) to the untrained eye and NUKE it.

When do you want yer garden sorted out sarecen?

No you don't bloody well pay £5 per hour to have your garden maintained. The going rate is from £10 - £50 depending upon what needs doing and the skill/knowledge needed to do it. And before any idiot says £50 you're joking!!!! No I'm bloody not - think topiary and the skills needed to maintain a plant properly and that's before I start on advising clients about long-term planning and development and that's before we look into issues such as plant diseases, poor/inappropriate plant selections yadayadayada. Dude it is a skill not a drop in from numpties.

 

[JustOneUK]

Topiary is a skill, not a handyman service, and is therefore worth a lot more

Chill ...wanna smoke with me?

 

[Sally@CC]

I would pay £15 for the first hour and £10 thereafter but at £25 I would think you were having a laugh. That is what accountants round here charge and they do a lot more for you than put your flatpack furniture together.

 

[An Oasis]

Topiary is a skill, not a handyman service, and is therefore worth a lot more

Chill ...wanna smoke with me?

Oh yes!

Whatyagot Dude?

 

[Masterfulmatt]

OK Firstly you cannot touch any electrics, bar changing plugs, fuses and faceplates of light switches and sockets without Part P certification IT'S ILLEGAL I'm not sure about the water, but there was talk a few years ago that plumbers would have to have a similar accreditation to Corgi but for water work, not sure if thats been shelved, delayed or in force.

Cost wise depends, if you're any good and work hard and fast £14-18 an hour and maybe £25 1st hour to cover your travelling etc.

 

[lockie]

I actually went down this route a few years ago after getting so many people asking if i could just put up a blind or similar. I charged £25 per hour and plenty of people paid it no problem. There is a real market for professional single females and anyone buying anything from ikea.(little tip go to ikea and get a load of spare fixings as something is always missing from the packs)
One landlord whom i did a lot of lock work for would quite happily pay me £25 an hour to put up the furniture in each new flat he bought.

The biggest headache and the reason i didnt fully develop it into a seperate business was that so many people call a handyman because they dont want to pay a decorater , plaster or electrician for their skills. I was getting people after quotes to paint whole house as decorators were too dear but the truth was they werent and i was quoting similar prices.Also lots of wannbe property developers wanted whole refurbs done for a fiver and a cheese sandwich.

Go for it the market is there, i got loads of calls off of a minimum line ad in the local paper. Remember you wont earn £25 per hour unless you are booked for the whole day each day, traveling between jobs doesnt earn you £25 and your spending pn advertising and marketing so dont go in too cheap.
Price a bit higher and get the better quality customers who are prepared to pay that bit extra as in times of hardship or recession they are most likely to still have disposable income and use you again.

 

[Pilfo]

i've just had a deeper look and yes, its complicated.

Snipef = [SIZE=-1]Scottish & Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers' Federation
Only relevant to Scotland and NI, soz forgot bout that.

[/SIZE]

All plumbing now has to comply with the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999.

To understand these regs and become an approved BPEC plumber/installer,
you will need to undergo a training course and pass a final exam.

Pilfo

 

[estwig]

OK Firstly you cannot touch any electrics, bar changing plugs, fuses and faceplates of light switches and sockets without Part P certification IT'S ILLEGAL I'm not sure about the water, but there was talk a few years ago that plumbers would have to have a similar accreditation to Corgi but for water work, not sure if thats been shelved, delayed or in force.

Cost wise depends, if you're any good and work hard and fast £14-18 an hour and maybe £25 1st hour to cover your travelling etc.

Thats wrong mate, anyone can do electrical work and then ask Building Control to certify it, fee of about £150 to pay for this.

 

[handiman]

Thanks everyone for all the useful advice. Entertaining reading through them.
I will probably try asking 25 per hr for the first hour and 20 per hr thereafter and see how it goes and try a one line ad in the local free paper.
Don't want to get into big complicated jobs so will need to stick to my guns and just offer flatpack assembly and similar jobs. Want to keep it as simple as possible.

 

[dave_n]

It may be worth you approaching your local wickes, mfi, b&q etc etc to see if they have a list of tradesmen that they recommend to customers who want to build their own flatpacks

 

[creospace]

I will probably try asking 25 per hr for the first hour and 20 per hr thereafter and see how it goes and try a one line ad in the local free paper.

Best of luck - you wont get paid it. Unless you're servicing Kensington - and Southampton is no Kensington!

 

[handiman]

Maybe not, but better to aim high at first to test the market. can always reduce if I need to. As one poster stated, best to seek out the more affluent customers.

 

[lockie]

Handiman stick to your guns i actually "know" from experience people will pay £25 an hour and more. I was actually charging £30 for the first hour then £25 an hour. Its all about making sure they know the worth of what it is you are offering. Once you explain you carry spares so it means they dont need to waste a trip back to the store if their furniture is missing something it soon becomes value for money.I was also including things like rawl plugs and plaster board fixings in the price on small jobs like fitting blinds or putting up shelves.Fitted a fair few plasma's too when they first came out, its amazing how many professional people don't have clue about diy but they do have disposable income.
Pay a visit to screwfix and get some trade packs and away you go.Liability insurance is quite cheap too.
I had one regular who would save up a load of jobs and get me round for a couple of hours at a time as she appreciated that i could do the job in a few minutes and had the right tools too. Not everyone has the ability to drill a ceramic tile or even put up net curtains.Plasterboard seemed to be another thing that scared many from attempting to put up shelves or curtain rails etc.

Its also easy to drop your prices as that doesnt offend people unlike when you put prices up.

 

[Peter Bowen]

I worked on a marketing plan for a potential handyman franchise for the franchisor a while back - they never took up the idea and I have a whole lot of the ideas lying around. Send me an email to [email protected] if you'd like them.

Cheers

Pete

 

[roythehandyman]

Jump right in handiman, There is a dire shortage of handymen in this country. The price for flat pack assembley depends. I can assemble 5 kitchen base units in an hour, thats just over £4 each. But I charge £30 first hour and £15 for further hours. My customers have always been very happy and consider me quite cheap. If you want to be a good handyman and earn decent living you will need around £8,000 for tools plus a cheap van or estate car. Oh and at least one learned trade. Good luck

 

[J.D. Landscaping]

The op posted this last year mate.

 

[Matt1959]

The op posted this last year mate.

good post though - I bet theres a few that might consider doing this sort of thing now.......

 

[J.D. Landscaping]

Something i have thought about and occasionally do Matt, plenty of wealthy single ladies etc out there who can't manage these kind of tasks.

 

[roythehandyman]

The op posted this last year mate.

Yes I realize that I was replying to an old post. However many people search through old posts to discover a solution to a problem as sometimes it is better that way because the original post has had time to be replied to and hopefully a problem has been solved after several postings which can take weeks or months.
I would like to say that one of the best handypersons that I ever met was a single mother of two who had mastered the art of plastering, carpentry, decorating and plumbing to a very professional standard. She called me in because she was wary of heights and she needed the flaunching on the chimney replaced.
No handyman can survive by charging less than £15 per hour ( plus £30 call out ). At £5 per hour I would have to work 100 hours a week to survive!
Meanwhile I would like to offer the following advice to anyone considering a career in the handyman services. It is important to invest in a decent set of tools, Never ever accept a project that you are unfamiliar with ( a have a go merchant soon goes belly up ), use the right tool for the job and that includes advertising. I will share with anyone reading this a terrific low cost answer to gaining customers, and that is build your own website and maintain it as often as you can. I never ever advertise in the press. I spent over £1000 in adverts in the local newspaper and I gained less than £500 worth of profit from the work that it got me. I spend less than £40 per year on my website (hosting) and it brings me thousands of pounds of work. I can honestly say that my website provides me with more work than I can handle. Even today my site is showing a notice that “I am not taking on any work for some time” My site is on page 1 of all the major search engines for the keywords that are applicable to my business. Local builders in my area are staring bankruptcy in the face but I have 3 kitchen re-fits, 4 bathroom re-fits and a single story extension booked in for the New Year! I also have quite a lot of planed maintenance jobs to attend to over the next six months!
Just think about it. Someone sitting in their office all day has the perfect tool for finding a handyman right in front of them. They can email me or call me without leaving their chair (and it is free).
Part 3 rules make it clear that whilst simple alterations to circuits is ok, Only a competent person is allowed to do any work on power points in a kitchen. But you can add a socket or two anywhere else. The rules are quite simple really. You can change what’s there already but if it means changing the rating of a fuse, then leave it alone.
I have been a professional handyman for over thirty years and I absolutely love my job and I would recommend it to anyone that is considering it. I would go so far as to say that if it were not for the need to earn a living, I would do all the work for nothing. Providing you take care with your bookings, you get to work outdoors in fine weather and inside during the bad.

 

[CKG]

This is how it should be done if you want to earn some good mula for what is a very simple service.

www.0800handyman.co.uk

 

[roythehandyman]

This is how it should be done if you want to earn some good mula for what is a very simple service.

I consider that post to be SPAM. If I wanted to work for someone else ( after all that is what purchasing a franchise is ) I would take a look down my jobcentre.

The origional post was seeking advice to become a handyman to boost his income. I can just imagine me going to a callout on a motor scooter laden down with, A step ladder, a couple of toolboxes, a router kit, plastering mixing bucket and trowels, Plumbing kit etc.

If someone thinks he is gong to earn a living arriving on a scooter armed with a screwdriver and hammer, then he is very much mistaken.

£17,500 plus V.A.T for the chance to try out your d.i.y skills is not the daftest idea that I have heard of, but it is very close. Thats £100 a week of any earnings gone for the next THREE years, Not to mention the v.a.t
"The banks, subject to status, will lend up to 70% of the total amount required" I would love to be a fly on the wall of a bank managers office when someone walks in is office asking for for a £10,000 loan to start a handyman business. Lets see now. The punter has no experience of the trade but thinks it is a surefire investment. he is going on a 5 week course to learn what it takes most people al least five years to learn. He intends to go from job to job, like john wayne, but on a scooter instead of a horse! Just what planet have you been living on for the last 9mths.
Get real.

 

[Matt1959]

member CKG doesnt do spam actually

I've often wondered about how many people pay up for flat pack assembly. You see this service offered - by the time you've driven there, done the job and got back, it must be 2 to 3 hours labour - do people really pay £60 odd to have a piece of IKEA furniture put together? Maybe they pay more than £60??

 

[roythehandyman]

Well mat1959; CKG was inviting me to a website that was offering me a job that i did not ask for. I have one that I am very fond of.
Anyway to answer your question, It is all in the planning. There are very few people that will shell out £30 to have a bedside cabinet assembled. Any successful handyman will be a very good planner. The cabinet would be fitted in on his way to a job in the area or indeed on his way home from another. Such a job is not urgent and a customer would certainly wait at least a week to have the job done.
I very will often line up half a dozen small jobs and hit them all in the one day. Sometimes I will hit a small job on my way to or from another. If you build a reputation for being reliable, then customers will trust you when you say " leave it to me, I am on the case "
I will say though that I rarely charge by the hour. More often a customer wants the bottom line price for a job. If I say I will do such and such for £120 the customer knows what it is going to cost. If I say it will take about 4 hours the customer is not sure of what the final cost is going to be. Some handymen will take two hours to assemble a wardrobe, some will take an hour tops!
The skill comes with being able to work out how long a certain task will take, Take the estimated hours and multiply that by 15 or 20 plus a gallon of fuel. It works for me.
Some people would think that £40 per hour is expensive. But I can board and plaster an average ceiling in 4hrs. so, 4x£40=£160 not a bad price for a new ceiling eh.
The way I see it, People pay me not only for the work I do, but for the skill that I have to be able to do it. I spent years learning my skills, someone has to pay me for that time too.

 

[Matt1959]

hmmm, interesting stuff - you seem like a highly motivated guy! I think I'd lose the will to live spending all my time putting Ikea stuff toegther but as you say, with your biz, there is alot of variety.

Hope you stick around here on UKBF btw

 

[roythehandyman]

Well beleive it or not even assembling Ikea packs is quite rewarding. Arrive at someones home and find a load of screws, bits of wood and sign lanuage instructions on the floor and a husband that has been trying to turn it all into a coffe table for three weeks. You do the job in ten mins flat and you are the HERO.