You will become the jack of all trades, master of none. Nobody expects you do the BEST job just a GOOD ENOUGH job. Which is a problem because they'll try paying you peanuts so you have to be able to do jobs as fast as possible if you want to make good money. This means learning to work with soul crushing easy sand 5 mixed with hot water and applying paint and primer paint with 3/8 nap paint rollers followed by using a mini leaf blower between coats (to speed up primer stain sealing curing). If you can score a couple $50 bullshit jobs in a day you're on track to making more money than some poor bastard standing at a cash register all day long.
Handymen just focus on small bullshit jobs, general contractors focus on big bullshit jobs and typically have a crew of people/subcontractors that work for them. The latter makes more money but requires more education/experience. Depends how much capital you have at the moment I guess, handymen business can be started with a cryobi tool set from the homeless despot in a small pickup truck.
They're going to nickle and dime you to the max no matter how much experience you have, just focus on getting shit done as fast as you can without going below the "good enough" quality metric. Thus an hourly rate doesn't make any sense here. A typical day (after getting clients through online marketing ofc) might look something like this:
Morning: unclog kitchen sink for $50
Noon: patch and paint holes at a rental before new tenants move in for $100
Evening: clean gutters for $50
Look at it from the perspective of who's paying you, if you fix a hole in the wall / hang a ceiling fan in an hour they most likely expect that and refer you. If you try to charge a hunnid and keep frantically looking shit up on your phone in your truck they will probably be pissed with the number. most people work a job too and will silently compare their rate while watching over your shoulder. I'd suggest going by the project starting out, and try to get a feel for who you're working for giving them a quote, like get an address, search it on google streetview and think about what they are willing to spend.
Know your plumbing, know your electrical, know your various land scape repairs, know your dry wall repairs, know how to set up ikea furniture, know how to do common hvac diagnose& repairs, know how to repair fences, know how to repair kitchen appliances
Gotta know how to avoid those old ladies who want to low ball the frick out of you for your time
Should be fine if you have 20 years experience fixing random things
In the beginning you start by handing out cards and posting on social media. NextDoor is really big. For every job take a before and after picture and ask the customer to leave a review on NextDoor. From there the calls won’t stop
It's easy, you just need a beat up Ford Ranger and enough confidence to believe you can work on anything like a pro.
Every handyman I've ever met has been a knuckle-dragging mouth breather. Their work is usually either complete dog shit or dangerous (or both). Being a handyman is what you do when you don't have the attention span to completely learn a trade.
>I usually net like $1,800 a week.
No you don't. I might have believed $1800/month.
I believe that, my uncle is a handyman and damn good one. He does everything but mostly plays around in the electrical department, he is booked out all year and can pick and choose when he wants to help people.
The REAL money comes when you book a large project and you pay a couple people to help.
For example let’s say someone needs the inside of their house painted. Now let’s say it’s a $7k job. So if I find a couple guys to help me, even paying them $25 an hour to help I can probably get it done in 5 days. And after paying the help (customer buys paint) I’ll still walk away with about $4k.
So that’s something to keep in mind. A handyman should always be advancing skills and seeking bigger opportunities
not hard at all if you can get boots on the ground and do the work
You will become the jack of all trades, master of none. Nobody expects you do the BEST job just a GOOD ENOUGH job. Which is a problem because they'll try paying you peanuts so you have to be able to do jobs as fast as possible if you want to make good money. This means learning to work with soul crushing easy sand 5 mixed with hot water and applying paint and primer paint with 3/8 nap paint rollers followed by using a mini leaf blower between coats (to speed up primer stain sealing curing). If you can score a couple $50 bullshit jobs in a day you're on track to making more money than some poor bastard standing at a cash register all day long.
https://www.thimble.com/blog/what-are-the-most-requested-handyman-services
One of the biggest gripes about the whole thing is you will NEVER have enough tools/materials so you have to be ready to improvise on the spot.
Should I just become a general contractor instead? Or is that the same thing?
Handymen just focus on small bullshit jobs, general contractors focus on big bullshit jobs and typically have a crew of people/subcontractors that work for them. The latter makes more money but requires more education/experience. Depends how much capital you have at the moment I guess, handymen business can be started with a cryobi tool set from the homeless despot in a small pickup truck.
https://www.insureon.com/blog/general-contractor-handyman
What do you think is a fair rate for an experienced handyman? $100/hr? Or should I go off of projects?
They're going to nickle and dime you to the max no matter how much experience you have, just focus on getting shit done as fast as you can without going below the "good enough" quality metric. Thus an hourly rate doesn't make any sense here. A typical day (after getting clients through online marketing ofc) might look something like this:
Morning: unclog kitchen sink for $50
Noon: patch and paint holes at a rental before new tenants move in for $100
Evening: clean gutters for $50
You'd be insane to be mounting a ladder on your truck, driving it to some place, and climbing up on a roof to clean gutters for 50 bucks
If we import enough illegal immigrants that kind of work could be done for less than $50.
just learn spanish and be brown sir
I'm Irish, can I pass as brown?
>I'm Irish
And you expect to be paid $50?
Look at it from the perspective of who's paying you, if you fix a hole in the wall / hang a ceiling fan in an hour they most likely expect that and refer you. If you try to charge a hunnid and keep frantically looking shit up on your phone in your truck they will probably be pissed with the number. most people work a job too and will silently compare their rate while watching over your shoulder. I'd suggest going by the project starting out, and try to get a feel for who you're working for giving them a quote, like get an address, search it on google streetview and think about what they are willing to spend.
It’s easy to be a handyman but hard not to frick things up.
Know your plumbing, know your electrical, know your various land scape repairs, know your dry wall repairs, know how to set up ikea furniture, know how to do common hvac diagnose& repairs, know how to repair fences, know how to repair kitchen appliances
Gotta know how to avoid those old ladies who want to low ball the frick out of you for your time
Should be fine if you have 20 years experience fixing random things
Eventually they start to want oral too.
I’ve been a handyman and remodeler for like 10 years. I usually net like $1,800 a week. I’ve seen everything you can imagine and know a lot.
What do you want to know?
How often do you get work? How much do you advertise, and where do you advertise?
Every day. I don’t advertise people call me.
In the beginning you start by handing out cards and posting on social media. NextDoor is really big. For every job take a before and after picture and ask the customer to leave a review on NextDoor. From there the calls won’t stop
It's easy, you just need a beat up Ford Ranger and enough confidence to believe you can work on anything like a pro.
Every handyman I've ever met has been a knuckle-dragging mouth breather. Their work is usually either complete dog shit or dangerous (or both). Being a handyman is what you do when you don't have the attention span to completely learn a trade.
>I usually net like $1,800 a week.
No you don't. I might have believed $1800/month.
lol last year I made about $140k
But hey think what you want playboy.
>lol last year I made about $140k
I believe that, my uncle is a handyman and damn good one. He does everything but mostly plays around in the electrical department, he is booked out all year and can pick and choose when he wants to help people.
The REAL money comes when you book a large project and you pay a couple people to help.
For example let’s say someone needs the inside of their house painted. Now let’s say it’s a $7k job. So if I find a couple guys to help me, even paying them $25 an hour to help I can probably get it done in 5 days. And after paying the help (customer buys paint) I’ll still walk away with about $4k.
So that’s something to keep in mind. A handyman should always be advancing skills and seeking bigger opportunities