Suddenly I'm a Handyman!

[Suz]

Ecomony is pretty much booming in Belfast at the minute. Semi in a decent burb now hitting the £200K mark.

£45 for a tidy polite and reliable man sounds OK, but the problem is finding one. You are taking a chance with the yellow pages, and half the time they aren't interested. If you were recommended by someone who knows you personally I'd jump at it. If I could get someone that does lots of things I could give him 3 days work - and I'd be happy to do the running and fetching of needed materials. A price for 1/2 days work would be interesting to know.

If you go for it, get a million small cards printed with your name & number and give them to people who would be happy to recommend you. I'd also keep a database of customers as you get them and then after a year you could send them a cheap A5 leaflet. You would expect a handyman's cards etc to be plain and basic, nothing flash.

[Mary Fisher]

and do it but don't charge her the first time.

What if she's a big old lady?

Mary

[Dave Fawthrop]

Alternative methods of payment ;-)

--=20 Dave Fawthrop

17,000 free e-books at Project Gutenberg! Yorkshire Dialect go to

[david lang]

From the research I've done, the dearest was £40 for first half hour, cheapest £30. Everyone charged more for the first half hour. A call out fee by another name.

Per hour after that cheapest £30 dearest £40 (not the same people as in the first example). Granted they were in London & NE Surrey, where you would expect higher charges.

£30 & £30 seems about average.

It depends. The lower the prices, the more people willing to pay them & vice versa. I think a balance has to be struck. I've just created a spreadsheet where I can vary the number of jobs, number of hours, number of 'first half hours', hourly rates & initial half hour rates.

I want to get a feel for what variable makes the most money. It may be better to charge a lower call out to get more work, or keep that higher & rely on lots of quick jobs.

Dave

[david lang]

Interesting!

The average seem to be £85 for a 3.5 hour half day & £160 for a 7 hour full day.

I have a lot of contacts in the local area, so I will be doing just that.

Good idea that, thanks.

Dave

[Steve Walker]

Seems to me that the critical thing would be to establish a regular customer-base of cash rich/time poor households, each of whom will supply a couple of minor jobs per year and also seek your advice on bigger commissions. You mention elsewhere that you have some contacts in the trades, so you might be able to leverage this.

You need to minimise the unproductive time spent getting to know people & winning their trust etc, and repeat business is the way to go for that. Repeat jobs involving a simple phone call could take half as long as dealing with new customers every time.

To quickly build a regular 'round' you might want to offer "first job for free" or "materials only" promotions in targeted wealthy areas? This gets you through the door (remember that people are afraid of strangers nowadays, especially in their home) and gives you a showcase for a quick, neat job.

Good luck!

[Steve Walker]

I would pay that.

[Weatherlawyer]

You can't make some jobs pay and that is all there is to it. You might want to do some of them as favours if they are not going to cost you anything. Whether or not you take a drink from whoever, depends more on their circumstances than on one's own needs.

Some people need favours and never get them. It's always worth bearing that in mind, just in case there is a god. What goes around comes around and if there was ever a proof of the existance of god that is the one.

How much can you charge someone for installing a washing machine if it has been delivered and all the plumbing is done? Or put it this way: How is a semi destitute, frail person going to pay for such a job when it has cost them their food ration for the week just buying the machine?

It's a ten minute job for most people but to call someone out, it has to be a =A350 job. Even if you could find 4 or 5 of those sort of jobs one week, you would soon flood the market.

You'd have a thin time of the first 5 or 6 months before throwing in the towel. You'd be beter off arranging a government course and trying to find something on a site if you were interested enough in working at a trade.

[Steve Walker]

That's exactly my point - don't advertise for serial one-off jobs, become the trusted regular to a pool of households in the smallest possible area (travel time). One big 'Barratt Executive Prefab' estate might be all you need!

[Andy Hall]

Aaaarrrghhhh. "Leverage" is a noun, not a verb.

[Andy Hall]

I think that there's a psychology here.

£45 seems a lot less than £50.

[Mary Fisher]

has been delivered and all the plumbing is done? Or put it this way: How is a semi destitute, frail person going to pay for such a job when it has cost them their food ration for the week just buying the machine?

Oh come on!

The size of the customer is irrelevant.

[Mary Fisher]

If you really want to make money the place to do it, I'm told by a friend who lives there, is on the Isle of Arran. There's nobody to do odd jobs. They asked us to move there just for that reason (they're hopeless). It's a lovely place for younger people but we don't want to uproot now.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Yes. Shopkeepers would price it at £49.99.

Mary

[mike]

Suz wrote

I'd go along with this - I can do some things, but not most.

When I've got tradesmen in it's been appalling, even from local residents ass. mags etc., the only job I've had done right is fencing, and that was a recommendation.

I can only assume that the good handymen don't need to advertise, anyhow how do you pick from the thousands?

So I'd think you should be able to get a customer base.

(I'm not cash rich, time poor, more cash ok, skills poor).

I wish you lived round here!

[david lang]

Too true! All that snagging !

Fortunately the Medway Towns covers an area only 10km by 20km with a population of 250,000.

Dave

[Owain]

If the customer can afford pies the customer can afford to pay.

Owain

[Owain]

nightjar "david lang" wrote

It depends to what extent the OP is offering an emergency / out of hours service when it may not be possible to run to the merchant. (This includes Saturdays after noon, Sundays and probably bank holidays). I think many plumbing jobs are "emergencies" to the householder, from a toilet that won't flush to a washing machine that won't empty and is slowly cooking the family's woollens.

Owain

[Steve Walker]

You are absolutely right, and I wish there was a smiley for 'shame'.

Unfortunately I toil in the sick, bloated corporate swamps, where words are corrupted every day (we have a special committee for this now, I understand). I must've brought a speck of contamination home on my clothes - it won't happen again.

[Steve Walker]

Yes, that's what I had in mind. Project manager, trusted by all.