I'm a handyman in the S.F. Bay Area (East Bay), so I may be able to help you here. (Not saying I'm the one you want to call: the Peninsula is a little outside my territory.)
My clients find me, for the most part, by referral from other clients.
If none of your friends are able to make a recommendation, start looking for other reliable resources. Here in the East Bay there's a group called the Berkeley Parent's Network that maintains a web site on which people post recommendations for various tradespeople, including general handyman types. Since only members can post there, and not the tradespeople themselves, you can pretty much trust them.
Another possibility would be a local neighborhood group, possibly a Yahoo! group or another online community group. Search for a group by your location and see if anything pops up.
There's also Angie's List, though I don't really know anything about it other than it exists and is supposedly an impartial referral service.
The last place I'd look--in fact, I'd *never* look there--is Yelp, as they are a totally crooked operation that uses pay-to-play to promote business rankings.
It depends where you live, and is probably easier in villages rather than big cities. In this village (pop. 600) handymen advertise their services in two places (post office and pizza parlor) and there are four or six larger villages within 10 miles, i.e. probably a dozen places to look.
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