Question:
I am considering starting a home repair business.  I would offer basic home repair services but eventually move into remodeling and design. I enjoy the work and I have several project houses that I am working on right now in my spare time.  Currently, I am researching to see if it could be a viable business to run full time.

What are your thoughts on home repair (i.e. handyman) business?  Is it an area that has potential or is it dominated by the do-it-yourself 'ers' and sorted people who do this part time?

Answer:
It's like anything else - sure DIY ers and amateurs can do it, but do they have the time and resources?  Do they want amateur or professional results?  Do they have all the tools and is it worth the expense of buying them for 1 or 2 projects?  You need to find out who your target market will be and what appeals to them.

I think this is more about marketing than anything else.
move into remodeling and design. - I enjoy the work and I have several project houses that I am working - on right now in my spare time.  Currently, I am researching to see if - it could be a viable business to run full time.

What are your thoughts on home repair (i.e. handyman) business?

 Is it - an area that has potential or is it dominated by the do-it-yourself 'ers' - and assorted people who do this part time? What kinds of things, exactly, would you be doing? I'm looking for somebody to help paint a bedroom in my house. What is that, eight hours work at $10/hour?

I had a plumber out to snake the drains in my house last Sunday. (Yes, Sunday.) It took two guys about two hours to get the job done. They came with a van, the tools to do the job, etc. And they only charged $85.00.

When you're self employed, you have to market yourself, maybe do bookkeeping, maintain all of your own equipment, etc. A typical consultant works more than sixty hours a week and is lucky if half of those hours are billable.

You also have to pay more money in social security taxes.

I just don't see where the money is. Its great that you are able to fix things. Now, you have to find things to fix that people are willing to pay decently to have repaired.

Many people think like you do: "I will start a small business doing small things and then once that is going well, I will start doing big things." What happens is that people come to see you as a person who does small things and then call somebody else for the big things. The time for you to think big is now, when you're starting your business.

What are your thoughts on home repair (i.e. handyman) - business?  Is it an area that has potential or is it dominated - by the do-it-yourself 'ers' and sorted people who do this - part time?

Here's my standard advice to all wannabe entrepreneurs:

"What I recommend you do is determine what your sales territory is.  What's its radius?  Double that and add a healthy 10% more distance then go and talk to people out that distance that are in the same business you want to start up.  Literally, drive there.  Do not do the following over the phone or email or through snail mail.  Show up on their doorstep during the slow time of their business day.  Tell them that you want to start up a similar business at such-and-such a location and if they would consider you competition.  If they say you would be, drive further away from your proposed business location until you find a business that says you're not. If you have to go to a different country, do so.

Once you find a business that says your two territories won't overlap, ask if they wouldn't mind answering some questions about how to start and run a business like theirs.  Play to their egos and they'll love to talk to you. Everyone likes to feel important and worth listening to especially business owners when it comes to their businesses.  Have a list of questions written out on a notepad, but do NOT write down their answers.  Instead, bring a tape recorder (yes, put it right out in the open no need for spy ware and besides it plays to their egos as their words are being treated as worthy of being recorded) and concentrate on getting as much information out of them as possible as well as picking up the other half of the answers they give in body language.  If they say something you don't understand, speak up and ask for clarification.  Let them wander off your list of questions since where they wander to might be a place you never thought of asking questions about and should have been.  However, keep an eye on the questions you've written down and try to ask them all before the interview concludes.  Of course, always yield to customers that come in.

After you've interviewed one owner, go home and digest what was said. Listen to the tape on your way home.  Think over it all.  Adjust your business plan accordingly.  Adjust the questions on that notepad and then on your next free day, head off in another direction and do the same thing. Try to interview at least twenty businesses.  A hundred businesses would be ideal.  Interview the good, the bad, and the ugly.  If you're lucky, you'll interview one that is going out of business or has just went out of business so you can hear about the dark side.  Likewise, interview those businesses you think are bad.  Keep in mind that since they're still in business, they are probably doing something right if just being the only game in town for your products/services.

Share as you give.  Let them know what you think is a good idea and they may tell you their own gems.  Don't get paranoid that they'll steal your good idea.  They will!  Or rather, you should HOPE they will as that means your ideas are actually good ones.  These are the individuals that are the best judges of your business ideas.  However, you'll never know if your business ideas are good unless you tell these business owners them.  Also, if you're not willing to share, don't expect them to as well.  In fact, it will likely take you telling them your best idea for them to tell you theirs.  Also, ask them to read over your business plan right there before you.  Naturally, don't leave a copy of it behind.  What one of these business owners is going to tell you will be better than ALL the advice from ALL the business professors on the face of the Earth.  Even from the ones that are going out of business!  These business owners are DOING IT RIGHT NOW whereas business professors live in the fairyland of academia.

Don't forget these individuals after you interview them.  Send them a nice thank-you snail mail letter for taking the time to answer your questions. When your business opens, send them an invitation to come and see it. Ideally, hold a special Grand Opening dinner and invite all the good business owners you interviewed to it.  Give them a group tour of your business (no matter how small the shop is even if it is a desk and a computer in a corner) and then treat them to a nice meal.  I'd recommend a barbeque at your house/apartment so it is informal and relaxed.  Do NOT drink alcohol or do drugs at this dinner.  Listen, listen, and listen some more.  You've got the most valuable think tank right there eating your hamburgers.  They'll just naturally talk shop and focus most of that talk on YOUR shop.  The only bad part of all this is that it would be bad form for you to tape record it thus why you need to remain sober so you can remember it all.  Then after they leave but before you do clean-up, write down all the important things they said.

And don't stop doing this after you open your business.  At least once a month (if not once a week), visit still more businesses.  And for one afternoon, make this part of any vacation or business trip you take anywhere.  In fact, you'll very likely get more out of these interviews AFTER you open your business than before you did.  After you open your business, you can really start to talk shop since you're now currently running a shop.  This worked great for a little-known starting-out pizza-parlor owner by the name of Tom Monaghan the founder of Domino's Pizza.

Now if you want to really succeed, see if the good ones are also willing to sit on your Board of Directors (or Board of Advisors, if you don't want to give them any control power). The rest of your Board of Directors should be made up of marketers (at least have one) and one accountant.  I'd recommend the board number nine.  Your Board of Directors will help you keep the big picture in mind and an eye on the future.

Lastly, if you're not willing to do the above, you don't have what it takes to start and succeed at your own business.  Period."

Additionally

"Work on a business plan.  Regardless if you're going to get a business loan or not.  A business plan forces you to think of all aspects of your business.  Question every aspect of it.  Think how you can do it better, cheaper, and faster.  Always remember to KISS it.  Keep It Simple, Smart.  [Yes, I know it is usually said as "Keep It Simple, Stupid", but it is the smarts that make things more complex and difficult than they need to be.  Stupid people keep it simple (usually too simple) because they're stupid.]  And forever keep in mind that this is a business you're starting and a business is to turn a profit.  It doesn't turn a profit and it's just an expensive hobby of yours.  Your goal should be for the business to work for you and not you work for it.  If you only ever work for it, the only thing you've made is a job for yourself.  If that's all you want, don't start a business (and all the headaches it entails) and just go work for someone else.  As for how much time to invest into your business plan, studies have shown that those that work less than six months on their business plan have a 90% failure rate.  Those that work six months or more on their business plan have a 90% success rate.  And to start off, get a copy of Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth".  It's real value is helping you determine if you're a Technician, Manager, or Entrepreneur.  Be honest with yourself and you'll save yourself a lot of grief."

Also

"The lifeblood of capitalism is communication between businesses and their customers/clients.  Yes, this means advertising, but that's just one aspect of the communication I'm talking about.  There's also public relations (such as appearing on local radio talk shows), business image (everything your customers see), and, most important of all, word-of-mouth.  Approach all expenditures on such communications as simply an investment.  Track how much you spend and what profits it generates for you.  Be always willing to experiment with new approaches but discontinue unprofitable ones once they've shown themselves to be this.  If you employ a marketing firm, hold them accountable.  Ditch them if they don't produce profits for you after six months.  Don't let emotion decide their fate.  Let's the cold hard facts of accounting be the heavy.  And nothing gets a marketing firm to work hard for you more than them knowing you expect results and will ditch them if they don't produce.

As for what gets you the best bang for your advertising buck, that would be postcard advertising.  The key to postcard advertising is the mailing list. You want to target those who will most likely become your customers/clients. Spend a lot of time thinking over who this might be.  Once you're in business, find out the demographics and psychographics of your customers and market to those.  As for the postcard itself, EVERY single word on it should be carefully chosen.  The goal of the postcard is to get its recipient to take some form of action.  That action could be calling and/or visiting your business or visiting your business' web site. The best way to get them to visit your physical location is to make the postcard a meaningful coupon they can use.  Use color, bold, and all caps in the text of the postcard sparingly and to just give impact to key words.  ALWAYS send out two differently designed postcards.  One to one half of the mailing list and the other to the other half.  Design them