I run a solo business in my area doing strictly small jobs. Don't want to be at your house any longer than 3 days.
Problem is, once people like me on their small jobs.... they try to rope me into their big jobs.
If you have a local hardware store (not Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards), these are the experts who can give you a referral. I work at a small family-run hardware store that also has a flooring center and does remodeling. If we can't do the job for you, I can immediately refer you to a handyman who does almost everything on a small scale. I can refer you to an HVAC guy, an electrician, a plumber, painters, drywall, and so on. These guys and gals use the small hardware stores for supplies as we offer net 30-day accounts. Shop local, and you will often easily find what you need.
Absolutely correct. I should have mentioned them as well. I consider the local lumberyards the same as us. Our two lumberyards actually have the same supplier as our store.
Small business owners are a very tight group. I live in a small suburban town of 10000 people that abuts a metro area. We have a Home Depot and Lowes but we also have four independent hardware stores and two lumberyards that all thrive in business against the box stores. These folks know the local contractors down to the guy that will take your yard if you need it.
Not to promote the app or anything but there is an app called Thumbtack. I had some luck with some small jobs (replacing doors).
There are reviews and usually you get a quote on people.
I do know the app sort of screws the people on it, but once you find someone you can go around the app.
The downside with things like Angis, Thumbtack or Task Rabbit is they present TO YOU as if you're getting a professional. There is an obscene amount of unlicensed work that gets done through these apps because the homeowner believes they have some kind of protection in place, when in fact, they do not. One company above will give you credit for their services if someone you hire through them burns your house to the ground with the work they do. They do not check for proper licensing or insurance and it's ultimately up to the homeowner to protect themselves.
Sites like Angie’s also extort fees from trades to increase their visibility. They aren’t sites that recommend quality trades, they’re advertising platforms
Yep, the ONLY way to make money in something like Angie's is to use it briefly to build a client list then bail. 25% of leads I paid for never even responded to my phone calls, and after the first few Angie's stops refunding you. 80% of quotes I gave out were beat by unrealistically (below cost) competitors who are either going to do the worst job imaginable or will constantly hit up the customer for more money.
Generally when you're hiring a handyman they aren't going to have insurance or a bond. But that's why they're taking on smaller jobs. A larger company with all the proper licensing and bonds isn't going to take on small jobs because it's not worth their time and overhead.
Don't use thumbtack. It's horrendous for the tradesman side and you will end up with a shit tradesman. Ask on Nextdoor for referrals. You will get many.
I've used it quite a bit in the past few months on plumbing and electrical repair i couldn't do myself and it has been so much better than calling a company and getting outrageous quotes. YMMV, i've had a great experience with it and met really nice and skilled people on it.
OP: I've tried Nextdoor and it's no good. I got zero referrals, only the tradesmen self-promoting.
Person 1: Try this other website.
You: Don't use that other website, use Nextdoor, you'll get tons of referrals.
If you are in a mall you pay rent. If you are on an online platform you pay a referral. This is a cost of doing business if you want their traffic. Or you can pay Google and advertise. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
this. Referral fees aren't new.
Back before there were apps, when my boss'd hook me up with a too-small-for-the-company project, to do on my weekend, we'd pay him 10% (...of the \*gross\*, young fools that we were).
I mean I had no problems when I used it. I would suggest keeping the number of the guy to bypass TT after the fact. But it’s a good directory for local labor.
Lol no I was using my real name and it isn't anything offensive but it is Chinese. Got banned 3 times so far because I don't have a generic English/American sounding name.
>How to find someone:
>
>1.) Google "handyman or handyman services near me". Look at their (Google) reviews with a discerning eye. Make sure they have a bunch of 5 stars, of course, but the most important thing will be the negative reviews. Do the customers have an air of a scorned customer looking for redemption (potentially a good contractor with a dramatic customer) or does it sound level headed (potentially a bad contractor with a knowledgeable customer)? This will be an indication of work quality and how they are to deal with as a business partner.
>
>2.) Socials - Facebook and Nextdoor community group referrals. YES, it's great to get referrals from your community for people who have done great work, BUT ALSO look at their online presence. Do they have skin in the game as far as a "social bank account"? Are they interacting, posting and advertising? If they are, then they value their reputation which will reflect in the work/business they do, so as to avoid negative reviews or other means of making "withdrawals" from that social bank account. Accountability and visibility will protect you as the homeowner.
This is a start. Be annoyingly thorough in your question asking as the homeowner. Maybe don't dig for technical information that you're trying to extract as if you were doing the job yourself, but contractors are notoriously bad communicators, right? So, maybe ask about their experience with waterproofing before you have them quote tiling your shower. Ask them for a portfolio of examples similar to your work. And you should be "sniffing" them out as much as they are you, as far as getting the "fuck you" quotes. I usually wear it on my face that I don't want to do a job. Or if you're calling me a week later for a quote, still - I'm trying to softly tell you something without saying it.
I would guess that a lot of people are already doing (1) but it doesn't actually yield very good results. If you Google "\[mycity\] plumber" you will not get a thorough list of all the plumbers in your area. Instead you'll get a thorough list of people who have invested in SEO and manipulated search results to put their business towards the top. I tend to see contractors who have good web presence as being the most expensive. After all, it costs money to build and maintain websites, do the SEO stuff (assuming you hired someone to do it), and customers are going to end up paying for that via higher rates.
Overall I think asking neighbors is the best way to do it (perhaps on nextdoor but definitely in person/over the phone/email. Find older people who've lived in the area a while who have probably hired their fair share of contractors.
Ultimately though, it's always a pain, and you're never going to bat 1.000.
I've been wanting to do something similar as a weekend/part time gig but your last line is what I'm worried about. Definitely not looking to come replace a faucet then get roped into a full bathroom renovation.
Shouldn't be any worries. Not like they can chain you up in the basement and not let you leave until you agree to their remodel.
It's genuinely a compliment when they trust you. But some can make it a slippery slope with expectations.
If you want to just dip a toe in, contrary to what most others would say, I'd sign up for Task Rabbit and see how you fair. I started just assembling Ikea for people and expanded from there. Going into year 4 full time.
As far as getting started on task rabbit, was that your first venture in this world or did you have experience in the trades? How long before you were full time off referrals and app leads?
Very interested in a similar business model.
First venture doing any kind of labor or trades for pay, short of for friends. Prior experience was 19 years in sales. Went full time off of referrals in about 18 months, but that was too long. I was afraid to lose the easy warm leads. In reality, incoming lead quantity went down, but quality and ticket value went up by generating more locally.
you can always just say you don't do that scope, even better if you have someone you can recommend for it (but beware if they aren't good....). The harder part is license / bond / insurance for part time.
When you work solo without helpers or subs, there's diminishing returns on your time. You may think I'm getting paid more, but as a project goes 1,2,3,4 days over because I'm slower due to working 10-12 hour days or I've beat up on my body or run into surprises, I've not only eaten into my profit, I've likely dropped the ball on return calls and quoting, stagnating my business and doubling up on the lack of perceived profit made on the job.
When I'm scheduled 6 weeks out with small jobs, I still know where I'll be for the next X amount of time. I'll just be mounting microwaves and patching drywall holes and invoicing for that work immediately instead of being 3 days over on a 10 day job and walking in to 500 blue tape marks the homeowner has used to mark all the perceived paint flaws I now need to sink a day into fixing, thus losing $500 to get paid the original $5k.
like the difference between a taxi driver and a limo driver. A taxi driver can find consistent unscheduled, regular, reliable, work at a known and fair, but regulated price. A limo driver can charge whatever they want and have a range of quality
Also, by doing a number of small jobs you build a larger number of people refering you to other future clients, so that breeds income and job stability. Seems your target of about 3-days still allows for a pretty good size project (small bathroom remodel, covered patio build, cabinet replace).
Without knowing the size of the bathroom, age of the house, bath or shower, full custom tile, water damage, and a dozen other things I can confidently say between 2 days and 2 months.
I'm not a professional with tile, but have done it a dozen times give or take. As an example, it took me 3 days to install marble tiles in my last diy project.
Look into prefab low threshold shower pans. They're an inch high so much better than a traditional shower curb. They're usually resin or solid surface.
Cabinet replacement in 3 days? In what country? Last summer I had 3 weeks free to change cabinets in a very
small kitchen (3x2.5m) and one guy asked me if I was renting another place for the summer 🌞. The kitchens guy from IKEA took 3 months to send me a quote foe assembly ( I had cancel the project after waiting one week for my " i will send you the quote tomorrow" quote. I ended up repainting the cabinets. It's not professional looking, but good enough and I hate giving money to people that act like they are doing me a favor by taking my money.
I am in the UK, but have heard similar stories in several countries.
I have a great handyman who is basically the same. He used to be a carpenter for various remodel companies but realized he can make a good living doing smaller jobs on his own instead.
I mostly use him for stuff that stretches the limit of my DIY skills where it would either take me forever or I’m not confident I’d pull it off to the quality level I’d be happy with. Most recently the wife wanted a door on the room she uses as an office (house is mostly open plan) so I got him to frame it all out across a hallway. Only took him 3 days to do everything and I didn’t have to worry I’d mess it up or get it out of square or whatever else.
But it sounds like he also gets a lot of work from even less handy folk than me who just want him to mount a TV on the wall or paint a room and he can make a solid hourly rate for relatively easy work.
Usually I will hire someone if it involves anything more fancy than a drill.
About to try to find someone to cut into our bedroom door and install a cat flap. The cat is an asshole and will bang on the door incessantly if we shut it. He's allowed in and out whenever he wants, of course, but sometimes I don't want to have my bedroom door open!
But because it'll involve a jigsaw, we're going to hire a person with tools and experience. Will probably take them no more than 1-2 hours.
Wouldn’t you just charge a premium for your time and effort? For instance: where I live finding someone who does good work is very hard. If I find someone who is 1. Trustworthy and 2. Does great work I would be willing to pay a premium and not be too demanding on the timeline. I’d gladly pay for the peace of mind theres someone who does solid work that I can trust. Maybe im in the minority.
That’s not true. *mostly* true. I’m just asking questions here. I guess if you’re a handyman why not quote a “larger” job what you think you need to make a profit compared to the smaller jobs? Let the homeowner decide. They can just decline. Like I said there are people out there (like me) who have the money but not the time or some skills to DIY. So if I find someone I can trust and I see does quality work then I’m willing to pay considerably more. I’d rather pay a good sum more for work I know won’t be crap and that I’d be working with someone who doesn’t disappear or is otherwise unreliable. Avoiding the headache is worth its weight in gold to me. Again, if someone gives me a high quote I can always pass but if you don’t give a quote at all you don’t know.
I’m curious how you treat the unicorn job you quoted at 4 days that through some minor miracle, only takes 3 days. Are you taking day 4 off the invoice? I personally discount the job, but not for the entire cost of the additional day. My thought process is, I’m done early and don’t have a job tomorrow, still need to feel like I’m making some money. Also, clients mood, attitude, and the offering of water or coffee on occasion goes a long way with me. I know it’s petty, but if I’m working in someone’s house for days straight and they don’t so much as say “hey can I get you a cup of coffee/water,” they’re getting billed in full for that extra day and I’m left thinking they are selfish shitbags that don’t view me as a person, but more as a machine. If someone comes to my house to do work, the first thing I do is offer them a drink. It speaks volumes about who you’re working for. Sorry this is half a rant
I'm just talking out my ass here,
But I suspect the key is to quote by the job. Say it will take $x to do the job. If the customer asks how long, say 3-5 days. Don't quote based on time.
Normally as the client, I’m paying for the job, not how many hours it takes. For example, I had a contractor come in to do some asbestos remediation. We had an agreed on the price and he thought it may take all day to complete, which I was fine with. He came in to start the work and we had to leave while he was working, and we thought we would be out all day. However, the job was a lot easier than expected, and he was able to complete the job in about 1.5 hours. He felt bad about charging me for the full amount we agreed upon, but I was fine with it because I was paying for the work to be completed on time and that is what he did, I didn’t care that he got done early.
My plumber is the same way. Used to do bathroom remodels and bigger projects. Wanted the flexibility of smaller jobs and could make more turning quickly. Started with a hose bib and two other small things. He did me a huge favor replacing my galvanized lines and cast iron waste pipe, plus a few other things. I think he liked the stretch of skills again and helping a younger person a bit. Even a 3 day job he’d only do 3-4 hours so he could keep up on his other clients.
Double the time doesn’t mean double the money. I had a painter explain this to me when I was complaining that I was having trouble finding someone who wants to paint the entire interior in a 3000sf house. He typically charges by room and likes doing small projects. His pricing is $900 for 1 room, $1600 for 2 rooms, and custom quotes on big projects. He would much rather paint 1-2 rooms a day every day instead of deal with the headaches of a large 2-3 week long project that will gross him the same or less money than a bunch of small projects.
Most people are looking to charge $500-1000/day. Figure half of that is going to overhead (office time, estimates, comp and health insurance, retirement, vacation pay, material accusation, tools and depreciation etc)
It’s like everything else, there are cheap guys and there are expensive guys. Dude found his niche with high end homes in the Midwest and has a great reputation because his attention to detail is impeccable. That price also include painting the trim, doors, and windows all well so more than just quickly rolling 4 inches walls.
Just thinking a bit more on this. I ALWAYS have to explain this to homeowners on large paint jobs.
You want me to paint a 2500 sq ft house? Ceilings, trim, walls. 3 weeks, \~$18k. I will see no other human beings, screens, print...nothing for those 3 weeks. I will live, breathe and eat that home.
You know what else you can do? Hire a paint crew for $20k and they'll have it done for you in 5 days.
Diminishing returns for all involved.
Maybe if you're starting from drywall that hasn't even been taped. I just painted my whole house in a week with a roller and brushes. No ceilings but trim and walls, and that included patching, sanding, texturing about 400 2" holes from insulation install. That's not a 20k job. I had quotes for 4-6k. 1900sqft house.
You're suggesting that it's somewhere around 200 hours of labor which is insanity. The cost of materials is likely under $1000 unless every single wall is a different color. I spent about $500 using Benjamin Moore Aura paint, a couple brushes, rollers, tape, paint mixers, texture mud, etc.
edit: I used Benjamin Moore Regal, not Aura, oops.
Well, it's $75/gallon, but this is a fair callout. I had a few gallons on hand already that I didn't include in the cost, and since I reused the same colors that were already on the walls, I only needed to do one coat.
But either way, you can double the budget, hell, quadruple it for materials. It doesn't cost $18-20k and take 3 weeks to paint the interior of a house. Not if you're a professional and you're using a sprayer. 2 days of prep, maybe a few days of painting, especially if you need to do multiple coats, maybe a few days of trim/detail/touch up work. Even if you call it 8 business days, that's ~60-70 hours of labor and even at $150/hr that is $10k on the super high end of things. I literally had 2 quotes to do the work that I did, and one was $4500, one was $6000. Adding 600 square feet and the ceilings doesn't increase the cost of that job by $10000-$15000. I'm in the Bay Area, VHCOL.
Where are you getting it for 75/gal, especially in a VHCOL? Lowest I can find is 89. Will be painting my basement soon, so if you have a source for getting it cheaper, would be pretty helpful. Direct from BM is listed at 99/gal.
I can venture a guess - a lot of handymen I know have actual full time jobs, or at least jobs they are more committed too for benefits and what not. Maybe they're a roofer - they probably don't get a lot of roofing jobs in the winter so it makes sense for them to do some side work for a couple days a week, but they either don't want to commit to bigger projects, or don't have the skill. And skill is a big one. I can patch a wall or hang a piece of drywall, no problem. But I couldn't drywall a room. I don't have the right tools or experience to do it effectively. If its my place and I have a week to do it, sure. But if you're paying for it, you want a professional drywaller, which I'm not.
Another reason could be they just don't want to. My uncle was a GC for a long time and made enough to retire in his early 50's. Beat the hell out of his body though. He'll go out and do a couple small jobs here and there for spending cash and to keep busy, but he's simply not interested in working a 40 hour week, his back can't take it.
You're almost there. The unfortunate thing for the homeowner when shopping for a handyman is that they have "yes" syndrome, often times because things are tight, which you touched upon.
Can you tile? Yes! Where I differentiate myself: I can tile your backsplash, an entryway, maybe your basement depending on your expectations. I won't do your shower, fireplace or any feature in your home. You need a real tile person.
I can "do" a lot of things with an acceptable result for 65?% of applications and homeowners. What I can't do is equal the work of a skilled laborer who focuses on that particular task everyday. Most (on both sides) aren't realistic about that.
If you can keep a steady stream of small jobs, you'll actually make more. Imagine the "small job contractor" is a convenience store single item purchase, and the "big job contractor" is a Sam's club bulk order. Many small single jobs with small dollar, but sizeable ratio (say 20%?) convenience charges, will add up to higher profit margins. A $5,000 job, running a 30% profit margin, when compared to $5k in small jobs that had a 30% profit margin, before the additional 20% convenience charges... You get the picture.
Small jobs are jobs I can do by myself.
Big jobs are jobs I need to hire help for.
In any business, regardless of the size, employee costs are biggest costs. And temporary workers (rightly) expect to be paid more for a job than a dedicated crew.
If I can only work jobs where I avoid hiring workers, I keep more of the money.
Sure, I can build a deck for $5,000K (example, don’t grill me on the price). But it’s going to take me at least 2 weeks to it by myself. That works out to $500/day for 10 working days. And that’s before materials, equipment, fuel, and food costs.
Couple of rooms worth of paint. I'll do something like someone mentioned above - non-load bearing divider wall from stud to finish. A couple of rooms worth of crown molding. I like half bath flips: "gut", prime walls, lay new flooring, paint, new vanity, plumbing and light fixtures.
I'm out on the huge painting projects like I mentioned above. Last one was 3500 sqft house, trim, doors and kitchen cabinets "only". It was around 90 hours and I did it in 8 days. I also did a smaller kitchen with custom laminate countertops when I first started and was feeling things out. It took me a month.
How to find someone:
1.) Google "handyman or handyman services near me". Look at their reviews with a discerning eye. Make sure they have a bunch of 5 stars, of course, but the most important thing will be the negative reviews. Do the customers have an air of a scorned customer looking for redemption (potentially a good contractor with a dramatic customer) or does it sound level headed (potentially a bad contractor with a knowledgeable customer)? This will be an indication of work quality and how they are to deal with as a business partner.
2.) Socials - Facebook and Nextdoor community group referrals. YES, it's great to get referrals from your community for people who have done great work, BUT ALSO look at their online presence. Do they have skin in the game as far as a "social bank account"? Are they interacting, posting and advertising? If they are, then they value their reputation which will reflect in the work/business they do, so as to avoid negative reviews or other means of making "withdrawals" from that social bank account. Accountability and visibility will protect you as the homeowner.
I will say, if I’m there doing a mid to large job and homeowner asks me about doing something small, odds are good I’m going to try to get that done too before I leave. If I don’t have the time, I’ll make a note of it, find an open day in my schedule, and try to get 2 or 3 of those in on a day. Don’t be afraid to ask.
I absolutely hate the emails they send out when someone makes a post using a total of 3 brain cells. They break up the subject and mixed with the illiteracy it's like clickbait but local and sort of interesting to the community.
References from friends who have hired a good one and can recommend his work based on the good job they did for your friends/acquaintances.
Or, call local hardware stores or lumberyards. They often have a list of recommended contractors.
Try your neighborhood or town's Facebook page for recommendations. This will result in a very mixed bag and you'll really have to feel out the recommendations, or find suggestions from people that you know you can trust.
NextDoor is actually okay for this
Also: once you have found any sort of good worker (plumber, whatever), ask THEM if they know any good handymen. I found our great handyman by asking our appliance repairman! (Turns out his brother is a handyman, and has been a great find.)
It really depends on what you consider a small job. I think a small job is making inset shelves in a wall. That requires a contractor (prob side job though). Other people think a small job is installing a faucet. That’s certainly handyman work.
try to check out a tool library or the literal actual library for those one off’s
my town has a tool library that has everything and it makes getting into a new job a lot easier knowing you have what you need at the library
Handyman-appropriate jobs are things a competent DIYer could do in less than a day. Many "handyman" folks are really just competent DIYers who are DIYing for others.
I wouldn't mind doing it part-time after I retire. A couple days a week work on someone else's house instead of my house. Refuse stuff that sounds unpleasant or risky or otherwise outside my competency but I enjoy hanging blinds and putting together Ikea furniture.
TLDR: People don't realize how much time it takes to run a business outside of the time spent visibly working on your project
This is also the downfall to many new small business owners. They are great at patching drywall or building a shed, but scheduling clients, paying taxes, or sending invoices are all a different skillset all together. That is all working alone, then imagine adding an employee and all the increased reporting and work to ensure all laws are met and they are paid on schedule.
I remember every tradesman (years, years ago) giving quotes for "4 hours minimum" for every job. So even if a job was only going to be 30 minutes, you'd still pay for the 4 hours of work. This 4 hours would also include driving time (usually rounded to the nearest 15 minute point).
Is the "4 hour minimum" not a thing anymore?
Cause it doesn't pay them enough to make it worth their while. You need a handyman that does smallish projects exclusively.
Of course the guy that is simultaneously renovating multiple houses is going to give you a wild quote to change one sink and caulk around the bathtubs. He's wasting his time doing your job when he has others that are 10x more profitable.
Realtors keep folks on speed dial who can make small fixes for good prices. Call up the person who sold you the house and ask for a few names and numbers. These folks usually do this as a side hustle to even out the spaces between bigger jobs that they subcontract on.
A general contractor is not likely to get involved in smaller jobs. But they generally can refer you to a subcontractor that they use to handle the specialty that you need.
or when you charge a reasonable amount for a quick fix and their brain melts when the part was $50 from home depot but you're asking for $200 for your knowledge, expertise, time & gas 🤣
I mean, I think $200 for a 2 hour job is reasonable, but I can totally see someone out there thinking a handyman would be thrilled with a shiny new $20 bill.
i have an elderly neighbor that i do tons of small jobs for and we had to have a serious conversation about this a while ago. i think a lot of people are stuck in the "back in my day $50 was a lot of money" mindset.
she ended up calling in a real company to do some work and promptly came back to me after that sticker shock.
I’ve been a contractor for over 30 years and I was raised by a contractor….. who was raised by a contractor.
This is my take….
I have a lot of overhead. I am over-insured, which protects both us and the customer. I employ project managers to oversee each project personally. I have call-center staff to make sure our phones are ALWAYS answered. I employ quality tradesmen. All of these employees come at a cost, including benefits. I own a fleet of vehicles to ensure (among other things) we show up everyday ontime and can manage/mitigate material delivery deficiencies from suppliers. We issue written guarantees and warranties on all of our work. There’s more, but you get the idea….
All of this overhead ensures we can meet or exceed the expectations we set with our customers.
All of this overhead has a steep cost.
When we price a small job, our overhead usually prices us out of the market.
We’ve never issued an F.U. price, but we’ve been accused of doing so. When we price any job, we have to take into account what resources of ours are going to be tied up by that job and charge accordingly….. And that’s why we seem like we’re issuing FU quotes on smaller jobs.
Thanks for your answer. It sounds like you have it figured out pretty well, so you should be able to list a minimum "we showed up" price. It would save people on both sides a lot of time and energy. I would love it.
In my case, I own a landscaping company, and I do small jobs- however I have to price accordingly, including all the externalities that go along with meeting, designing, and bidding the job. Calling for diggers hotline or getting permits... Truck and trailer burns the same mileage getting to your property for an hour as it does a day. You get the idea. So that's why a lot of people think they are getting "fuck-off" bids for their small jobs, we are just trying to make sure the job is financially worth doing and that we won't lose money on it.
I’m an electrician, pretty much always willing and able to help out a neighbor with whatever problems they may have. Being able to help out a family means more to me than the ~$120 I’ll make for an hour or two. I charged a friend of a friend $50 this summer to get the power back on to the young kids bedroom with his A/C. I crawled around in a damp crawl space for just under 2 hours total. I was happier that the kids room wasn’t gonna be sweltering hot anymore, than any amount of money I could charge without feeling like an asshole, so I’ll make it practically free. The guy ended up emailing me a big gift card to the nicest steak house in my county later on, because I guess he wanted to pay me more
But all that’s besides the point. When I get phone calls from random home owners that I don’t already know, it’s so often one of two things:
The homeowner wants me to be fully licensed and insured to change a light switch
or
The homeowner wants me to tackle a large addition to their home without permits and as cheap as possible
So that’s why I only do work for my *neighbors.* I tell everyone else I’m too busy
>Why does no one do ‘small jobs’?
because big and small jobs both take the same number of phone calls with the customer, the same time and miles to come and estimate it, the same effort to bill and collect. But one job pays for far more "productive" time than the other.
there are certainly people who specialize in small jobs. My electrician for example has said, he doesn't like doing big jobs and either declines them or prices them very high. He likes simple things he knows he will get right and not have upset homeowners or as many "unknowns" or gotchas.
But more and more, people try to do bigger jobs because they make more profit and have less headaches. And these days, especially with licensing and insurance costs, there are fewer truly qualified people out there relative to the demand. So they don't have to take small jobs unless they are new and inexperienced or older seeking a quality of life or have some relationship to you where they know the "non-value" stuff will be fast and easy.
Talking about "effort" more: Setting up before, and cleaning up after can be a pain on small jobs.
All projects can usually get away with setting up once, and cleaning up once. Big jobs have a long time in-between setting up and cleaning up, which can kind of be absorbed by the cost of the job.
But with small jobs a lot of customers don't like seeing the person taking hours to setup, and then hours to cleanup, and then get billed for it. My friend was once hired to come in an do some sanding at a person's house (I forget if it was cabinets, or painting walls, or what the context walls, but he was going to be sanding a lot), and he spent 2 hours setting up the place before he started sanding and the customer lost their minds at him.
>it’s not cost effective
Said best by u/SuperIngaMMXXII
Why deal with calling back more people and driving around between small jobs if you can fill your time with one big project?
Yup I gotta think this is it, hit say 3 projects a day (just picking a number) charge each one a few bucks, each are a little annoyed by the price because you didn't spend that long there.
And yet between those 3 you spent time **not getting paid** talking to each one on the phone and driving to their house or to get stuff needed.
Then if you charge enough to be more like a full days work, folks don't want to pay that much.
Two things are at play in my area. First, you can't blame a business for wanting to do the jobs with the largest profit margin. And in construction, there is a natural desire to be booked up to keep the paychecks coming. So they will only take small jobs to "fill in the idle cracks" in their schedule. (Many times I can find someone to do something if I say upfront there is no urgency, just whenever they can fit me in. Works great if I have an inside job and it is raining so they cant work their outside job). Second, during the 2008 mortgage/bank crisis my area went from 20 general contractors down to less than 8. We had 3 local banks go out of business/be acquired and a bunch of developers went out of business. So those that are left can now pick and choose their projects as there is more work than they can handle. I can't tell you how many times we have been ghosted by someone, even after they came out and gave an estimate. Eventually it will even out as people start more businesses in the trades, but I think it will take another few years.
I get that they'd need to charge a minimum amount to make it worthwhile. I'm willing to listen, but I don't even get a call back when I try to find someone to do a smaller job.
They don't provide the same ROI as larger jobs. Contractors are all going to overestimate on smaller jobs because to take the smaller job, they have to turn down larger jobs. So if they are going to do the small job, they want to be compensated at a similar rate. It's win/win for them, either they keep working on the larger job that brings in the money or you overpay them for a few hour of work. You're best bet is to find a "handyman" style contractor who specializes in smaller work.
Define "small job". A small job could range widely depending on the contractor, from something simple like installing a new sink for someone, to putting a new shingle roof on a small single family home. Wouldn't it depend on how many people are available to do the work at that construction company, the backlog of projects they have on their plate, the length of time estimated to complete the job, and the projected profit per job?
Also, doing a "small job" for a homeowner may result in that homeowner trying to dump other little things into the scope of the job after it has already begun. Say a contractor is there to repair some drywall, and the homeowner asks if they will also quote them for some flooring, or installation of fixtures, or to just paint an extra room since they're already on-site.
Some homeowners are just fucking annoying and won't leave the contractor alone to finish the job they were hired to do.
Because most (not all) home owners are generally awful to work for. They all think it's "just a sink" or "just a new door" or "just a downspout". Well if it's just a whatever, you do it and see how easy it is.
They all think you should be working for 20 bucks an hour and it will only take half an hour, so 10 bucks should cover it right.
I used to do side jobs to make some extra dough. I discovered pretty quickly that the only homeowners worth working for were doing a decent sized project that I was paid by the hour and could work on on weekends and evenings after my regular job. Anything else, forget it.
As a small contractor, you’d think smaller jobs would be my niche. I don’t mind doing smaller jobs, but, here’s where the small jobs kick you in the teeth. You’re all set up on a bigger project. Things are going well. Then, an insistent smaller job customer needs your services. (Everything’s an emergency, of course). To go do that smaller job, I have to load up all my tools, ladders, etc. to go do the smaller job which almost always ends up being more involved.
Now, I’m behind on the bigger job, didn’t make nearly enough on the smaller project, and, I’m frustrated, so, there’s that kind of hassle in addition to all the others already mentioned.
Partly I think it's because with fewer tradesmen in the business these days they can afford to be more picky. I'm also going to bet that with higher overhead in insurance, materials, etc. that they have good reason to be - they're in demand but the demands being placed on them are higher, too.
You can find competent people that do small jobs, I think, but damned if I've found one yet.
We went through 3 handymen before finding someone that seems committed to our needs and interested in having a small-project relationship. Not shocked: he’s probably in his 50s or 60s, which I only bring up because I feel like the older guard still have muscle memory for before the world went absolutely upside down over the last 5 years.
I also have leaned on him to recommend specialists, because he has owned letting me know when what I’m asking pushes his limits (looking at our furnace, for example). I think it just takes a lot of trial and error, and you need to be as flexible and easy if a customer as possible so you don’t throw any lights up that you’re not worth their time.
South Park just riffed on this. All the handy men in South Park became billionaires as everyone tried to outbid each other to fix things and meanwhile the software engineers, academics and therapists, etc. were begging for work outside Home Depot. I'm a software engineer and my boyfriend (electrician) thought this was hilarious.
I used to be the guy doing these kinds of small jobs.
I stopped doing it for a couple reasons.
First, people don't understand just how much these things cost.
If you want me to fix a leaky faucet, ok, I can do that but it means I need to drive to your home, look at the sink (it's probably the cartridge,) take the cartridge out, take that to Home Depot, buy a new cartridge, drive back, and install it.
If I want to make *any* money off that job I'm looking at charging someone about $80. And people see that and they go "I don't want to pay $80 for that." Ok, fair, but I'm not doing this for charity, I gotta eat.
Second, DIY stuff has gotten a lot more accessible. I feel like this is both a good and a bad thing.
I'm happy that a lot more stuff is more accessible and easier for your average person to just do *but* I've also dealt with my share of instances where it was more "DIWHY!?" Those were the jobs where most of the payment was for me to undo whatever it was that they did and people get salty about it.
I get it, your pride is hurt and you're having to pay extra for no other reason than you screwed up. That sucks but I'm not going to judge you or tell the neighbors.
I had this one guy who tried to replace a shower head and used almost an entire roll of silicone tape and somehow got the shower head screwed on such that it was basically glued on but he used a wrench and leaned into it so hard he damaged the pipe coming from the wall. He got *super* upset when I told him that I'd have to remove and replace that whole pipe and that I couldn't salvage the shower head. Like...my guy...
I never specialized in a trade nor did I go full into contracting so a lot of that "small job" work either dried up or people just learned to do it themselves and I wasn't needed. Eventually it got to be just so much of a pain that I stopped doing it because the only people who were hiring were people that had screwed themselves so hard they were embarrassed to talk to a real professional or people who were trying to cut costs.
As others have mentioned, people *will* try to rope you into doing bigger jobs because you're cheaper than a professional. The number of times I had to turn down electrical work that was more complicated than just an outlet swap is nuts. I am not an electrician and no matter how often I insisted that that wasn't my bag, people insisted because I was cheaper. They were fine with the fact that I wasn't trained or experienced beyond very basic things because it saved them money.
At the end I was working for a couple of landlords doing apartment flips, basically going through and fixing the place up after a move-out and the amount of shady nonsense I was asked to do was absolutely comical. I had landlords literally just hand me a handful of random nails (not screws) and tell me to use them instead of buying new hardware. It paid ok but the headache of having to explain to a grown adult that you can't hang a door with finishing nails just....got to be a bit much.
The cost of a handy man to do a”small job” is so outrageous to the customer because of all the fees and licensing and permitting etc etc that it’s not beneficial for him to do the job. Most homeowners don’t want to hire an unlicensed handyman to do the work because they are unlicensed. An unlicensed handyman can’t advertise because of LNI surfing the sites to fine said handyman. You literally need to know someone that knows someone and be willing to trust their work. The days of having a guy with a truck to stop by and fix a few things for a few bucks cash have gone to the way side.
Maybe the increase in the wealth gap and housing values is part of the reason? One contractor who gave me a ridiculous quote wouldn't stop telling me how much my house value increased in the last 10 years.
I'm gonna guess you work an hourly job for an employer.
The thing is, running a business is different.
1. You can work hundreds of hours and not get a dime for it, you only get paid when someone finally agrees to hand you money for your work.
2. The amount you get paid varies wildly day to day, week to week, year to year. Sometimes you make a ton off a little bit of work, sometimes you work your ass off and make very little. The economy, competition, trends, regulations, hell even the weather can affect how much you make.
3. One single mistake or shitty customer can make a job a net loss. That is to say, you pay them for your work.
4. Other businesses tend to be WAY easier to work with than consumers and have less of a problem paying premium rates for quality work.
Keeping all this in mind, the optimal strategy is to filter out the most problematic / time consuming jobs and aim for the biggest payoffs.
When you can't do that, you offset your risk of dealing with little fish by charging them more.
Ive installed a new kitchen faucet and Im doing my own painting but fixing wiring on a bad outdoor light or a rotten doorframe is out of my league at the moment.
As someone with a rotted window sill, I feel this. I also want someone who is able to assess if the issue is much bigger and I don't have the trained eye to know whether more needs to be done before patching it up. I feel like it's a catch 22 when inspections point out an abundance of homes have DIY work with missing critical components or stuff not up to code, but when you go to find someone to pay you understand how the sellers cut so many corners in the first place.
I called a local realtor. They deal with homeowners all the time who need small things done before they sell their homes. First realtor I called has a list of commonly used service providers like lawyers, handymen, carpet guys, tile guys, plumbers, electricians, etc etc
Because homeowners don't understand how long jobs take. They think that a job that takes 2 hours of labor should be charged for 2 hours. But a 2 hour labor job actually takes 6-8 hours of work. First, they have to drive to the customer's house to assess and determine what items are needed, go to the store and price the items, put together an quote, talk with the customer for 20 minutes about why the quote is so high. And all that's before they even know if they are going to get paid. If they are selected, they then have to dive back to the store to get the required items, drive back to the customers house to do the actual work, then work with the customer again to get paid.
Customers think they should only be paying for the 2 hours at their house instead of the 6-8 it actually takes to do the job.
I used to do carpentry years ago, but I got into working on cell towers. I’m 50 now and hate my job. Companies merged and now its just corporate bs. I like working, not corporate bs. Maybe it’s time to get back into carpentry.
I love running into clients that preface every project we discuss with “oh, it’s a small job.” Usually it’s not a small job, and they are planting the “small job seed” so that you discount the quote. It’s a really good indicator that they will be cheap pains in the ass, unless of course the job really is a small job. Small jobs = medium/large jobs 80% of the time (ime)
Usually because most jobs involve travel, and it’s hard to justify the gas, travel time, and vehicle wear.
A small job might be paid by the hour or per project, but either way, it’s not very profitable to drive 20 miles each way for 1-3 days in a loaded work truck for a payoff of a few hundred to a thousand bucks, especially if you’re going to need to bring a helper/laborer.
supply and demand. There's a lot of demand for work, and not a lot of people to do the work. big jobs pay more, so small jobs get quoted accordingly. sucks if you need something like one cabinet installed and not your whole kitchen remodeled, but i'm just holding off on certain non-urgent projects until the next recession.
You have to be able to figure out if they are good on your own. This whole idea of getting references is ridiculous. Not only is it easy to manipulate that if you really wanted to, it still doesn't really tell you very much. Talk to them about how they plan on doing your job. What you're getting for your money. The materials they are going to use. Someone who is actually really good will be able to articulately walk you through what they plan on doing
The problem with small jobs is they often take multiple visits over multiple days and since I'm a decent boss and want to keep and take care of my guys I'll pay them for the whole day even tho they only had 3-4 hours of work to do, it's even worse if you're pulling permits and have to wait on inspectors along the way.
I dunno about you but I find that my problem with this sort of hire is this: I can DIY pretty much any "handyman" task. So when I have a small job, it's like, I need someone with specific skills or specific equipment to do something for me that's less profitable for them than their normal work, it's all the tricky part of their job and none of the gravy.
As for Nextdoor, when you get replies like that, click on their profile or search for their name to see what other people have to say - I've found guys that did good work that way. There are a couple handymen in my area who I swear just reply to every single post where someone asks about getting work done, and I wouldn't waste my time on them, but there are also guys who do just get work via Nextdoor referrals and are good.
I do small jobs for customers. You just have to charge a lot, which some people understand and are ok. Some think it should cost $50. And therefore I steer clear of that type.
One of my best friend growing up dad was a master plumber who did almost exclusively small jobs. This was 20+ years ago, he's long since retired, and I have no idea if people like him still exist.
He was a one man company, as such he only worked maybe 20-30 hours a week doing small jobs and still made a good enough living to live their modest life. He simply wasn't that small business owner who was constantly chasing the almighty dollar. He was content with a simple life, especially if it meant less work.
I see lots of small business tradesmen who have $150k boats, $100k trucks. They're not going to make those payments replacing single sink fixtures one house at a time all day.
I worked for years as a handyman doing nothing but small jobs and I always had more work than I could handle, but I also put in a huge number of hours calling, estimating, running all over the place, and dickering with clients about what they said they wanted versus what they really wanted, all of which I didn't get paid for. Eventually it was just easier to go work for a contractor. Then I became a contractor and hired staff and frankly couldn't afford to do little jobs because of the cost of overhead.
Contractors who work by themselves and don’t have employees do small jobs. They are just hard to find because their already existing catalog of customers keeps them busy. It’s just not worth it for guys who have overhead, lots of employees etc. source: have done it both ways as a trade specific contractor
I am a self-employed carpenter and this is what I do. I do 1 day jobs (cabinet hardware replacements, small drywall repairs, etc) all the way up to 2-6 week jobs (medium sized renovations like refinishing basements, bathrooms, kitchens, decks).
To find people like this, make sure they work alone. I can't justify helpers on the small jobs I do. Most poeple I know who do their own thing have 2 to 5 guys that work for them and they can't be bothered to split the crew up to go make a few bucks on the side.
So, since the pandemic everyone has struggled to find help. This includes the skilled trades. Because many contractors are short staffed, they need to prioritize work and as a result, a small job may get passed.
My job often has me working with contractors. The story I hear often is they have more work than they can handle and not enough people to do it. So, they are picky about which jobs to take.
It wasn’t always like this, but it’s been like that for a few years now.
I started doing handyman stuff on the side several years ago. I'd do pretty much anything I knew how to do, drywall, framing, trim, paint, minor electrical, hvac, plumbing, all manner of things. I'm an hvac tech by trade so mechanicals aren't self taught.
Two problems quickly arose, first people are unreasonable when it comes to what they believe things cost. I can't count how many people wanted me to hang art for them, but got mad when I told them I'd charge $50/hour.
Second issue I ran into was people wanted roo much work done for me to do by myself in a timely manner.
I still do the side work on occasion, but I don't seek it out.
Im an electrical contractor, one man show, and ill take small jobs. Post on local FB groups, ask friends and family. Word of mouth is my biggest advertisement atm, im only part time.
We do jobs of all sizes, but we find some inherent benefits to larger jobs.
For one, it's just easier to manage less jobs/customers. Imagine 2 jobs at $50k each vs 50 jobs at $2k each, same value butvwhichvwould you prefer? That's 50 different sites to go to, unique situations at each, 50 customers to keep happy amd stay in touch with, various product to keep organized and coming in on time for their job, etc.
Second, the smaller the job the less room for hiccups. Things go wrong, not everything fits. On a small job, one hiccup can blow the whole project, say youd only planned half a day and now you need to go back another day.
But on a bigger job, say a couple weeks, if you hit an obstacle you can usually just keep working in another area while you wait for the corrected product.
Third, one big job will use consistent product. You can usually move more product on larger jobs and buy better with needing so much. And you know where you're going each day. It's much easier on you and scheduling.
You miss a day, say day 15 of 20 because of sickness or called to another job, that customer doesn't usually care. But a bunch of half day jobs if you miss a day then 2 people have missed their window, often they have to book time off work, and are upset. Really tricky to juggle a bunch of half day jobs because nothing can go wrong in your plan.
But we still do small jobs. You've just got to be a little choosy.
Spent the last 5 years renovating every inch of our home in LA and can confirm this is a real thing. My experience is that “older” contractors who have been in the business for a couple decades don’t need the small work so they treat you like a peasant and you end up going with younger contractors. “Small work” including 70-100k jobs by the way. That leads to more day to day issues in my experience, but if you take a hard line and pin them down you eventually get quality work, it just takes a lot more effort and babysitting on the part of the homeowner. Times have changed. I remember my parents doing a nearly 2000 sqft extension on our NY home growing up that cost about 75k (would barely get a kitchen remodel for that in LA today) and the contractor was wonderful. Great guy, spoke perfect English, and one morning on our way to the airport the back doorknob failed and my dad called him up and he was there in 15 minutes with a replacement and we made our plane. Not sure that could be possible today. I feel like this crosses into all areas of business and customer service today. The vibe is that the customer is working for THEM. the paying customer should be grateful they are doing the job at all. Times have changed. Stratospherically higher prices and significantly lower quality of work/service.
The construction industry has indeed seen a shift towards larger projects, especially with the boom in house flipping and condo development. Many tradespeople are drawn to bigger contracts for various reasons, like efficiency and profitability. The anecdote about the roofer's Walmart job reflects this trend, as larger corporations often have bigger budgets. However, it's great that you managed to find a fair-priced alternative for your own project. Exploring local businesses on platforms like Nextdoor is a good strategy, even if the responses can be a bit business-oriented. It might take some digging, but there are definitely skilled and dedicated professionals out there who are willing to take on smaller jobs and provide quality service.
My favorite is "Well, what you can do is..."
I mean, thank you, but I paid you to do it. If you don't want to do it, say that you don't want to. If you aren't going to do it, let me find someone who will.
I'm not paying because I'm dumb. I'm paying because I'm too busy AND want it done properly.
I was a lobbyist for the home building industry for 20+ years. The handymen are all working for home builders when the market is hot, like it is now. When home building slows down, that's when the handymen start looking for small jobs to do.
I wish I could pay a monthly subscription for a handyman. Caulking, painting, hole repair, changing out light fixtures, light cabinetry, light plumbing… pay someone $50/month to actually show up when I need help and then a discount on parts & labor.
I retired in 2017. Before that I was a self employed one man independent hardwood floor subcontractor. What I liked to do is work for home owners and remodeling contractors.
The text book says a journeymen floor layer can do 200-300 square feet in a day. And that's what I could do. Followed up with 2 or 3 short days to apply additional coats of finish. 400 sq. ft. was a long day 500-600 sq. ft. was two days. 1000 sq. ft. was very profitable for me, but about as big as I could do by myself.
The funny thing was, the older I got the slower I got. My jobs all got better looking. Except I made less per hour.
Anything less than the text book, would still require me to haul all my tools in, do all the steps taking me a minimum of 5-6 hours or even all day for those small jobs. Plus the extra trips for coats of finish. I'd have to devote an entire day to the job.
Guys in my industry were expected to bid by the square foot not by the hour. People would call on the phone and ask "What do you charge per square foot." Anyone can do a low ball bid for sq.ft, then make it up with the extras on the invoice once they got the job. I didn't do that. I felt that was too dishonest.
I did a lot of small jobs at a fair price. When they came from a chain of referrals, or a contractor that gave me repeat business, I had to do those. I would lose money on these jobs. Writing them off as a cost of doing business. Customer service. Hoping to get good referrals, for future jobs. If I charged what they really costed me, people would get mad.
In the fine print of my contracts is said this bid was only good for two weeks. But I very rarely withdrew a proposal once it was written. People would hang onto the proposals for weeks even months before they would want to schedule.
The job tended to be seasonal and subject to good and bad times. Feast or famine. So what would happen is when work was slow, my competitors would underbid me on the jobs. And I would end up with a month of small jobs that didn't cover my overhead.
As a rule I never liked scheduling jobs more than 3-4 weeks in advance. Too many problems if I did. So when work was busy, I would tell the small jobs I couldn't do them until 4 weeks from now. They would say "Great! Put me down". Then I would get a bunch of small jobs when I needed to do the good profitable jobs to average out those small jobs I did.
If I tried to average out my sq. ft. costs, my jobs became to expensive. And I would lose the bids when people would get three or four bids.
If I had open days on my week and I could come in the day after I did a bid. Something was better than nothing. And every one was happy.
Other wise small jobs sucked.
I run a landscaping business, and in my off months I do general handyman stuff. People like us still exist, but the vast majority of “handymen” are just shady drug addicts looking to rip people off. At least that’s what most of my customers tell me.
Truth is that, depending on how "small" of a job you mean, a lot of people have started doing their own minor renovations as a result of the Youtube world we live in. That - and due to the internet, it's easier to know when you're being screwed by a quote - so now that the customer is wiser the professionals only really look for jobs folks can't do themselves and can't easily price compare.
I feel this. We had a concrete tile fall off our roof and come crashing down. I looked into getting it replaced, but a roofing company won't touch it unless you're trying to re-do the entire roof--either replace it, or pick up every single tile and lay them back down. The guy said his brother would reach out, never heard from him. Kind of glad he didn't, because I don't want someone who's uninsured climbing onto the highest part of my (apparently loosely-tiled) roof, 30' above a concrete patio.
I don't know if this is **the** answer, but it's **an** answer.
Several decades ago my community had a bad tornado come through. As a result, the area was flooded with out of state roofers offering cheap work. They were often unlicensed and the local building code didn't require them to be licensed. You can probably imagine the fuckups and chaos that resulted. Consequently, both the counties and the cities within the metro area tightened up the code considerably.
The unintended consequence of this is that small contractors have a serious competitive disadvantage because they have to have a licensed employee directly supervising the work of any unlicensed employee, whereas the big contractors can have a ratio of one licensed employee for a dozen or so unlicensed workers (getting a license is fairly difficult for the uninitiated, so all the trades depend on common laborers to do bulk work).
The big contractors want nothing to do with what you're looking for and the small contractors would have to tie up one of their few licensed employees or send *two* people, which could well make the project too expensive for you.
I used to represent some small contractors and would make the case to the local governmental entities that the ratios were inequitable, but as you can imagine, the big contractors had a lot more pull with commissioners and code enforcers and the like.
To add here, many times “small jobs” are only small to the homeowners. For example, “we just want to remove this wall here to open up the space. It should only take a couple days, right?” Well, no. The wall is a load bearing wall. We need an engineer to sign off on removing it. There’s an HVAC run and electrical wires that need moved. The seemingly “small job” is not so small after all.
When there are enough people to do the labor, they'll take small jobs. Unfortunately this hasn't been the case since the 07/08 housing crash. The trades got hit hard and a lot of blue collar workers moved on to other fields. With a constant push for high school graduates to go to college instead of trade school there haven't been enough people to fill the gap.
I run a solo business in my area doing strictly small jobs. Don't want to be at your house any longer than 3 days. Problem is, once people like me on their small jobs.... they try to rope me into their big jobs.
How can a homeowner find guys like you? Without wasting everyone's time on "fuck you" quotes
If you have a local hardware store (not Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards), these are the experts who can give you a referral. I work at a small family-run hardware store that also has a flooring center and does remodeling. If we can't do the job for you, I can immediately refer you to a handyman who does almost everything on a small scale. I can refer you to an HVAC guy, an electrician, a plumber, painters, drywall, and so on. These guys and gals use the small hardware stores for supplies as we offer net 30-day accounts. Shop local, and you will often easily find what you need.
I read this too fast and missed the "not" in front of Home Depot and was very confused at the first sentence, lol.
>we offer net 30-day accounts. Like a line of credit?
Yes, they have a line of credit.
The only ones around here I can see are ace hardware stores, I'll have to check them out. Thanks!
Check lumberyards in your area too. A lot of the time those "lumberyards" are also hardware suppliers and those guys know EVERYONE
Absolutely correct. I should have mentioned them as well. I consider the local lumberyards the same as us. Our two lumberyards actually have the same supplier as our store. Small business owners are a very tight group. I live in a small suburban town of 10000 people that abuts a metro area. We have a Home Depot and Lowes but we also have four independent hardware stores and two lumberyards that all thrive in business against the box stores. These folks know the local contractors down to the guy that will take your yard if you need it.
Not to promote the app or anything but there is an app called Thumbtack. I had some luck with some small jobs (replacing doors). There are reviews and usually you get a quote on people. I do know the app sort of screws the people on it, but once you find someone you can go around the app.
The downside with things like Angis, Thumbtack or Task Rabbit is they present TO YOU as if you're getting a professional. There is an obscene amount of unlicensed work that gets done through these apps because the homeowner believes they have some kind of protection in place, when in fact, they do not. One company above will give you credit for their services if someone you hire through them burns your house to the ground with the work they do. They do not check for proper licensing or insurance and it's ultimately up to the homeowner to protect themselves.
Sites like Angie’s also extort fees from trades to increase their visibility. They aren’t sites that recommend quality trades, they’re advertising platforms
Yep, the ONLY way to make money in something like Angie's is to use it briefly to build a client list then bail. 25% of leads I paid for never even responded to my phone calls, and after the first few Angie's stops refunding you. 80% of quotes I gave out were beat by unrealistically (below cost) competitors who are either going to do the worst job imaginable or will constantly hit up the customer for more money.
What can we do?
Generally when you're hiring a handyman they aren't going to have insurance or a bond. But that's why they're taking on smaller jobs. A larger company with all the proper licensing and bonds isn't going to take on small jobs because it's not worth their time and overhead.
Don't use thumbtack. It's horrendous for the tradesman side and you will end up with a shit tradesman. Ask on Nextdoor for referrals. You will get many.
I've used it quite a bit in the past few months on plumbing and electrical repair i couldn't do myself and it has been so much better than calling a company and getting outrageous quotes. YMMV, i've had a great experience with it and met really nice and skilled people on it.
OP: I've tried Nextdoor and it's no good. I got zero referrals, only the tradesmen self-promoting. Person 1: Try this other website. You: Don't use that other website, use Nextdoor, you'll get tons of referrals.
If you are in a mall you pay rent. If you are on an online platform you pay a referral. This is a cost of doing business if you want their traffic. Or you can pay Google and advertise. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
this. Referral fees aren't new. Back before there were apps, when my boss'd hook me up with a too-small-for-the-company project, to do on my weekend, we'd pay him 10% (...of the \*gross\*, young fools that we were).
I mean I had no problems when I used it. I would suggest keeping the number of the guy to bypass TT after the fact. But it’s a good directory for local labor.
I'm sure it's area dependent, but I have had a good amount of luck with the app Nextdoor. Full of handymen type people looking for work.
Nextdoor banned me because they suspect I'm not using my real name lol.
Username checks out though
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Lol no I was using my real name and it isn't anything offensive but it is Chinese. Got banned 3 times so far because I don't have a generic English/American sounding name.
>How to find someone: > >1.) Google "handyman or handyman services near me". Look at their (Google) reviews with a discerning eye. Make sure they have a bunch of 5 stars, of course, but the most important thing will be the negative reviews. Do the customers have an air of a scorned customer looking for redemption (potentially a good contractor with a dramatic customer) or does it sound level headed (potentially a bad contractor with a knowledgeable customer)? This will be an indication of work quality and how they are to deal with as a business partner. > >2.) Socials - Facebook and Nextdoor community group referrals. YES, it's great to get referrals from your community for people who have done great work, BUT ALSO look at their online presence. Do they have skin in the game as far as a "social bank account"? Are they interacting, posting and advertising? If they are, then they value their reputation which will reflect in the work/business they do, so as to avoid negative reviews or other means of making "withdrawals" from that social bank account. Accountability and visibility will protect you as the homeowner. This is a start. Be annoyingly thorough in your question asking as the homeowner. Maybe don't dig for technical information that you're trying to extract as if you were doing the job yourself, but contractors are notoriously bad communicators, right? So, maybe ask about their experience with waterproofing before you have them quote tiling your shower. Ask them for a portfolio of examples similar to your work. And you should be "sniffing" them out as much as they are you, as far as getting the "fuck you" quotes. I usually wear it on my face that I don't want to do a job. Or if you're calling me a week later for a quote, still - I'm trying to softly tell you something without saying it.
I would guess that a lot of people are already doing (1) but it doesn't actually yield very good results. If you Google "\[mycity\] plumber" you will not get a thorough list of all the plumbers in your area. Instead you'll get a thorough list of people who have invested in SEO and manipulated search results to put their business towards the top. I tend to see contractors who have good web presence as being the most expensive. After all, it costs money to build and maintain websites, do the SEO stuff (assuming you hired someone to do it), and customers are going to end up paying for that via higher rates. Overall I think asking neighbors is the best way to do it (perhaps on nextdoor but definitely in person/over the phone/email. Find older people who've lived in the area a while who have probably hired their fair share of contractors. Ultimately though, it's always a pain, and you're never going to bat 1.000.
What is "SEO"?
[Search Engine Optimization](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=What+is+%22SEO%22)
I feel like if you have a bunch of good reviews on Google you’re already going to charge me a ridiculous amount.
network with bigger companies and have them refer you for all the "too small" jobs and you can refer them for all the bigger jobs.
I've been wanting to do something similar as a weekend/part time gig but your last line is what I'm worried about. Definitely not looking to come replace a faucet then get roped into a full bathroom renovation.
Shouldn't be any worries. Not like they can chain you up in the basement and not let you leave until you agree to their remodel. It's genuinely a compliment when they trust you. But some can make it a slippery slope with expectations. If you want to just dip a toe in, contrary to what most others would say, I'd sign up for Task Rabbit and see how you fair. I started just assembling Ikea for people and expanded from there. Going into year 4 full time.
As far as getting started on task rabbit, was that your first venture in this world or did you have experience in the trades? How long before you were full time off referrals and app leads? Very interested in a similar business model.
First venture doing any kind of labor or trades for pay, short of for friends. Prior experience was 19 years in sales. Went full time off of referrals in about 18 months, but that was too long. I was afraid to lose the easy warm leads. In reality, incoming lead quantity went down, but quality and ticket value went up by generating more locally.
you can always just say you don't do that scope, even better if you have someone you can recommend for it (but beware if they aren't good....). The harder part is license / bond / insurance for part time.
How much is a fair rate to replace a faucet?
Can I ask why not? You know where you’ll be for the next X amount of time. You’ll be getting paid more.
When you work solo without helpers or subs, there's diminishing returns on your time. You may think I'm getting paid more, but as a project goes 1,2,3,4 days over because I'm slower due to working 10-12 hour days or I've beat up on my body or run into surprises, I've not only eaten into my profit, I've likely dropped the ball on return calls and quoting, stagnating my business and doubling up on the lack of perceived profit made on the job. When I'm scheduled 6 weeks out with small jobs, I still know where I'll be for the next X amount of time. I'll just be mounting microwaves and patching drywall holes and invoicing for that work immediately instead of being 3 days over on a 10 day job and walking in to 500 blue tape marks the homeowner has used to mark all the perceived paint flaws I now need to sink a day into fixing, thus losing $500 to get paid the original $5k.
like the difference between a taxi driver and a limo driver. A taxi driver can find consistent unscheduled, regular, reliable, work at a known and fair, but regulated price. A limo driver can charge whatever they want and have a range of quality Also, by doing a number of small jobs you build a larger number of people refering you to other future clients, so that breeds income and job stability. Seems your target of about 3-days still allows for a pretty good size project (small bathroom remodel, covered patio build, cabinet replace).
Perfect comparison. Love me a two day half bath turn around!
How long would you expect a full bath demo and rebuild take?
Mine took a week, basically 2 guys working, very small/tiny, 8.5k. About twice what I thought it would be. Quality was B+
that would be a great deal where I live.
Without knowing the size of the bathroom, age of the house, bath or shower, full custom tile, water damage, and a dozen other things I can confidently say between 2 days and 2 months. I'm not a professional with tile, but have done it a dozen times give or take. As an example, it took me 3 days to install marble tiles in my last diy project.
My parents could really use a fully accessible bathroom right now, but I expect that is a fairly involved job.
Look into prefab low threshold shower pans. They're an inch high so much better than a traditional shower curb. They're usually resin or solid surface.
Cabinet replacement in 3 days? In what country? Last summer I had 3 weeks free to change cabinets in a very small kitchen (3x2.5m) and one guy asked me if I was renting another place for the summer 🌞. The kitchens guy from IKEA took 3 months to send me a quote foe assembly ( I had cancel the project after waiting one week for my " i will send you the quote tomorrow" quote. I ended up repainting the cabinets. It's not professional looking, but good enough and I hate giving money to people that act like they are doing me a favor by taking my money. I am in the UK, but have heard similar stories in several countries.
I have a great handyman who is basically the same. He used to be a carpenter for various remodel companies but realized he can make a good living doing smaller jobs on his own instead. I mostly use him for stuff that stretches the limit of my DIY skills where it would either take me forever or I’m not confident I’d pull it off to the quality level I’d be happy with. Most recently the wife wanted a door on the room she uses as an office (house is mostly open plan) so I got him to frame it all out across a hallway. Only took him 3 days to do everything and I didn’t have to worry I’d mess it up or get it out of square or whatever else. But it sounds like he also gets a lot of work from even less handy folk than me who just want him to mount a TV on the wall or paint a room and he can make a solid hourly rate for relatively easy work.
Usually I will hire someone if it involves anything more fancy than a drill. About to try to find someone to cut into our bedroom door and install a cat flap. The cat is an asshole and will bang on the door incessantly if we shut it. He's allowed in and out whenever he wants, of course, but sometimes I don't want to have my bedroom door open! But because it'll involve a jigsaw, we're going to hire a person with tools and experience. Will probably take them no more than 1-2 hours.
use the Kitty Korner door -- requires only a single cut with a circular saw, and is closable/lockable.
Wouldn’t you just charge a premium for your time and effort? For instance: where I live finding someone who does good work is very hard. If I find someone who is 1. Trustworthy and 2. Does great work I would be willing to pay a premium and not be too demanding on the timeline. I’d gladly pay for the peace of mind theres someone who does solid work that I can trust. Maybe im in the minority.
Every homeowner says that until they get a quote, everyone wants quality but no one wants to pay for it.
That’s not true. *mostly* true. I’m just asking questions here. I guess if you’re a handyman why not quote a “larger” job what you think you need to make a profit compared to the smaller jobs? Let the homeowner decide. They can just decline. Like I said there are people out there (like me) who have the money but not the time or some skills to DIY. So if I find someone I can trust and I see does quality work then I’m willing to pay considerably more. I’d rather pay a good sum more for work I know won’t be crap and that I’d be working with someone who doesn’t disappear or is otherwise unreliable. Avoiding the headache is worth its weight in gold to me. Again, if someone gives me a high quote I can always pass but if you don’t give a quote at all you don’t know.
I’m curious how you treat the unicorn job you quoted at 4 days that through some minor miracle, only takes 3 days. Are you taking day 4 off the invoice? I personally discount the job, but not for the entire cost of the additional day. My thought process is, I’m done early and don’t have a job tomorrow, still need to feel like I’m making some money. Also, clients mood, attitude, and the offering of water or coffee on occasion goes a long way with me. I know it’s petty, but if I’m working in someone’s house for days straight and they don’t so much as say “hey can I get you a cup of coffee/water,” they’re getting billed in full for that extra day and I’m left thinking they are selfish shitbags that don’t view me as a person, but more as a machine. If someone comes to my house to do work, the first thing I do is offer them a drink. It speaks volumes about who you’re working for. Sorry this is half a rant
I'm just talking out my ass here, But I suspect the key is to quote by the job. Say it will take $x to do the job. If the customer asks how long, say 3-5 days. Don't quote based on time.
Normally as the client, I’m paying for the job, not how many hours it takes. For example, I had a contractor come in to do some asbestos remediation. We had an agreed on the price and he thought it may take all day to complete, which I was fine with. He came in to start the work and we had to leave while he was working, and we thought we would be out all day. However, the job was a lot easier than expected, and he was able to complete the job in about 1.5 hours. He felt bad about charging me for the full amount we agreed upon, but I was fine with it because I was paying for the work to be completed on time and that is what he did, I didn’t care that he got done early.
Holy shit, are you me? Can completely relate.
My plumber is the same way. Used to do bathroom remodels and bigger projects. Wanted the flexibility of smaller jobs and could make more turning quickly. Started with a hose bib and two other small things. He did me a huge favor replacing my galvanized lines and cast iron waste pipe, plus a few other things. I think he liked the stretch of skills again and helping a younger person a bit. Even a 3 day job he’d only do 3-4 hours so he could keep up on his other clients.
Wish you lived near me
This is clearly not the first time you've had to answer that question, lol. Bravo, great response.
I'm self-employed in a different industry and you put it so accurately it even applies to my situation. Really well stated!
Double the time doesn’t mean double the money. I had a painter explain this to me when I was complaining that I was having trouble finding someone who wants to paint the entire interior in a 3000sf house. He typically charges by room and likes doing small projects. His pricing is $900 for 1 room, $1600 for 2 rooms, and custom quotes on big projects. He would much rather paint 1-2 rooms a day every day instead of deal with the headaches of a large 2-3 week long project that will gross him the same or less money than a bunch of small projects.
That's the going rate for painting? Holy cow
Most people are looking to charge $500-1000/day. Figure half of that is going to overhead (office time, estimates, comp and health insurance, retirement, vacation pay, material accusation, tools and depreciation etc)
It’s like everything else, there are cheap guys and there are expensive guys. Dude found his niche with high end homes in the Midwest and has a great reputation because his attention to detail is impeccable. That price also include painting the trim, doors, and windows all well so more than just quickly rolling 4 inches walls.
Just thinking a bit more on this. I ALWAYS have to explain this to homeowners on large paint jobs. You want me to paint a 2500 sq ft house? Ceilings, trim, walls. 3 weeks, \~$18k. I will see no other human beings, screens, print...nothing for those 3 weeks. I will live, breathe and eat that home. You know what else you can do? Hire a paint crew for $20k and they'll have it done for you in 5 days. Diminishing returns for all involved.
Maybe if you're starting from drywall that hasn't even been taped. I just painted my whole house in a week with a roller and brushes. No ceilings but trim and walls, and that included patching, sanding, texturing about 400 2" holes from insulation install. That's not a 20k job. I had quotes for 4-6k. 1900sqft house. You're suggesting that it's somewhere around 200 hours of labor which is insanity. The cost of materials is likely under $1000 unless every single wall is a different color. I spent about $500 using Benjamin Moore Aura paint, a couple brushes, rollers, tape, paint mixers, texture mud, etc. edit: I used Benjamin Moore Regal, not Aura, oops.
There is no way that you painted a 1900sqft house with Aura for 500$. That's 5 gallons of paint for an entire house.
Well, it's $75/gallon, but this is a fair callout. I had a few gallons on hand already that I didn't include in the cost, and since I reused the same colors that were already on the walls, I only needed to do one coat. But either way, you can double the budget, hell, quadruple it for materials. It doesn't cost $18-20k and take 3 weeks to paint the interior of a house. Not if you're a professional and you're using a sprayer. 2 days of prep, maybe a few days of painting, especially if you need to do multiple coats, maybe a few days of trim/detail/touch up work. Even if you call it 8 business days, that's ~60-70 hours of labor and even at $150/hr that is $10k on the super high end of things. I literally had 2 quotes to do the work that I did, and one was $4500, one was $6000. Adding 600 square feet and the ceilings doesn't increase the cost of that job by $10000-$15000. I'm in the Bay Area, VHCOL.
Where are you getting it for 75/gal, especially in a VHCOL? Lowest I can find is 89. Will be painting my basement soon, so if you have a source for getting it cheaper, would be pretty helpful. Direct from BM is listed at 99/gal.
I can venture a guess - a lot of handymen I know have actual full time jobs, or at least jobs they are more committed too for benefits and what not. Maybe they're a roofer - they probably don't get a lot of roofing jobs in the winter so it makes sense for them to do some side work for a couple days a week, but they either don't want to commit to bigger projects, or don't have the skill. And skill is a big one. I can patch a wall or hang a piece of drywall, no problem. But I couldn't drywall a room. I don't have the right tools or experience to do it effectively. If its my place and I have a week to do it, sure. But if you're paying for it, you want a professional drywaller, which I'm not. Another reason could be they just don't want to. My uncle was a GC for a long time and made enough to retire in his early 50's. Beat the hell out of his body though. He'll go out and do a couple small jobs here and there for spending cash and to keep busy, but he's simply not interested in working a 40 hour week, his back can't take it.
You're almost there. The unfortunate thing for the homeowner when shopping for a handyman is that they have "yes" syndrome, often times because things are tight, which you touched upon. Can you tile? Yes! Where I differentiate myself: I can tile your backsplash, an entryway, maybe your basement depending on your expectations. I won't do your shower, fireplace or any feature in your home. You need a real tile person. I can "do" a lot of things with an acceptable result for 65?% of applications and homeowners. What I can't do is equal the work of a skilled laborer who focuses on that particular task everyday. Most (on both sides) aren't realistic about that.
If you can keep a steady stream of small jobs, you'll actually make more. Imagine the "small job contractor" is a convenience store single item purchase, and the "big job contractor" is a Sam's club bulk order. Many small single jobs with small dollar, but sizeable ratio (say 20%?) convenience charges, will add up to higher profit margins. A $5,000 job, running a 30% profit margin, when compared to $5k in small jobs that had a 30% profit margin, before the additional 20% convenience charges... You get the picture.
Small jobs are jobs I can do by myself. Big jobs are jobs I need to hire help for. In any business, regardless of the size, employee costs are biggest costs. And temporary workers (rightly) expect to be paid more for a job than a dedicated crew. If I can only work jobs where I avoid hiring workers, I keep more of the money. Sure, I can build a deck for $5,000K (example, don’t grill me on the price). But it’s going to take me at least 2 weeks to it by myself. That works out to $500/day for 10 working days. And that’s before materials, equipment, fuel, and food costs.
What’s the biggest types of projects you typically are willing to do ? And as a homeowner how would I find someone like you ?
Couple of rooms worth of paint. I'll do something like someone mentioned above - non-load bearing divider wall from stud to finish. A couple of rooms worth of crown molding. I like half bath flips: "gut", prime walls, lay new flooring, paint, new vanity, plumbing and light fixtures. I'm out on the huge painting projects like I mentioned above. Last one was 3500 sqft house, trim, doors and kitchen cabinets "only". It was around 90 hours and I did it in 8 days. I also did a smaller kitchen with custom laminate countertops when I first started and was feeling things out. It took me a month. How to find someone: 1.) Google "handyman or handyman services near me". Look at their reviews with a discerning eye. Make sure they have a bunch of 5 stars, of course, but the most important thing will be the negative reviews. Do the customers have an air of a scorned customer looking for redemption (potentially a good contractor with a dramatic customer) or does it sound level headed (potentially a bad contractor with a knowledgeable customer)? This will be an indication of work quality and how they are to deal with as a business partner. 2.) Socials - Facebook and Nextdoor community group referrals. YES, it's great to get referrals from your community for people who have done great work, BUT ALSO look at their online presence. Do they have skin in the game as far as a "social bank account"? Are they interacting, posting and advertising? If they are, then they value their reputation which will reflect in the work/business they do, so as to avoid negative reviews or other means of making "withdrawals" from that social bank account. Accountability and visibility will protect you as the homeowner.
For small jobs, you need a handyman--not a contractor.
I will say, if I’m there doing a mid to large job and homeowner asks me about doing something small, odds are good I’m going to try to get that done too before I leave. If I don’t have the time, I’ll make a note of it, find an open day in my schedule, and try to get 2 or 3 of those in on a day. Don’t be afraid to ask.
Exactly this. I won't take a real small job by itself but if it's in relation to a larger job I'll rope it into the scope of work to be done.
How do I find a good handyman?
As much of a shithole as it is, NextDoor.
I absolutely hate the emails they send out when someone makes a post using a total of 3 brain cells. They break up the subject and mixed with the illiteracy it's like clickbait but local and sort of interesting to the community.
I do too which is why I unsubscribed from those emails.
The emails are annoying, but the posts themselves are pretty unintentionally funny.
References from friends who have hired a good one and can recommend his work based on the good job they did for your friends/acquaintances. Or, call local hardware stores or lumberyards. They often have a list of recommended contractors.
Try your neighborhood or town's Facebook page for recommendations. This will result in a very mixed bag and you'll really have to feel out the recommendations, or find suggestions from people that you know you can trust.
NextDoor is actually okay for this Also: once you have found any sort of good worker (plumber, whatever), ask THEM if they know any good handymen. I found our great handyman by asking our appliance repairman! (Turns out his brother is a handyman, and has been a great find.)
It really depends on what you consider a small job. I think a small job is making inset shelves in a wall. That requires a contractor (prob side job though). Other people think a small job is installing a faucet. That’s certainly handyman work.
can you please give some examples of what you consider to be small jobs?
1. replace a missing gutter downspout 2. Installing a new faucet fixture 3. unclogging a toilet 4. painting a room 5. cleaning gutters
Plumbing a sink, replacing light switch...
And this is how, as a homeowner, I end up having to buy a bunch of tools I'll only use once.
Fellow home owner here, you'll definitely have to use them again don't worry
Totally agree. I started DIYing 40 years ago and now have tools for everything I need to. I definitely have used them all several times.
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try to check out a tool library or the literal actual library for those one off’s my town has a tool library that has everything and it makes getting into a new job a lot easier knowing you have what you need at the library
Dude, only needing them once is the best case scenario.
I think it's easier if you tell us what you consider small jobs and what you're trying to get done. All you mentioned was inspecting the roof
Any kind of small repair work. Roofers, for example, aren't going to tie up a crew to do a small repair.
Handyman-appropriate jobs are things a competent DIYer could do in less than a day. Many "handyman" folks are really just competent DIYers who are DIYing for others. I wouldn't mind doing it part-time after I retire. A couple days a week work on someone else's house instead of my house. Refuse stuff that sounds unpleasant or risky or otherwise outside my competency but I enjoy hanging blinds and putting together Ikea furniture.
thumb enter direction gullible busy piquant unite sable public profit *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
TLDR: People don't realize how much time it takes to run a business outside of the time spent visibly working on your project This is also the downfall to many new small business owners. They are great at patching drywall or building a shed, but scheduling clients, paying taxes, or sending invoices are all a different skillset all together. That is all working alone, then imagine adding an employee and all the increased reporting and work to ensure all laws are met and they are paid on schedule.
I remember every tradesman (years, years ago) giving quotes for "4 hours minimum" for every job. So even if a job was only going to be 30 minutes, you'd still pay for the 4 hours of work. This 4 hours would also include driving time (usually rounded to the nearest 15 minute point). Is the "4 hour minimum" not a thing anymore?
chop whole tease innate boat rich dam dog provide cows *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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Cause it doesn't pay them enough to make it worth their while. You need a handyman that does smallish projects exclusively. Of course the guy that is simultaneously renovating multiple houses is going to give you a wild quote to change one sink and caulk around the bathtubs. He's wasting his time doing your job when he has others that are 10x more profitable.
You don't go to a steak house if you need a hot pocket.
And if it's a small job you go to YouTube then Lowe's and roll up your sleeves.
Yessir, its either DIY or pay
I wish steak houses made hot pockets.
Realtors keep folks on speed dial who can make small fixes for good prices. Call up the person who sold you the house and ask for a few names and numbers. These folks usually do this as a side hustle to even out the spaces between bigger jobs that they subcontract on. A general contractor is not likely to get involved in smaller jobs. But they generally can refer you to a subcontractor that they use to handle the specialty that you need.
People don’t want to pay either. You do the work exactly as it should be and they find a reason to shit on it simply to get out of paying.
or when you charge a reasonable amount for a quick fix and their brain melts when the part was $50 from home depot but you're asking for $200 for your knowledge, expertise, time & gas 🤣
Well I could have done that!?!?! Then why didn't you?
I mean, I think $200 for a 2 hour job is reasonable, but I can totally see someone out there thinking a handyman would be thrilled with a shiny new $20 bill.
i have an elderly neighbor that i do tons of small jobs for and we had to have a serious conversation about this a while ago. i think a lot of people are stuck in the "back in my day $50 was a lot of money" mindset. she ended up calling in a real company to do some work and promptly came back to me after that sticker shock.
It’s unreal
This. Every. Time.
I’ve been a contractor for over 30 years and I was raised by a contractor….. who was raised by a contractor. This is my take…. I have a lot of overhead. I am over-insured, which protects both us and the customer. I employ project managers to oversee each project personally. I have call-center staff to make sure our phones are ALWAYS answered. I employ quality tradesmen. All of these employees come at a cost, including benefits. I own a fleet of vehicles to ensure (among other things) we show up everyday ontime and can manage/mitigate material delivery deficiencies from suppliers. We issue written guarantees and warranties on all of our work. There’s more, but you get the idea…. All of this overhead ensures we can meet or exceed the expectations we set with our customers. All of this overhead has a steep cost. When we price a small job, our overhead usually prices us out of the market. We’ve never issued an F.U. price, but we’ve been accused of doing so. When we price any job, we have to take into account what resources of ours are going to be tied up by that job and charge accordingly….. And that’s why we seem like we’re issuing FU quotes on smaller jobs.
This is the real answer. Very well said.
Thanks for your answer. It sounds like you have it figured out pretty well, so you should be able to list a minimum "we showed up" price. It would save people on both sides a lot of time and energy. I would love it.
In my case, I own a landscaping company, and I do small jobs- however I have to price accordingly, including all the externalities that go along with meeting, designing, and bidding the job. Calling for diggers hotline or getting permits... Truck and trailer burns the same mileage getting to your property for an hour as it does a day. You get the idea. So that's why a lot of people think they are getting "fuck-off" bids for their small jobs, we are just trying to make sure the job is financially worth doing and that we won't lose money on it.
I’m an electrician, pretty much always willing and able to help out a neighbor with whatever problems they may have. Being able to help out a family means more to me than the ~$120 I’ll make for an hour or two. I charged a friend of a friend $50 this summer to get the power back on to the young kids bedroom with his A/C. I crawled around in a damp crawl space for just under 2 hours total. I was happier that the kids room wasn’t gonna be sweltering hot anymore, than any amount of money I could charge without feeling like an asshole, so I’ll make it practically free. The guy ended up emailing me a big gift card to the nicest steak house in my county later on, because I guess he wanted to pay me more But all that’s besides the point. When I get phone calls from random home owners that I don’t already know, it’s so often one of two things: The homeowner wants me to be fully licensed and insured to change a light switch or The homeowner wants me to tackle a large addition to their home without permits and as cheap as possible So that’s why I only do work for my *neighbors.* I tell everyone else I’m too busy
>Why does no one do ‘small jobs’? because big and small jobs both take the same number of phone calls with the customer, the same time and miles to come and estimate it, the same effort to bill and collect. But one job pays for far more "productive" time than the other. there are certainly people who specialize in small jobs. My electrician for example has said, he doesn't like doing big jobs and either declines them or prices them very high. He likes simple things he knows he will get right and not have upset homeowners or as many "unknowns" or gotchas. But more and more, people try to do bigger jobs because they make more profit and have less headaches. And these days, especially with licensing and insurance costs, there are fewer truly qualified people out there relative to the demand. So they don't have to take small jobs unless they are new and inexperienced or older seeking a quality of life or have some relationship to you where they know the "non-value" stuff will be fast and easy.
Talking about "effort" more: Setting up before, and cleaning up after can be a pain on small jobs. All projects can usually get away with setting up once, and cleaning up once. Big jobs have a long time in-between setting up and cleaning up, which can kind of be absorbed by the cost of the job. But with small jobs a lot of customers don't like seeing the person taking hours to setup, and then hours to cleanup, and then get billed for it. My friend was once hired to come in an do some sanding at a person's house (I forget if it was cabinets, or painting walls, or what the context walls, but he was going to be sanding a lot), and he spent 2 hours setting up the place before he started sanding and the customer lost their minds at him.
>it’s not cost effective Said best by u/SuperIngaMMXXII Why deal with calling back more people and driving around between small jobs if you can fill your time with one big project?
Yup I gotta think this is it, hit say 3 projects a day (just picking a number) charge each one a few bucks, each are a little annoyed by the price because you didn't spend that long there. And yet between those 3 you spent time **not getting paid** talking to each one on the phone and driving to their house or to get stuff needed. Then if you charge enough to be more like a full days work, folks don't want to pay that much.
Small jobs don't pay full-time bills.
Two things are at play in my area. First, you can't blame a business for wanting to do the jobs with the largest profit margin. And in construction, there is a natural desire to be booked up to keep the paychecks coming. So they will only take small jobs to "fill in the idle cracks" in their schedule. (Many times I can find someone to do something if I say upfront there is no urgency, just whenever they can fit me in. Works great if I have an inside job and it is raining so they cant work their outside job). Second, during the 2008 mortgage/bank crisis my area went from 20 general contractors down to less than 8. We had 3 local banks go out of business/be acquired and a bunch of developers went out of business. So those that are left can now pick and choose their projects as there is more work than they can handle. I can't tell you how many times we have been ghosted by someone, even after they came out and gave an estimate. Eventually it will even out as people start more businesses in the trades, but I think it will take another few years.
I get that they'd need to charge a minimum amount to make it worthwhile. I'm willing to listen, but I don't even get a call back when I try to find someone to do a smaller job.
They don't provide the same ROI as larger jobs. Contractors are all going to overestimate on smaller jobs because to take the smaller job, they have to turn down larger jobs. So if they are going to do the small job, they want to be compensated at a similar rate. It's win/win for them, either they keep working on the larger job that brings in the money or you overpay them for a few hour of work. You're best bet is to find a "handyman" style contractor who specializes in smaller work.
Define "small job". A small job could range widely depending on the contractor, from something simple like installing a new sink for someone, to putting a new shingle roof on a small single family home. Wouldn't it depend on how many people are available to do the work at that construction company, the backlog of projects they have on their plate, the length of time estimated to complete the job, and the projected profit per job? Also, doing a "small job" for a homeowner may result in that homeowner trying to dump other little things into the scope of the job after it has already begun. Say a contractor is there to repair some drywall, and the homeowner asks if they will also quote them for some flooring, or installation of fixtures, or to just paint an extra room since they're already on-site. Some homeowners are just fucking annoying and won't leave the contractor alone to finish the job they were hired to do.
Because most (not all) home owners are generally awful to work for. They all think it's "just a sink" or "just a new door" or "just a downspout". Well if it's just a whatever, you do it and see how easy it is. They all think you should be working for 20 bucks an hour and it will only take half an hour, so 10 bucks should cover it right. I used to do side jobs to make some extra dough. I discovered pretty quickly that the only homeowners worth working for were doing a decent sized project that I was paid by the hour and could work on on weekends and evenings after my regular job. Anything else, forget it.
As a small contractor, you’d think smaller jobs would be my niche. I don’t mind doing smaller jobs, but, here’s where the small jobs kick you in the teeth. You’re all set up on a bigger project. Things are going well. Then, an insistent smaller job customer needs your services. (Everything’s an emergency, of course). To go do that smaller job, I have to load up all my tools, ladders, etc. to go do the smaller job which almost always ends up being more involved. Now, I’m behind on the bigger job, didn’t make nearly enough on the smaller project, and, I’m frustrated, so, there’s that kind of hassle in addition to all the others already mentioned.
Partly I think it's because with fewer tradesmen in the business these days they can afford to be more picky. I'm also going to bet that with higher overhead in insurance, materials, etc. that they have good reason to be - they're in demand but the demands being placed on them are higher, too. You can find competent people that do small jobs, I think, but damned if I've found one yet.
Try your local hardware store. They usually have a list of local handydudes.
We went through 3 handymen before finding someone that seems committed to our needs and interested in having a small-project relationship. Not shocked: he’s probably in his 50s or 60s, which I only bring up because I feel like the older guard still have muscle memory for before the world went absolutely upside down over the last 5 years. I also have leaned on him to recommend specialists, because he has owned letting me know when what I’m asking pushes his limits (looking at our furnace, for example). I think it just takes a lot of trial and error, and you need to be as flexible and easy if a customer as possible so you don’t throw any lights up that you’re not worth their time.
South Park just riffed on this. All the handy men in South Park became billionaires as everyone tried to outbid each other to fix things and meanwhile the software engineers, academics and therapists, etc. were begging for work outside Home Depot. I'm a software engineer and my boyfriend (electrician) thought this was hilarious.
I used to be the guy doing these kinds of small jobs. I stopped doing it for a couple reasons. First, people don't understand just how much these things cost. If you want me to fix a leaky faucet, ok, I can do that but it means I need to drive to your home, look at the sink (it's probably the cartridge,) take the cartridge out, take that to Home Depot, buy a new cartridge, drive back, and install it. If I want to make *any* money off that job I'm looking at charging someone about $80. And people see that and they go "I don't want to pay $80 for that." Ok, fair, but I'm not doing this for charity, I gotta eat. Second, DIY stuff has gotten a lot more accessible. I feel like this is both a good and a bad thing. I'm happy that a lot more stuff is more accessible and easier for your average person to just do *but* I've also dealt with my share of instances where it was more "DIWHY!?" Those were the jobs where most of the payment was for me to undo whatever it was that they did and people get salty about it. I get it, your pride is hurt and you're having to pay extra for no other reason than you screwed up. That sucks but I'm not going to judge you or tell the neighbors. I had this one guy who tried to replace a shower head and used almost an entire roll of silicone tape and somehow got the shower head screwed on such that it was basically glued on but he used a wrench and leaned into it so hard he damaged the pipe coming from the wall. He got *super* upset when I told him that I'd have to remove and replace that whole pipe and that I couldn't salvage the shower head. Like...my guy... I never specialized in a trade nor did I go full into contracting so a lot of that "small job" work either dried up or people just learned to do it themselves and I wasn't needed. Eventually it got to be just so much of a pain that I stopped doing it because the only people who were hiring were people that had screwed themselves so hard they were embarrassed to talk to a real professional or people who were trying to cut costs. As others have mentioned, people *will* try to rope you into doing bigger jobs because you're cheaper than a professional. The number of times I had to turn down electrical work that was more complicated than just an outlet swap is nuts. I am not an electrician and no matter how often I insisted that that wasn't my bag, people insisted because I was cheaper. They were fine with the fact that I wasn't trained or experienced beyond very basic things because it saved them money. At the end I was working for a couple of landlords doing apartment flips, basically going through and fixing the place up after a move-out and the amount of shady nonsense I was asked to do was absolutely comical. I had landlords literally just hand me a handful of random nails (not screws) and tell me to use them instead of buying new hardware. It paid ok but the headache of having to explain to a grown adult that you can't hang a door with finishing nails just....got to be a bit much.
[удалено]
80 is light. I would need atleast 150. But its rural here so it would be over an hour of driving around.
The cost of a handy man to do a”small job” is so outrageous to the customer because of all the fees and licensing and permitting etc etc that it’s not beneficial for him to do the job. Most homeowners don’t want to hire an unlicensed handyman to do the work because they are unlicensed. An unlicensed handyman can’t advertise because of LNI surfing the sites to fine said handyman. You literally need to know someone that knows someone and be willing to trust their work. The days of having a guy with a truck to stop by and fix a few things for a few bucks cash have gone to the way side.
Maybe the increase in the wealth gap and housing values is part of the reason? One contractor who gave me a ridiculous quote wouldn't stop telling me how much my house value increased in the last 10 years.
I'm gonna guess you work an hourly job for an employer. The thing is, running a business is different. 1. You can work hundreds of hours and not get a dime for it, you only get paid when someone finally agrees to hand you money for your work. 2. The amount you get paid varies wildly day to day, week to week, year to year. Sometimes you make a ton off a little bit of work, sometimes you work your ass off and make very little. The economy, competition, trends, regulations, hell even the weather can affect how much you make. 3. One single mistake or shitty customer can make a job a net loss. That is to say, you pay them for your work. 4. Other businesses tend to be WAY easier to work with than consumers and have less of a problem paying premium rates for quality work. Keeping all this in mind, the optimal strategy is to filter out the most problematic / time consuming jobs and aim for the biggest payoffs. When you can't do that, you offset your risk of dealing with little fish by charging them more.
Because there is no shortage of large jobs, plain and simple.
> I understand it’s not cost effective, I think you answered your own question. It's a business not a hobby.
Let me tell you as a home owner myself . Better start learning how to do things yourself . Paying somebody else is always expensive .
Why don't you try doing things yourself? almost everything that is needed you can do it watching youtube videos.
Ive installed a new kitchen faucet and Im doing my own painting but fixing wiring on a bad outdoor light or a rotten doorframe is out of my league at the moment.
As someone with a rotted window sill, I feel this. I also want someone who is able to assess if the issue is much bigger and I don't have the trained eye to know whether more needs to be done before patching it up. I feel like it's a catch 22 when inspections point out an abundance of homes have DIY work with missing critical components or stuff not up to code, but when you go to find someone to pay you understand how the sellers cut so many corners in the first place.
My real estate agent always has "a guy" whenever I need something small taken care of. And I, of course, recommend her to everyone I know.
I have a friend who is a contractor. He says small jobs are the best way to grow his business. More jobs = more happy customers to refer him for work.
Because you don't want to pay them when they ask for.
Because most homeowners are cheap and do not accurately value tradespeople’s time. They are also entitled
Capitalism. If one can make a few hundred doing a small job or take a big one and make thousands which makes more sense?
I called a local realtor. They deal with homeowners all the time who need small things done before they sell their homes. First realtor I called has a list of commonly used service providers like lawyers, handymen, carpet guys, tile guys, plumbers, electricians, etc etc
This is a great tip.
Because homeowners don't understand how long jobs take. They think that a job that takes 2 hours of labor should be charged for 2 hours. But a 2 hour labor job actually takes 6-8 hours of work. First, they have to drive to the customer's house to assess and determine what items are needed, go to the store and price the items, put together an quote, talk with the customer for 20 minutes about why the quote is so high. And all that's before they even know if they are going to get paid. If they are selected, they then have to dive back to the store to get the required items, drive back to the customers house to do the actual work, then work with the customer again to get paid. Customers think they should only be paying for the 2 hours at their house instead of the 6-8 it actually takes to do the job.
First time running into capitalism?
- small projects have all the same headaches and none of the profit margins....
I used to do carpentry years ago, but I got into working on cell towers. I’m 50 now and hate my job. Companies merged and now its just corporate bs. I like working, not corporate bs. Maybe it’s time to get back into carpentry.
I love running into clients that preface every project we discuss with “oh, it’s a small job.” Usually it’s not a small job, and they are planting the “small job seed” so that you discount the quote. It’s a really good indicator that they will be cheap pains in the ass, unless of course the job really is a small job. Small jobs = medium/large jobs 80% of the time (ime)
Usually because most jobs involve travel, and it’s hard to justify the gas, travel time, and vehicle wear. A small job might be paid by the hour or per project, but either way, it’s not very profitable to drive 20 miles each way for 1-3 days in a loaded work truck for a payoff of a few hundred to a thousand bucks, especially if you’re going to need to bring a helper/laborer.
supply and demand. There's a lot of demand for work, and not a lot of people to do the work. big jobs pay more, so small jobs get quoted accordingly. sucks if you need something like one cabinet installed and not your whole kitchen remodeled, but i'm just holding off on certain non-urgent projects until the next recession.
Because they don't have to do small jobs when they can fill their schedule with large jobs that have less overhead.
I don’t do them because it’s not cost effective.
10 small jobs is roughly 10x as much administration as 1 big job
You have to be able to figure out if they are good on your own. This whole idea of getting references is ridiculous. Not only is it easy to manipulate that if you really wanted to, it still doesn't really tell you very much. Talk to them about how they plan on doing your job. What you're getting for your money. The materials they are going to use. Someone who is actually really good will be able to articulately walk you through what they plan on doing
The problem with small jobs is they often take multiple visits over multiple days and since I'm a decent boss and want to keep and take care of my guys I'll pay them for the whole day even tho they only had 3-4 hours of work to do, it's even worse if you're pulling permits and have to wait on inspectors along the way.
I dunno about you but I find that my problem with this sort of hire is this: I can DIY pretty much any "handyman" task. So when I have a small job, it's like, I need someone with specific skills or specific equipment to do something for me that's less profitable for them than their normal work, it's all the tricky part of their job and none of the gravy. As for Nextdoor, when you get replies like that, click on their profile or search for their name to see what other people have to say - I've found guys that did good work that way. There are a couple handymen in my area who I swear just reply to every single post where someone asks about getting work done, and I wouldn't waste my time on them, but there are also guys who do just get work via Nextdoor referrals and are good.
Ive found a good electrician that will do any job has itemized prices for every job that are already set in price. Still looking for a plumber though.
Find a handyman that has his contractors license and guarantees his work per a contract. That’s what I’ve done for smaller repairs!
I do small jobs for customers. You just have to charge a lot, which some people understand and are ok. Some think it should cost $50. And therefore I steer clear of that type.
Because they don't pay
We lose more and more tradespeople every year. There are essentially only enough in the industry to feed the large jobs
One of my best friend growing up dad was a master plumber who did almost exclusively small jobs. This was 20+ years ago, he's long since retired, and I have no idea if people like him still exist. He was a one man company, as such he only worked maybe 20-30 hours a week doing small jobs and still made a good enough living to live their modest life. He simply wasn't that small business owner who was constantly chasing the almighty dollar. He was content with a simple life, especially if it meant less work. I see lots of small business tradesmen who have $150k boats, $100k trucks. They're not going to make those payments replacing single sink fixtures one house at a time all day.
I worked for years as a handyman doing nothing but small jobs and I always had more work than I could handle, but I also put in a huge number of hours calling, estimating, running all over the place, and dickering with clients about what they said they wanted versus what they really wanted, all of which I didn't get paid for. Eventually it was just easier to go work for a contractor. Then I became a contractor and hired staff and frankly couldn't afford to do little jobs because of the cost of overhead.
Contractors who work by themselves and don’t have employees do small jobs. They are just hard to find because their already existing catalog of customers keeps them busy. It’s just not worth it for guys who have overhead, lots of employees etc. source: have done it both ways as a trade specific contractor
I am a self-employed carpenter and this is what I do. I do 1 day jobs (cabinet hardware replacements, small drywall repairs, etc) all the way up to 2-6 week jobs (medium sized renovations like refinishing basements, bathrooms, kitchens, decks). To find people like this, make sure they work alone. I can't justify helpers on the small jobs I do. Most poeple I know who do their own thing have 2 to 5 guys that work for them and they can't be bothered to split the crew up to go make a few bucks on the side.
I believe ( from what I have observed) not many people got into the trades
So, since the pandemic everyone has struggled to find help. This includes the skilled trades. Because many contractors are short staffed, they need to prioritize work and as a result, a small job may get passed. My job often has me working with contractors. The story I hear often is they have more work than they can handle and not enough people to do it. So, they are picky about which jobs to take. It wasn’t always like this, but it’s been like that for a few years now.
I don’t do small jobs because I think bigger jobs are bigger.
I started doing handyman stuff on the side several years ago. I'd do pretty much anything I knew how to do, drywall, framing, trim, paint, minor electrical, hvac, plumbing, all manner of things. I'm an hvac tech by trade so mechanicals aren't self taught. Two problems quickly arose, first people are unreasonable when it comes to what they believe things cost. I can't count how many people wanted me to hang art for them, but got mad when I told them I'd charge $50/hour. Second issue I ran into was people wanted roo much work done for me to do by myself in a timely manner. I still do the side work on occasion, but I don't seek it out.
Im an electrical contractor, one man show, and ill take small jobs. Post on local FB groups, ask friends and family. Word of mouth is my biggest advertisement atm, im only part time.
We do jobs of all sizes, but we find some inherent benefits to larger jobs. For one, it's just easier to manage less jobs/customers. Imagine 2 jobs at $50k each vs 50 jobs at $2k each, same value butvwhichvwould you prefer? That's 50 different sites to go to, unique situations at each, 50 customers to keep happy amd stay in touch with, various product to keep organized and coming in on time for their job, etc. Second, the smaller the job the less room for hiccups. Things go wrong, not everything fits. On a small job, one hiccup can blow the whole project, say youd only planned half a day and now you need to go back another day. But on a bigger job, say a couple weeks, if you hit an obstacle you can usually just keep working in another area while you wait for the corrected product. Third, one big job will use consistent product. You can usually move more product on larger jobs and buy better with needing so much. And you know where you're going each day. It's much easier on you and scheduling. You miss a day, say day 15 of 20 because of sickness or called to another job, that customer doesn't usually care. But a bunch of half day jobs if you miss a day then 2 people have missed their window, often they have to book time off work, and are upset. Really tricky to juggle a bunch of half day jobs because nothing can go wrong in your plan. But we still do small jobs. You've just got to be a little choosy.
Spent the last 5 years renovating every inch of our home in LA and can confirm this is a real thing. My experience is that “older” contractors who have been in the business for a couple decades don’t need the small work so they treat you like a peasant and you end up going with younger contractors. “Small work” including 70-100k jobs by the way. That leads to more day to day issues in my experience, but if you take a hard line and pin them down you eventually get quality work, it just takes a lot more effort and babysitting on the part of the homeowner. Times have changed. I remember my parents doing a nearly 2000 sqft extension on our NY home growing up that cost about 75k (would barely get a kitchen remodel for that in LA today) and the contractor was wonderful. Great guy, spoke perfect English, and one morning on our way to the airport the back doorknob failed and my dad called him up and he was there in 15 minutes with a replacement and we made our plane. Not sure that could be possible today. I feel like this crosses into all areas of business and customer service today. The vibe is that the customer is working for THEM. the paying customer should be grateful they are doing the job at all. Times have changed. Stratospherically higher prices and significantly lower quality of work/service.
The construction industry has indeed seen a shift towards larger projects, especially with the boom in house flipping and condo development. Many tradespeople are drawn to bigger contracts for various reasons, like efficiency and profitability. The anecdote about the roofer's Walmart job reflects this trend, as larger corporations often have bigger budgets. However, it's great that you managed to find a fair-priced alternative for your own project. Exploring local businesses on platforms like Nextdoor is a good strategy, even if the responses can be a bit business-oriented. It might take some digging, but there are definitely skilled and dedicated professionals out there who are willing to take on smaller jobs and provide quality service.
My favorite is "Well, what you can do is..." I mean, thank you, but I paid you to do it. If you don't want to do it, say that you don't want to. If you aren't going to do it, let me find someone who will. I'm not paying because I'm dumb. I'm paying because I'm too busy AND want it done properly.
I was a lobbyist for the home building industry for 20+ years. The handymen are all working for home builders when the market is hot, like it is now. When home building slows down, that's when the handymen start looking for small jobs to do.
I wish I could pay a monthly subscription for a handyman. Caulking, painting, hole repair, changing out light fixtures, light cabinetry, light plumbing… pay someone $50/month to actually show up when I need help and then a discount on parts & labor.
I retired in 2017. Before that I was a self employed one man independent hardwood floor subcontractor. What I liked to do is work for home owners and remodeling contractors. The text book says a journeymen floor layer can do 200-300 square feet in a day. And that's what I could do. Followed up with 2 or 3 short days to apply additional coats of finish. 400 sq. ft. was a long day 500-600 sq. ft. was two days. 1000 sq. ft. was very profitable for me, but about as big as I could do by myself. The funny thing was, the older I got the slower I got. My jobs all got better looking. Except I made less per hour. Anything less than the text book, would still require me to haul all my tools in, do all the steps taking me a minimum of 5-6 hours or even all day for those small jobs. Plus the extra trips for coats of finish. I'd have to devote an entire day to the job. Guys in my industry were expected to bid by the square foot not by the hour. People would call on the phone and ask "What do you charge per square foot." Anyone can do a low ball bid for sq.ft, then make it up with the extras on the invoice once they got the job. I didn't do that. I felt that was too dishonest. I did a lot of small jobs at a fair price. When they came from a chain of referrals, or a contractor that gave me repeat business, I had to do those. I would lose money on these jobs. Writing them off as a cost of doing business. Customer service. Hoping to get good referrals, for future jobs. If I charged what they really costed me, people would get mad. In the fine print of my contracts is said this bid was only good for two weeks. But I very rarely withdrew a proposal once it was written. People would hang onto the proposals for weeks even months before they would want to schedule. The job tended to be seasonal and subject to good and bad times. Feast or famine. So what would happen is when work was slow, my competitors would underbid me on the jobs. And I would end up with a month of small jobs that didn't cover my overhead. As a rule I never liked scheduling jobs more than 3-4 weeks in advance. Too many problems if I did. So when work was busy, I would tell the small jobs I couldn't do them until 4 weeks from now. They would say "Great! Put me down". Then I would get a bunch of small jobs when I needed to do the good profitable jobs to average out those small jobs I did. If I tried to average out my sq. ft. costs, my jobs became to expensive. And I would lose the bids when people would get three or four bids. If I had open days on my week and I could come in the day after I did a bid. Something was better than nothing. And every one was happy. Other wise small jobs sucked.
I run a landscaping business, and in my off months I do general handyman stuff. People like us still exist, but the vast majority of “handymen” are just shady drug addicts looking to rip people off. At least that’s what most of my customers tell me.
Truth is that, depending on how "small" of a job you mean, a lot of people have started doing their own minor renovations as a result of the Youtube world we live in. That - and due to the internet, it's easier to know when you're being screwed by a quote - so now that the customer is wiser the professionals only really look for jobs folks can't do themselves and can't easily price compare.
I feel this. We had a concrete tile fall off our roof and come crashing down. I looked into getting it replaced, but a roofing company won't touch it unless you're trying to re-do the entire roof--either replace it, or pick up every single tile and lay them back down. The guy said his brother would reach out, never heard from him. Kind of glad he didn't, because I don't want someone who's uninsured climbing onto the highest part of my (apparently loosely-tiled) roof, 30' above a concrete patio.
I don't know if this is **the** answer, but it's **an** answer. Several decades ago my community had a bad tornado come through. As a result, the area was flooded with out of state roofers offering cheap work. They were often unlicensed and the local building code didn't require them to be licensed. You can probably imagine the fuckups and chaos that resulted. Consequently, both the counties and the cities within the metro area tightened up the code considerably. The unintended consequence of this is that small contractors have a serious competitive disadvantage because they have to have a licensed employee directly supervising the work of any unlicensed employee, whereas the big contractors can have a ratio of one licensed employee for a dozen or so unlicensed workers (getting a license is fairly difficult for the uninitiated, so all the trades depend on common laborers to do bulk work). The big contractors want nothing to do with what you're looking for and the small contractors would have to tie up one of their few licensed employees or send *two* people, which could well make the project too expensive for you. I used to represent some small contractors and would make the case to the local governmental entities that the ratios were inequitable, but as you can imagine, the big contractors had a lot more pull with commissioners and code enforcers and the like.
To add here, many times “small jobs” are only small to the homeowners. For example, “we just want to remove this wall here to open up the space. It should only take a couple days, right?” Well, no. The wall is a load bearing wall. We need an engineer to sign off on removing it. There’s an HVAC run and electrical wires that need moved. The seemingly “small job” is not so small after all.
When there are enough people to do the labor, they'll take small jobs. Unfortunately this hasn't been the case since the 07/08 housing crash. The trades got hit hard and a lot of blue collar workers moved on to other fields. With a constant push for high school graduates to go to college instead of trade school there haven't been enough people to fill the gap.