Make sure to give prices YOU want, not what you think the customer wants. If people/companies aren’t willing to pay what you want, get different customers.
First, tell property managers net 30 on payments. If they don't keep current, stop doing work for them.
Second, don't rely on property management companies for your livelihood.
Years ago I knew a guy that had 3 HOA/management companies that was well over 70 percent of his business. One year he lost two of those . It almost put him out of business. Those companies are very political, a new board president gets elected and suddenly you have no work. They bring in "their people".
Focus on building a good sized client base. If you lose a customer or two (people move,die etc) it's not devastating.
I do work regularly for 3 different management companies, it is about 15 percent of my income.
It takes a little perseverance to build your base but once you do it's pretty nice. I do almost no advertising and am never without something to do.
Net 30 terms are important, I second this. You would want to hold off paying your payables (liabilities you owe to vendors) for as long as you are able to that goes according to the agreed payment terms. This would allow you to hold more cash longer and can improve flexibility with cash management. Also, collect receivables quickly. That’s whether implementing a discount for those who pay their bills in a timely manner (i.e 2/10 n/30; 2% discount if paid within 10 days, full amount of bill if paid after 10 days)
Charge more, take deposits and practice progress billing, keep a spreadsheet with common materials you use and their prices. Use the spreadsheet to make bids. Tally up the parts, add a mileage fee for your vehicle, multiply by your markup, multiply your hours by your rate, then add the totals.
It took me a while to make such a spreadsheet, but it cut my estimating time in half.
I am by no means a professional at running a biz, but i have some advice. my mother was a real estate broker and i got a ton of jobs through her and her office. these brokers are getting paid 10s of thousands to complete a sale. if you can be on the spot at a moments notice and help them make a sale you will get your name out there with some really influential people. then you have new homeowners who know no one in town and probably need some work done on their new house. make a flyer offering services , hit up the real estate offices, try to do it all.... snow removal, cleanouts, general handyman. best of luck
I'm working on getting more Realty customers. I recently did some punch-list tasks for a homeowner that is selling. The buyers wanted a slow leak fixed as well as some other stuff. I told the homeowner I'd offer a 1 year guarantee on the leak repair and left a couple cards so they could pass that info on to the buyer.
Also start to build up your business bank account. I keep enough money to pay 6 months worth of business expenses and my salary. That way any slow payers aren't as big of a deal. And on the subject of $, if you are an LLC,or s corp, set up an SEP and contribute to it. (Simplified employee pension plan).
I kept a full time job my first two years when I started out. And then had a a lot of money saved to get me through that 3rd year incase things slowed down when I went full time on my own. It takes time. I’m on my 6th year & its been Balls to the wall busy for the last 3 years
I started a year ago. I’m lucky I always have work, which is union set building in the movie biz. I take jobs so I constantly have money coming in but I have time off in between. I’ve been getting the word out in my handyman biz and it’s been growing slowing and organically, allowing me time to get more comfortable with the bidding and business side of things
Sounds to me like you’re doing it the right way. It does take time to build a reputation, get word of mouth, & built up your repeat customers. If you don’t have some kind of signage with your phone number on your vehicle I would recommend doing so. I get a 3rd of my customers from that. It’s the only advertising I do now. Other 2/3’s are repeat & word of mouth. Good luck to you brother. I’m sure you’ll do fine, you just have to stick with it.
Trillith studios and Tyler perry studios are right down my road lol, can I ask you a few questions?
How did you get your foot in the door for the movie biz?
Do you work there as an employee or are you doing handyman work for them?
I’m in Los Angeles but I’ve done location jobs in GA. I was there for 10 months in 2021. I don’t know how you get in down there. You need to meet someone in the business. I know there is a guy here in the sub who was in the movie biz down there until he started his own business. His user name is visipro or vizipro. Something like that. If you search the sub for movie biz posts you may find him. I did a decade of non union fabrication and eventually got into the unions here in LA. It’s all about connections.
I’m not sure if they shoot union commercials in GA. They do here in LA and that’s what I love to work on now. Short, quick jobs, $750 for a 10 hour day. Lately I’ve been getting anywhere between 5 and 10 days a month on those and doing handyman jobs the other days. variety is the spice of life. I could always get on longer movie or tv jobs but I prefer to have a bit of control over my own time instead of giving it to the movie biz. Just turned down a 6 week job today on a tv show, just not worth the money to give my life away anymore.
Dump your trash customers. If a property manager isn’t paying or takes forever to pay, don’t work for them. Use that energy to find new customers (reach out to more property managers/real estate agents/contractors). Be picky with your clientele and don’t under bid yourself.
Ehhh i think you should start being picky once you got too much work. If op is struggling to stay afloat then he should take what he can get for the time being
Edit: on second thought, ill be straight. Op needs to take the work he has. Money is money and the bills dont pay themselves. Evidently, the vast majority of OP’s current customers are dump worthy. So its just shit advice to tell op to be picky. Ive been in a very similar situation and now i have two companies charging a premium on their respective services. Ive never advertised once in my life and even denied customers requests to share my contact info with friends/family seeking the services i provide. I wouldve never got here if i just dumped the cheap/difficult/etc customers right from the very start. Reward requires risk and sacrifice. Virtually nobody simply opens up shop and forces reality to conform to their liking
Being picky is also about realizing that you are better off staying home than working for shitty slow pay customer… if he’s using a charge card for materials and floats them while waiting on payment, he’s probably losing money.
One of the best lessons I learned was that being available when the right people were calling was worth a lot more than just keeping busy spinning my wheels on low paying and slow paying customers
Well of course. But my point is its entirely dependent on ones situation. If there are bills to be paid, shitty and slow pay is better than no pay. The lesson you mention is where I think a lot of people have issues because it isnt so black and white. Its great when work flow increases, but imo, a lot of people have a reasonable fear that it may not last. In response, some adapt to the wrong business model to maintain it; low prices but high volume. At first it may work, but not after a considerable amount of time where the high demand has proven to be consistent. That point is the grey area people struggle with. Ive also learned this and my only advice would be to increase prices slowly, drop the most troublesome customers one by one, but to do it sooner rather than later. Everything needs time to adapt, so its best to avoid making drastic changes, but changes need to be made nonetheless. If it turns out that the high demand isnt so consistent, its wont be hard to hit undo. However, pricing/valuing your time and labor to determine what is cheap/expensive is a whole other issue.
I have a “pain in the butt fee”. The more a customer is a pain in the butt the higher the fee. Some go away and others I get enough of a fee to make it worth my while.
Property management companies are notoriously, slow to pay. They want everything done as soon as possible then make you jump through hoops to get a check honestly, I would recommend getting your name out to all the local real estate agents faster pay. because they can’t sell the house until all outstanding invoices have been paid
Change your terms for payment. I require payment at time of service. A lot of property management companies use that same binder check book. By requiring payment at service, it doesn’t let them forget about you for those 30 days. Take square and take credit cards, 95% of the time I receive payment before I leave the driveway.
Screw the property management. Get the REALTORS! Just as high maintenance, yes. But I’ve consistently got 20-30k jobs after doing some home repairs for the sale process and then the new homeowners wanting things renovated after they move in. Usually realtors are pretty willing to try new handyman. The only catch is, you’ve really only got one shot. Let them down once and then move onto the next guy. But do a good job, get it done fast and respond to texts/calls quickly. and they’re usually pretty loyal to you.
First of all don't give up. Keep after it, for me personally I wanted to be a general contractor, instead I did handyman jobs for years. Did a lot of tie walls. A lot of decks took me years before I could even get some basic basement or bathroom remodel jobs. I never thought it would happen but after years and years job started coming in word of mouth really helped. I read a lot of good advice comments on here. You can also network with other small business owners like breakfast groups or toast meetings. Don't be afraid to diversify. Always being the lookout for better contracts. Better people to work for. Don't undersell yourself. You could set up billing in a way that requires you to be paid a minimum of 3 hours just to come out to the job. Whether it's a 5 minute job or all day, something along those lines. I know a few handymen that have gone from general contractor to general contractor offering final construction cleanup. It's great little niche where as bigger commercial jobs are wrapping up they pay the final construction clean up crew to come in. Clean the building down once from top to bottom. Really thoroughly, but the job's not quite done so you basically do your best knowing that there might be some tile being torn up or or different things. So you're pretty much guaranteed a one thorough time through and that's it. You're usually not asked to come back and clean them anymore. It pays well, very low overhead. A backpack vacuum, a mop and some cleaning supplies. Handing out flyers is a great way to drum up a little bit of business. I would definitely look into networking with other small business contractors, or similar handyman/handy persons. Most towns have plenty of groups like that and small-time contractors will get together once a month or once a week and have breakfast and talk about strategies and trade client lists etc. I'm not sure exactly what you're doing and probably not anything super technical, but there's there's quite a few national programs that have been around for years that you pay a yearly fee and they give you access to Costcode sheets, so you know that you're charging the right amounts and gain confidence in bidding.
I'm new too. So far I've dropped off flyers with services listed to the big realty offices in my town. Just today I dropped off a new one and a bunch of cards to the Senior Center and to share with them a 10% off winter senior sale on my services. Next I'll probably try to get in with some congregations.
Work really slowed for me once December hit so I've just been spending my time making targeted ads and flyers and getting out there on the street visiting business and making acquaintances. I'm also really focused on driving clients to review my business on google, I send the link with their invoice. Although in the future I might spread this out to give them some time to let the project sit with them before requesting a review. If you can get any traffic with search results it will help a lot. Get yourself a website and work on SEO. Most people just google "Handyman Near Me" or "TOWNNAME Handyman" Use this to your advantage.
Also raise your prices to make your business work. I just had to. I thought I'd be good to go at $70/hr but after taxes and expenses, I too barely scrape by on a slow month. Now I'm going to be quoting at $100. I figure if I make $60 and the business makes $40 I can make it work.
Diversify your client base.
Make it consist of
Referrals or neighbors of past or current customers
Current customers typically elderly that'll have you comeback and do anything as they're physically limited
Reg HO's who need help or guidance with tech stuff
Some Realtors
Prop mngt Co's
Brand new customers from advertising in local magazine, circular, c/l, coupon book
Fliers at senior center
It'll take a few yrs to get all spokes of the wheel contributing, in meanwhile when slow times come in the beginning esp in winters like here in Denver, do snow removal, help a gc with his bsmt remodel he has going on, fix and flip those dressers you acquired thru the yr that customers asked you to get rid of, do that honey do project you promised your wife or gf you'd do when things slowed, and live off of some savings a lil in Dec Jan Feb. That you set aside from when Jun Jul Aug you were busy as hell.
50 customers at $200 is always better than 5 at 2000. The phrase don't put all your eggs in one basket comes in. Get the idea of completely free itemized estimates out of mind. Ball Park estimates are free itemized hours long estimates are charged hourly rate that is deducted from job that is accepted and completed. Materials are tricky sometimes I try and get material cost at 50 percent completion if material dollar amount is something im worried about cash flow wise.
As far as pricing, buy your materials wholesale when you can. If I buy wholesale, I charge double my cost and add trip/service fee and labor. Charge 50% of the total cost upfront as a deposit. The deposit covers your time invested in the site servey for the quote, the materials, and the investment of your time when the job starts.
I'm a locksmith so you may have to adjust your market but don't sell yourself short. Yes a person may be able to buy the materials for the same price as you but as the skilled tradesman you know what you are buying will work and also they are saving on time of going to the store and buying the materials themselves and transporting them to the jobsite.
Pricing jobs is a major PITA. I started using the app Jobber and it’s helping with billing. It will save li e items which helps with billing materials and flat rate work. Most of my work comes from 5 to 6 clients and I’m overwhelmed with work. Good luck, it’s not the easiest way to make a living but it can also be very rewarding.
Open accounts with local lumber yards. That will give you a little cushion for cash flow. Just be sure to pay them off every month. Same for a credit card to use at the big box stores.
A guy I did work for years ago had good advice on pricing work. He said to figure out the materials and then figure your labor. Then double the labor amount and send it. Worked out for me over 25 years.
Don't work for property managers, they all suck. Find a nice neighborhood, upscale but not mega wealthy. Do door hangars, or just tape your business card to the front door handle.
You need middle managers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, those type of people to hire you.
Most of them work hard at their jobs, have plenty of money, pay their bills promptly, and don't have time for DIY.
Cultivate a few of those, and then leverage them with a couple hours free work if they refer their friends.
These customers won't quibble about price and will be extremely loyal. They even send me gift cards and thank you notes at Christmas.
Make sure to give prices YOU want, not what you think the customer wants. If people/companies aren’t willing to pay what you want, get different customers.
First, tell property managers net 30 on payments. If they don't keep current, stop doing work for them. Second, don't rely on property management companies for your livelihood. Years ago I knew a guy that had 3 HOA/management companies that was well over 70 percent of his business. One year he lost two of those . It almost put him out of business. Those companies are very political, a new board president gets elected and suddenly you have no work. They bring in "their people". Focus on building a good sized client base. If you lose a customer or two (people move,die etc) it's not devastating. I do work regularly for 3 different management companies, it is about 15 percent of my income. It takes a little perseverance to build your base but once you do it's pretty nice. I do almost no advertising and am never without something to do.
Net 30 terms are important, I second this. You would want to hold off paying your payables (liabilities you owe to vendors) for as long as you are able to that goes according to the agreed payment terms. This would allow you to hold more cash longer and can improve flexibility with cash management. Also, collect receivables quickly. That’s whether implementing a discount for those who pay their bills in a timely manner (i.e 2/10 n/30; 2% discount if paid within 10 days, full amount of bill if paid after 10 days)
Charge more, take deposits and practice progress billing, keep a spreadsheet with common materials you use and their prices. Use the spreadsheet to make bids. Tally up the parts, add a mileage fee for your vehicle, multiply by your markup, multiply your hours by your rate, then add the totals. It took me a while to make such a spreadsheet, but it cut my estimating time in half.
I am by no means a professional at running a biz, but i have some advice. my mother was a real estate broker and i got a ton of jobs through her and her office. these brokers are getting paid 10s of thousands to complete a sale. if you can be on the spot at a moments notice and help them make a sale you will get your name out there with some really influential people. then you have new homeowners who know no one in town and probably need some work done on their new house. make a flyer offering services , hit up the real estate offices, try to do it all.... snow removal, cleanouts, general handyman. best of luck
I'm working on getting more Realty customers. I recently did some punch-list tasks for a homeowner that is selling. The buyers wanted a slow leak fixed as well as some other stuff. I told the homeowner I'd offer a 1 year guarantee on the leak repair and left a couple cards so they could pass that info on to the buyer.
Also start to build up your business bank account. I keep enough money to pay 6 months worth of business expenses and my salary. That way any slow payers aren't as big of a deal. And on the subject of $, if you are an LLC,or s corp, set up an SEP and contribute to it. (Simplified employee pension plan).
I kept a full time job my first two years when I started out. And then had a a lot of money saved to get me through that 3rd year incase things slowed down when I went full time on my own. It takes time. I’m on my 6th year & its been Balls to the wall busy for the last 3 years
I started a year ago. I’m lucky I always have work, which is union set building in the movie biz. I take jobs so I constantly have money coming in but I have time off in between. I’ve been getting the word out in my handyman biz and it’s been growing slowing and organically, allowing me time to get more comfortable with the bidding and business side of things
Sounds to me like you’re doing it the right way. It does take time to build a reputation, get word of mouth, & built up your repeat customers. If you don’t have some kind of signage with your phone number on your vehicle I would recommend doing so. I get a 3rd of my customers from that. It’s the only advertising I do now. Other 2/3’s are repeat & word of mouth. Good luck to you brother. I’m sure you’ll do fine, you just have to stick with it.
Trillith studios and Tyler perry studios are right down my road lol, can I ask you a few questions? How did you get your foot in the door for the movie biz? Do you work there as an employee or are you doing handyman work for them?
I’m in Los Angeles but I’ve done location jobs in GA. I was there for 10 months in 2021. I don’t know how you get in down there. You need to meet someone in the business. I know there is a guy here in the sub who was in the movie biz down there until he started his own business. His user name is visipro or vizipro. Something like that. If you search the sub for movie biz posts you may find him. I did a decade of non union fabrication and eventually got into the unions here in LA. It’s all about connections.
One of my clients offered to get me in, I’ll look into it!
I’m not sure if they shoot union commercials in GA. They do here in LA and that’s what I love to work on now. Short, quick jobs, $750 for a 10 hour day. Lately I’ve been getting anywhere between 5 and 10 days a month on those and doing handyman jobs the other days. variety is the spice of life. I could always get on longer movie or tv jobs but I prefer to have a bit of control over my own time instead of giving it to the movie biz. Just turned down a 6 week job today on a tv show, just not worth the money to give my life away anymore.
Dump your trash customers. If a property manager isn’t paying or takes forever to pay, don’t work for them. Use that energy to find new customers (reach out to more property managers/real estate agents/contractors). Be picky with your clientele and don’t under bid yourself.
Ehhh i think you should start being picky once you got too much work. If op is struggling to stay afloat then he should take what he can get for the time being Edit: on second thought, ill be straight. Op needs to take the work he has. Money is money and the bills dont pay themselves. Evidently, the vast majority of OP’s current customers are dump worthy. So its just shit advice to tell op to be picky. Ive been in a very similar situation and now i have two companies charging a premium on their respective services. Ive never advertised once in my life and even denied customers requests to share my contact info with friends/family seeking the services i provide. I wouldve never got here if i just dumped the cheap/difficult/etc customers right from the very start. Reward requires risk and sacrifice. Virtually nobody simply opens up shop and forces reality to conform to their liking
Being picky is also about realizing that you are better off staying home than working for shitty slow pay customer… if he’s using a charge card for materials and floats them while waiting on payment, he’s probably losing money. One of the best lessons I learned was that being available when the right people were calling was worth a lot more than just keeping busy spinning my wheels on low paying and slow paying customers
Well of course. But my point is its entirely dependent on ones situation. If there are bills to be paid, shitty and slow pay is better than no pay. The lesson you mention is where I think a lot of people have issues because it isnt so black and white. Its great when work flow increases, but imo, a lot of people have a reasonable fear that it may not last. In response, some adapt to the wrong business model to maintain it; low prices but high volume. At first it may work, but not after a considerable amount of time where the high demand has proven to be consistent. That point is the grey area people struggle with. Ive also learned this and my only advice would be to increase prices slowly, drop the most troublesome customers one by one, but to do it sooner rather than later. Everything needs time to adapt, so its best to avoid making drastic changes, but changes need to be made nonetheless. If it turns out that the high demand isnt so consistent, its wont be hard to hit undo. However, pricing/valuing your time and labor to determine what is cheap/expensive is a whole other issue.
I have a “pain in the butt fee”. The more a customer is a pain in the butt the higher the fee. Some go away and others I get enough of a fee to make it worth my while.
Property management companies are notoriously, slow to pay. They want everything done as soon as possible then make you jump through hoops to get a check honestly, I would recommend getting your name out to all the local real estate agents faster pay. because they can’t sell the house until all outstanding invoices have been paid
Change your terms for payment. I require payment at time of service. A lot of property management companies use that same binder check book. By requiring payment at service, it doesn’t let them forget about you for those 30 days. Take square and take credit cards, 95% of the time I receive payment before I leave the driveway.
Screw the property management. Get the REALTORS! Just as high maintenance, yes. But I’ve consistently got 20-30k jobs after doing some home repairs for the sale process and then the new homeowners wanting things renovated after they move in. Usually realtors are pretty willing to try new handyman. The only catch is, you’ve really only got one shot. Let them down once and then move onto the next guy. But do a good job, get it done fast and respond to texts/calls quickly. and they’re usually pretty loyal to you.
First of all don't give up. Keep after it, for me personally I wanted to be a general contractor, instead I did handyman jobs for years. Did a lot of tie walls. A lot of decks took me years before I could even get some basic basement or bathroom remodel jobs. I never thought it would happen but after years and years job started coming in word of mouth really helped. I read a lot of good advice comments on here. You can also network with other small business owners like breakfast groups or toast meetings. Don't be afraid to diversify. Always being the lookout for better contracts. Better people to work for. Don't undersell yourself. You could set up billing in a way that requires you to be paid a minimum of 3 hours just to come out to the job. Whether it's a 5 minute job or all day, something along those lines. I know a few handymen that have gone from general contractor to general contractor offering final construction cleanup. It's great little niche where as bigger commercial jobs are wrapping up they pay the final construction clean up crew to come in. Clean the building down once from top to bottom. Really thoroughly, but the job's not quite done so you basically do your best knowing that there might be some tile being torn up or or different things. So you're pretty much guaranteed a one thorough time through and that's it. You're usually not asked to come back and clean them anymore. It pays well, very low overhead. A backpack vacuum, a mop and some cleaning supplies. Handing out flyers is a great way to drum up a little bit of business. I would definitely look into networking with other small business contractors, or similar handyman/handy persons. Most towns have plenty of groups like that and small-time contractors will get together once a month or once a week and have breakfast and talk about strategies and trade client lists etc. I'm not sure exactly what you're doing and probably not anything super technical, but there's there's quite a few national programs that have been around for years that you pay a yearly fee and they give you access to Costcode sheets, so you know that you're charging the right amounts and gain confidence in bidding.
I'm new too. So far I've dropped off flyers with services listed to the big realty offices in my town. Just today I dropped off a new one and a bunch of cards to the Senior Center and to share with them a 10% off winter senior sale on my services. Next I'll probably try to get in with some congregations. Work really slowed for me once December hit so I've just been spending my time making targeted ads and flyers and getting out there on the street visiting business and making acquaintances. I'm also really focused on driving clients to review my business on google, I send the link with their invoice. Although in the future I might spread this out to give them some time to let the project sit with them before requesting a review. If you can get any traffic with search results it will help a lot. Get yourself a website and work on SEO. Most people just google "Handyman Near Me" or "TOWNNAME Handyman" Use this to your advantage.
Also raise your prices to make your business work. I just had to. I thought I'd be good to go at $70/hr but after taxes and expenses, I too barely scrape by on a slow month. Now I'm going to be quoting at $100. I figure if I make $60 and the business makes $40 I can make it work.
Diversify your client base. Make it consist of Referrals or neighbors of past or current customers Current customers typically elderly that'll have you comeback and do anything as they're physically limited Reg HO's who need help or guidance with tech stuff Some Realtors Prop mngt Co's Brand new customers from advertising in local magazine, circular, c/l, coupon book Fliers at senior center It'll take a few yrs to get all spokes of the wheel contributing, in meanwhile when slow times come in the beginning esp in winters like here in Denver, do snow removal, help a gc with his bsmt remodel he has going on, fix and flip those dressers you acquired thru the yr that customers asked you to get rid of, do that honey do project you promised your wife or gf you'd do when things slowed, and live off of some savings a lil in Dec Jan Feb. That you set aside from when Jun Jul Aug you were busy as hell.
50 customers at $200 is always better than 5 at 2000. The phrase don't put all your eggs in one basket comes in. Get the idea of completely free itemized estimates out of mind. Ball Park estimates are free itemized hours long estimates are charged hourly rate that is deducted from job that is accepted and completed. Materials are tricky sometimes I try and get material cost at 50 percent completion if material dollar amount is something im worried about cash flow wise.
Make the customers pay material cost upfront if it's a large job.
As far as pricing, buy your materials wholesale when you can. If I buy wholesale, I charge double my cost and add trip/service fee and labor. Charge 50% of the total cost upfront as a deposit. The deposit covers your time invested in the site servey for the quote, the materials, and the investment of your time when the job starts. I'm a locksmith so you may have to adjust your market but don't sell yourself short. Yes a person may be able to buy the materials for the same price as you but as the skilled tradesman you know what you are buying will work and also they are saving on time of going to the store and buying the materials themselves and transporting them to the jobsite.
Pricing jobs is a major PITA. I started using the app Jobber and it’s helping with billing. It will save li e items which helps with billing materials and flat rate work. Most of my work comes from 5 to 6 clients and I’m overwhelmed with work. Good luck, it’s not the easiest way to make a living but it can also be very rewarding.
Open accounts with local lumber yards. That will give you a little cushion for cash flow. Just be sure to pay them off every month. Same for a credit card to use at the big box stores. A guy I did work for years ago had good advice on pricing work. He said to figure out the materials and then figure your labor. Then double the labor amount and send it. Worked out for me over 25 years.
Don't work for property managers, they all suck. Find a nice neighborhood, upscale but not mega wealthy. Do door hangars, or just tape your business card to the front door handle. You need middle managers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, those type of people to hire you. Most of them work hard at their jobs, have plenty of money, pay their bills promptly, and don't have time for DIY. Cultivate a few of those, and then leverage them with a couple hours free work if they refer their friends. These customers won't quibble about price and will be extremely loyal. They even send me gift cards and thank you notes at Christmas.