Week Five Recap

Typically, I would not consider myself a fickle person. My emotions are pretty constant, and I am usually continuously confident regarding the decisions that I make. However, with that said, I must be honest and admit that my emotions have been a little bit up and down regarding my decision to go full time as a "handyman."

Most of the time I am pretty confident and very happy about my decision. But, let me go several days in a row with no work, and I start to doubt my decision. This is the situation I was in when my doubts reached a climax last Tuesday (July 20th). With the exception of a few small jobs, I had been almost eight days without any significant work. This situation would not have been so bad if it were not for the fact that I had just spent $80 to advertise in our local paper. The ad started on Sunday, and as of Tuesday, I had not received a single call. In addition to this, a guttering estimate I prepared was rejected that same day for being too high. Now, take these facts and add them to the fact that my wife's hours were being cut way back at her job, and you ended up with a man who was starting to be overcome with doubt. With the safety net of my wife's hours disappearing, and with the phone not ringing, I was starting to already consider the possibility that I might have to once again become an employee to someone else.

Fortunately, this season of doubt didn't last long. Though I sat in it for the better part of the day, I was eventually reminded of some important things (These "important things" were in regards to my faith. While I am in no way ashamed of this these things, I make a point not to mention them here. If you look at my profile, you will see another blog spot of mine that is devoted to the topic). And after this reminder, everything was once again well. While these "important things" didn't guarantee me success as a handyman, they did guarantee that everything would workout for our eventual good.

It was the following day (Wednesday, July 21st) that everything began to get busy. The day started with a call from a lady wanting me to paint her bathroom. However, before I could leave for that job, I got my first call and job from the newspaper ad. The job involved weed-eating a fence line. After returning home from these two jobs, I found an email from the guy I gave the gutter estimate to. He sent the email to let me know that he wanted me to do the guttering after all. He also mentioned that he needed me to move another load of books (I mentioned this guy in my last post). I moved the books on Thursday and bought the materials for the guttering job. When I returned home, I received my second call and job from the newspaper add. The call was from an 80 year old man who was frustrated because the area around his mail box was ugly. He didn't ask about rates, he only said "come fix it."

I left Friday morning to install the guttering. As I was installing the guttering, the man I was working for introduced me to his brother-in-law. His brother-in-law gave me his phone number and address and ask me to stop by at some point to look over some work he was needing done.

I finished the guttering a little after 1 pm. I then went to look at the mail box situation. The mail box was simply a little patch of ground, surrounded by a sidewalk and curb that was filled with lava rock and some kind of evergreen growth. It was also full of weeds. The customer simply let me know that he wanted it all cleaned out and that he wanted new sod laid down. Just as before, price seemed to be the least of his concern. Shortly after starting the mail box project, I received my 3rd call and job from the news paper add. This job involved repairing some doors at a rental property.

On Saturday, I finished the sod job. Having never once discussed price, I was a little nervous about presenting my bill. The total came to $220. Materials cost $45, and the other $175 was for five hours of labor. There was no need to be nervous. When I presented the bill, they only seemed to be concerned that all my expenses were covered. After writing the check, they took me out to show me a flower bed that the wife wanted cleared out at a later time. The husband also inquired as to whether or not I mowed lawns. He then let me know that if the "kid" taking care of their yard ever quit, I would be the first person he would call.

This is a picture during the project after the old stuff was cleaned out.

After

I left the "mail box" job to meet with the customer at the rental property. We agreed on a price, and I went back later that evening to complete that job. I then took Sunday off.

Today, I went to clear out the flower bed. While there, I got my fourth call and job from the newspaper add. This call was from a real estate company who had a rental that needed some junk cleared out of the back yard. After finishing the flowerbed, I went to look at the job. After agreeing on a price, I went home, cleaned out my truck and loaded up my family so that we could all work on the job together. The job paid $100, and with all of us working together, we had it finished in just over an hour.

While I'm sure I am likely to have seasons of doubt again, today I feel like the most blessed man alive. I am absolutely loving what I do, and I am getting paid to do it. I can get started early, or I can sleep in a little and get started late. If the job allows, I can take my family with me. This all seems too good to be true.

Week Five Total: $602.50 ($25 mowing, $80 painting, $100 fence-line clearing, $35 hauling, $122.50 gutter install, $175 sod job, $65 door repairs)

14 Day Recap (7/4 - 7/18)

Note: I started writing this a while back; however, I am just now getting around to publishing it.

Though I have made a little bit of money, the last fourteen days have been fairly slow. Thankfully, the fence job was large enough to push my past 14 day earnings into a livable range. However, with out the fence job, things would have been depressingly slow.

I am not worried, but I do get antsy. I like to go from one job to another without down time in between. In reality, I should be thankful. Up until now, I am at least averaging what I would be making if I was still working at Atwoods (a farm and garden store I worked at). At Atwoods I made $8.50 and hour and I worked 32.5 hours per week (When I started out I was working 43-45 hours per week; however, do to slow business, my hours were cut way back.). So, as long as I earn at least $276.25 (32.5 x $8.50), I can feel confident that I did the right thing in quiting.

I recently printed off another 2oo fliers. However, do to the heat, I have not passed very many out. Trying to get your name out with fliers is a lot of time consuming work. Because of this, I decided to test the waters by advertising in our local paper. I can get a 28 day ad for $80. Three days a week the ad will appear as a 21/2"x 11/2" ad in the "service directory." And for the other four days it will appears as a typical line ad. If I just break even on the ad I'll be happy. But hopefully it will have good enough results to really get things started.

On Tuesday, July 13th, I was getting ready to walk out the door to pass out fliers when the phone rang. It was a potential customer who owned a publishing company. They had several boxes of journals and other paper materials that they needed to have disposed. The lady I talked to said that she thought it would be one pickup load worth or stuff. Since I could dispose of the paper for free at our recycle center, and because I figured I could do it in less than a hour, I said that I could do it for $35. However, as I later arrived at the storage center and met the ladies husband, I discovered it was going to be several pickup loads. I didn't know how the man would feel paying $35 per load for several loads, but he thought nothing of it. He just appeared glad to have found someone available to help him. In total I hauled three loads. Since then the man has asked me to give him a quote for installing some gutters on his office. Also, he has mentioned that he hopes to take advantage of my service while I am not too busy. He seems to think that it won't be long until I have more work then I can handle. Since this man really hasn't seen the quality of my work, I am pretty sure that his belief that I will soon busy is not based on my work quality but rather his belief that there is a strong demand for the type of service that I offer.

Last 14 day totals = $675 ($485 fence job, $50 mowing (two lawns), $105 moving boxes and$35 for yard work)

Rates!

So, you have a service that you know people want. But what do you charge for this service?

This has been one on the biggest challenges I have faced since starting this business. I have had a hard time establishing a rate that is both fair to the customer and profitable for me.

While I was working at my retail position a while back, I was making $8.50 per hour. When you are squeaking by on $8.50 per hour, it is easy to think that working for yourself and charging $20 per hour will be great. However, when all things are really considered, you realize that you really cannot exist as a real, and long term business by charging a customer only $20 per hour.

Before starting my business, I searched online for standard rates around the country for handyman businesses. I found that the standard rate was anywhere from $35 (low) to upwards of $65 per hour. At first this seemed like a really high rate. While I could envision charging $35 for the first hour, I couldn't see charging $35 for each hour of work thereafter. However, the longer I am at it, and the more I begin to see things, I am starting to see that $35 per hour is not an excessive rate at all. In fact, it is quite low when compared to the standard rates of most other service profession. For example: most lawn companies figure lawn estimates based on a rate of $50-$60 per hour. Mechanics charge at least $75 per hour for labor. Most plumbers in our area work at a rate of $100 or more per hour. With this in mind, the $35 an hour I charge per hour is not excessive. Not only is it not excessive, it is what is really necessary for me to charge in order to be able to stay in this business on a long term basis.

Someone reading this might be tempted to think that you could be very well off working as a handyman and charging $35 per hour. However, you need to consider these things: As a "handyman" you are specializing in the smaller projects. Therefore, it is likely that you will use a large portion of you time driving from one project to another. Not only this, you use time getting your tools out before a job and putting them away after a job. With this in mind, it is easy to see that you will not likely be able to bill a full 40 hours in a week. A more realistic number is probably closer to 35 or probably possibly even 30. Also, that $35 per hour has to be able to cover your down time (the time when business is slow) and any vacation time. In addition to this, that $35 per hour has to cover vehicle expenses, and all other business related expenses such as tools, insurance, phones, etc.) So with all things considered, $35 per hour is about as low as you can really afford to go to be able to exist as a real and long term business. If you are simply doing this work on the side, then $15 -$20 per hour can be good extra money. But if you are trying to establish yourself as a full-time business, you are going to have to charge more.

Now, $35 is a fair rate on my end, but the question is, do customers see it as a fair rate? To this I have had a mixed response. I have had a few customers not even ask what I charge. They just had me make the repair and give them a bill. These customers didn't seem surprised at all by the charge. However, I have had other potential customers ask in advance what my rate is, and I must admit that you could feel the awkward silence as I told them $35 per hour. Because of these few encounters, I have pretty much decided that I am going to stick with giving estimates for the job instead of stating an hourly charge. The same customer who balks at $35 per hour, thinks nothing of a $140 labor charge on an estimate for a job that could potentially take me less the four hours to complete.

Now, with this all said, I need to be honest and say that as of right now, my average hourly rate has been less than $35 per hours. Because of my inexperience, I have so far been underestimating labor time on my estimates. This mistakes drives my average down. However, as time progresses, I will hopefully get better at estimating labor in my jobs estimates.

Now, while $35 per hour is the average that I shoot for, I am certainly willing to budge from that when necessary. Let's be honest for a minute and face the fact that some work is better than no work. And as a new guy just starting out, it is better to take less per hour and have something than it is to ignorantly and pridefully refuse to work for less and have nothing. I am confident there will come a day in which I can pick which jobs to take and which to refuse. But for now, I need to take what is available. And if that means negotiation my rates to get job, then so be it. At the end of the day, I am much better off having painted at $10 per hours making something then simply staying home, being bored, and earning nothing.

Fence Job (Updated July13th)

On Saturday, my bid for a fence install job was approved. The job involves filling the gaps between my customers house and the existing fence that was put up previously by their neighbors. The total amount of fencing needed is 19 feet. This also includes a three foot gate. The materials for this job are about $435. For labor I am charging $420. This post will be used to update my progress on the job.

Note: The customer currently lives in Texas. The job is for a house she purchased in Stillwater that her children (they will be attending OSU) will soon be moving into.

Friday, July 2nd - Received the call about the job. That evening I went and looked at the job to measure and try to judge the amount of time needed to complete the job. The job looked simple except for a tree that was directly in the path. Even though I was moving the fence back away from the tree, I was very concerned about the potential difficulty that the roots would cause in digging the holes for the fence post. Later that evening I went by Lowes to price the materials I would need. After this I went home and worked a little bit on the estimate.

North Side of House

South Side of House


.

Total time spent on Friday = about 1 1/2 hours

Saturday, July 3rd - I finished the estimate and sent it to the customer via email. I then called the customer to discuss the estimate. I must admit that I was a little bit intimidated by my estimate. To me it seemed like a very high price to pay for just a small patch of fence. However, the customer thought nothing of it. As she reviewed my estimate while on the phone, she seemed pleased with it. She gave me the job immediately. She told me that she would place the material check in the mail as soon as we got off the phone.

Time spent on Saturday = about 1 1/2 hours.

Note: I am starting to understand why a lot of contractors don't mess with small projects. So far I have invested nearly three hours in just preparing an estimate for a project that I may or may not get (I'm sure experience will make this process faster).

Sunday, July 4th - Despite not having any money in hand, I decided to go ahead and do some prep work for the job. I laid out my lines and dug my holes. To my amazement (and great delight) no roots interfered with my holes. Originally, my estimate included the rental price ($65) for a motorized auger. However, it now turns out that this won't be needed. I will split this savings with my customer. Half of it will go towards my labor, and half of it will be returned to my customer.

Total time spent = 2 hours

Thursday, July 8th - The material's check arrived.

Friday July 9th - Was up a little before 7:00 am so I could get an early start on setting the post. My daughter (the early riser) was up and awake as well. She ask if she could tag along which was fine with me.

First we had to stop at Lowe's to get the materials. I budgeted about 1 1/2 hours of labor for material pickup (I do not mark up materials, but I do figure pickup time in my labor cost). I was just about dead on with that estimate. Savannah seemed a little weary from our time in Lowes, She was convinced that I was going to spend the whole day there.

We finally left Lowe's and went to the job site to set the post. I budgeted two hours labor for setting the post. I was was off on this estimate. Because of a couple days of heavy rain, I had to dig out some mud from the holes I dug earlier. This was a real pain because the mud kept sticking to my post hole digger. Nearly every time I brought the post-hole digger out, I had to use a stick to scrape the mud off. Finally, four hours later, all five post were set in concrete.



Later that afternoon I spent 2 hours at home building the gate that will fit between the two post on the north side of the house.

Total Time Spent = 8 hours

Sunday, July 11 - Woke up early (about 6:00 am), so I decided to get an early start on finishing the job. While I wasn't surprised to see my girl up and ready to go, I was surprised that my boy, who is not a morning person, woke up and and also wanted to tag along. Not wanting to miss the party, my wife also decided at the last minute to join the fun (I'm glad she did. I ended up needing her help.)

We arrived at the job-site around 7:30. I estimated that it would take three hours to hang the panels and gate. In addition to this, I estimated that it would take 30 minutes to install the gate hardware. It turns out that I was way off on this estimate. It took a good six and one half hours to complete these task. That is even with my wife's help. However, when all was said and done, the time was well spent. In my opinion, the project turned out well.









Job Summary - I originally estimated that I could complete this job with 12 hours labor. However the actual total was right at 16 1/2 hours. In addition to this, I also spent 3 hours assessing the job and preparing the estimate.

My original estimate to the customer was for $855. However, materials ended up being a little less than expected. The final bill is for $775. $290 was spent on materials, leaving $485 for my time and labor.

I must admit that I was a little bit nervous when starting the project. I was afraid that my post would end up crooked, or that my gate wouldn't hang properly. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. While the post may twist a little over time, at least for the present, everything looks pretty good. I often wonder if I am really qualified enough to call myself a handyman. This job provided some much need confidence.

Why I Talk About Money

From time to time on this blog I will mention specific amounts that I was paid for a job. Just the same, I will likely mention weekly totals. The purpose for doing this in not to gloat nor is it to talk about money just for the fun of it. Instead, I do this to satisfy the curiosity of my readers and also to provide insight to those who are considering this line of work.

If you are anything like me, then you are curious as to how much people are paid for their work. Just the same, if you are like me, then you are curious as to how much certain projects cost and how much people are willing to pay to have those project done. Because of my own curiosity regarding these things, I will be very open regarding what I was paid for various jobs and my standard rates. I will also be open regarding what I made over the course of a week.

I hope you find this information interesting and helpful. Hopefully, those who are in or are considering this line of work can use it to help establish rates and job estimates.

Week 2 Recap!

Last week I had a little bit of doubt as to whether or not I was doing the right thing by attempting to go full time. Because things were slow, and because my fliers didn't generate immediate results, I began to question whether or not there would really be enough work to keep me busy. And not only did I question whether there would be enough work, I also questioned whether people would really be willing to pay the rates necessary to insure that I could stay in business. However, as of today, all that doubt is gone. Yes, there will be plenty of work, and yes people will gladly pay my rates to get the things done that they are wanting done.

While my phone hasn't rang off the hook this past week, is has at least rang enough to give me a little something to do almost every day. Though the results were not immediate, the fliers are slowly generating calls. Part of me wants to do a major advertising blitz. But the other part of me is truly afraid that I could quickly end up with more business than I can handle.

Here is a recap of how the past week went:

On Sunday, June 27, I helped a customer figure out the problem with a gas grill that wouldn't light (mentioned in previous post). Later that day, I spent a couple of hours painting the interior of a house for one of Karen's coworkers.

On Monday, I spent five more hours painting

On Tuesday, I received a call about a mowing job. It involved mowing a small lot, trimming some hedges and cutting down a branch. The job took just a little over two hours and paid $70.

On Wednesday, I received call to give a estimate on a gate repair.

On Thursday, I went to repair the gate. The repair was a small $45 repair. However, as soon as I was finished, the customer sent me to do some tree trimming and brush removal at some rental properties she ownes. By the end of the day, the $45 repair turned into a $265 day's work.

On Friday, I mowed one small lawn and looked at a proposed fence install job.

Totals for the week 2: $485 (grill repair - $30, painting $95, mowing, $70 and $25, fence repair - $45, tree trimming and brush removal - $220)

Today, I just finished the fence estimate and gave it to the customer. On the surface the job seems small; however, because of a tree, it may prove a little difficult. I will only be installing 20' of privacy fence (includes one 3 foot gate), but the estimate comes to a whopping $855 ($435 material and $420 labor). I expected the customer to flinch at the price and possibly reject the estimate. I expected wrong. She thought nothing of it. She said the price looked good and assigned me the job immediately. It is going to be interesting to see how this turns out. I based my estimate on twelve hours labor. On previous job estimates, I have underestimated actual labor time. I am hoping to at least be close with this one. However, those twelve hours can get eaten up real fast with material pick up, rental tool pickup, unforeseen challenges, etc. I will try to keep track of my time and report back as to how it went.

A Perk of Self Employment!

There are some things you can do when you work for yourself that you just can't do when employed by others. For example, last night I wanted to continue working on a project, but my wife was scheduled to work. Since the job was too far away to leave the kids home by themselves, I figured that I was done for the night. But then I came up with idea of taking the kids with me and putting them to work (it was a brush removal job, so it was something they were capable of helping with). I offered them $5 and hour each as long as the worked very hard, and boy did they work! I was in charge of cutting the brush, and they were in charge of hauling it to the pile. However, they worked so fast that I could hardly keep up. When the job was over, they had each made $8.75. They were pretty excited about this, and they are now both ready to work with me whenever the job allows.