How to Successfully Launch A Handyman Business Online

If you have always wondered how to launch a handyman business online, then you have come to the right place. We’re all learning how to pivot our current business models so that they are COVID-19 compliant. COVID-19 compliant…I’m still getting used to that sentence! If someone told me what was going to happen in 2020 way back in 2010, I probably would have thought their cheese was falling off their cracker or they had a screw loose upstairs (if you catch my drift). The fact of the matter is we are all having to find creative ways of making it in today’s socially distanced world. I am going to help you do that by giving you a bit of insight into how to successfully launch this business online.

Decide on Your Services

Your first step needs to be deciding what services you are going to offer. Launching a new business means breaking into the market, the best way to do this is through great reviews. If you offer too many services at first, you could risk leaving your customers feeling underwhelmed and unimpressed. Instead of coming on too strong in the beginning, narrow down your services to a handful of things that you are exceptionally good at (handful…handyman…see what I did there…?).

Create A Business Plan

All businesses need a proper business plan, regardless of how small they are. Sit down with someone in the know, AKA Google, and draft your plan. Your plan should include the area/s you plan on servicing, your hourly rate and your launch plan. If you want to cover all of your bases then include a projected plan for the future – you could be starting out small now, but after a few months you might find you need to expand your services and therefore expand your team.

Choose Your Space

You’ll need an area to call your own for your business. The best plan would be to convert your garage into a home office and then work from there. Set out an area where you can set your office, ideally this should be a space where you won’t get interrupted and where you’ll be able to focus.

Get Supplies

This step can be tricky depending on your budget, but you always need to keep the basic essential spares like globes, tools and Federal Pacific breakers in stock so you don’t keep your clients waiting. This is particularly important when you are just starting out and need to make a great first impression on your clients. Great first impressions equal even greater reviews and great reviews equal more customers.

Design Your Logo

What is a business without a logo? If anything, it’s a sad one. There are loads of free logo design programs and applications available online. Take an afternoon to create a great logo that clearly conveys your business. You don’t have to stick with the clipart logos of the late 90s but a modern version of that could still work like a charm.

Scope Out Your Competition

Figuring out who you are competing against is a pretty important step. Don’t be put off by your competition, learn from their mistakes instead. Find reviews on the internet about them, that way you’ll be able to see what they’re doing right and, more importantly, what they’re doing wrong. We live in a digital age, one where everyone feels like their opinion counts for something, so if you dig around long enough you should be able to find plenty informative reviews that are worthy of your time.

Design Your Stationery & Apparel

By this step you will have already nailed down your amazing logo. Now is the time for you to add that logo to everything…and I mean everything. First – you’ll need the basics, like stationery (I don’t mean actual paper because this isn’t the 50s and we care about trees now…) – design document templates that you can use to send to your customers such as quotes, invoices and proposals. Once you’ve done those you can move onto the apparel – you’ll need great looking branded work shirts and caps made. It is always a good idea to make a few extras of these, so you’ll have spares to give away – free advertising is hard to come by so make the most of the opportunity whenever it presents itself. Another great idea (whilst you’re branding everything and the kitchen sink), is to have around 50 branded fridge magnets made up too, you can hand these out for free to your customers, that way they will always have your details nearby with a list of your services.

Conquer Social Media

This one I don’t mean literally, unless you want to and that’s something you’re into (weirdo). I mean you need to create an awesome Facebook business page. This will be your business’s launch-pad and I cannot stress enough to you just how vital it will be to your overall success. Make sure you’ve added your logo, a cover page and your contact details to begin with – Facebook is incredibly user-friendly so you shouldn’t struggle with this. You can then go onto adding photos of your previous projects – before and after shots get a whole lot of traction and a whole lot of traction is what you should always strive for from social media. Once you’ve done all of that, consider linking interesting articles from your industry for your followers and fans – these can be how-to guides, new products or really anything home DIY related. This might seem like you’re just helping them do your job for you but the truth is that people are super lazy, they’re not going to want to actually do the work but at least this way they’ll see how much work is actually involved. If possible, the last thing you could add to your page is a list of prices or launch specials – think of something everyone hates doing, like cleaning gutters, and launch with that.

In Conclusion

Launching your handyman business online should be a piece of cake, just follow those handy tips and ideas and you will be good to go before you know it. Good luck and rest assured that there has never been a better time to launch an online business before, if you put your mind to it there will be nothing stopping you from achieving great success!