Start a Handyman Business
Handyman Launch Checklist
Companion to the lessons "Licenses, Boundaries, and Paper," "First Customers Without Buying Leads," and "Your First 30 Days & Going Deeper."
Week 1: make it real
- ☐ State contractor board page read: handyman or minor-work exemption. Dollar cap and prohibited scopes written down (city clerk's page checked too).
- ☐ Business name picked, checked locally, registered (sole prop, or LLC if your state's fees make it worthwhile).
- ☐ Two general liability quotes obtained; policy bought.
- ☐ Skills audit run honestly; three-column menu written: flat-rate core, hourly comfort, refer out.
- ☐ Tools audited against tier one; gaps ordered; labeled bins set up.
Week 2: prices and presence
- ☐ Price card built: call-out minimum, hourly rate, five to eight flat-rate jobs priced from worst-case times at your hourly rate. Printed.
- ☐ Free stack up: dedicated phone number, Google Business Profile (service area + menu), Nextdoor and local Facebook presence.
- ☐ Cards ordered with QR code to the review link; door hangers printed for the two-doors habit.
- ☐ Week's spend stays inside the money planned in the startup lesson.
Week 3: the warm fifty and the first jobs
- ☐ Launch message sent to the warm fifty; one gentle follow-up after four days.
- ☐ First jobs booked at full price, treated as product development: walk-through ritual, agreement page, change-order sentence said out loud, every finish photographed, review asked in the driveway.
- ☐ Door hangers left at the two adjacent doors and across the street at every job, no exceptions, including jobs for friends.
- ☐ Platform spending capped at the one-typical-job ceiling; judged on booked revenue at month end, not activity.
Week 4: compound it
- ☐ Follow-up text sent to every client from weeks one through three, each with one specific next-job suggestion based on what you saw in their house.
- ☐ Every satisfied client asked, by name, for one introduction to an agent or property manager.
- ☐ Before-and-after photos posted to the local groups with plain captions.
- ☐ Counted what you built: clients, reviews, referral conversations, booked revenue against spend.
The month-end decision rules
| Reading | Move |
|---|
| Calendar thin, leads responding, reviews climbing | Hold prices; widen the two-doors and referrer habits; give it another month (compounding bends upward in the two-to-four-month window, field pattern). |
| Calendar full, effective rate below target | Pricing or geography is leaking: repair via the money and scheduling lessons. |
| Phone entirely silent after real effort | Reread the hard-truths lesson before deciding anything; check whether week six is doing what week six does. |
Season checkpoint: launch timing bends the plan, it does not break it. Spring through fall favors exterior work (gutters, caulking, touch-up paint, punch lists); winter favors interior jobs and the property-manager turnover lane. Weight the menu toward the season you are in.