Coming up with an Hourly Rate for Your Handyman Business

One of the first questions a potential customer will ask you is what is your hourly rate. You need to have you answer ready before you speak with your first customer.

There are a few ways to come up with an hourly rate. In the beginning you may want to call other Handymen in your area and find out what they are charging. Prices around my area ( San Francisco Bay Area in California) range from $25 an hour (way to low) to $125.00 per hour (too high to quote as an hourly rate). I can show how to make $125 and hour or more using a few techniques that add perceived value to your business. (There is complete details about this subject in the Handyman Success eBook available through this website)

When I am asked that question my response is "I don't work by the hour, I work by the job". Its best to stick with that once you are experienced enough to know what jobs cost to do.

If you are more comfortable working hourly (which will be the case for many people in the beginning), you should price yourself somewhere in the mid price range of what you survey other businesses hourly rates. You don't want to start out low in the beginning because you will have a very hard time raising rates to those same customers later.

Establishing a Minimum Service Charge for Your Business

As a Handyman your are a valuable business person in your community and you should be compensated as one. Early on in your business you should establish a minimum service charge for any work that you do.  Only you can decide what your minimum service charge will be. Keep in mind all of the expenses associated with doing the work you do. You have to pay for advertising, promotional materials, company shirts, company vehicles, fuel, insurance, licensing fees, cell phone, etc. so you need to make sure that every time you are doing a job you are being compensated for not only your labor but all that goes into running a Handyman Business.

A guideline to establish a minimum service charge for your Handyman Business would be 2 hours of your hourly rate plus any overhead that you need to be compensated for. The eBook "How to Start and Run a Successful Handyman Business" goes into this in a little more detail.

Using Special Offers to Get in Front of New Customers

There is a technique that I used in the past that worked very well for getting new customers. What I would do was advertise a special item with an unbelievable offering (i.e. Security Door Supplied and Installed for $99, Smoke Detector Batteries Replaced for Free, etc) just to get in front of customers so I could sell myself. On these jobs you are not going to make much money (at the time they had a Security Door Special at Home Depot for $48, so I make a tiny amount on that one) but its one of the most effective ways to get your foot in the door. 

     If you show up on time, do a good job, clean up, act polite, and show a real interest in serving your customer there is a great chance they are going to have you come back and do more work. Good reliable service people in this industry are hard to find and people are always happy when they find a jewel. Not only are they going to have you back but they are going to tell their friends and neighbors about you. Each new customer you convert is worth thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.