Handyman fees / self employed?

Diddums x

Diddums x

Diddums x

Caporegime
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24 Oct 2012
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26,183
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Yer nan's knickers
As I'm sure you're all aware, I've currently got lots of time off during which I would like to study. Now given that my day job is basically fixing things all day long and the courses I'm interested in only start next year, I'm considering starting a little something on the side just to earn a bit of extra until I can get my head in the books.

I'd be doing a handyman sort of thing, but I don't really know what would be reasonable to charge.

I'd need to factor in:

  • Travel. Do I charge a fee for this?
  • Hourly rate.
  • Materials. I'd most likely start up a business account with B&Q or something and use that. How much would be fair to add on top of their rates?

I'll probably expand this thread as I figure this all out, the only time I've ever been self employed in the past was installing ceilings and that was many years ago and with others who usually helped with my paperwork.

My plan of attack is:

  • Start a website (already have a name and own the domain)
  • Print off business cards and flyers (utilizing as many free promos as I can from various firms. I also have various off licences and shops around me which would be happy to let me leave my flyers on their counter)
  • Get a couple of shirts with a logo on them. I can use the rest of my day to day work uniform as there are no logos on it.
  • Buy a couple of tools, I have most of what I need so should be able to get the rest for under £100
  • Register as self employed. My sister in law is an accountant but she lives in South Africa so it's something worth considering, although the distance and differing tax laws between here and there might confuse things.
  • Sort out insurance - haven't put much thought into this one yet.

I can't think of anything else. I have the right mentality for this and am very approachable as far as sales and advice goes so I think I might just be able to pull it off, and if not, then it's just a lesson learned which has cost me no debt or large amounts of money. I can literally get this off the ground starting on Monday for less than £500.

I do want this done right. I don't want to be a fly-by-night racket who just disappears after jobs, I want recurring business and happy customers.


Only thing is, what do I charge, and am I missing anything?
 
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Having just done the same but not the same trade I can tell you what you are looking at eg website etc is not important, no one will find it, it's not likely to pop up on the first page of google.

I'd maybe invest in a checkatrade account but that's £500 a year
Get some cards, you can get some free, it really doesn't matter you're not a character in American Psycho
Talk to people and do small jobs and ask them to rate you
Don't charge for travel just build it into a price
Buy the tools you need and buy quality tools
 
Materials you should get from proper suppliers not B&Q, most of everything they sell is junk
Get a little sign made up and put it outside every job you are doing, I know people who have years of work in the same street
 
Cheers Macca. I only used that as an example, I'll most likely use Travis Perkins or something, B&Q is a bit pants and not something I'd want to put my reputation on :p
 
Public liability insurance if you're working in peoples homes and PI insurance if you can get it. PL is dirt cheap for good cover and worth considering
 
maccapacca said:
Why does he want PI? he's not designing anything or giving advice.

AON do a nice little policy for new start ups that has to be reviewed every so often.

http://insurance.aon.co.uk/business/insurance/construction/tradesman-insurance
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So he's doing small job for someone, accidentaly drills through a gas pipe and causes damage to the house/street/property/possessions etc

I would most certainly not let anyone in my house without the relevant PI insurance, no matter how big or small the job.
 
booyaka said:
So he's doing small job for someone, accidentaly drills through a gas pipe and causes damage to the house/street/property/possessions etc

I would most certainly not let anyone in my house without the relevant PI insurance, no matter how big or small the job.
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That's because you don't know what PI insurance is for
 
Well it entirely depends on the scope of work being undertaken and the value of it. I know several small builders / odd job men with Low level PI insurance.
 
LOAM said:
Well it entirely depends on the scope of work being undertaken and the value of it. I know several small builders / odd job men with Low level PI insurance.
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Well they know as much as you and wasting money or have the wrong insurance.

Public Liability insurance - Public liability insurance covers you against any claims made against your business – for example if you were held legally liable for personal injury, or for damage done to property
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PI is for advice and design for Professional Services.
 
Diddums said:
As I'm sure you're all aware, I've currently got lots of time off during which I would like to study. Now given that my day job is basically fixing things all day long and the courses I'm interested in only start next year, I'm considering starting a little something on the side just to earn a bit of extra until I can get my head in the books.

I'd be doing a handyman sort of thing, but I don't really know what would be reasonable to charge.

I'd need to factor in:

  • Travel. Do I charge a fee for this?
  • Hourly rate.
  • Materials. I'd most likely start up a business account with B&Q or something and use that. How much would be fair to add on top of their rates?

I'll probably expand this thread as I figure this all out, the only time I've ever been self employed in the past was installing ceilings and that was many years ago and with others who usually helped with my paperwork.

My plan of attack is:

  • Start a website (already have a name and own the domain)
  • Print off business cards and flyers (utilizing as many free promos as I can from various firms. I also have various off licences and shops around me which would be happy to let me leave my flyers on their counter)
  • Get a couple of shirts with a logo on them. I can use the rest of my day to day work uniform as there are no logos on it.
  • Buy a couple of tools, I have most of what I need so should be able to get the rest for under £100
  • Register as self employed. My sister in law is an accountant but she lives in South Africa so it's something worth considering, although the distance and differing tax laws between here and there might confuse things.
  • Sort out insurance - haven't put much thought into this one yet.

I can't think of anything else. I have the right mentality for this and am very approachable as far as sales and advice goes so I think I might just be able to pull it off, and if not, then it's just a lesson learned which has cost me no debt or large amounts of money. I can literally get this off the ground starting on Monday for less than £500.

I do want this done right. I don't want to be a fly-by-night racket who just disappears after jobs, I want recurring business and happy customers.


Only thing is, what do I charge, and am I missing anything?
Click to expand...


I hired a tree surgeon recently and he was 500 euro per hour. Get into that. All he did was climb a tree using some rope and loped off a few (lots) branches then returned to the ground to fell the trunk.

That's easy money right there. We have traders here that make the bank millions per year that don't earn 500 euro an hour....
 
When considering fees, don't get digging into minutiae and thinking "what do I charge for this, and that... and what about travel".

Charge per hour what it's going to take to maintain your lifestyle. If travel time will be longer, then include that in the quote that you give to a prospect. Will it take you an hour to even get there? Then it goes into the quote. Take care of number 1. That feeds directly into your confidence -- if you're like "ummm, well, I guess I could do it for..." then you sound weak. A straight, "Yes, that would be..." when you KNOW your figures works wonders. Because you sound confident.

Quote jobs, and stand by the quote. Make sure that's a selling point for you: "I will never budge on a quote." If it ends up that you've messed up and you're not going to meet your personal monetary needs because of run-on work or whatever, then just absorb it and continue to do your best. You can make up for that in the future, but quality work (even at a loss) will pay dividends in reputation over the long run.

Happy customers make for more work. As a freelancer, it's true that a great number of jobs come via word of mouth and referrals, so just make sure that in the early stages you not only do a good job, but you go above and beyond -- be completely friendly, have a chat, take the tea that they offer ("No, sorry, I'm too busy" doesn't ingratiate you with the customer or make you seem like a hard worker. They want you to take the tea and TALK TO THEM) and BE YOURSELF. As long as you deliver on your promises, you'll prosper.

I'll reiterate -- TAKE THE TEA. It's a basic thing that SO many tradesmen miss out on, because they're anxious to get the job over with and move on to the next (ie. to keep making money). But man, take it. Talk to the customer while you sip, ask questions and get them to talk about themselves. Humanise the transaction, and you're on to a winner. They'll speak great things about you, unless you're a total weirdo (but that's where getting them to speak about THEMSELVES comes in -- they'll just remember that it was a great conversation, even if all they did was tell you about their nephew), and your word-of-mouth business will boom. As a handyman, that's your bread and butter.

I'm going to stop as I could go on all day about this. If you want more talk on strategy then give me a shout via Trust. I'll see what I can do to help you. :)
 
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What kind of handyman stuff will you be doing? Painting, repairs, plastering, wallpapering, carpentry, electrics... Etc etc. dependent on what you're doing it will/ should dictate a different rate. Broadly speaking you should charge somewhere between £200 and £300 a day for your time/ labour. Materials at cost plus approx. 20% mark up.

As I said that's just a rough guide. Some handymen charge much less than this as their day rate if the task isn't exactly 'high skilled' and some charge slightly more.
 
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Cheers folks, some excellent advice. I'll probably start on Monday, need to buy a few bits over the weekend and get registered and insured. I'll call that insurance company later and see what they say.

Then it's the hard part of getting customers!
 
Day rate for a new unqualified handyman? £80 a day going up to £120-140 as you gain experience and speed.

You aren't a professional, you're a handyman. You'll work much slower than a professional and probably to a lower standard.

You'll need public liability insurance too, you're working in peoples houses. You need to be covered.

Charge by the job, not by the hour, square metre or by the day. You should always charge by the job.
 
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I've been doing this for donkeys years, albeit in offices in central London so I'm probably safe to charge a bit more than an unskilled handyman ;)

I'll call that insurance firm in a bit.
 
Pestilence said:
I'll reiterate -- TAKE THE TEA. It's a basic thing that SO many tradesmen miss out on, because they're anxious to get the job over with and move on to the next (ie. to keep making money). But man, take it. Talk to the customer while you sip, ask questions and get them to talk about themselves. Humanise the transaction, and you're on to a winner. They'll speak great things about you, unless you're a total weirdo (but that's where getting them to speak about THEMSELVES comes in -- they'll just remember that it was a great conversation, even if all they did was tell you about their nephew), and your word-of-mouth business will boom. As a handyman, that's your bread and butter.
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This is great advice.
 
Mr Jack said:
This is great advice.
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Yes it really is, and its the absolute truth too.

I've taken brews off people even when I've only had one 15 minutes earlier, and I always try to make the time to have a chat either during or more often at the end of a job.

Another important thing in my line of work is to explain in layman's terms what you have done, and how it works...this does wonders for repeat custom.
 
Diddums said:
  • Travel. Do I charge a fee for this?
  • Hourly rate.
  • Materials. I'd most likely start up a business account with B&Q or something and use that. How much would be fair to add on top of their rates?
Click to expand...

From a few recent quotes I've had if you specifically put down you are charging me for travel, you're not getting the job (yes I know others probably build it into rates anyway).

Rate wise, some will offer, hourly rate, daily rate, set price for job.
Depending on the job sometimes I ask for a price for the job itself, if it's something I know will only take a little while I'll ask for the hourly rate. I'd be prepared to work out each and then quote.

As for materials... If I can get the materials cheaper than you then again you won't be getting the job. I had one guy try to hike prices on materials and then charge me for driving to me with the materials, sorry but thats just not on. On the other hand, the plumber I had was cracking, said I was thinking about insulating all pipes, even tho we were using plastic, offerred to get it at his trader rate for me, drove to the suppliers and picked it up and gave me the reciept :)

I always make sure if someones gonna be stuck at my place all day that I'm in, on hand if needed to help with anything load/carry, always try and prep too, like for the plumbing we pulled up the floorboards first so the plumbers didnt have to.

The plasterers were mint when they were here, spot on time pretty much every morning, were there from first thing til beyond "work" hours, didn't see them skiving either they seemed to work right thru the day, eyah they had a few smoke breaks but they weren't taking the mick, and they were canny to talk to as well. So they had regular teas/coffees/sarnies and on friday they got fish n chips :p and they've now done a handfull of jobs from/thru me
 
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