I’d love to tell you that starting a handyman business is easy as setting up a website, putting up ads on Craigslist, and slapping “Bob’s Handyman Services” on your truck.
This is certainly a good start, but if you want to have a profitable and enjoyable handyman business, then you’ll need to learn the strategies for doing that.
The truth is that some handymen work very hard, dirty jobs that nobody wants for table scraps.
Others, who understand marketing, positioning, and the tools necessary to attract the right customers can easily make a six-figure income while demanding respect and doing projects they enjoy.
How can you get into the latter group?
It starts with targeting the right customers.
So in this article, I’ll teach you how to identify the target market for your handyman business so you can build a thriving business that you actually enjoy.
In a previous article, I discussed how to evaluate your skills and determine which services to offer. If you haven’t done that yet, I recommend you do it because understanding your current skill set will help with this exercise.
Let’s jump right in.
The importance of identifying the right target market
Most successful small businesses don’t become successful by trying to please everyone. They become successful by becoming the best option for a specific group of people.
For example, Walmart is heavily focused on the price conscientious shopper. Their whole business model is based on having the lowest prices.
Apple has taken the opposite approach. They are a premium brand that focuses on creating solutions for people who want the best of the best and aren’t as concerned with price.
Some people love Walmart and hate Apple. Other people love Apple and hate Walmart.
Some people love Apple, but can’t afford it. Some people love Walmart’s prices but hate the shopping experience.
Hotels are another great example.
Some people will spend three hours shopping for the cheapest hotel, often spending hours just to save a few bucks per night. Many motels do their best to have the lowest price to serve these customers. Other people are glad to pay $1,000+ per night to stay at the Four Seasons and would never consider staying at a Motel 8. Then, there are all the different levels in between.
Everyone has a different set of values and a different view of the world which affects what they are willing to buy.
When it comes to hiring contractors or handymen, there are people who don’t have much money and will only hire a handyman if absolutely necessary. When they do hire a pro, they find the cheapest option available.
Then, there are more affluent customers who have more money than free time and are happy to pay $100+ per hour to have someone handle minor repairs on a regular basis. These customers may not be totally insensitive to price, but they are certainly willing to pay more.
But even beyond the willingness to pay for services, there are a million other ways to differentiate customers, and each group of customers values slightly different things in a handyman.
For example, a stay-at-home mom is going to value trust over skill level. They’ll often hire someone less skilled as long as they feel safe with the pro in their house.
One of the keys to having a profitable and enjoyable business is to identify an ideal customer who is willing and able to pay for your services, and then design your business so it aligns perfectly with their values and needs.
But before you can design your services for a specific customer, you first need an idea of who that is. Answering the questions below is a good start to doing so.
You can also listen to the podcast on this subject which includes:
- A step-by-step method to help you reach your ideal customers.
- The importance of targeting the right customers.
- How you can eliminate time-wasting customers by simply filtering them with your marketing content.
- How to target real estate agents with laser precision.
- How I identified a target market for my handyman business.
Who needs your services?
List people that may need your services. No, not individual people, but groups of people. This can include groups of people such as single women, the elderly, property owners, or apartment complexes for example. There are thousands of options here.
It’s OK to be general right now, but later we’re going to want to define these groups more specifically.
One example could be a single businesswoman, 25-40 years of age, with an annual income of $100K+ that works 40-60 hours per week. This is an excellent target customer because they are very busy and don’t have time for home repairs, but have enough money to pay for them.
Brainstorm a list of whoever else you can think of and write it down.
Why do they need your services?
People don’t just go out and hire a Handyman because they are bored (unless you are offering those types of services as well).
Most are looking for somebody to solve a problem that they can’t solve. This can be for a number of reasons including lack of skill, or even better, lack of time. They may even hire you to upgrade their kitchen because they are in an unspoken competition with their best friend who just remodeled their kitchen. They have an irrational need to outdo their friend.
Put some thought into why they need your services because it will give you hints on how motivated they may be to hire you. The more motivated, the better.
Pro Tip
Understanding why your customers need your services is powerful knowledge. It not only helps identify potential customers but helps you sell your services effectively.
What services do those customers need?
If you are targeting the elderly, they are going to want different services than an overworked single mother. You’re going to need to offer handicap ramp maintenance and elderly assistance hardware (grab bars) as opposed to drywall repair and childproofing.
If you are targeting wealthier clients, you’d be surprised at how often they will hire you to simply hang pictures, shelves, TVs, or mirrors on the wall.
Who needs the services that you are best at?
Another way to approach this is to first define your skills, and then figure out which customers need those skills the most.
Who will pay you a profitable rate?
This is a great question to ask to refine your target market.
Just because somebody needs your services doesn’t mean they can afford them. You’ll have a really hard time making a profit if your ideal customer is on food stamps. Now, there’s nothing wrong with helping people, but if you started this business to make money, then you’ll want to set it up so that’s actually possible.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last ten years in this industry is that most successful home service businesses are designed to serve more affluent clients. They have a focus on quality instead of price, and they let the “cheaper” customers either DIY or hire unlicenced friends to help them.
Who do you want to work for?
This might be the most important question to ask yourself. The income from working for wealthy old ladies could be higher, but you’ll be dealing with a picky and demanding crowd.
Working for property owners or apartment complexes will usually mean lower profits, but the work will be more consistent and you’ll rarely have someone looking over your shoulder while you work.
Maybe you are dedicated to Christianity or another religion and would prefer to serve people with similar beliefs. If that’s the case, then targeting customers from your church is probably your best option.
These are just a few examples of many to illustrate the point. The key is to do some brainstorming for yourself to figure out who you would enjoy working for most.
Conclusion
Once you understand who needs your handyman services, what services they need, and why they need them, marketing your services becomes far easier.
But the benefits of identifying your ideal customer go beyond just marketing. It allows you to craft every feature of your services to fit their needs to a “T.” The better you fit their needs, the more likely they are to pay you higher rates and hire you repeatedly.
Once you have your ideal customer figured out, you will use that information to determine everything from how much to charge to what advertising methods to use.
Just don’t make the mistake of trying to appeal to everyone. You’ll end up suffering emotionally and financially if you do.
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