Stay Solo or Hire Employees? Here’s How to Decide

After interviewing Rick McFadden and Bryan Clayton on my podcast – two guys who have scaled their home services businesses, I’ve been thinking a lot about the pros and cons of hiring employees.

Is it worth the effort and stress?

And since I’m certain I’m not the only one, I decided to write about the topic in-depth.

So, in this podcast & article, I’ll dive into the advantages and disadvantages of hiring employees vs running a solo handyman business.

I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Please comment at the bottom of this article to share your opinion.

Let’s start with the advantages of each.

Listen to the podcast version of this article, which includes extra content. Listen right here or on your favorite podcast app!

HS042 – Should You Hire Employees or Stay Solo?

The advantages of staying solo

#1 – It’s Enjoyable

Being a handyman is the most enjoyable job I’ve had, which is why I continue to do it. I get to work with my hands, buy new tools, build relationships with my customers, do something new every day, and customers pay me with a smile. Jobs are short, so looming stress is rare.

Sure, sometimes I’m doing something repetitive or boring, or I forget an essential tool and that puts me behind schedule and stresses me out, but for the most part, it’s a great career. I certainly enjoy it more than sitting in front of a computer.

#2 – It’s Healthy

Providing handyman services is relatively low-stress once your business is established and you get your systems down. Stress is a big killer in America, so this isn’t a small benefit.

Providing handyman services is also an active job without being too labor intensive. You get to keep moving all day without breaking your back, carrying heavy loads, digging with a jackhammer, or working in uncomfortable positions for long periods.

Lowering your stress and living an active lifestyle not only makes you feel better but it lowers your chances of diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases of modernity.

Then, there is the social component of the job. As social creatures, we humans need healthy relationships with others. We also need to feel needed. As a handyman, you get both of these things.

Less stress, more activity, and connection with others = better health.

#3 – Flexible Schedule

As a solo handyman, if you need some time off, you can take it. Your business won’t crumble to pieces while you’re gone.

But when you hire employees, the stakes are a bit higher. Other people are relying on you to make tough decisions and put out fires. If you get burned out, you might not have a choice to take time off. You are fully committed. In many ways, that commitment is a good thing. It will keep you motivated and help you push through challenges you otherwise wouldn’t. But that may come with a hefty dose of stress, working long hours, and burning yourself out. Of course, once you get to the point where you have good people around you managing the day-to-day of your business, then you can take more time off. But, there will inevitably be stages where taking a break isn’t optional.

A solo handyman business wins regarding the flexibility of your schedule.

#4 – It’s easy (relatively)

Starting any business is challenging because you not only have to work hard and make good decisions, but you also have to overcome setbacks and win the mental game.

However, when comparing the two, scaling a business is clearly more difficult than starting a one-person show. There is more risk, tough decisions, and pitfalls along the journey when employees are involved.

As a one-person handyman business, all you have to manage is yourself and the customer’s expectations.

#5 – It’s a fast path to profits and more leisure time.

Once you get your solo business up and running, which can be done in a matter of months with strategic effort, you can enjoy extra free time and control over your schedule.

During the first several years of scaling a business, you will likely need to work hard six or seven days a week.

Working solo is also a much faster way to a six-figure income because scaling a business requires investing much of your profits into growth, meaning a longer timeline of several years before you can have a high income, and even then, it will be limited by your motivation to grow.

When working solo, any business growth immediately translates to higher income.

Overall, a one-person handyman business is a great career with many benefits, but let’s look at the advantages of hiring employees.

The advantages of hiring employees

#1 – Higher Income Potential

One of the main reasons to scale a business is to make more money, and who doesn’t want to make more money?

As a solo handyman, you can make a solid income of well over $100,000 per year if you dial in your marketing, pricing, and specialties. But, no matter how well you dial in your business, you’ll always be limited by how much time you can work.

If you scale your business and hire employees, the income potential exponentially increases. If you go big enough, there’s no reason you couldn’t make $1M per year in profit, although I’m sure that is rare.

So, the income potential is higher, but that isn’t guaranteed, and it often means making less money for several years while you invest in your business to grow it. Growing a business is always a game of delayed gratification.

#2 – Passive Income (more leisure time)

You can make more money when you hire employees, and that money can be made passively once you get to a certain point.

This is more difficult than it’s made out to be in books like “The 4-hour Workweek,” but once you get good systems and people in place, you can take a step back from your business and let other people run the day-to-day. You can go golfing, fishing, or whatever you enjoy doing with that extra time.

As a solo handyman, you must always work to generate income. If you enjoy the work, this can be a good thing. I’ve seen handymen work into their late 80s or 90s and love what they do. They have a sense of purpose and connection, which many retirees struggle to find. Consistent movement keeps their bodies and minds younger. And, it provides a supplementary income for retirement.

Because of these benefits, many people start a handyman business after they retire!

#3 – You can hire people to do things you don’t like

As a solo handyman, in addition to providing handyman services, you’ll follow up with customers, schedule jobs, collect payment, shop for materials, estimate jobs, market your business, and more.

But once you have a team in place, you can delegate the things you don’t enjoy to people better suited for those tasks – allowing you to work on more challenging (and potentially interesting) problems related to growing the business.

You can also outsource tasks as a solo handyman, such as bookkeeping, marketing, and even phone answering. The only challenge is that justifying these expenses is more difficult because they quickly eat into your profits.

#4 – You are building an asset you can sell

A business with good systems and employees is much more valuable than a one-person handyman business if you ever need an exit strategy.

You can sell a solo handyman business, and I’ve seen it done. It’s just not nearly as valuable.

#5 – Higher Status

While being a pro handyman is an enjoyable and well-paying career, it’s not considered a high-status job in America. However, owning a successful business with a dozen employees is.

As much as I’d like to say that chasing high status is a fool’s errand, I can’t help but recall the book Behave by Robert Sapolsky, where he digs deep into this topic and concludes that, in general, higher status leads to better health, longevity, and a sense of well-being.

So, scaling a business has some compelling benefits. You can make more money, have more leisure time in the long run, eliminate tasks you don’t like, and potentially get more respect.

But are the extra benefits worth the effort?

Let’s start with money.

It’s hard to argue that having less money is better than having more. Money can solve many modern problems and reduce or eliminate many stressors. For example, a new mother who can afford a full-time nanny will likely be healthier and happier than a mother who has to do it alone.

When your car breaks down and you’re faced with a huge repair bill, having enough money can be the difference between a minor inconvenience and something that takes months to recover financially and emotionally.

There are thousands more examples like this.

So, I think it’s safe to assume that having more money is better.

But that doesn’t mean it’s worth the blood, sweat, and tears to attain more money if you already have enough to live a good life.

How many people have sacrificed the best years of their lives doing things they didn’t enjoy just to retire rich, bored, miserable, and without a purpose? Chances are you probably know somebody like this.

How often do you see someone spending all of their time stressed out about work so that they can afford nice cars and big houses?

How much time are you willing to sacrifice with your kids now (when they need you most) so you can spend more time with them later?

Again, I think having more money is better than less, but at what expense?

So, that leads us to the question – Is the additional risk, time, stress, and effort of scaling a handyman business worth the additional money?

If you enjoy the work required to build a business, don’t have kids, and, as Bryan Clayton says, “have a fire in your belly,” I think the answer is yes, it’s worth the effort.

But for others, the answer is less clear.

Are you falling victim to the Arrival Fallacy?

One of the most challenging psychological biases to overcome is the Arrival Fallacy – the illusion that you will attain lasting happiness and fulfillment once you accomplish a specific goal.

You know the arrival fallacy is playing its trickery when you think, “Once I get X, I’ll live happily ever after.”

So often, people are fooled by the arrival fallacy and end up sacrificing years of their lives to achieve a goal that only brings temporary satisfaction.

Sometimes, achieving our goals makes us more durable happiness, but that is usually only if you eliminate a significant stressor. Getting out of an abusive relationship, eliminating a long and stressful commute, or solving a nagging health issue are examples. Quitting my soul-destroying 9-5 seems to have had a lasting impact on my happiness.

But, if your goal is to have more (respect, wealth, freedom, a bigger house, etc.), then there’s a good chance the arrival fallacy is fooling you.

Once you get more money, it may feel good for a while, but you’ll adapt and need more to get another hit of pleasure.

Getting recognized by your peers will feel great, but that moment is fleeting, and you’ll have to achieve bigger things to get more recognition.

I can give you a million more examples, but the point is that there is no finish line, regardless of how our minds like to convince us otherwise.

This isn’t an argument to keep your business solo, avoid setting goals, or sit around thinking everything is pointless. Instead, it’s an argument to focus on the process vs. the outcome. Or, said another way, live your life how you think life should be lived right now instead of waiting for that next thing to be acquired or accomplished.

Instead of asking, “What do I want to have or accomplish?” Ask, “How do I want to spend my constructive time, and with whom?”

If the answer is managing people, working behind a desk, and evaluating spreadsheets, then definitely scale your business. There is nothing wrong with that.

But if the answer is something else, then do that as much as you can.

Passive Income/Retirement Isn’t All Sunshine and Roses

One thing glorified in the last decade is passive income and getting to the point where work is optional. This is just another example of how powerful the Arrival Fallacy can be.

Passive income is great. Again, more money is better than less money. But there’s very little logic with this mindset.

Think about it. Your goal is not to have to work anymore. To get there, you’re going to spend years doing a LOT of work you probably don’t enjoy, so you can one day stop doing that work completely. You’re essentially working more, so you can work less.

Does this make sense to you?

And if that’s not enough, even if you accomplish your goal of early retirement or financial freedom, what will you do with all that time?

Golf? Go to the beach? Fish? Hunt? Mountain bike? Ski? Spend more time with your kids?

Those are all great things, but there are two more problems.

First, you’re going to be lonely. Your kids will be in school most of the time, and your friends are likely still working or busy with their lives.

Secondly, suppose you achieve the goal of passive income early. In that case, you’re probably a type A personality, and you won’t be able to sit on the sidelines while watching everyone else progress in life. Despite your massive successes, you’ll start to feel like a failure. You’ll feel a dulling of your abilities. You’ll miss the sense of progress. You’ll probably set a bigger goal and continue working because that’s the only thing that feels meaningful.

I’m not saying that achieving financial freedom isn’t worth it. I’m saying that investing massive amounts of time doing things you don’t enjoy to get there is often a mistake.

It makes much more sense to follow your interests. Find a career that interests and stimulates you. Do what you enjoy. Maybe that is scaling a business, maybe it’s repairing and fixing stuff, or maybe it’s something completely different.

What’s your stress tolerance?

The ideal way to approach any large endeavor, like growing a business, is to put in the effort without getting attached to the results. Be OK with things failing. Never get too attached to a positive outcome.

Play the game to win, but don’t lose your head when things don’t go your way.

I’ve met some business owners who have this laid-back approach. Somehow, they have enough motivation to methodically show up to work every day, but can maintain a “this isn’t life and death” attitude. They have a dozen balls in the air and sleep soundly at night.

Personally, that’s not so easy for me. If I have the drive to win, that’s because I really want it, and setbacks or having too many balls in the air destroys my sleep quality.

This is probably one of the most important things to consider. Suppose you can maintain the right attitude and avoid getting overly stressed but still have enough motivation to push through the challenges. In that case, you can likely have all of the upsides of scaling your business without the age-accelerating stresses.

Do it for the money or follow your passion?

There is often a conflict between obtaining money and doing what you enjoy.

Sometimes, these two things align, which is amazing. Someone may love the process and challenge of building businesses and, as a result, naturally grow wealth without feeling like they are working or sacrificing. They get to do work they enjoy and make lots of money.

But more often, the two don’t align, making things more complicated.

Someone may love woodworking and have a great small business building custom furniture for people. However, their desire for more money may eventually trap them in an office managing their business and other people instead of working with their hands.

We all need a certain amount of money to live our lives in a way we enjoy, and sometimes that requires sacrifices. But, before you decide to go after the money, I think it’s good to answer the following question:

“If you didn’t need the money, how would you spend your time?”

Conclusion

Running a solo handyman business is an excellent option if you love working with your hands and want a flexible schedule with relatively low stress.

Scaling a handyman business is a great option if you want more money and a bigger challenge and don’t mind a much larger commitment and more office work.

Either way, systemizing and optimizing your business in such a way that would allow you to hire employees profitably is always a good idea.

So what do you think? Is staying solo or hiring employees the better option for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.