Customer Reviews

Handyman's Handbook : The Complete Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Business

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is weak. It's billed as "The complete Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Business". Actually, there's not much info on starting or running a business.

Most of the book is filled with lists of different categories of tools and hardware and their descriptions. Pages 43 to 171 out of 253 (chapters 7 thru 39) of the book just list different tools and harware with descriptions.

I'm thinking of starting a handman business. I'm most concerned with the business side of things - i.e. how to estimate costs so that I don't lose money on jobs or leave money on the table. What kind of insurance I need. Where to find customers. What records I need to keep... The info in this book on the business end of things is woefully inadequate. The author devotes a whopping three pages to "how much to charge" - chapter 42. The first of two paragraphs on 'fixed price' jobs starts out "You look at a job and try to guess how long it will take.", and goes downhill from there in my opinion. HELLO!!! There are estimating manuals for handymen that have accurate costs for virtually any job.

He devotes a whopping two pages to "record keeping and finances".

Maybe 30 pages of 253 address issues related to "starting and running a handyman business". You could bump that number up closer to 40 if you want to include chapter 53 - "Clothing for the Handyman" and chapter 54 - "Food and Excersize".

On the plus side, I do like his suggestion for cleaning paint roller covers. I'll use that idea.

If you think you are going to run a contracting business with no overhead forget it.Go ahead and try and find jobs without advertising.Hmm why without advertising.Because if you try and advertise ,and don't have a contractors license and liability insurance.All those people who do have them and pay thousands a year for the privilege will be turning you in so fast your nail gun will spin.Unless you live in the Boonies ,most Counties and Towns require rafts of paper work and other license, before you can pull a nail in someone's home.The days of Gommer the fixit man are over because we live in such a litigious society,liability insurance is a must and it costs thousands.There is really no way to start a contracting business on the cheap and run it in a professional manner.this seems to be the case with most of these start your own contracting or repair business books out there.They forget about or gloss over the whole liability issue, like it's no big deal.You damage someone's home or property and you will see what a big deal it becomes.I am not a contractor ,I have a small 3 bay auto repair shop , and my liability runs almost 20 thousand a year.That's quite a big bite for a guy just starting out.Even if you stay away from large jobs,say a customer wants you to install a new window ,in most towns that would require a contractors license,check it out well before you just jump in.It takes a lot more then just the tools and the knowledge of how to use them to run a home improvement business.

This book will not help you start a handyman business. It is all about the authors ramblings concerning his work clothes, tools, hardware and not at all about how to run the business. Anyone interested in running a handyman company will already know the technical side, and really what the author even provides there is useless. The business side is why I bought the book and it is not there.

Not very informative for anybody that has any handyman skills to begin with. Would be ok for somebody that has no skills whatsoever. Has nothing to do with "Starting and Running a Successful Business". I might give it to my kids because that is all it is really is good for. Very disappointed!

This book touches on quite a number of topics you will need to consider should you decide to undertake incorporating "handymanism" into your life as a vocation or part time avocation. It does not delve too deeply into any of the topics, but gives you a good starting point from which you can decide whether further investigation into that topic is warranted for your interests. I do have a few disappointments in the book. Two areas not touched upon are insurance and licensure, and how/where to seek advice or to purchase them. I think additional chapters covering each item would be a significant improvement to the book. Another, albeit minor, omission in my opinion is the lack of a couple of suggested layout sketches for arrangement of tools/materials in a generic van and/or pickup.
Overall, I found the book to be a good place to start and it did provoke questions for additional consideration in my own mind which I would want to address before embarking on this new career path.

This book I thought was dumbed down to the point of sad. All the info in it was, and should be, known by anyone remotely knowledgable about houses and handyman type work. It seems to have been written for the high school drop-out needing a direction. I would not recommend unless that person was completly clueless.

Even if you don't end up starting a business of your own, this is a very useful book. The material is very well organized, and it's easy to find the information you need.
I found Chapter 4,on "Acquiring Knowledge and Skills" especially helpful for a beginner like me.

Anyone who is starting a handyman business and doesn't already know the elementary information provided in this book is NOT smart enough to own and operate their own business.
There is a much better book out there geared towards contractors, but the information is much more useful. This book is a waste of money.

A thoroughly entertaining book. Helpful reading for the hapless homeowner as well as the would-be handy-person, far more understandable than the more technical and impersonal expositions of the how-to genre. Lots of useful tips and personal anecdotes on how to get jobs done. The simple hand drawings are great for understanding and selecting tools.

The book is written clear and down-to-earth.
It is being very helpful.
It arrived in brand new condition even though I expected it to be used-I was pleasantly surprised.
My only small complaint is that I didn't find anywhere the author mentioning liability insurance as may be needed for this line of business.

Thank you.