Today's Guest

Dan Perry is an Engineer turned Entrepreneur. He left his Mechanical Engineering job in 2011 to start a successful handyman business. Dan is also the founder of HandymanStartup.com - an online training resource dedicated to helping handymen, plumbers, electricians, and contractors understand business and marketing so they can get more customers, make more money, and gain financial freedom. Dan shares how he started his business and what he learned about marketing that can help any business grow. 

Episode Transcript

(Please excuse grammatical errors due to transcription)

Gordon Henry:             Hey, this is Gordon Henry at Winning on Main Street. And this week we have a really special guest, Dan Perry, the founder of handymanstartup.com. Welcome, Dan.

Dan Perry:                   Hey, thanks for having me, Gordon.

Gordon Henry:             Great to have you. So brief intro on Dan. In 2011, Dan started a handyman business despite having zero business experience, minimal home or repair experience, and in his own words, "No idea what I was doing." By his account, he made all kinds of mistakes, but he kept at it, interviewing successful business owners, reading books, studying psychology and learning wherever and whenever possible, within just six months, Dan replaced the income from his previous engineering job, created a packed schedule, and maybe best of all gained control over his time and found himself happier than he'd ever been while working a nine-to-five job. Ever since he's been sharing what he learned on his website, handymanstartup.com, he's also written the book Turn Your Skills Into Profit: A Step-By-Step Guide to Starting Your Handyman Business. And he hosts a podcast called the Handyman Startup Podcast.

                                   His goal, he says, is to help you accomplish two things, one, start a profitable handyman business that can replace your day job, two, optimize your existing handyman business, if you have one, to boost profits and save time. So as I mentioned in the intro, you did a lot of firsthand research before starting your own business, you interviewed people in the business, you read books, you studied psychology. What did you learn that was so important in starting your own business?

Dan Perry:                   There is a lot of demand out there for things like home services, and it's a very practical business to start. It seems scary, and it seems like, "Oh, I don't have any business experience, and I have to have some sophisticated system in order to do it." And you don't have to be sophisticated. Most people who are doing handyman services are just a dude in a truck with some tools that started with word of mouth, and they're not even doing any marketing or anything. And their business started really slow, and they're probably not nearly as profitable as they could be if they leverage some of the technology and the marketing that's out there, but really, I think the most important thing that I learned, that I would like to share is that the opportunity out there, it's much more attainable than you think it is, you just have to get started, you know?

Gordon Henry:             Mm-hmm. Got to go for it. So I want to delve into a few details. As you said on your website, you convey a tremendous amount of information, there are all sorts of articles, blogs. Some of the things you cover are the following. And I want to maybe briefly address each one of these three items. First of all, advertising, we hear a lot about advertising for small businesses. What are some of your key tips on advertising?

Dan Perry:                   The number one, most important thing you can do is simply be found when one of your customers needs your service, that's called inbound marketing. So somebody out there is Googling handyman, "I need to wall-mount TV. I need to fix a fence." You want your business to show up somehow within that. So if you can leverage online marketing, and there's a lot of ways you could do it, you get social media, YouTube, just a really good, well-optimized SEO website, just online directories. There's a lot of ways you could be found online, but that is the key.

Gordon Henry:             Is it really that easy to get started? How do you find your first handful of customers? Do you do the content creation online that you said before you get your first customers? Or how do you get the ball rolling?

Dan Perry:                   I think number one is, you want to set up your systems first, before you try to fill your schedule. And the reason you want to do that before you start filling your schedule is that you don't want to be doing that and trying to provide good services at the same time. You want to kind of figure that out and get it set up so that when you're doing the services, you can focus more on doing the services. Just getting your name out there and starting to do work while you're also doing as much marketing as you can until your schedule fills. And then once your schedule's filled and you have that consistent flow of leads coming in, then it's just show up and do the work and work on your business in other areas, maybe that's scaling it, maybe that's optimizing your pricing so you can become more profitable in less time, but really, set up those systems before you try to fill your schedule.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah. So my third question in some of those details was, how much should you charge? And I know that's an enormous question, you talk a lot about pricing, but you seem to have a belief that most handymen and contractors undercharge, and that you generally advocate charging more. So maybe just talk us through that.

Dan Perry:                   So I wouldn't say that most contractors undercharge, but I will say that most handyman who are starting their business and have been in business for less than five years undercharge for their services. So when you're starting your business, inevitably you come into it with an employee mindset usually, first off. So you might be more making 28, $30 an hour, maybe $50 an hour at your job. So that's a tough question. Number one, you have to charge enough to be profitable and make enough money to support your lifestyle. And usually that's at least $50 an hour, but usually about 80, $85 an hour is where you want to be.

Gordon Henry:             What about insurance? Should you have insurance?

Dan Perry:                   Definitely, yes. Just because it protects the customer as well. If you mess up the customer's house and you can't pay for it, like we flood their whole house, the customer might be screwed as well, because they're hiring an unlicensed handyman to work on their house. So that's not a good thing, but it also protects you in the event that you might get sued or your customer might get injured while you're working there, like trip on a cord or something, you never know.

Gordon Henry:             Got it. Should a handyman be a generalist or a specialist?

Dan Perry:                   The thing about handyman, the value there is that customers don't have to work with 20 different people. So a lot of times the right customer is going to be very happy to hire you, pay you a high rate, just because you can do everything and they can just be like, "All right, I want you to do this, this, this, and this. And then I'm going to leave you to it. Let me know how much it is. Thanks for your help." The main benefit of a handyman is saving time. So there's a lot of value there. However, if you specialize, get your marketing dialed in, that's, that's where you can make a lot more money.

Gordon Henry:             We're going to continue our conversation with Dan Perry just a minute, but first a word from our friend Giuseppe Grammatico. Are you tired of working a dead-end job, maybe missing family events and not feeling fulfilled? Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, is here to help you figure out if a franchise can help create the life of your dream so that you can finally achieve financial and time freedom. Giuseppe brings 20 years of experience owning businesses and working with families, business owners, and investors to explore franchise ownership. Would you like free copy of Giuseppe's book, Franchise Freedom? You can download it at ggthefranchiseguide.com/book. Again, that's ggthefranchiseguide.com/book. Or maybe you're actually ready to chat and see if Giuseppe can help you on your path. If so, go to ggthefranchiseguide.com/calendar to start things off, and you can get a free conversation with Giuseppe. Again, that's ggthefranchiseguide.com/calendar to start things off.

                                   And we're back with Dan the handyman. And we're going to talk about Dan Perry, and we're going to talk about some of the mistakes Dan made in launching his business. He's obviously become terrifically successful, running two businesses, one a handyman business and one advising others on how to be successful handyman, but you said you made a lot of mistakes when you started your handyman business. Tell us about a few of those mistakes that maybe you look back now and regret, or at least think, "Man, how did I do that?"

Dan Perry:                   Yeah. Well, one of the biggest ones was undercharging, which is why I just talk so much about that. Took on some jobs I shouldn't have done, for sure. Working for customers who are going to question your pricing like that, and not respect your time and not value you as a professional, you're just asking for bad reviews, bad experiences, you're not going to be happy with the work, you're not going to be happy to put your name on it. So a lot of that stuff.

Gordon Henry:             So how do you handle that whole issue of reviews? Is it a matter of finding the right customers, doing the right thing in terms of the work and the pricing and hoping for the best?

Dan Perry:                   Yeah. So reviews are very important. So you try to get people to leave a review if they come to you and they're really happy with your services, you're in an intimate situation where you can say, "Hey, you know what? I'm just getting started. These reviews make a really big impact for me. If you really enjoy my services, I would really appreciate it if you'd jump online and give me a review." It's just really comes down to having good customer service, treating your customers well, doing quality work, and then asking for it, if you can.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah, great advice. We just have a few minutes left. I did want to ask you, going back to your beginnings, you said at the very beginning, you quit your job and launched your handyman service, just went and did it, is that something you recommend for people like, "Quit your job and start the new thing," and do it in the way you described in terms of getting all the foundations ready before you go do the job? Or do you recommend people do this as a side hustle where they're doing a little bit of the handyman stuff on the side to see how it goes before they quit their day job?

Dan Perry:                   Yeah, do it on the side, yes, for sure. Build it up on the side, get it to the point where you feel confident, you have some customers coming in, you have your systems built. And then at that point, quitting your job is so much easier, yeah. But really, I mean, it depends on the person too. Like if you don't have any kids and you got 50,000 saved in the bank and you just hate your job that much and it's literally stressing you out to the point where you hate your life, quit. But if you have kids and you're making 100,000 a year and you need that money and you're not loaded, you don't have this trust fund, you should probably get it going on the side to see if you even like it.

Gordon Henry:             Right. All right, last thing, a quick lightning round here. First of all, is there a mentor or person you learned from to learn your way as you moved up?

Dan Perry:                   I've learned from a lot of people. I mean, Tim Ferris was somebody I followed a lot when I was getting started, but I just read a ton of books, whether it was Robert Cialdini for Influence... I forget what his book is called, Influence, maybe, Pre-Suation, Advertising. I mean, I'd buy people's online courses. I went to seminars, like Brendon Burchard, and I've read a lot of Tony Robbins books. I mean, there's so many people to follow. Mostly books, online courses, and just trying to get... I was motivated. If you have that motivation and that drive, the information's out there, you can't not find advice and mentors if you want to succeed now, they're everywhere, they're going to pop up on your YouTube video when you're just trying to watch something funny, you know?

Gordon Henry:             Yeah. Right.

Dan Perry:                   So just opening up to it, you know?

Gordon Henry:             Okay. As we said, you manage two of these businesses, you've got a lot going on. What's your secret to managing your time?

Dan Perry:                   That's something I've had to work on a lot, that's probably one of the biggest challenges, because with what I do, I have to be very self-motivated. A lot of what I do with my online stuff, not my handyman business, but my online stuff, it requires me to do things proactively when I don't have to, I'm going to do something today that's going to pay off three months from now. So getting myself to do that is very hard. So I have to set up pretty elaborate systems to get myself to do that. Like I go through this process every three months where I set out exactly what I want to focus on, I set out exactly what I think is going to be the most effective way for me to get there. And then I commit to it by signing a accountability contract with my wife, saying, "If I don't do this, I'm going to have to do this. If I don't put in at least eight hours a week on this specific project for the next three months, then I have to do something."

                                   I usually use paint the banister, I don't want to do that at all, that's super boring, but something that's just going to make sure that I show up, because otherwise I'm just like anybody else, I like just sitting there and eating, eating sugar, I'm just like a regular human. So I have to like trick myself into being effective.

Gordon Henry:             Interesting, very good. Hobbies. Do you have a ha a favorite hobby or pastime that you like?

Dan Perry:                   Mountain biking. Yeah.

Gordon Henry:             Mountain biking?

Dan Perry:                   So I do a ton of mountain biking. Actually, I didn't race so much this year, but I've been racing in Durham mountain bikes. It's too dangerous, I shouldn't do that, I have two kids. So that's why I'm easing up, but that's very fun.

Gordon Henry:             Cool. I think I also heard on one of your podcasts, you were talking about going fishing, I think in Alaska or something like that.

Dan Perry:                   Yeah. Well, that was, I just got invited to a fishing trip. So I was like, "Well, I always wanted to go to Alaska, let's do it." You know?

Gordon Henry:             Yeah.

Dan Perry:                   I love the outdoors in general, so happy to get out there.

Gordon Henry:             Yeah, good stuff. How should people learn more about getting involved with you in terms of either making themselves available, or making your services available to them through the Handyman or the courses, what's the best way to learn more about you and what you can offer?

Dan Perry:                   The best way to do that is go to handymanstartup.com. Like I said, there's loads of free articles, you can read a little bit more into it, articles like how much you can expect to make, how to set your pricing, some general guidance on getting started with marketing. Sign up on my email list where I obviously share stuff that's not anywhere else. Those are the best places. I also have a YouTube channel that has a few videos that you can get started. Handyman Startup is the YouTube channel there. Those are, those are the best places, for sure. And then if you want to get in touch with these personally, just reply to one of the emails I send out to through my newsletter.

Gordon Henry:             Okay, awesome. Well, Dan, I want to thank you for stopping by, a great story to tell, and really great having you on the show.

Dan Perry:                   Yeah, thanks for having me, always like connecting with other people and getting to share my story. So hopefully somebody out there finds it valuable and maybe it inspires them to go quit their job they hate and start working with their hands.

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