Starting up a Property Maintenance & Handyman Services business

[birchy67]

Hi All,
My name is Geoff & I am in the process of starting my own Property Maintenance & Handyman business. This is an exciting time for us & I'm looking forward to getting started asap.

Wanting to own & operate my own business is something I have been wanting to do for some time now, but after my wife had our 1st child a few years ago the security of the excellent paying job that I am still employed in at the moment put starting up a new business on hold. Some of you may say why leave an excellent paying job to start up a new business?, But my current job I work away from home & only see my family 2 days a week, so life is going to be very different for us shortly, but in a good way!

My wife & I have registered the business as a PTY LTD company. We decided with the company structure as our plans for the future are to expand the business & eventually have a fleet of hopefully 3 or 4 vans working for us. We've received our ACN but are still waiting for the ATO to issue us with our ABN; So untill then we are at a bit of a stand still as far as getting the printing done of our business cards, flyers to be sent out etc, as we want these things to have our ABN on them. We have just purchased a work van last weekend & have the majority of all the tools & equipment that is required to get started.

Being new to business it would be great to get some feedback, especially from anyone out there who has done or knows someone who has managed to build & operate a highly successful property maintenance/handyman business. There are so many questions I have, but instead of asking them all now I will see if some of my questions are shown as advice on here.

Look forward to hearing from anyone who can offer any sort of advice.

Regards
Geoff

[GWMaintenance]

Hi Geoff, sounds like you've got it all planned out and well done on taking the steps to start your own business. Its incredibly hard to leave a secure job to start something new!

I have a similar business to what you are starting so feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any questions about the work.

What area are you in?

[ImprovisAsian]

GWM can probably elaborate further, but just as a heads up, the refurbishment I'm managing for a block of apartments for a strata company had required the builder/contractor to provide Home Warranty Insurance, so that may be something to think about when quoting when you tackle the bigger maintenance jobs.

Regards,

Ivan

[Chris - Marketing]

Hi, I'm with Ivan make sure you have your insurance is totally organised. Make sure HSE (PPE and JSA are completed) is abided by.
Also what surprises me the most is that when clients arrive to pay me for advice the first issue I identify is that they still think like wage earners.
-they haven't factored in travelling and quoting times
-their charge rate is way too low (they might as well work for wages), admin time, telephones, car maintenance, overdraft fees just to name a few.
-correct invoicing collecting as much detail about your client (future marketing). Job descriptions, products used per meter charged...etc... all this becomes research and as your business grows it will help you define and profile of clients, most profitable jobs and steer your business growth.

Exciting times...get your insurance and start working immediately.

Chris Poulios
www.satisfaction-marketing.com.au
www.webthreads.com.au

[ImprovisAsian]

In addition to Chris' response, for insurances, check with governing bodies or such as they normally have a broker that can offer better rates. For example, I used the broker via AIPM which gave a lower premium as they know what I'm actually doing in the business.