It just shocks me. Are people really just unaware how much a Google Places listing can help their business? They must be. So many people look to the internet to find products and services now days and that’s no different than someone looking for a handyman. I can’t tell you how many times I ask new customers how they found me and their answer is “I searched for a handyman in Google and you showed up.”

You need to be on Google Places

It’s free, its easy to set up, and it works great. Make sure you fill in as much information as possible. Google seems to like complete business listings. Also, you may not show up very high in your area if there are other listings that have been there for awhile. To help your listing out, get plenty of reviews. Yes, that means you’re going to have to bug people to review you. Go ahead, bug them. Tell them how important they are to your business. You may even need to walk them through it.

Also, if you don’t want to use your home address as the address for your Google Places listing (which you shouldn’t do), I highly recommend getting a mailbox in your area from a business like Mailbox, Etc., Postal Annex, or any other business that rents mailboxes. Do not get a P.O. box. Make sure it’s a physical address mailbox. You can choose one right in the heart of where you want to get most of your customers assuming there’s a business there.

I have already written an article that explains how to set up a Google Places listing here. Check it out and do this immediately. You’ll find more tips like this to help you start a handyman business in my Handyman Business Startup course.

http://handymanbusinessstartup.com

Handyman Business Startup is a new course designed to help anyone who is looking to start a new handyman business. I’ll take you from just the beginning stages of your handyman start-up to the complete profitable operation of your business. I created this course with beginners in mind because so many people have the best intentions when starting their handyman business but they just don’t have a solid plan to work from.

When I started my handyman business back in 2004 it was all trial and error for me. I didn’t know anyone in this business so I really didn’t have any kind of help. Needless to say, I made a lot of mistakes and wasted precious time and money. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone just starting out. It can really wear you down even to the point of calling it quits. Fortunately, I kept pressing on and learning from my mistakes and now I’ve got a profitable, enjoyable handyman business that I run everyday.

Through all the trial and error, I’ve learned the key ingredients to starting and running a successful handyman business. Those key ingredients are found all throughout my new course Handyman Business Startup.

What can you expect to gain by going through the Handyman Business Startup course?

Anyone who goes through the Handyman Business Startup course should have no problem going through all the steps to start their handyman business without any hiccups. If you follow the sections, you should have your handyman business up and running in no time. It’s not enough to just have a handyman business though. That business needs to actually run like a business and bring in money for you and your family. I not only show you how to start your handyman business, but I also show you how to run your handyman business and make it profitable and enjoyable.

The Handyman Business Startup course is a complete course that shows you how to start and run a successful handyman business. I will give you an edge on your competition, and put you years ahead of where you’d be without it. Check it out today at http://handymanbusinessstartup.com.

Do you run a handyman business and need more customers? Do you feel like all your problems would be solved if you could just get the phone to ring more? I know what it’s like to feel like that because I used to have the same problem. My work truck spent too much time in front of my house and not enough time at customers houses. In other words, I wasn’t working enough. I really needed my phone to ring more with eager customers looking for a handyman.

The truth is, it took me a long time to figure out how to get new customers to call me on a daily basis and keep my calendar booked. I tried many marketing methods and most tanked. They ended up being a waste of time and money and I always ended up back where I started. Then, I started to really focus on my marketing efforts. I didn’t dwell on all the things that didn’t work anymore. I was determined to figure out the best methods of marketing my handyman business that would bring in customers day after day and keep my phone ringing.

This didn’t happen over night though. I kept building on what I was doing and learning from the mistakes I had made for so many years. But now I can honestly say I now have more work than I need and I actually have to turn down work.

If you need more customers then you need to do more marketing for your handyman business. There’s no way to run a business and not do any kind of marketing. Believe me, I get a lot of referral business and I love word of mouth but there is still more marketing that has to be done.

I show you exactly what I’m doing to get all of my customers and I even show you how to do it in your own business. I’ll show you this in my Handyman Marketing Pro course. It’s a complete marketing course where I go over my top five marketing methods and how they’re keeping me busy all year long. I’ve created video tutorials that walk you through setting everything up for your business. You can literally pause and play them while you set this stuff up. Isn’t the economy supposed to be down right now? I sure don’t feel it in my business.

Get my Handyman Marketing Pro course today! It’s an unbelievable value for such a low cost and you’ll earn the cost of it back in no time with any one of the five methods alone.

http://handymanmarketingpro.com

The problem

Here’s the thing. You can search the internet all day and all night for handyman rates for your area but you will never truly find the right answer. The problem is, a handyman in one area may get very different rates than a handyman in another area. Handyman rates across the United States and even in other countries are going to vary wildly.

Handyman rates vary

A handyman that services a more affluent neighborhood will be able to charge much higher rates than a handyman that services a lower class neighborhood. There will never be one price for any service or one hourly rate so let me be very clear; handyman rates vary.

When I realized how big of a problem this was and how many handymen were struggling with coming up with pricing for their area I decided to do something about it. I’ve been running a handyman business for quite a few years now so I know how much to charge for my services. I made plenty of mistakes along the way by overcharging and undercharging for various handyman projects.

I knew that handyman rates vary from one location to the next but I wanted to help all the handymen that were having problems with this. After all, I run handymanedge.com to help handymen with their businesses. I like doing it. I took the price list I had for my business (the one that took me years to get right), and modified it in a way that anyone can use it for the area they service. All you have to do is set a few variables in the beginning and you have pricing for your area.

Don’t feel bad if you are having trouble pricing your handyman services. It’s normal and we’ve all gone through it. I remember the days when I didn’t know how much to charge. I was basically going into each estimate blind.

Here’s the solution

I have an answer for you that will solve your handyman pricing problems. It’s the Handyman Price List.

Many handymen across the United States and in Canada and even other countries are using the handyman price list and loving it. It’s easy to use and it will solve your pricing problems.

Get your copy here: http://handymanpricelist.com

Get Your Handyman Business on the Map!

Every City has a Homepage

Every city in the US has it’s own homepage on Handyman Map. That’s good news for you!

As a handyman, your ideal customer is one that is right in your city. We’ve made it easy for customers in your city to find you. When a customer comes to HandymanMap.com they will be shown the homepage for their city. Your handyman business can be featured for your city and displayed right on the homepage. Imagine if you were featured on the front page of google, yahoo, or bing. You know it would be huge for your business.

If someone in your city is searching for a handyman you want to give them the best chance of seeing your business and calling you. That’s what we have focused on.

Offer Coupons to New Customers

Lets face it, other handymen are competing for your potential customers.

Offer coupons to new customers. Stand out from other handymen and give new customers a reason to choose your business.

We feature coupons for each city right on the homepage. This is just another way to get more exposure for your handyman business.

A coupon is a great way to get a new customer!

Add your coupon at HandymanMap.com

Have Quote Requests in Your Area Sent Directly to You

When a home owner requests a quote in your area you have the option to have all quotes sent directly to your email so you can quickly follow up and provide your service to them. It’s just another convenient way that we are connecting home owners to handymen in your city.

It’s All at HandymanMap.com

Visit HandymanMap.com right now to set up your listing. It’s quick, easy, and FREE to get listed on the map!

Sign up at Handyman Map

Create your FREE listing or choose one of our Paid advertising options to really put your handyman business on the map!

Limited Time Offer – All listings on Handyman Map are currently free. There is currently no monthly fee!

You may have questions about running the everyday business side of your handyman service or “on the job” questions that you need answers to. Either way, Handyman Edge – Answers is your solution.

Lets build a strong community of questions and answers for everyone to benefit from. Go ahead and post your question right now. If you know the answer to a question someone else posted, please feel free to provide your answer. If we all work together, we can all have the answers to every one of our handyman questions!

http://answers.handymanedge.com

Take Action

If you haven’t yet started your handyman business then set a specific start date. Don’t wait till everything is perfect and all the stars align in the universe. That time will never come. Don’t put it off another day, week, month or year. If you have been thinking about starting a handyman business, now is the time but it isn’t going to come unless you take action.

Make More Money

If your goal is to make more money in your handyman business this year (who’s isnt?) then set specific goals that will make that happen. Success doesn’t just happen on its own. You need to set yourself up in a way that your goals can be attained. Maybe you need to focus on up-selling to increase your profits. Maybe you just need more customers. Maybe you need to charge more and standardize your pricing with a handyman price list. Make a list of the things that you think will help you earn more money with your handyman business this year and create an action plan that will help you achieve that goal.

Keep in Touch with Your Customers

If your goal for 2011 is to generate more business from repeat customers then start thinking how you are going to do this and write it down. I use email software (Aweber) to keep track all of my customers and email them automatically. I have emails that go out at set times to keep in touch with all of my customers. I only have to set this up once and all of my customers get followup emails asking how everything is going and if they have any projects they need to get taken care of. The best thing about this is it’s all automatic. Every time I get a new customer I put there email address in the system and it starts sending them the emails at specific intervals. I get a lot of calls for work from these emails and it’s only $19 a month. If you are not using something similar you are missing out on a lot of repeat business. Take action now and start keeping in touch with your customers.

Set Your Goals and Achieve Them

The first step to achieving goals is to set them in the first place. Don’t set them in your mind where you can easily forget them. Write them down and put them in a spot where you will see them everyday. Tape them to your computer monitor. Tape them in your work truck or van. Put them in a place that will constantly remind you of what you need to be doing this year.

Make 2011 a year of success for your handyman business!

Narrow your focus

It may seem a little counter intuitive but I would suggest that you narrow your focus and choose a small area to service. It would be best to pick an area close to where you live. When I started out I wanted to cover a pretty large area – and I did. I would have jobs spread out miles and miles apart and drive times that could be an hour at times.

At the time, this just seemed like the best thing to do. I figured if I covered a huge area I would have more jobs than I could handle and life would be good. It seemed to work out fine for quite some time until I realized I was just going too broad. I was trying to cover too large of an area and there really was just no point in it. I was getting tired of driving so far and i really didn’t like having regular customers so far away. Frankly, it was just too much hassle.

It took me a long time to realize that I didn’t need to be doing that. I didn’t need to try to cover such a large area and I really needed to start narrowing my focus.

I decided to narrow down to just one city – the city I live in. A lot of things happened when I finally narrowed my focus to just the city I lived in and they were all good things.

• My drive time decreased to 15 minutes max
• I could respond to customers’ needs quicker
• I knew my area well and that helped me service my customers better
• Referrals were often right down the street
• Profit increased because it costs less to service an area close to you
• My business started running smoother overall

Narrow even more

After narrowing my service area to just my city I started wondering what would happen if I narrowed even more. What would happen if I narrow my focus to just my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods? Well, I have started doing this and the benefits are the same as when I narrowed my focus the first time. Drive time becomes even less as well as much less gas usage, response to customers gets even quicker therefore increasing customer satisfaction, and my business starts to run even smoother than before.

It’s a little tricky when you start to narrow down your service area to something as small as your neighborhood or the surrounding neighborhoods but the basic principles remain. You still need to advertise but your advertising changes a bit. You need to start taking advantage of different advertising mediums. Handyman signs in your neighborhood do a great job with this.

I highly encourage you to start playing around with these ideas and see how you like it. There are few disadvantages (if any) to narrowing your service area as long as you can still maintain a steady work flow. Don’t let your business control you. Feel free to change things often to keep making your life easier and your handyman business much more enjoyable to run.

I’m really excited about the handyman price list because it’s so powerful and easy to use. It’s great for every handyman whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years.

I remember when I started my business I was all over the place with my pricing. I had no idea what I was doing and it took me a while to finally figure something out.

I started charging per hour which seemed to work out fine (at the time). Later I realized that is not the best way to charge in this business and I knew I needed to switch to flat rate pricing. This was a big problem because I got so comfortable charging per hour that I was a little intimidated by switching to flat rate. I wasn’t keeping track of how long projects were taking or how much I should be charging for each one.

If there was a handyman price list out there at that time it would have saved me years of hard work and a lot of headache. But there wasn’t so I had to figure everything out on my own. I started keeping track of how much I was charging for jobs and how long each one was taking to complete. This enabled me to transition into flat rate pricing.

After I switched to flat rate pricing a funny little thing started happening. I began to pay attention to how long I was taking on jobs and it encouraged me to complete them faster. This was great for myself as well as my customers. I was getting in and out of their houses in a shorter amount of time. The funny thing that was happening was that I was making more money. My hourly rate increased dramatically. As I gained more experience with the work I was doing I kept doing better work while still shaving off actual work time and also keeping the same price and in some cases raising the price.

When I realized what had happened it was like a break though. My customers liked the fact that they had a flat rate going into the project. They knew exactly what it was going to cost them to get the work done.

When I knew it was good for my business I also knew that it would be good for every other handyman business out there. That’s when I decided to start working on the handyman price list. After years of much thought, headache, hard work, and planning I am proud to introduce The Handyman Price List.

Get it now at http://handymanpricelist.com