If I could go back and have a conversation with myself in year one of my handyman business, it would be a short conversation — but it would save me a lot of money, a lot of stress, and a whole lot of wasted time.
The truth is, I had no idea what I was doing when I started. Not from a business standpoint anyway. I knew how to do the work. But running a business? I was completely winging it. And that gap between being good at the trade and actually knowing how to run a business — that’s where most guys bleed out in year one.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me.
Stop Taking Every Job That Comes Your Way
When you’re new and you need work, the instinct is to say yes to everything. I get it. I did it. But saying yes to everything is one of the fastest ways to burn yourself out and lose money at the same time.
I learned this the hard way with a job I’ll never forget. A lady hired me to install netting over a massive chicken coop area that was covered by redwood trees — the whole setup was huge. She wanted the netting to keep hawks from getting in and killing her chickens. I had one 1099 contractor helping me and we estimated the job at $3,000. I remember thinking that was the biggest number I had ever quoted and feeling pretty good about it.
Two weeks later we finished the job — exhausted, over budget on materials, and way over on time. That job should have been $10,000 to $15,000 when it was all said and done. We had no real system for estimating it, no experience with a job that size, and no business taking it on in the first place.
That experience taught me something I now tell every handyman I coach: you need a defined service list. A clear, intentional list of what you do and what you don’t do. Not based on what comes your way — based on what you’re good at, what’s profitable, and what makes sense for the business you’re trying to build. When you have that list, you stop bleeding time and money on jobs that were never going to work out.
$50 an Hour Isn’t What You Think It Is
Here’s another painful one. In year one I had zero idea how to price my jobs correctly. I was pulling numbers out of thin air. My logic was simple — at my day job I was making around $20 something an hour as a W-2 employee, so if I could make $50 an hour as a handyman that would be fantastic. Right?
Wrong.
What I didn’t understand yet is that $50 an hour as a self-employed handyman is actually less than $20 an hour as a W-2 employee when you factor in everything you’re now responsible for — insurance, fuel, tools, licenses, taxes, and every other business expense that your employer used to cover without you ever seeing it.
I wasn’t pricing for profit. I was pricing out of fear — scared to lose the job, scared the customer would say no, scared I wasn’t worth more. And that fear kept me undercharging for way too long.
What I know now is that you have to build your pricing around what your actual hourly rate needs to be to cover your expenses, pay yourself properly, and keep the business healthy. That number is probably higher than you think — and that’s okay. The right customers will pay it.
Get Business Coaching Early — Not After You’re Already Struggling
One of the best decisions I made — and honestly one of the reasons I’m still standing — is that I got into business coaching early. From pretty much day one of the business I had coaching and mentorship that helped me see things from a business owner’s perspective rather than a W-2 employee’s perspective.
That shift in mindset is everything. When you come from a job, you think like an employee. You trade time for money. You wait to be told what to do next. Business coaching helped me start thinking like an owner — building systems, making intentional decisions, and understanding that the goal isn’t just to stay busy, it’s to build something sustainable.
If I hadn’t had that outside perspective early on, I honestly don’t know how long it would have taken me to figure out the things that coaching accelerated for me.
If You’re in Year One Right Now, Here’s What to Focus On
Forget trying to do everything at once. If you’re in your first year, there are really three things that will move the needle faster than anything else:
1. Get your pricing right. Figure out what your actual hourly rate needs to be — not what you think customers will pay, not what feels comfortable. What do you actually need to charge to run a real business?
2. Know where your marketing is coming from. Where are your leads coming from right now? Google? Word of mouth? Nextdoor? You need to know — and you need to know where the gaps are.
3. Find quick ways to increase your marketing reach. There are things you can do right now, today, that will put more eyes on your business without spending a fortune. But you have to be intentional about it.
These three things — pricing, marketing sources, and marketing growth — are exactly what I cover in my 5-Day Handyman Business Boot Camp. It’s $47 and it will give you a clear foundation and a real plan for what to do next. No fluff, no theory — just the stuff that actually moves a handyman business forward.
You can sign up right now at handymanjourney.com/bootcamp
Year one doesn’t have to be as hard as it was for me. But you have to be willing to learn the business side — not just the trade side. That’s where everything changes.
Allen Lee is a handyman business coach and founder of Handyman Journey, a virtual trades business coaching brand helping handymen and tradespeople start, grow, and scale businesses that work without them.