On 2008-03-25 18:16:01 +0000, (A.Lee) said:

The Medway Handyman wrote:

"A.Lee" wrote in message ...
So, yes, I know I should be charging more, but getting it is more difficult.

You have to consider how your customers are seeing you. How you
present your 'brand'. They obviously see you as a cheap odd job man
- not as a professional handyman. Thats why they are surprised at
your prices.

Think about this Alan. You recently spent £400 on a Festool drill driver
when you could have bought a Challenge Extreeme from Argos for £30.

A small proportion of the members of this group would consider the Festool
good value. I suspect the majority would consider it too expensive.

The Festool drill is worth every penny IMO. It really is good.

I agree, and very adaptable as well.



You are getting Challenge Extreeme customers & quoting Makita prices.
Its all about 'positioning'. Andy Hall seems to know a thing or two about
this and may be along shortly - he can probably explain it better that I.

Alan may have completely different market conditions. For example, I
can remember Dave saying that the Medway towns have a good supply of
people who are relatively cash rich and time poor. Generally, such
people are not as price sensitive as those lacking ability and either
money or a sense of what things cost.

If that doesn't exist in Alan's catchment area or if marketing to date
has not found them, then it's a problem.


Yes, I know. I'm working on my new advert in the next few days, I think
I'll be targetting bathrooms and kitchens, both of which I am good at,
and I like doing them.

The trouble with being a 'handyman', is that people expect you to be
cheap, (well, thats what I've found). Saying you are a kitchen fitter
immediately makes you stand out a little, but obviously narrows the
market.
I dont really advertise, but will be making an effort over the next
weeks, as, TBH, I'm probably below minimum wage now, but, on the up
side, I have a lot of good kit that I didnt have 6 months ago, so can
tackle jobs that I couldnt do then.
All of my profit goes back into new kit etc, I do expect to see some
profit back in future years, but at the moment, it is a struggle.
Ta


There's a lot of things in what you've said here, Alan.

Advertising/marketing. How are you doing it and are you selecting the
means to reach the target market?

For example - let's pretend that I'm one of Dave's target cash
rich/time poor target customers in his area. How would I go about
getting something done? I'm going to be in an office in central
London, in an airport lounge or in another country. More than likely,
I will type "handyman" and "rochester", "chatham", "gillingham" into
Google, identify some likely candidates and either email or call them.
I'm highly unlikely to look at the small ads in the local paper or
in printed Yellow Pages or in the window of the paper shop. However,
who is more likely to look in the latter? I'm not saying that the web
is the be all and end all, but the point is to match means of reaching
the target customer to what works for them.

You say that being a handyman implies that people expect you to be
cheap. Have you looked at the mix of customer and made an assessment
of their means and willingness to spend money? If they are all
expecting "cheap" then either that really is true and the less price
sensitive doesn't exist or you are not reaching them.

You mention that you like doing kitchens and bathrooms. OK. Perhaps
that really says that you prefer more project based work with an
outcome that makes a visible difference. Nothing wrong with that.
Then you have to work out whether you are going to fit on behalf of
kitchen studio or two or do designs as well (or perhaps get them done).
There is an opportunity to make margin on materials as well although
you have to consider whether you would be willing to just fit an
assortment of unsuitable junk that the customer has bought from
goodness knows where.

For kitchen work, you would probably need to become suitably qualified
as an electrician or be willing to sub out the electrical work, and
possibly CORGI to fit cookers and hobs and so on or again sub that out.

It's important to build a portfolio of work that you do into a photo
album. Present it well. This gives future customers an indication of
the quality of your work and also a source of ideas. Then it's
identifying good suppliers with interesting products rather than just
the run of the mill volume warehouse rubbish.