Forum Discussion

ThatHandymanVan's avatar
ThatHandymanVan
Contributor 3
1 day ago

The Handyman Business Machine: Non-Negotiables for Scaling

Non-negotiables that turn a handyman business into a repeatable machine—systems that make the business operate whether you “feel like it” or not. Think standardized scope, flat-rate pricing, SOPs, quality control, scheduling discipline, job costing, and a comp plan that rewards speed + quality. If you had to boil scaling down to 5–10 tenets, what are yours—and which ones moved the needle the most? Make sure they are measurable actions and results. “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done.” - Peter Drucker

business advice
business plans
learning resources

3 Replies

  • ThatHandymanVan's avatar
    ThatHandymanVan
    Contributor 3
    1 day ago

    “The opposite of key man risk is redundancy.” - The Game with Alex Hormozi (Ep 824)

    Everything you build must be able to run without you. From estimating (no custom quoting—everything priced off a metric), to the order of operations on a job, to invoicing and reconciling job profitability, it all needs to be systemized. Follow your own processes like you’re your own employee. When you notice something doesn’t work, tweak it, then follow the new way. Rinse and repeat.

    • julie's avatar
      julie
      Jobber Community Team
      1 day ago

      The idea of building the business to run even when you’re not “on” really hits, especially the part about following your own processes like an employee. 

      When you started setting up systems to work for you, was there one area that immediately reduced friction or freed up the most mental space for you?

      • ThatHandymanVan's avatar
        ThatHandymanVan
        Contributor 3
        1 day ago

        Once I clearly understood my total cost of doing business per billable hour—labor, overhead, burden—then added a required profit margin, everything else snapped into place. That single number became the anchor. It let me reverse-engineer flat-rate pricing with confidence instead of guessing, discounting, or “feeling it out.”

        Because every flat-rate task now maps back to a known profitable hourly target, pricing stopped living in my head. Decisions got faster, mental load dropped, and I could trust that if the system was followed, the job was profitable whether I was on site or not.

        The other one would be taking an office day. I take Fridays off to work in the office "on the business". My tech works by himself. This makes him feel trusted, and makes me let go of the reins a bit.