How to Become a Handyman in 2023?

The average handyman’s salary is around $42,000/year and $20.49/hour. The highest pay per experience can go up to $58,000/year, with hourly rates as high as $28/hour.

The industry offers decent average payouts for someone pursuing the profession as their career.

But managing a handyman job requires expertise and skills to deal with removal, repair, installation, and replacement jobs on a small scale. So, here is how to learn handyman skills.

A technician must understand the nitty-gritty aspects of handling a handyman task and deliver excellent client results.

Keeping the importance of the basic foundational skills of the job and other vital elements, we have created a well-organized guide on how to become a handyman. 

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Become a Professional Handyman

The training required for becoming an expert handyman professional depends on the service preferences, location, and the previous experience of the learner in the industry.

Individuals can decide what handyman skills are important for them to move forward. Having experience in maintaining, fixing, or building stuff, can help the handyman technician to scale their career and even start their own business.

If you are willing to work as an independent contractor or want to train your handyman employees from scratch, here are a few things that can help an individual become a professional handyman. But before that, you must also know the difference between handyman and contractor.

1. Get yourself educated with handyman skills

Find out different online courses, vocational schools, community colleges, and programs that can train you with a specific skill set to handle different handyman jobs related to electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and cooling), plumbing, floor work, appliance installations, and other industries. 

You should focus on learning from different platforms and channels that can help you get a wider perspective on managing and handling handyman jobs. You can also provide valuable insights to your handyman professional team while managing your business.

Once you complete a program or a course, get the required certifications or handyman license that can help you showcase your credibility in the industry.

Here are a few skills that you should focus on acquiring while educating yourself:

• Decorating and painting 
• Installation of doors and windows 
• Learn how to construct or build things
• Moving or lifting bulky items like upholstery or furniture
• Installing or changing electrical fixtures or installing decorative lights
• Cleaning or maintaining rooms, gardens, and office spaces.
• Fixing taps, or clogged drains
• Repairing, handling, and maintaining equipment and tools like garden mowing machines, drilling machines, etc. 

These skills can help you master top handyman jobs that can increase your earnings and help you deliver the best results to your clients.

2. Get an internship or apprenticeship for handyman jobs

Once you acquire the skills, you can also try to get an internship or apprenticeship that can help you hone handyman skills and work in real-world scenarios.

You’ll gain great experience that can assist you in becoming an industry to work as an independent contractor or kickstart your handyman business. If you get a paid internship, it can help you cover a few necessities of managing your handyman service operations.

Taking apprenticeships for your handyman skills can help you get the apprentice certification to prove your expertise in a particular handyman job. 

You can also try to get a professional degree like a master’s or bachelor’s if you want to dive deep into handyman job skills that can help you boost your knowledge and expertise in the industry.

Also, you can try different things to your portfolio, like volunteering for DIY jobs for charity or just providing free handyman services. These activities can help you improve your skills and training to handle different kinds of odd jobs within your expertise.

3. Become a specialist in desired handyman service

Becoming an independent handyman contractor or starting your own handyman business requires you to be available for any job request that comes your way. But you should have expertise in a few specific areas where you can stand out from the rest and deliver the best service experience in the industry.

You can showcase your expertise to clients that can help you fulfill their requirements and exceed their expectations.

Focus on polishing your handyman training and mastering a few skills that can help you build a successful handyman business or operate as an independent contractor.

4. Become a licensed contractor

A few handyman services demand a designated license which you need to acquire to become a licensed handyman and deliver quality results for your clients.

Many states just focus on allowing the handymen to work and promote themselves or their business using their experience and don’t require a mandatory license, but some states can ask for your license.

Follow the listed important steps to complete the licensing requirements.

• Provide proof of insurance.
• Pass a licensing examination
• Show working experience.
• Register with the labor department.

You can gain work experience by working as an assistant with some handyman or taking up a few entry-level jobs at a construction site or other areas that can help you attain a work experience certification.

You can utilize your handyman training provided by the vocational school by working at your own home performing DIY projects. It can be the first place for you to start practicing skills on how to become a handyman. 

There’s not a better place to gain some experience than repairing your home, right?

Talking about better places, you should decide which industry you want to serve as a handyman based on your skills.

5. Filter the industry you want to target

After setting the foundation strongly, focus on selecting between domestic and commercial handyman operations. Both industries require different skill sets and industrial experience.

Based on your expertise and experience in the industry, choose a specific target area where you can showcase your skills and establish a strong presence.

Choosing household handyman jobs is less intense and requires less effort than commercial handyman jobs. But because of the less effort and limited opportunities available, you get a lesser payout than commercial handyman jobs.

If you want to work on the commercial front, you need to set up a successful handyman business and hire a team to ensure that you can handle the requirements with finesse.

You also need to become a licensed contractor to ensure that you can take up different handyman projects. 

You don’t limit yourself with your skills in commercial project management; you need a team that hires people with various handyman service skills. A professional team can help you run a profitable handyman business to help you stand out from other handyman businesses.

But that is again an individual choice, as managing a handyman business today needs a lot more than just the field job skills. 

Apart from a team, you also need handyman tools and equipment to complete the required project and achieve the desired outcomes with finesse.

You can rent the big equipment and purchase the smaller common ones to handle the task. You should get insurance for your tools from any damage or theft scenarios to help minimize the damages to your handyman contractor business.

Some basic tools that almost every handyman requires to complete the general maintenance: 

• Ladder
• Circular saw
• Drilling machine
• Tape measure 
• Spirit level
• Vehicle for transportation
• Toolbox with a screwdriver, pliers, wrenches, bolts, nuts, hammers, and nails

6. Set your service price or salary

Depending on your handyman’s experience in the field, your services, and your employment type, you can price your handyman service. Location can significantly influence your salary or service cost in a few states.

A handyman’s average pay for starting work is around $10 to $15 per hour. Expertise in the field can help you increase the service charge per hour.

Being a self-employed individual, you can charge more directly from the clients as you need to manage a wider horizon of operations without having assistance. 

Include a price chart to help you price different handyman services and include different details that can avoid future misunderstandings and miscommunications. 

Choose different pricing methods if you are starting a handyman business and joining an established handyman service firm, then clear the salary questions that can help you bypass different issues.

7. Start a new handyman business

Starting a handyman business is not a mandatory step for all the individual skilled handyman professionals, but it’s for those who want to increase profits.

You need ample experience as an individual handyman to become a business owner and take on bigger projects for more revenue.

You need a blend of business skills and handyman training to handle the responsible administrative roles. You can hire professionals to promote your handyman business operations that can scale your operations and ensure you achieve your desired outcomes.

Being a handyman business owner, here are the job skills that you need:

• Organizing operations
• Technical skills
• Job scheduling
• Hiring
• Teamwork
• Budgeting
• Email marketing
• Customer service

Apart from these, check out a few pointers that you need to know about being a licensed handyman and a businessman:

• Procure business license
• Avail business insurance
• Get a financial software to manage your finances 
• Learn networking for acquiring new clients
• Analyze the market before making new decisions.

Once completing these steps, you can achieve your desired results to work in the handyman industry and serve your clients.

There are a few basic roles and responsibilities that you must understand before starting a handyman job.

Roles & Responsibilities of a Handyman Job

Roles and responsibilities of handyman jobs are important as they assist you in performing the service tasks with finesse.

You must consider a few roles and responsibilities:

• Performing dusting, sweeping, and other clearing tasks.
• Performing light repairs and maintenance.
• Ensuring landscaping service tasks.
• Paint and fill gaps on walls, sidewalks, etc.
• Light installation or carpeting
• Repair appliances and equipment
• Assist with plumbing, electrical, and HVAC repairs.
• Handle the emergency tasks.
• Spot and report the major repair works

These roles and responsibilities can be explained to you once you join a handyman service agency, or you need to explain to your employees if you run a handyman service business.

You should also know these roles and responsibilities while running an independent contractor business. You also required different business skills being an independent business owner with a contractor’s license.

Salary Growth of Handyman Jobs

The salary growth in handyman jobs is directly linked to the experience and skills you possess. Once you start as a salaried employee, you can scale up to $54,612 per year on average.

But the entry-level handyman professional can earn up to $42,657 annually on average. The hourly price of a handyman’s professional is $24.30 on average, and you must ensure that you figure out a way to improve and scale your skills and salary.

With the rising demand in the industry, businesses need professionals who can deliver excellent results and are willing to pay for their talent.

You must focus on honing your skills daily and remain consistent with the hard work to achieve new heights in your handyman service career.

Look at the career flow of handyman jobs.

Career Chart of Handyman Jobs

Once you learn professional skills, you can start as an entry-level technician in the handyman industry.

Then gaining experience in different handyman services, you can choose one service in which you can become an expert.

Once you start working in the commercial segment, you can climb up to the managerial level, where you need to handle a team of handyman professionals and ensure that your work is completed with finesse.

If you work in a large handyman agency, you can raise the ranking and get the company’s management positions where you can make vital decisions.

Or you can choose to start your handyman service business with all the experience behind your back to serve the industry.

But once you choose to start your business, you must solidify your in-house business operations to ensure there’s no compromise in the customer experience.

Integrate a professional estimation, invoicing, purchase order, and credit memo management software to ensure that you can 

The software can The handyman business work order software can streamline your accounting and financial management and can deliver an excellent experience to your potential clients.

But out of a hundred software in the industry, only a few can satisfy your business requirements and can streamline your handyman’s financial operations.

Our team has filtered based on their research to help you connect with potential customers professionally and create quality financial documents.

Manage Your Handyman Service Business Finances With InvoiceOwl

InvoiceOwl is the leading contractor estimating and invoicing software that can help you create and manage your invoicing, estimation, purchase orders, reporting, payment processing, and credit memo processing.

You can manage your home repair business as a professional handyman with finesse. You can create a drastic impact on the audience by creating effective invoices using our handyman invoice template.

Get centralized control over your financial business operations and remove the troubles your team might encounter during the document processing. InvoiceOwl allows you to access the history of the financial documents that can minimize the hassles of using the software.

Your account payable team can automate the verification of different financial documents to help you manage your cash flow. The vendor ensures that the software remains up-to-date, and you can install Windows to run the software on a desktop.

Avail the FREE trial and get hands-on experience to transform your handyman service business.