Guides
Handyman service packages that sell for owner-operators
Handyman service packages built from the van outward: eleven package shapes, why the count is not fixed, and the two clauses each one needs.
What to take away
- Package shapes are worth listing. A fixed number of packages is not, because the right count is set by what your van already carries.
- Build packages outward from the kit you own, not inward from a list somebody else published.
- Eleven shapes cover most of what handyman businesses actually sell. Pick the ones your existing tools and skills already support.
- Every package needs two clauseswhat happens when the work uncovers more work, and what is excluded.
- A package that cannot be delivered by whoever is on the route that day is a marketing promise, not a service.
Why this is a shortlist and not a numbered set
A round number of packages makes a good headline and a poor operating decision. The right number for a business is the number its kit, its skills, and its schedule can support without a second visit. That differs between a solo operator with a compact van and an owner running two routes.
So what follows is a set of shapes. Each one describes a way of grouping work, what it needs in the van, and the condition under which it stops making sense. Take the ones you can already deliver.
Eleven package shapes
- The half day block. A fixed span of time at one address, the customer supplies the list, you supply the judgment about order. Needs: a broad basic kit and a willingness to stop when time runs out. Breaks when the list contains something you may not perform.
- The full day block. The same idea with a lunch break and a bigger list. Travel per billed hour drops to almost nothing. Breaks when the customer expects the entire list finished rather than the day filled.
- The move-in package. Everything a new occupant wants done before the furniture arrives: door hardware, blinds, mounts, shelving, and the small fixes the walkthrough surfaced. Needs: anchors and fixings for every wall type you will meet.
- The move-out package. Filling, patching, touch up, and reversing whatever was hung. Predictable, clusters well by neighborhood, and is often paid by an agent rather than the occupant.
- The seasonal exterior round. Gutter clearing, exterior fastenings, weather stripping, and the checks that follow a season. Needs: ladder work handled as a standing hazard rather than an occasional one.
- The safety and accessibility visit. Grab rails, thresholds, lever handles, better lighting at steps. Sold to a family as much as to the occupant. Where the work touches a space the public enters, accessibility can stop being a preference and become an obligation, so ask the local building department before quoting it.
- The rental turnover round. A landlord's repeat list between tenancies. The most schedulable work in the trade, and the most sensitive to how fast you invoice.
- The mounting and installation visit. Televisions, shelving, mirrors, cabinets, curtain hardware. Needs a stud finder you trust and a rule about masonry.
- The door and window visit. Sticking doors, failed latches, sash and hinge adjustment, draft sealing. Almost entirely skill and almost no material, which makes it unusually good work if you can price it by outcome.
- The small carpentry visit. Trim, shelving, gates, decking boards. Higher material handling, so the materials rule has to be settled in advance.
- The recurring maintenance agreement. A scheduled visit at a known interval with an agreed list. Sells schedule certainty, not discount.
Nine of those eleven can run off a kit that overlaps heavily, which is the whole argument for choosing packages that share tools. Work out what the van has to carry first and the package list will narrow itself.
The two clauses every package needs
The first clause covers discovery. A visit booked to hang shelves finds a wall that will not hold them. A gutter round finds a fascia that has gone. What the package says about this moment decides whether the invoice is paid without argument.
Discovery Clause Procedure
- Technician stops work
- Describes what was found
- States what it would take to address
- Gets a yes or no recorded
- Original work continues or is rescheduled
Write it as a procedure rather than a warning: the technician stops, describes what was found, states what it would take to address it, and gets a yes or a no recorded somewhere that is not a memory. Then the original work either continues or is rescheduled.
The second clause covers exclusions, and it belongs on the same page as the inclusions. An exclusion the customer meets for the first time on site reads as a bait, and the Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses is clear that a qualification has to be presented where the claim is, not buried.
Matching a package to the person on the route
A package is only real if whoever is scheduled can deliver it. That is a staffing question, and it is why the package list and how people are hired and trained have to move together.
Package-to-Route Matching Rules
- Label owner-only packages internally
- Make tool-specific routing constraints visible
- Treat ladder work as a scheduled hazard
Three practical rules.
Label a package that only the owner can deliver as such internally, so the scheduler does not sell it into a slot the owner is not in. A package that needs a tool one van has and the other does not is a routing constraint; make it visible in the calendar.
A package involving ladder work needs the same treatment every time. That is what OSHA's recommended practices for a safety and health program mean by handling a hazard on a schedule rather than on the day.
Testing a shape before you publish it
Run it four times before it goes on the website. Record what the customer asked for, what was found, how long the drive was, and what had to be bought mid job. Then decide whether the shape survived contact.
Test a Shape Before Publishing
- Run the shape four times
- Record customer request and findings
- Record drive time and mid-job purchases
- Decide if the shape survived
- Tag jobs by package for cost sorting
Tag those jobs so that the costs sort by package rather than sitting in one pile, which is the practical reason to settle a record structure early. The IRS guidance on what kind of records to keep describes the general obligation, and the trade specific part is simply making sure the job carries a label you can group by later.
Common questions
Should packages be priced as a discount to the itemized work?
Only where you genuinely save something, and what you save is travel. A half day at one address costs you one drive instead of three. That is a real saving and can be shared. A discount with no underlying saving is just a lower price.
How do I stop a block package from becoming an unlimited list?
Sell the time, not the list. State that the block is a span of your attention applied in an agreed order, and that anything unfinished is quoted separately. Then order the list with the customer at the start of the visit so that the important items are done first.
Can a solo operator run a maintenance agreement?
Yes, in small numbers, and the limit is how many you can service in the promised window during your busiest month rather than an average one. The routing consequences are covered in how packages are put in front of customers, and the kit implications in the opening equipment checklist.
What if a package keeps producing second visits?
The package is under-specified at the qualification stage, not badly delivered. Change the questions asked on the phone before changing anything on the route. This is the same diagnosis described in the services and packages overview.
