Guides
What to put in a handyman business package
How to package handyman services: a four-week pilot protocol that tests a package against real jobs before it reaches the website or the phone script.
What to take away
- A package is a named list of tasks at a set price, with the exclusions written beside the inclusions.
- Do not design a package and publish it. Run it as a trial with a stated hypothesis and a stated failure signal.
- The hypothesis is always about the customer, not the work. A package succeeds because somebody could recognize themselves in it.
- Kill the package on the failure signal you wrote down in advance, not on how the last job felt.
Design the trial before the package
Write two sentences before anything else.
Write before the first trial job
- Hypothesiscustomer, package, reason, price
- Failure signalmeasurable thing, count, trial
- Both written before first trial job
- A failure signal invented later is rationalization
- Skipping this is why packages linger for years
The hypothesis, filled in: "A customer who has just bought an older house will book the Half-Day Fix List at a flat $450 because the inspection report handed them a list of small repairs."
The failure signal, filled in: "We will stop if a supplier run happens on more than 3 of the first 12 jobs."
Both sentences have to be written before the first trial job, because a failure signal invented afterwards is a rationalization. This is the only part of packaging that people reliably skip, and skipping it is why abandoned packages linger on websites for years.
Here is the package named in that hypothesis, written out the way it would appear on a quote.
- NameHalf-Day Fix List.
- Inclusionsup to four hours on site with one technician, a list of small repairs agreed before the visit, caulking, picture hanging, door adjustments, and removal of the packaging from the work.
- Exclusionsmaterials above a stated amount, electrical work, plumbing inside a wall, anything needing a permit, and a return trip for parts.
- Pricea flat rate for the four hours, typically $300 to $600 in US metro markets, with materials billed separately. The $450 in the hypothesis sits in the middle of that range.
- What sets the pricethe local hourly rate, the drive time the package attracts, and the share of jobs that need a supplier run.
The four measurements
| Measure | How to record it | What a bad result means |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification accuracy | Did the technician arrive with everything the job needed | One job in four where something had to be fetched. The phone script is asking the wrong questions, not the technician performing badly |
| Drive share | Driving time divided by total time on the clock for that job | Drive time above 25 percent of the clock. The package is being sold to a geography it does not suit |
| Mid-job purchases | Every trip to a supplier during the visit, with what and why | A supplier run on more than one job in four. The kit assumption behind the package is wrong |
| Argument rate | Any conversation about what was or was not included | An argument in more than one job in four. The exclusions are not where the customer reads them |
Record these per job, on paper if that is what gets it done. Four jobs is enough to see a pattern in the first three. The fourth needs a few more, and it is the one that predicts whether the package will be a nuisance for years.
Four trial measurements
Measure
- Qualification accuracy
- Did tech arrive fully equipped
- Drive share
- Driving time divided by clock time
- Mid-job purchases
- Every supplier trip, what and why
- Argument rate
- Any talk of what was included
How to record
- Qualification accuracy
- Phone script asks wrong questions
- Drive share
- Sold to unsuitable geography
- Mid-job purchases
- Kit assumption is wrong
- Argument rate
- Exclusions not where customer reads
Bad result means
- Qualification accuracy
- Drive share
- Mid-job purchases
- Argument rate
Tag every trial job so the costs can be sorted by package afterwards rather than sitting in one undifferentiated pile. That is the practical form of the recordkeeping obligation the IRS describes in its guidance on what kind of records to keep.
Running the trial
- Choose the customers deliberately. Trial the package on people who found you, not on friends. A friend absorbs the parts of a package that do not work, which is exactly the data you are trying to collect.
- Quote it the way you would if it were live. A discounted trial measures nothing about whether the package is sellable.
- Send the written scope in the form you intend to use, so that the document is on trial as much as the work.
- Debrief the same day. Memory of a job decays overnight and takes the useful detail with it.
- Stop at the failure signal even when the jobs were pleasant. That is the whole point of writing it down first.
Reading the results
Three patterns come up repeatedly.
The package works but only within a radius. Drive share is fine for the close jobs and terrible for the far ones. The fix is geographic, not commercial: restrict where it is offered, or offer it on a fixed day so those jobs cluster.
The package works but qualification does not. The technician keeps arriving without something. The fix is on the phone, in the questions asked before booking, and it is nearly always cheaper than the fix people reach for, which is carrying more in the van.
Compare what the trial demanded against the opening equipment checklist before you decide to buy anything.
The package works, but the customer keeps arguing about scope, not price. The fix is placement: put exclusions beside the inclusions, in the same document, in the same text size.
The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses treats a qualification a customer must hunt for as no qualification at all. A customer's instinct agrees.
Before it goes live
A package that survived the trial still needs three things written.
Its refusal boundary: the work categories in its description you will not perform, and who you refer them to. Its discovery clause: what happens when the visit uncovers work not included.
And its hazard note, if the package involves ladders, heights, or anything the technician should not attempt alone. That last one belongs in the standing program OSHA describes in its recommended practices for a safety and health program, rather than in somebody's head.
Then publish it, and put a date on the page where you will review it against the same four measures. Six months is a reasonable interval. What you are watching for is drift: the package quietly becoming a different job while its description stays the same.
Common questions
How many packages should be in trial at once?
One. Two trials running together contaminate each other, because the same technician, the same week, and the same weather affect both, and you cannot tell which package caused which result.
What if the trial jobs were all profitable but the package still feels wrong?
Look at drive share and argument rate rather than the invoice. A package can be profitable per job and still be the wrong thing to sell, because it is displacing better work from the calendar. That comparison is what judging services by contribution is for.
Should the trial package appear on the website?
No. Sell it on the phone during the trial, so you can change it between jobs without editing anything public and without confusing a customer who read an earlier version.
Does a passing trial mean the package should be permanent?
It means it earned a place on the menu and a review date. Whether it stays depends on what else the menu is carrying, which is the balance described in the services and packages overview and constrained by what the van can hold.
That second constraint is physical: the shelf space, boxes and spare parts one technician can carry on a single visit.
