Is this a good idea for a business?

[IsThisAGoodIdeaOrSilly]

I’ve got an idea of what I’d like to do next for work and would be grateful for feedback.

Background: I quit my full time marketing job 11 years ago to be a SAHM. I enjoyed my job but mostly because of the people I worked with, and although I studied evenings for three years to get qualified in the field and was good enough at my job I never felt passionate about it. I then left to be a SAHM and 10 years went by. My professional skills are now quite out of date and I’m not confident to get back into that world, and don’t much want to. I’ve always been practical, did a furniture making course a few years ago, and have done lots of big and small making / building / decorating jobs in our house. What really fires me up is mentoring people and watching their confidence grow.

My idea is advertise myself locally as a “DIY Coach”, aimed at SAHM who want to get smallish DIY jobs done at home but don’t have the confidence or tools to know where to start without a bit of help, and/or who don’t want to pay a man to do the job and maybe make them feel stupid in the process. So a sort of mix of a handywoman and guide.

YABU: this is a weird / dumb idea / not much demand for it / will never make enough money to be worth the faff / you’re not skilled enough to charge people and you should just update your marketing skills and find a normal job in that field.

YANBU: go for it, I would have loved to have found someone like you when I didn’t know where to start with DIY projects.

Thank you for reading and for your time!

Be aware that handywoman would probably run into the same issue as instructor.
Experience.
I did lots of stuff at home yet I would never try to present myself as handywoman or knowledgeable enough to be able to charge.

Female handy person with eye to organisation would sell too. I’m in a new build and things like my airing cupboard would be better with a wooden slatted shelf, coat cupboard better with a shelf and decent hooks. I know I could ring a handy man but I never seem to get around to it and I’d worry it would be seen as a bit unnecessary. Whereas if you offered a service to say I can maximise storage. New build estates are a great target as they all need similar eg loft boarding same company did loads on here.

I’d investigate insurance for such a venture first.

Wow thank you everyone for the thoughtful and useful replies!

@scarby9 I know of a lady who does a similar gardening service. Maybe it works better with gardening since it’s harden to suddenly and dramatically screw up a garden by making an amateur mistake!

Lots of food for thought, thank you all.

Dixiechick that’s a really good point.

Maybe I just need to build my skills and confidence and then set myself up as a normal handywoman. And I can always explain what I’m doing and give tips to people who are interested to learn. I had a plumber explain what he was doing and show me how to do it myself next time, and it made me so so happy. But he didn’t advertise that as part of his service so has no liability, he was just a really nice plumber. Maybe that’s a better route.

Another insurance issue is tools - if they are using your tools you’d be supplying work equipment and probably liable if they saw a finger off under your supervision or it burns them - everything would need maintenance and testing.
The other issue is pricing. Presumably you’d want to earn at least minimum wage. The actual rate to pay a tradesperson won’t be much more - so pay £20 to you and spend 2 hours learning to put a shelf up or pay £25 to Handyman and carry on working for 2 hours/watch tv and eat biscuits.

If I were going to pay someone,.I'd want them to do it! When I want to learn anything, YouTube is my friend.

I'd love it, personally (I struggle with videos) but I agree it would be hard to make a living from it. Sounds like you might need to do some kind of "multi-hyphen method" kind of thing (I have that book on kindle but haven't read it yet ...) and have this as one small income stream alongside other things.

Honestly, the concept is fab! Would I pay for it? Probably not. Would I subscribe to a Youtube? Absolutely!! 100% back those suggesting that route!

YABU there’s excellent free tutorials for almost anything on YouTube. I’ve used them for changing the fuse on a plug and dismantling taps to clean them. Don’t know who thinks to make such seemingly mundane boring videos but I’m grateful they did!

I wouldn’t pay for one to one teaching. There’s also the embarrassment of not knowing something basic and the inconvenience of arranging a convenient time, neither of which is an issue with free videos online.

It would depend what your charging model is.

If it's a just-in-time consultancy where you would offer advice on a specific job, then it could be useful - I can't imagine someone would want to sit through a how-to of random DIY jobs that aren't relevant to them, unless they are keen to learn the details.

The alternative could be a fee for individual consultancy and a fee for a course which would include Basics, Intermediate and Advanced DIY. For these courses you'd need to evidence skills, qualifications and experience. DIY and builders can attract cowboys, so you need to show it's good quality,

Sorry meant to say you’d be better off marketing yourself as a small job handy person. I think people would be more likely to just pay you to do it for them. Being a female is a potential selling point as lone female clients are likely to be more comfortable with you in their home