Handyman possible earnings

[Waymarked7]

Can anyone help? My husband hates his job and wants to give up and become a handyman/painter/decorator/ gardener. He has experience in all these things and is very handy and approachable.

Problem is, he currently earns 35k plus a very good pension so would need to earn a decent salary from it eventually for it to be possible. We live in a fairly affluent area in the north with lots of holiday accomodation.

Can anyone share what their partners or own business makes to help us see if this is possible?

Thanks so much!

We’re in the North & a friends husband tried to make this work a couple of years ago and had to stop because it just simply wasn’t financially viable. There were too many people doing it, some as a hobby & to avoid paying tax so would be undercharging what they could actually afford to charge if they were declaring everything properly which meant the genuine people doing the work seemed crazy expensive in comparison and never got the jobs.

There’s also just not many people willing to pay an honest price for these things now, at least where we are. Every Facebook post asking for recommendations has “but won’t rip your eyes out on price”, those not declaring are first in the comments with their rock bottom prices so anyone genuine looks like a rip off, and people just don’t seem to want to pay for work now. My grandparents have a gardener as they struggle to keep on top of their lawn & hedges now, they pay £30 per visit & for that he does it all plus takes all trimmings etc away and tidies up, that same gardener now only does it part time and has another job alongside it because he just couldn’t get the work to stay full time despite him being really reasonable price wise.

My husband and I are gardeners. We work together and charge £35 per hour for the two of us. There’s plenty of people out there who cut grass and hedges but not as many with gardening knowledge. There’s plenty of work out there but lots of people want someone who can manage the garden, recommend plants, know how and when to to tend to plants, shrubs etc. We are in the North.

There are lots of people that want just small jobs doing that large companies won’t touch.
Word of mouth, but may take a while to get himself known

Like any small business venture start at weekends or odd days off, around the current job. See if it’s all it’s cracked up to be and grow the business ~> it takes a while to then make the switch once you’ve started.

The gardener we employ costs £20 per hour of that helps. He’s well regarded and has a waiting list so could probably change more.

In my opinion I think it's silly trying to make it a jack-of-all-trades type gig. If I want painting and decorating then I want an actual painter and decorator, not someone who just thinks he's handy with a brush. For a gardener I want someone who actually knows what they're doing. If I wanted someone just to come and cut the grass and pull the weeks I'd pay my nephews. A handyman is fine, he can put shelves up, build flat packed furniture, fix a leaky tap..

Anything more than general handyman work and he'll definitely have a "master of none" vibe or come across like he's just filling time/undercutting proper traders.

We tried this, SE, but gave it a while to establish alongside full time work, so tried it on evenings and weekends. It wasn't viable, customers had totally unrealistic expectations and really didn't want to.pay a reasonable hourly rate for skilled work. If he has those skills, has he not considered applying to a housing association for a multiskilled trades role?

The only input I can make if it helps is that the handyman I’ve used several times (West Midlands) started exactly like this. Said he was fed up of corporate job and so became a handyman. He charges £45 ph and anytime he’s with me, his phone rings quite regularly. He also said he has managed to get contracts with places like housing associations and I think maybe the council. He’s a really switched on down to earth guy (60 now) and says he earns quite lucratively. Btw he’s real quiet but I’m chatty as heck lol so have won him over so he’s confided all this info. I think listening to him key to a stable income is getting a few big ongoing contracts. He loves his work and says it’s the best decision he ever made.

Thanks for all the feedback, seems like can be a tricky market. We were thinking of trying to get some regular contracts with privately owned holiday/air bnb places to maintain them but will maybe have to look into this more. We live in a very popular holiday location so this could be a regular income route. Sadly £20 ph wouldn't be enough to cover costs etc. He could charge £190-200 per day just doing his regular job if he went self employed..

I'd say from trying to currently get a decorator to do a whole (empty) house in the next 2 months, then absolutely he should be able to make it work if he's good enough.

I've phoned 0 people.
5 have just said no chance before Christmas they're far to busy.
3 have said they'll quote but suspect they won't fit in in, and definitely can't book it in the next 6 weeks.
1 has said he may be able to do the walls but won't have time to do the woodwork..
1 has said if he can work evenings round his other jobs then he can do it and he'll bring in a recently retired friend to help.

We're in the south, but they're all charging more than £200 a day/person.

If he could train to be a plumber too, then there's even more milage in that. The plumber we're using, as the only one who has quoted, and turned up for the job comes from 50 miles away.