Franchise Spotlight: Handyman
Franchises are thriving and several trends point to a bright future for the handyman sector.
A handyman typically provides a variety of manual services such as repairs and minor renovations.
These can include anything from painting, plastering and window fitting to fencing, decking and gardening maintenance. Clients can include households, businesses and builders and property managers.
The industry’s growth rate in Australia has been propelled by residential construction, growing discretionary incomes and a willingness to outsource labour-intensive manual tasks.
While news of the Covid-19 pandemic has dampened demand, rating agency Moody’s has projected that Australia’s economy will rebound quickly from the pandemic.
Franchise market trends
While many handy men and women are sole traders, statistics show that franchises have in recent years claimed a growing share of this burgeoning sector. Market research firm IBISWorld has attributed this to the benefits of collective marketing and low prices courtesy of economies of scale.
Nevertheless, competition is fierce and no business, franchised or otherwise, has a dominant market share. Franchisees often start out delivering handyman services on their own, albeit with head office support, then later hire staff as they grow.
They typically come from a variety of backgrounds, usually work flexible hours and benefit from training, support, and software in everything from accounts to lead generation.
Fantastic Services handyman franchisees are promised guaranteed weekly jobs to suit their schedule.
The franchisor has developed separate apps for customers and franchisees and a back-end system that relieves franchisees of “repetitive and boring work” such as invoicing and service development.
Jim’s Group performs a wide range of services, including mowing, roofing, paving, removals, painting, fencing and pool cleaning – to name a few.
The most successful franchisees have achieved annual sales exceeding $1 million, claims the franchisor.
Hire a Hubby offers a similarly diverse range of services, and eases franchisees’ cash flow anxieties during the start-up phase with an income guarantee.