This site will give you very valuable information if you are interested in finding the best handyman franchise.
Buying any franchise takes a great leap of faith on your part. All of these franchises are designed as an owner-operator model.
Regardless of which franchise you choose, you will be asked to invest tens of thousands of dollars and quit your job.
All of the franchises include proper systems and training. Besides Klappenberger & Son, all the franchisors have over 100 units sold and are established.
The handyman industry is a 4.7 billion dollar industry also recession resistant and poised for continued growth.
After a shaky COVID 2020 year the industry has a 15.7 CAGR% according to Future Market Insights.
With the exception of Klappenberger & Son, all the franchises are strictly handyman services. Klappenberger & Son is a full-service painting and handyman franchise. The other franchises may recommend or do small painting jobs but would not be considered full-service painting companies.
However, there are staggering differences between the franchises when it concerns some very important factors.
I read the FDD’s, franchise disclosure document, of the above-mentioned to find the best handyman franchise.
It is critical to read and compare all 23 Items in an FDD, but for the sake of time I’ve chosen the 5 Items, I believe to be the most important. They are as follows:
In full disclosure, I am the founder of one of the franchises in review. And yes that makes me terribly biased, but I am taking and comparing all the info from each franchise’s FDD. All the conclusions are from adding up fees and costs to determine who has the best handyman franchise.
All information was obtained from each franchise’s 2022 FDD except for the budget of $1,400 for a lease. The average cost to lease space is between $8.00 – $23.00 a square ft.
Klappenberger & Son potentially has the lowest start-up cost at $79,573.
Mr. Handyman’s minimum start-up cost is $18,578 higher than the Handyman Connection minimum. It is also $37,927 over Klappenberger & Son’s minimum.
High start-up costs can negatively affect cash flow. According to Xero, 90% of all businesses close due to poor cash flow.
All franchise fees are included in the start-up cost total.
Opinion:
The most significant observation for me is that Klappenberger & Son is the only handyman franchise that allows the franchisee to decide if they would like to operate from their home or use commercial space.
The smaller the territory, the fewer opportunities available. Klappenberger & Son is the best handyman franchise for scaling a business. With as many as 600,000 people or 240k households, it gives the franchisee the ability to scale a business without buying 2-3 additional territories.
Mr. Handyman offers the smallest territory at 150,000 people. It is about a third of the size of a Klappenberger & Son franchise.
Handyman Matters now known as Ace Handyman and Handyman Connection are 200,000 and 250,000 people respectively.
A larger territory gives you more opportunities to scale your business.
Thorough training and support are two critical factors when determining who has the best handyman franchise.
Most people who buy a handyman franchise have no previous industry knowledge.
Therefore, the quality and quantity of the training program are essential.
Fortunately, all four of these franchises have similar training time.
Franchise | Onsite | Corporate or virtual | Total Length |
Mr. Handyman | ? | ? | 6 weeks |
Ace Handyman | 35-38 hours | 60 hours | 6 weeks |
Klappenberger & Son | 40-80 hours | 4 weeks | 5-6 weeks |
Handyman Connection | 26 hours | 134 | 4 weeks |
Most often, a new franchisee has little or no prior experience. When this is the case, it is essential for there to be proper training and ongoing support.
Training Conclusion:
The best handyman franchise would need to have thorough training and continuing support.
While it is impossible to rank continuing support, it is possible to compare the training.
Ace Handyman, and Mr. Handyman, have a full six weeks of training, and Klappenberger & Son has five full weeks and an option for a sixth week at the franchisor’s discretion.
With few exceptions, and the answer is more than a few weeks.
As a franchisee with Klappenberger & Son, your training lasts 5-6 weeks, depending on prior experience..
Moreover, the final 40 -80 hours of training will be completed in your territory.
This onsite training allows us to:
After the training, we are still with you every step of the way. We will have a weekly meeting and are always ready to help you with estimating and other questions.
I believe this is where we can excel like no other franchise. I have worked as a painter and handyman in the field for 17 years. Furthermore, I have run a painting and handyman business for 29 years. I have the insight and expertise that few in the industry have.
Suppose each company grossed $1,000,000 annually; which franchise would allow the franchisee to keep the most net profit? This model assumes that all jobs are accurately bid and that each franchise marketing plan worked as indicated.
Perhaps the best investment you will ever make in business is spending a few minutes comparing ongoing fees. As you will soon see the difference between one franchise and another can be hundred of thousands to even over a million dollars in additional fees.
Keep in mind that the figures above are for just one year. Now, let’s compare each franchisee’s ongoing cost over ten years, grossing an average of 800,000 per year times ten-years.
The chart above shows that you will save between $430,400 and 1,056,192 if you buy a klappenberger & Son franchise and gross 8 million dollars over a 10-year period.
When you see marketing fees or royalties that are even one percent different, it affects your bottom line more!
For example, if your net margins are 25% on a $100.00 job, you could keep $25.00.
If the franchisor has a 1% fee, it is on the gross, not the net.
Your new net profit would be $24.00, which is a 4% decrease from your net profit.
Mr. Handyman has a job referral program where if you do a job from a customer they refer, the franchisor is entitled to a 3% commission. If net margins are 25%, that would be a 12% decrease in net profit.
All the handyman franchises require a leased building except Klappenberger & Son.
There are benefits to having a leased space but are they worth the expense? Besides the monthly lease comes additional expenses such as decorating and office furniture. In addition, monthly expenses such as wifi and utilities only reduce the profits and do not build resale value.
Consider a lease of $1,450 per month plus monthly expenses of, say, $300.00 over ten years, would cost $210,000.
In my experience, I was able to operate a 2 million dollar painting and handyman business through my house. Trucks were kept at the workers’ homes, and tools were left inside the vehicles.
Not having an office with storage space discouraged us from saving leftover material from jobs. I also viewed this as a positive.
Probably the biggest plus of operating from home is deducting parts of your home for tax purposes. We could deduct about 20% of our home plus a shed where we kept tools.
Please draw your own conclusion, but having the option to start at home has benefits. If later, as the franchise grows, you feel it would be in your best interest to have a separate place than at least you saved some portion of money by working at home.
Each franchisor has a different minimum advertising budget ranging from $12,000 (K&S) to $50,000 (Ace), or 10% (Handyman Connection). What the correct number is debatable.
The advantage of a high advertising budget is it will improve lead flow. The business should grow faster, and it will increase brand awareness. However, being unable to turn off the flow of leads can be problematic.
What if the franchisee doesn’t need any additional work? Perhaps the business has developed a deep base of referrals and repeat customers.
You are the judge and jury determining which franchise is best for you.
As you read through this material, a few questions probably pop-up. First, you have to take this article with a dash of skepticism. After all, the author is one of the franchisors who is critiquing his competition!
Fair enough.
Yes, I am doing some critiquing, but what I am doing is comparing the FDDs of each franchise.
I was surprised at the disparity between the franchises.
Opening up a franchise could easily be $60,000 difference between one franchise and another. And that’s just the beginning, one would hope that the higher the start-up costs, the lower the ongoing fees would be, but it’s the opposite.
Handyman Connection and Mr. Handyman had the highest start-up cost and the two highest ongoing fees.
Throughout the ten-year term, a franchisee who owns a Handyman Connection would pay 231% more than a Klappenberger & Son franchisee.
We also want you to make money. So if you are willing to leap of faith with us, then I want to honor that, not find ways to gouge you.
Advertising budget:
We are so confident that our advertising budget is large enough that we offer a guarantee. No other franchise in any industry provides a guarantee of any kind. But we believe in our system so much that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is.
Klappenberger & Son is the only franchise in the United States that has a guarantee. Our guarantee is simply this. If you meet with five people each month in the following industries responsible for having handyman or painting jobs projects completed, we will guarantee that you will gross $500,000 in sales or refund your franchise fee in full.
If you would like more information on Klappenberger & Son Franchise, please contact us at
Office: 215.317.9189
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Phone: 443-223-0645
Email: dklappenberger@klappenbergerandson.com
Address: 902 Bluff View Dr. Myrtle Beach, SC 29579