DIY Man needs ideas.

Encantador

A friend is set up as a general DIY man doing odd jobs, decorating, small plumbing jobs etc. Although he started well, it has now dried up. Most of the work came from leaflet drops.

He has now come up with the idea of offering specific supply/fit type jobs, the sort of thing where the householder reads the leaflet and thinks "i have always wanted one of those" or "I didn`t know you could get those". Also things the average householder wouldn`t just go to B&Q and fit themselved (obviously).

He has come up with a few, ideally he wants the leaflet to have 3-4 specific items with a set price for each.

So far he has come up with ......
1) A box bolted to the outside wall where small parcels can be put by the postman and then locked, saves you having to go and fetch them. Ideal for relatively small parcels that don`t need to be signed for.
2) A master switch/button that instantly turns off the water supply, no more hunting for the stop tap only to find it won`t turn anyway.
3) Carbon monoxide/fire detectors.

Would be interested in thoughts on these and any other possibles.

Things like the post box and the water button are good because most people will never have heard of them (I hadn`t), let alone already have them. So things that are a bit out of the ordinary and require a bit of `fitting` would be ideal.

Thanks in advance.

SailorSam

Could he put lights or ladders maybe some boards in the loft.
Perhaps a tap outside in the garden or even an electric power point outside.

vivatifosi

I have an electric winch that lifts stuff into my (boarded) loft. Everyone who has seen it wants one. Maybe that could be another idea - for hoarder households anyway...

Slinky

Service fixing doorbells. You might laugh, but I do a lot of magazine delivery and you'd be amazed at the number of 'doorbell not working' signs we see - sometimes for months on end!

sad_dog_lady

repointing brickwork to prevent damp, clearing moss off roof... checking chimney stacks ???

Peter_Simon

A fixed price for clearing out gutters would earn him a lot of business, a lot of people don't have ladders tall enough to do that themselves, but it can be an important thing to do to prevent damp, from overflowing guttering (i speak from experience )

Encantador

Thanks for the replies so far. Some good ideas.

He is thinking of getting 8-10 ideas together, designing 3/4 seperate leaflets with each one having 3/4 services on it. He will then deliver a different leaflet to 2/3housing estates and hopefully over time (assuming the phone rings of course) narrow it down to a few service that bring in the most orders.

I vaguely remember a guy selling his business idea on ebay, turned out to be cleaning gutters for a fixed price. It`s the sort of thing most people wouldn`t want to do even if they had the equipment. The downside i suppose is that as it is difficult to `see`, most people don`t bother to have it done routinely, just when they realise they have a problem.

Any more?

Thanks again.

Savvy_Sue

The guttering: he should check with his insurer that he is covered for working at heights (he does have insurance?) and he may find that one is problematic if his insurer says he'd need scaffolding etc. But I wonder if there would be times when a fixed price for that wouldn't work, eg a very large house with particularly inaccesible gutters. Likewise boarding a loft: he might want a disclaimer along the lines of 'prices start from £X for a normal 2 bed semi'.

If he's doing electrics, is he properly 'qualified'? Likewise if he's plumbing: I don't understand what's involved with the button / switch to turn the water off (although I WANT one!) but would he need to be registered somewhere to do that safely?

OK, you wanted more ideas: those big hooks for hanging bikes from walls, winches for lifting same, supplying and fitting those old-fashioned airers you hang from the ceiling. As long as he's confident about putting big hooks into walls / ceilings in such a way that they won't fall down and hit someone on the head!

He DOES have insurance, doesn't he? :rotfl: