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About the AuthorWho Am I?My name is Dann Dodd. I am a successful Handyman / Carpenter / Contractor. Five years ago I said "Goodbye" to a secure middle management job with a major corporation. I got tired of seventy-hour work weeks. I got tired of reporting to three bosses. I got tired of managing sixty people. I got really tired of never seeing my family and being preoccupied with work when I did, SO I QUIT. I put an ad in the paper, one column inch with a big black border that went something like this:
At the time, a building boom was on and I received an average of five calls a week from that little ad. It kept us going while I spent evenings trying to decide what I was REALLY going to do for a living. I worked as a handyman for $15 an hour and charged my customers for materials "at cost." I didn't know I had any overhead, so I didn't factor that into what I was charging. So a year later I found myself doing great--with about twenty steady customers, a 95% closing rate on estimates, $1000 worth of tools and NO MONEY! I worked just about every day and I was just getting by. It began to seem that the mortgage payment was due every other week. I couldn't get a handle on what was happening. It seemed that everyone was making big money but me. New houses were selling like hotcakes creating more than a handful of overnight millionaires. Plumbing subcontractors were driving new Corvettes. Drywall finishers were making $500 a day with little more than a bazooka? and a van. Money was flying into all pockets but my own. By the time I realized how little my slice of the building boom pie was, things took a turn for the worse, and the building boom became the building BUST. Half the people I knew were filing for bankruptcy. The high flyers were on unemployment. The money dried up. BUT THEN AN AMAZING THING HAPPENED: PEOPLE WERE STILL CALLING ME TO DO ODD JOBS; handyman work, little jobs. By then I had discovered that I did indeed have a lot of overhead- tools, insurance, gas, truck repairs and payments, ads, telephone calls and so forth. I had also decided that it was damned hard to make much money on what I had been charging. I kept accepting the Handyman work to pay the bills until I had lined up some REAL WORK. SO THAT YEAR I ACTIVELY SOLICITED MY FIRST 'BIG' REHAB JOB.I got a fire job, a two bedroom apartment in a turn of the century Nondescript style house in a ratty neighborhood north of here. My estimate was for $18,000. I hired subs and worked on it for four weeks. It was in pretty good shape when I was done. I paid everyone off. I got paid. Keep in mind that I used a standard estimating book and the Ôstick' method to price it out. By the time I got the last insurance payment I had made a grand total of $1,800 BEFORE overhead and taxes. NOT SATISFACTORY. So I chalked that one up to experience and rechecked my numbers. I vowed to do better the next time. I vowed to be well prepared when the NEXT TIME sneaked around the corner. SO I BEGAN TO READ. And I BEGAN TO THINK. I read every trade publication I could get my hands on. I began to think about every angle in the construction industry my little mind could fathom. I talked at length to every sub, builder, GC and laborer I could corner. I once paid a professional sheetrock finisher $25 to give me 45 minutes worth of finishing tips. I paid a professional sheet goods installer to let me Ôhelp' him install a kitchen floor. I did the same thing for a roofer. THEN SOMETHING ELSE AMAZING HAPPENED: I discovered that I could do ANYTHING. ANY TRADE. ANY JOB. At first my uncertainty would get the best of me. But very quickly, through my paid apprenticeships, my enforced reading and the steady accumulation of tools my confidence increased. I found one day that through grit and perseverance I had become a success. Gradually I discovered the secrets that are vital to succeeding as a one person construction company. Now I make $25-$100 an hour. I have dinner with my family EVERY EVENING. EVEN NOW THAT NEW ENGLAND IS IN THE MIDST OF A MISERABLE RECESSION I AM ABSOLUTELY BURIED IN HIGHLY PROFITABLE WORK. I want to show you how to cash in on the most consistently profitable business within construction and obviously YOU WANT TO LEARN, which is why you're interested in my book. The Handyman business is exploding. There is far more work to be done each year than there are qualified people to do it. If you have a head and a hand for construction work and you are willing to follow my instructions, you will find yourself to be the proud owner of a TRULY SUCCESSFUL small business with these benefits: HIGH PROFITS LOWER OVERHEAD NO EMPLOYEES EXCELLENT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS VERY ENJOYABLE WORK VERY FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES VERY LOW RISK If you are ready to listen, I am willing to tell all... |
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