FAQs

No, and most of our franchise owners never swung a hammer for a living. Many of our owners come from corporate, military, sales, and management backgrounds. You’ll lead the team, grow the territory, and run the numbers, while your Craftsmen do the skilled work. We give you the hiring tools and skill assessments needed to build a strong crew, even if you have never worked a trade yourself.

This is not designed to be a passive or semi-absentee ownership model, but you do not necessarily have to be the one answering the phone every day. Some of our owners run a franchise manager model, where a dedicated general manager is in charge of the business 40 hours a week.

Even then, owners are expected to complete comprehensive training, lead the person running your territory, and be prepared to step in if your manager ever leaves. Our plan is designed to get most owners to open in about four months.

The franchise fee is $70,000 and is the same in every market. In total, the estimated investment runs from $132,200 to $226,000, with the higher end typically representing owners who buy extra territory up front. The complete investment breakdown is available for review in Item 7 of our Franchise Disclosure Document.

Most use a small-business loan, often an SBA-backed product around $150,000 that suits a business like this well. The Ace Handyman Services franchise development team can introduce you to lenders other owners have worked with. Veterans and first responders also receive 10 percent off the franchise fee, and veterans may also have their SBA application fee waived.

The royalty is 6 percent of gross revenue, paid monthly. It is calculated automatically through your scheduling software, so there is nothing to tally up by hand.

Plan on marketing being a real line item, usually your largest expense after payroll. A service business is invisible until someone needs it, so the job is getting your name in front of homeowners the moment they start looking. We help you put that budget where it performs and track every channel, so you can see which dollars bring in jobs and move money toward what’s actually working.

We don't make wild promises, and you should be skeptical of any franchise brand that does. However, we encourage prospective owners to carefully review Item 19 of our FDD, which contains important financial performance information and includes a full P & L all the way down to Net Profit. We also put you in touch with real owners, who will be happy to share more about their experience franchising with Ace Handyman Services.

This is the part of the business we have spent nearly three decades perfecting. Finding good Craftsmen starts with the right job postings, real skill assessments, and background checks. We partner with Classet, a recruiting company that runs your ads, responds to candidates quickly, screens them, and hands you a short list to interview.

Keeping your Craftsmen comes down to being the kind of employer people do not want to leave. We give you the playbook for that too.

They are W-2 employees, not subcontractors. That is a deliberate choice and one of the strengths of the Ace Handyman Services business model. Customers notice a real difference in who shows up and how the work gets done. For specialty licensed jobs, like some plumbing or electrical work, you can bring in a subcontractor where it makes sense.

Our system covers more than 1,000 tasks, but most of the work lands in three buckets: carpentry, drywall repair, and flooring. Think trim and doors, deck boards, mounting TVs, patching holes in the wall, or laying tile or luxury vinyl.

Most jobs are small and wrap up in a few hours, and each one is backed by a one-year craftsmanship guarantee. Anything bigger than what your team handles can be referred out, and you can earn a referral fee for it.

Territories are built from ZIP codes and measured by the number of households in them, since a household is who we serve. We design a territory around you using mapping and demographic data, then fine-tune it with what you know about how your area actually moves. Most markets still have room, and many owners add a second or third territory as they grow, so we map your likely expansion early and hold it for you. The quickest way to find out about your area is to ask.

It depends on your state, and sometimes your county. In most places we can help you get qualified, and because this is a W-2 model, your license covers your employees' work. Rules for trades like plumbing and electrical are very local, so where a license is not worth carrying in-house, owners can bring in a subcontractor and still keep the whole job. We always suggest checking with your local building department directly, since online information can sometimes lag behind the actual rules.

You’ll get a structured onboarding with a specialist assigned to you, a week of in-person training at our Handyman Services University in Denver, Colorado, and a field trainer on site with you your first week open. Your new Craftsmen will receive their own dedicated onboarding, so you never have to worry about writing a training program from scratch. Support continues well past opening, through the length of your time as an Ace Handyman Services franchise owner.

You need a commercial address, but not a storefront. This address exists to anchor your Google Business Page and map pin, which is one of your biggest sources of leads. No customers or Craftsmen work out of it, so a shared or sublet space is fine as long as you can claim a Google listing. A shorter lease is smart while online search keeps shifting.

Yes. You’ll receive the same full training as a new owner, plus the benefit of an established customer base. You sign a fresh 10-year agreement at first-year minimums, and there is no new franchise fee. The seller funds a warranty escrow that covers callback work in the first year, so it stays off your books.

Yes, and we highly encourage it. Once you have reviewed the FDD, we’ll introduce you to a mix of owners. This often includes: someone wrapping up their first year, someone several years in, and an owner in a market like yours. From there, the next step is a session with our leadership team. We keep the ball in your court and move at your pace.