Starting a Trade Business

Starting a cleaning, handyman, painting or pressure washing business looks simple from the outside: buy some equipment, print a few flyers, take the first call. The hard part shows up a few months later, when the jobs are coming in but the money at the end of the month does not match the hours you worked.

These guides cover the decisions that are expensive to get wrong at the start. What you really need to buy on day one and what can wait. How much money to set aside before the first job. How to find the first ten customers without paying for leads you cannot handle. When a side business is ready to become a full-time one, and what changes when you stop working alone.

Each guide is written for one kind of trade business, because a window cleaning round and a remodeling crew do not start the same way. Where rules depend on your state or country, such as licenses or registration, the guide says so and links to the official source instead of guessing.

If you are still deciding which trade to start, begin with the complete guide. If you already have your first customers, go straight to pricing.