How the Franchise They Started With $10k Reached $113 Million

Colette Bell and her husband, Andy Bell, began a handyman enterprise in Denver, Colorado, in 1998 after figuring out a singular want. 

They discovered that huge specialty contracting corporations didn’t wish to do small tasks for owners. For instance, if somebody had one sticky window and known as a window firm, the agency wished to promote them 25 new home windows for his or her home. 

“We discovered that owners had a extremely exhausting time discovering any individual skilled and dependable for small tasks,” Colette tells Entrepreneur in a brand new interview. “That was the area of interest market we constructed this enterprise to serve.”

They knew instantly that they’d struck gold. Their first yr in enterprise, the corporate “simply took off like a rocket,” Colette says.

They ended up franchising the enterprise, known as Handyman Issues, in 2001. Andy led the enterprise as CEO whereas Colette took on a number of management roles over time, together with chairman of the board. In 2018, they linked with Ace {Hardware}, which acquired the enterprise in 2019. 

“That is the one profession I’ve had my entire life,” Colette says. “For 28 years, I’ve been engaged on the handyman enterprise.”

Andy is now the CEO and president of Ace Handyman Providers, and Colette is the vice chairman of franchise improvement, a place she has held since 2019. She continues to steer growth, serving to the model develop from 119 territories on the time of its 2019 acquisition to 383 territories as of April this yr, greater than tripling its footprint.

Ace Handyman Providers grew by 12% from 2024 to 2025, with whole gross sales exceeding $113 million in 2025.  

The next interview with Colette has been flippantly edited for readability and concision.

Development ways

What have been the primary components that allowed the corporate to develop so shortly? What did you do to facilitate development?
We set precise appointment occasions and coach our workers that “for those who’re not early, you’re late.” They should arrive on time, look skilled and put on logoed shirts. In the event that they stroll up and see the trash cans nonetheless on the curb after pickup, we coach them to maneuver the cans again up the driveway — little issues that present we’re there to assist with the entire home, not only a single undertaking.

We do in depth follow-up: calling the day after to ensure the client is completely happy, and once more at 11 months as a result of we provide a one-year guarantee. Including that top stage of customer support to a low-tech, fragmented business made a giant distinction.

Getting issues proper with franchising

Trying again at that 2001 choice to franchise, what did you get proper about franchising, and what did you underestimate about how exhausting it will be?
We underestimated the whole lot. However we did get a few essential issues proper. One was creating protected territories for franchise house owners delineated by ZIP codes. ZIP codes are clearly outlined by the put up workplace and have accessible demographic information, so we might construct territories utilizing that information. Franchise house owners then had protected territories and didn’t have to fret about competitors from neighboring house owners. We did that from day one.

The opposite factor we did proper, which was extra unintentional, was our billing mannequin. Although we’re a handyman enterprise and building typically estimates tasks as fastened greenback quantities, we determined to invoice prospects utilizing a time-and-materials format. Time is common — an hour is an hour in all places. Pricing, then again, varies considerably between, say, Connecticut and Arkansas or Illinois and California. As an alternative of attempting to power one common value construction throughout the U.S., we made time the fixed and allowed every proprietor to decide on their very own hourly price. 

That made the enterprise rather more possible in numerous markets. About 85% of our work is labor and solely about 15% is supplies, as a result of we deal with small repairs and restorations, not massive remodels.

Selecting franchising over company places

What satisfied you that this concept would scale higher via franchising than via company-owned places?
We discovered that firsthand once we expanded to California. At one level, we have been successfully operating six company places — three in Colorado and three in California. We shortly realized we couldn’t give each worker, and due to this fact each buyer, the time and management they deserved.

It was clear this enterprise mannequin needs to be obtainable throughout the U.S. Each home-owner deserves an expert, dependable handyman service for small tasks, however there was no means we might construct that nationally as a purely company chain — particularly since we began in our basement with $10,000, each little bit of financial savings we might scrape collectively. 

The franchise mannequin made nationwide growth doable as a result of it depends on native house owners rooted of their communities. Handyman companies are very community-centric; you’re mainly working on your neighbors. Franchising suits the mannequin completely.

The largest shock about franchising

What’s one thing about franchising that stunned you?
The largest shock — although everybody tells you this upfront — is how a lot the success or failure of the enterprise mannequin relies on the connection between franchisor and franchise house owners. Till you’ve lived it, that doesn’t totally sink in. This relationship must be robust and reciprocal. It will probably’t simply be the franchisor giving and the franchise house owners taking; franchisees additionally have to contribute concepts and suggestions.

Early on, we had franchise house owners with improbable enterprise concepts we by no means would have developed on our personal, and so they have been keen to share them so we might roll them out systemwide.

A fantastic instance was throughout Covid, when the entire nation shut down, and nobody might enter prospects’ properties. We spent that downtime on convention calls with franchise house owners, determining tips on how to make the enterprise as touchless as doable.

As an example, we used to take buyer signatures on invoices. Throughout Covid, we shifted to studying the contract language aloud and recording “verified by voice” as a substitute of a signature. 

Franchise house owners helped design new commonplace working procedures, which we rolled out to everybody. So once we have been designated important in April and will return to properties, we had safer, smarter procedures in place. That stage of help and collaboration is crucial in franchising.

The perfect franchisee

For an entrepreneur evaluating Ace Handyman, how do you outline the perfect franchisee when it comes to background, expertise and mindset?
Our house owners come from every kind of backgrounds. One in all our prime franchisees is a former horticulturalist. We have now folks from finance, advertising, plant administration, a lot of veterans, former lecturers, and former coaches and mentors.

The via line is a ardour for bettering their group and robust management expertise. As an proprietor, you don’t go to each buyer’s home; our quantity is just too excessive for that. The best way you ship nice service is thru your workers, which suggests you have to be a wonderful chief. That features paying good wages, offering coaching and mentoring and providing actual development alternatives. Management is on the coronary heart of our most profitable franchisees.

For us, a pink flag is when a potential proprietor focuses extra on cash than tradition and other people. Our enterprise has sturdy numbers — you don’t develop in any other case — but when the first focus is monetary, it sometimes isn’t a great match.

How a lot does it value to start out an Ace Handyman franchise?
In our 2026 franchise disclosure doc, Merchandise 7 exhibits startup prices starting from $132,200 on the low finish to $226,000 on the excessive finish. That features a $70,000 franchise charge.

Lengthy-term imaginative and prescient

If you think about Ace Handyman Providers 10 years from now, what does success appear like for the model, for particular person house owners and for the purchasers they serve?
First, success means our present franchise house owners are nonetheless right here. Longevity is essential in franchising. Ace has at all times believed in generational companies; many {hardware} shops have been handed down from great-great-grandparents via a number of generations.

In our system, we have already got franchise house owners who’ve been with us 24 years. I’m very happy with that. They caught with us once we have been younger and figuring issues out and contributed concepts, ardour and solutions. We’ve seen transitions the place a father handed the enterprise to his daughter and uncles handed places to nephews.

My purpose for the following 10 years is that we’ll not solely increase to cowl maybe half of the U.S., but in addition see extra of our places turn out to be generational companies, with children taking up for his or her dad and mom. That sort of longevity could be an actual measure of success.

Colette Bell and her husband, Andy Bell, began a handyman enterprise in Denver, Colorado, in 1998 after figuring out a singular want. 

They discovered that huge specialty contracting corporations didn’t wish to do small tasks for owners. For instance, if somebody had one sticky window and known as a window firm, the agency wished to promote them 25 new home windows for his or her home. 

“We discovered that owners had a extremely exhausting time discovering any individual skilled and dependable for small tasks,” Colette tells Entrepreneur in a brand new interview. “That was the area of interest market we constructed this enterprise to serve.”