Setting up Yesoma for a handyman business

This guide walks a handyman business owner through applying Yesoma's handyman playbook, getting the pricing logic right from day one, drawing clear scope boundaries in your templates, and using the follow-up cadence to turn a satisfied homeowner into a five-star review.

1. Apply the handyman playbook during onboarding

When you first sign up, Yesoma's onboarding wizard asks you to pick your industry. Choose Handyman and the wizard loads a complete starting workspace: 8 pre-written services, 7 policies, 8 FAQs, 8 reply templates, and a follow-up cadence tuned for task-based work.

The playbook is a starting point, not a locked contract. After it loads, you land in Settings where you can:

• Edit any service name, description, or price anchor
• Add trades or tasks you specialize in that are not in the default list
• Remove services you do not offer (for example, if you do not do any electrical work)
• Adjust the deposit threshold if your minimum quoted job is different from $500
• Update the workmanship warranty period if you offer more or less than 30 days

Spend 15–20 minutes here. The more accurately your services and prices reflect your real work, the better Yesoma's AI will perform when it drafts replies to incoming inquiries.

2. The 1-hour minimum and hourly pricing logic

The most common point of confusion in handyman inquiries is pricing. Customers frequently ask "how much to hang a shelf?" and expect a firm number instantly. The honest answer is that it depends — but you can answer it in a way that builds trust rather than frustration.

The playbook sets a $125 fixed minimum for the service call (1-hour visit). Every booking starts here. After the first hour, time is billed in 30-minute increments. This structure does three things:

• It covers your real cost of travel and setup, not just the hands-on task time.
• It gives customers a concrete floor price to anchor against.
• It lets you price simple jobs (one screw-in wall anchor, one light switch) without doing a separate site visit just to quote.

The pricing reply template names the minimum explicitly:

"There is a 1-hour minimum of $125 on all visits, which covers travel and the first hour on site."

Customers who understand this before the visit arrive without sticker shock. The ones who balk at the minimum were probably never going to be good customers anyway.

For the other services — mounting, assembly, drywall, door repair, fixture installs — the playbook uses starting_from pricing. These are realistic floors, not the average or the maximum. When you update the anchor prices in Settings, update them to reflect your actual minimum for a straightforward version of that job in your market. Yesoma pulls those anchors into pricing replies automatically.

3. Scope of work — what handyman is not, and why your templates say so

This is the most important section in the playbook to get right.

Handymen routinely get inquiries for work that requires a trade license and a permit: re-piping a bathroom, adding a new circuit, servicing HVAC, running gas lines. The customer often does not know the difference — they are just looking for someone who can fix things. If you take on that work without a license, you expose yourself to liability and expose the customer to problems at inspection or resale.

The playbook builds this clarity directly into the services and policies rather than leaving it for you to explain every time.

The fixture install service description says:

"We do not do licensed plumbing: no soldering, no moving drain or vent lines, no work that requires a plumbing permit. For permitted plumbing work, we refer you to a licensed plumber."

The small electrical service description says:

"We do not do licensed electrical work: no panel work, no new circuits, no moving or running new wire, no work that requires an electrical permit."

The policy titled "What we do — and what we do not do" lists every out-of-scope category in plain language: licensed plumbing, licensed electrical, HVAC, gas lines, roofing, structural work.

When Yesoma's AI drafts a reply to a customer asking about something outside your scope, it draws on this policy language. The customer gets a clear, non-defensive answer — and a referral — rather than a vague "that is not something we handle." Clear scope limits make you look professional, not limited.

After you apply the playbook, read through the scope policy and add anything specific to your market. If your city has unusual permit requirements for seemingly minor work, note that. If you do some things that a neighboring handyman might not (tile grout repair, fence picket replacement, gutter cleaning), add those as services.

4. Materials sourcing — setting expectations before the invoice

The second most common point of friction in handyman work is materials. Customers sometimes assume "handyman" means "brings everything." Others assume you will show up and then tell them to go buy parts. Neither assumption is quite right, and mismatched expectations here lead to unhappy reviews.

The playbook's materials policy draws a practical line:

• Small consumables (screws, anchors, caulk, sandpaper, painter's tape, outlet covers) are included in the job price.
• Larger materials — fixtures, lumber, ceiling fans, paint — are either customer-supplied or sourced by you and billed at cost plus a small handling fee.

The first reply template prompts you to confirm the materials plan at the start of every inquiry. The day-of confirmation template has a materials field as a checklist item.

Two things to customize here in Settings:

• Update the handling fee percentage to match your actual practice (common range is 10–20% over cost).
• If you have a preferred supplier or prefer customers source their own fixtures to avoid warranty complications, add that note to the materials policy.

The clearer you are on materials before the technician arrives, the fewer awkward conversations happen on site.

5. Multi-task day quotes and the honey-do list

A significant share of handyman revenue comes from customers who have been building a list for months and finally want to clear it in one go. These are day-rate bookings — half-day (4 hours) or full-day (8 hours) — and they require a different approach than a single service call.

The playbook's Custom / day-rate service is set to custom_quote because the price depends on the task list, the tools required, and whether materials need to be sourced. The workflow is:

1. Customer sends their list (often in the first inquiry).
2. You do a brief phone or video call to confirm scope and quote.
3. Customer accepts the quote and pays a 50% deposit to hold the day.
4. Day of: work through the list in priority order; anything not completed is noted and re-scheduled.
5. Balance due at end of day.

The first reply template asks for a task list upfront — "A full list helps — even rough details are fine." This primes customers to share everything, which means fewer surprises on the day.

The 50% deposit on day-rate jobs is deliberate. Blocking a full day for a customer is a real cost. The deposit ensures the customer is committed and covers your floor if they cancel late. The deposit policy in the playbook explains this simply so customers do not feel they are being asked to pay twice.

When Yesoma marks a job as completed, the follow-up cadence fires the post-job thank you the following day. Day-rate customers who just cleared a backlog of 10 things are the most satisfied customers a handyman has — they have been living with those unfinished tasks for months. The review request goes out exactly when that satisfaction is at its peak.

6. Reply templates in action

Here is how a typical single-task inquiry moves through Yesoma:

Day 0 — inquiry arrives. A customer messages asking about mounting a TV. Yesoma drafts a reply using the first reply template, asking for the task, address, and preferred timing. You review and send.

Day 0 or 1 — pricing reply. You reply with the pricing template: mounting starts at $100 per item, 1-hour minimum applies, wall type and wire concealment may affect the price. You offer two open slots.

Day 1 — booking confirmed or quote sent. If it is a straightforward job, you confirm directly. If it is a larger scope (multiple items, unusual wall material), you send a formal quote. Yesoma logs the quote event and starts the follow-up cadence.

Day 4 — quote follow-up. If the customer has not replied in 3 days, Yesoma queues the quote follow-up template. One tap sends it.

Job day. The day-of confirmation template goes out in the morning: arrival window, entry instructions, task list confirmation.

Day after the job. Yesoma queues the post-job thank you with the review link. The shelves are up, the TV is mounted, the furniture is built. The customer is delighted. Day one is exactly when they are most likely to leave a review — not a week later when the moment has passed.

Common questions

What if I want to add a trade I specialize in, like tile work or fence repair? Add it in Settings under Services. Use starting_from pricing and describe the scope clearly, including what is and is not included. Copy the booking steps structure from the closest existing service as a starting point.

Should I raise the 1-hour minimum if my market commands higher rates? Yes — update the service call price anchor in Settings to match your actual minimum. The templates pull from that record, so the right number will appear in pricing replies automatically. Do not leave a stale anchor in place; it is the first price many customers see.

How do I handle customers who push back on the scope limits (asking for licensed electrical work, etc.)? The FAQ "Do you do licensed plumbing or electrical work?" is pre-loaded with a complete, direct answer that explains why the boundary exists and what the customer should do instead. Point customers to that FAQ or use that language in a direct reply. Customers who understand the reason almost never push further.

My cancellation policy is 48 hours, not 24 — should I update it? Yes. The policy and the cancellation template language should match your actual policy. Update the cancellation policy content in Settings and adjust any template that references the cancellation window. Consistency between your policy and your template language builds trust.

Can I use Yesoma's quote tool for day-rate estimates? Yes — the quote tool in the inbox lets you itemize labor and any materials sourced. For day-rate jobs, list the estimated hours, the hourly rate, and any materials as line items. The customer gets a clean document to review and accept, and Yesoma logs the acceptance event to start the follow-up cadence.