Residents in the Neath area don’t have too far to look for a handy man to help with any odd jobs around the home thanks to a local entrepreneur who has set up his own business.
Peter Owens set up Odd Jobs back in September last year after being made redundant from his previous job as an MOT tester.
Mr Owens’s initial plan was to purchase and brand a work van, attach a heavy-duty toolbox to the back and establish himself as a general handy man. However, around the time Mr Owens was setting up the business, a local resident asked him to clean their windows and guttering.
That gave Mr Owens the idea to diversify his offering by establishing a guttering and window cleaning service as well. It was then that he contacted a local provider of the Welsh Government Business Start Up service, Centre for Business, to gain valuable advice and support on how to run his own company.
Mr Owens attended several courses provided by the Centre for Business on areas such as accounts and bookkeeping, as well as gaining advice on how successfully market and advertise the business.
Mr Owens explains: “I worked as an MOT tester for 12 years, but I have always wanted to be my own boss and I consider myself to be able to put my hand to most things. So, when I was made redundant from my job, I made the decision to venture out on my own pretty quickly.
“I contacted the Centre for Business straight away as I knew that I required help from someone with expert knowledge on how to run your own business, how to market and advertise it, and who could provide some overall general advice to people like me who are just starting out.
“In the short time that Odd Jobs has been up and running, I have already diversified the business in order to accommodate both the summer and winter months. Quite often people think that you cannot undertake any outside work during the winter months, but I swiftly realised that I needed to expand my offering, and that is when the carpet cleaning and window repair service came to fruition.”
Centre for Business also helped Mr Owens secure further funding to put towards advertising and set-up costs, while he is currently taking a training course to become qualified in double-glazing repairs. He hopes to complete his training by mid-March in order to launch his window repair service.
As a result of his early success, Mr Owens now has the healthy problem of having to schedule his days each week to ensure outside jobs are booked on separate days to carpet cleaning.
He adds: “No one wants a person coming through their home to clean carpets when they have been outside for most of the day, and are dirty and damp from cleaning gutters and windows.
“I try to schedule outside jobs on certain days, and interior jobs on the remaining days in the week. So far, this seems to be working quite well.
“I have taken the necessary steps to become industry qualified in the areas that I have needed to in order to be able to provide the best service to my customers. I very much want to be seen as a professional handy man, not a jack of all trades.
“This is a career for me, and without the help from the Welsh Government Start up Service I would not be where I am today. I would recommend them to anyone who is considering starting out on their own.”
To find out more about and the support available through The Welsh Government’s Business Start Up Service or Centre for Business, please visit www.busines.Wales.gov.uk and www.centreforbusiness.co.uk.
