From a $10,000 Basement Startup to $113 Million in Annual Sales: How a Handyman Franchise Took Off Like a Rocket

Key Takeaways

• Colette and Andy Bell started a handyman business in 1998 to tackle small projects for homeowners.
• In 2018, they connected with Ace Hardware, which purchased their business in 2019.
• Colette is now the vice president of franchise development for Ace Handyman Services, and she continues to lead expansion.

Colette Bell and her husband, Andy Bell, launched their handyman venture in Denver, Colorado, in 1998 after spotting an unmet need in the market.

They discovered that large specialty contractors often ignore small homeowner projects. For instance, a homeowner with a single sticky window who contacts a window company is typically urged to replace all windows in the house.

“Homeowners struggled to find a trustworthy professional for minor jobs,” Colette told Entrepreneur in a recent interview. “That gap became the niche we set out to fill.”

They recognized the opportunity right away. In its first year, the business “took off like a rocket,” Colette recalls.

In 2001 they began franchising under the name Handyman Matters. Andy served as CEO while Colette assumed various leadership roles, including chairman of the board. Their partnership with Ace Hardware began in 2018, culminating in an acquisition the following year.

“This has been my lifelong career,” Colette says. “For nearly three decades I’ve been dedicated to the handyman business.”

Andy is now the CEO and president of Ace Handyman Services, and Colette is the vice president of franchise development, a position she has held since 2019. She continues to lead expansion, helping the brand grow from 119 territories at the time of its 2019 acquisition to 383 territories as of April this year, more than tripling its footprint.

Ace Handyman Services posted a 12% increase from 2024 to 2025, pushing total sales past $113 million for the latter year.

The interview below with Colette has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Growth tactics

What were the main factors that allowed the company to grow so quickly? What did you do to facilitate growth?
We enforce precise appointment windows and train our team that being early is on time, while lateness is unacceptable. Staff must arrive promptly, dress professionally, and wear branded shirts. If they notice trash cans left at the curb after collection, we guide them to return the cans to the driveway—small gestures that demonstrate our commitment to the entire home, not just the isolated task.

We do extensive follow-up: calling the day after to make sure the customer is happy, and again at 11 months because we offer a one-year warranty. Adding that high level of customer service to a low-tech, fragmented industry made a big difference.

Getting things right with franchising

Looking back at that 2001 decision to franchise, what did you get right about franchising, and what did you underestimate about how hard it would be?
We initially underestimated the challenges, yet we succeeded in a few key areas. Foremost, we established exclusive territories for franchisees based on ZIP codes. Since ZIP codes are precisely defined by the Postal Service and come with readily available demographic information, we could map out territories accurately. This gave franchise owners protected zones, eliminating concerns about encroachment from neighboring owners—a policy we implemented from the outset.

The other thing we did right, which was more accidental, was our billing model.
Even though we’re a handyman business and construction often estimates projects as fixed dollar amounts, we decided to bill customers using a time-and-materials format. Time is universal — an hour is an hour everywhere. Pricing, on the other hand, varies significantly between, say, Connecticut and Arkansas or Illinois and California. Instead of trying to force one universal price structure across the U.S., we made time the constant and allowed each owner to choose their own hourly rate.

That made the business much more feasible in different markets. About 85% of our work is labor and only about 15% is materials, because we focus on small repairs and restorations, not large remodels.

Choosing franchising over corporate locations

What convinced you that this idea would scale better through franchising than through company-owned locations?
We learned that firsthand when we expanded to California. At one point, we were effectively running six corporate locations — three in Colorado and three in California. We quickly realized we couldn’t give every employee, and therefore every customer, the time and leadership they deserved.

It was clear this business model should be available across the U.S. Every homeowner deserves a professional, reliable handyman service for small projects, but there was no way we could build that nationally as a purely corporate chain — especially since we started in our basement with $10,000, every bit of savings we could scrape together.

The franchise model made national expansion possible because it relies on local owners rooted in their communities. Handyman businesses are very community-centric; you’re basically working for your neighbors. Franchising fits the model perfectly.

The biggest surprise about franchising

What is something about franchising that surprised you?
The biggest surprise — though everyone tells you this upfront — is how much the success or failure of the business model depends on the relationship between franchisor and franchise owners. Until you’ve lived it, that doesn’t fully sink in. This relationship has to be strong and reciprocal. It can’t just be the franchisor giving and the franchise owners taking; franchisees also need to contribute ideas and feedback.

Early on, we had franchise owners with fantastic business ideas we never would have developed on our own, and they were willing to share them so we could roll them out systemwide.

A great example was during Covid, when the whole country shut down, and no one could enter customers’ homes. We spent that downtime on conference calls with franchise owners, figuring out how to make the business as touchless as possible.

For instance, we used to take customer signatures on invoices. During Covid, we shifted to reading the contract language aloud and recording “verified by voice” instead of a signature.

Franchise owners helped design new standard operating procedures, which we rolled out to everyone. So when we were designated essential in April and could return to homes, we had safer, smarter procedures in place. That level of support and collaboration is critical in franchising.

The ideal franchisee

For an entrepreneur evaluating Ace Handyman, how do you define the ideal franchisee in terms of background, skills and mindset?
Our owners come from all kinds of backgrounds. One of our top franchisees is a former horticulturalist. We have people from finance, marketing, plant management, a large number of veterans, former teachers, and former coaches and mentors.

The through line is a passion for improving their community and strong leadership skills. As an owner, you don’t go to every customer’s house; our volume is too high for that. The way you deliver great service is through your employees, which means you must be an excellent leader. That includes paying good wages, providing training and mentoring and offering real growth opportunities. Leadership is at the heart of our most successful franchisees.

For us, a red flag is when a prospective owner focuses more on money than culture and people. Our business has robust numbers — you don’t grow otherwise — but if the primary focus is financial, it typically isn’t a good fit.

How much does it cost to start an Ace Handyman franchise?
According to our 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 7, initial investment falls between $132,200 and $226,000, which incorporates a $70,000 franchise fee.

Long-term vision

When you imagine Ace Handyman Services 10 years from now, what does success look like for the brand, for individual owners and for the customers they serve?
First, success means our current franchise owners are still here. Longevity is very important in franchising. Ace has always believed in generational businesses; many hardware stores have been passed down from great-great-grandparents through multiple generations.

In our system, we already have franchise owners who’ve been with us 24 years. I’m very proud of that. They stuck with us when we were young and figuring things out and contributed ideas, passion and suggestions. We’ve seen transitions where a father handed the business to his daughter and uncles passed locations to nephews.

My goal for the next 10 years is that we’ll not only expand to cover perhaps half of the U.S., but also see more of our locations become generational businesses, with kids taking over for their parents. That kind of longevity would be a real measure of success.

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