Handy, the renowned home services marketplace was launched in the year 2012 to help people connect with reliable and independent service professionals. The platform soon gained traction because of its much liked value proposition that delivered convenience in getting quick home repairs without the extra strain on the pocket. As a result, Handy’s journey motivated many entrepreneurs to work on their home services platform. In this article, we have explained the process to launch your own home service platform in 5 simple steps. Before moving to steps, let’s also have a look at how the home service marketplaces commonly operate.
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Operational Model of Home Services Marketplace
Today, Handy generates an estimated $40 million in annual revenue and has consolidated over 50,000 service professionals. A strong and reliable operational model is one of the key contributors towards Handy’s growth. To establish your marketplace, you also require a model you can rely on.
After analyzing the current market scenario, a hybrid business model where both customers can directly hire service professionals and professionals can place bids on tasks is highly recommended.
- Let customers upload their task requirements on your platform.
- Once a task is posted, service providers can browse those tasks and send proposals along with their bids.
- Customers can view all proposals and bids, and select a professional that best matches their requirements.
- Alternatively, customers can also view detailed profiles of service professionals and hire them directly without posting a task.
Steps to Launch Your Home Services Marketplace
Step 1: Select your Software
In order to launch a marketplace like Handy, you need a gigs management or handyman marketplace software. The software will become the tech base of your marketplace, enabling operations on the front end and providing admin controls on the back end. A marketplace software can be of many types, i.e., self-hosted, SaaS, etc. While self-hosted software will require a one-time investment, SaaS will need lifetime subscriptions.
Make sure that the software you select has the following feature set:
- Task Posting
- Custom Task Categories
- Background Checklist
- Verification Badges
- Bidding System
- Direct Hiring
- Chat Messenger
- Task Management
- User Management
- Order Management
- Commission Management
- Earnings Withdrawal Settings
- Portal Management
- Task Management
- Reports and Analytics
You can also bookmark this article to save the feature list.
Take a Look at Lifetime Licensed Home Service Software
Step 2: Deploy and Configure
In case of self-hosted software, you will need to deploy the software on your hosting server. It can be an in-house server that you already have on your office premises or a third-party server like Amazon or HostGator. Once deployed, you can configure basic settings like business name, address, business logo, homepage banner, color scheme, payment methods, social media handles, etc. In the case of SaaS software, you will get the software already hosted on the software provider’s server and only need to configure settings.
Step 3: Set up Key Pages
After configuration, set up key pages that your visitors will browse. As the marketplace owner, you get sole discretion on the design and layout of your key landing pages. However, you should make sure that those pages are user-friendly, provide accurate information and are easy to browse. Some important pages to set up on your Handy like marketplace are:
- Home page
- Registration page
- Task listing page
- Job listings page
- Find a Handyman
- How it Works
- Reviews and portfolios
- Blog FAQs
- About us
- Contact us
Step 4: Onboard Handymen
To begin with market operations, you require skilled service professionals on your marketplace. For this, you can reach out to local servicemen, launch registration campaigns on social media and offer different types of incentives, such as low commission rates and free listing spaces. Along with onboarding service professionals, it is essential to verify their skill set, especially for the first few handymen who register on your marketplace. This can be done by manually verifying their portfolio, reading Google reviews or verifying work certifications.
Step 5: Promote and Manage
You are almost done. Your home services marketplace is set up and the only thing that remains is to attract customers. Use the in-built promotion and marketing features of your marketplace software to promote your business. You can also use third-party tools and develop a proper marketing plan. In the initial days, you may need to rely more on paid marketing efforts and build a likable brand reputation. Once the customers start trying your services, use the in-built management features to manage your marketplace. You can also add customer reviews and display them on your marketplace.
Get a Complete End-to-End Management System for your Home Services Business
Conclusion
The aforementioned guide has been purposely kept short and concise to help business owners get a brief overview of the process to launch a marketplace like Handy. For a more detailed procedure, you can reach out to our business experts. Yo!Gigs in itself is a handyman marketplace software that can be used to launch lucrative businesses like Handy, Angi, TaskRabbit and Thumbtack. As it is also self-hosted and is available at a one-time cost, Yo!Gigs is a highly scalable solution with unlimited listings and transactions. If interested, feel free to explore Yo!Gigs live demos.
