It pays to be practical – when you’re in the right city at the right time and charging the right fare.
When his mother was alive, Brian Keith Schrier was her handyman. “Even when I didn’t know how to do it, she trusted me to do it,” he says. “I would learn how to do it. When I was young, I always took everything apart and didn’t always put it back together. I enjoy figuring things out.”
Having worked in construction and owning a petition management company that collected signatures for advocacy groups to put issues up for voting, Schrier, 45, found himself at a career crossroads in 2014. He signed up for TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that allows users to outsource small jobs to others, which along with other odd job apps like Handy and Fiverr earlier this month partnered with Amazon Home Services to offer handyman services.
Schrier, who lives in San Francisco, spoke to MarketWatch about how he can earn up to $14,000 a month from odd jobs.
market observation: How did you come to be a craftsman?
screamer: I had a friend with me who had moved to San Francisco from Missouri and he got TaskRabbit for a side job, he came home bragging about it. He showed me all the jobs he could pick and talked about it until it was actually a bit annoying.
market observation: What do you charge?
screamer: I charge $150 per hour. I used to do minor household repairs and handyman jobs, but since my fee has increased I mostly do more specialized jobs that require higher skills: electrical installation, TV mounts and the like. Some of the other categories like deliveries and IKEA furniture assembly, most of the people who do that charge cheaper prices so I don’t get picked for that anymore.
market observation: What did you start with?
screamer: $20 to $25 per hour.
market observation: wow! That’s quite a jump.
screamer: I worked between 12 and 16 hours a day and got way, way too much work. I didn’t know how to say no to this work. I started increasing this rate to meet supply and demand. I just wanted to reduce my hours. I enjoyed solving a problem from scratch instead of assembling IKEA furniture. It is more important.
market observation: Does it get complicated?
screamer: Yes, if someone wants to hang a chandelier but there is no outlet. Sometimes you need to reroute the electrical wiring for this stuff.
market observation: So how much do you earn these days?
screamer: I have a pretty big project in my life right now. I usually work 20 to 25 hours a week. I’ve been working a little more this month. I think I’m at around $14,000 this month.
market observation: Did you say 14,000? Are these rubles or dollars?
screamer: We have a way to review our app. It’s exactly $13,976 for 30 days.
market observation: wow. That must have been a particularly large project. You are obviously busy. I recently had a Tasker that makes about $3,000 a month, but he’s only charging $38 an hour, and that’s in New York.
screamer: You took me enormously. I had to fix a door, sand and repaint a railing, and hang a chandelier.
Podcast: These workers make $100,000 a year
market observation: Yes, you have to be really careful, especially with expensive items like chandeliers. Does TaskRabbit pay you to do PR for them?
screamer: No. TaskRabbit has done a lot for me and I like to give back where I can. They have given me the freedom to work when I want to work, take days off when I want, and choose the jobs I want to do. I made a midlife career change that was really scary and it put me in a great place.
market observation: Do you have children?
screamer: I have three children and they are all grown up, going to school and starting their own lives…
market observation: Do you really pay $150 to assemble a TV in San Francisco?
screamer: At this rate they have the certainty that I will do it right.
market observation: How did you become so practical? And what is the most common task?
screamer: I picked it up on the way. I grew up on my father’s ranch in eastern Oregon. TV assembly is the most common task. I’m usually chosen for one of the most complicated mounts. Drill into her wall and make holes. I get picked a lot more for these.
market observation: I imagine a nice townhouse in San Francisco and a millionaire from Silicon Valley who can write complex computer code but doesn’t know how to use a hammer and nail.
screamer: The tech industry is moving to this city and getting a fresh start. I have a lot of younger clients. As far as male and female go, I think it’s pretty balanced.
market observation: Really?
screamer: Well, I think it’s something more feminine.
market observation: Has anyone ever hit on you or flirted with you?
screamer: I had this experience just a week ago. It wasn’t the customer, it was the customer’s neighbor. As soon as the client left, she told me how lonely she was. It was really awkward. All I did was hop around the house with different tasks. So I didn’t participate in this conversation. It was really funny after that, but at the time it was more, ‘Oh, boy, lady.’ When the client came back, I told her in a lighthearted way. I didn’t want the client to feel like I was in a bad position.
market observation: What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
screamer: I was hired to fold t-shirts for $70 an hour. It really blew my mind that someone had to do this. It was a startup she had to get done immediately.
market observation: Good job if you can get it.
screamer: For some of these jobs I do, the only other alternative is to hire a contractor. They’ll say, “I’ll hang up the TV, but I’ll charge you for half a day’s work.” For me, I can hang a TV or reach behind a bookshelf to get to a phone plug in under an hour, and it’s still cheaper than having a contractor do it. Many movers charge a minimum of four hours.
market observation: Any challenging tasks?
screamer: I will get a job if the customer is really not in a good mood. That’s a little stressful. I’m kinda walking on eggshells. I still have that job to do, but in the back of my mind I’m wondering if her world is so dark, will that spill over into my review?
market observation: I still wouldn’t call $150 an hour cheap.
screamer: Maybe people have had bad experiences and are just not ready to roll the dice anymore. I get as much work as I want. With this amount of work, I could increase my rate, but at this point I really don’t want to. i am not greedy I’ll keep it where it is.
market observation: And now you have more business through Amazon
AMZN
.
screamer: I have my first actual appearance for Amazon later today. The customer’s mobile home suffered water damage. They want the roof of the RV taken down and weatherproofed and made strong enough for them to put some lawn chairs on it and hang it out. The client is out on Treasure Island.
market observation: Treasure Island! This is the perfect place to end.
(This interview was originally published in April 2015.)
