Step by step. Official links included.
This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Philadelphia handyman work is plaster patch, door hardware, and lists in rowhouses with no place to stage. Fishtown and South Philadelphia are the core. Manayunk adds stairs of a different kind. Chestnut Hill and Media are easier. Party-wall surprises and old plaster are reasons to describe the work as small. Refer licensed trades in the same paragraph.
rowhouses with stacks and party walls, plus older suburban houses in the close-in towns cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry Plaster, doors, mounts, and rowhouse lists you can carry in.
Start the route in Fishtown, South Philadelphia, and Manayunk. Add Chestnut Hill and Media when you can reach them the same day. Rowhouse owners hire a crew that understands shared walls, roof access, and a street with nowhere to stage a dumpster.
The Pennsylvania guide has the filing office. This page is the local version: what the first jobs are, which permit counter to call, and how to price a day here.
Some boxes are labeled Partner. ServiceBase has not joined those programs. The links go to each company's own homepage, not a tracking link. If a program later approves us, the address will change and we may earn a commission. You can file, insure, and bank anywhere. Official government links are not partner links. Nothing on this page is a discount code.
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The guide stays public. An account saves your state, city, and trade, and lets you mark each filing as you go. The advertising credit is reserved when you register. It can be spent after the free website is live.
Create a free account to track your progresshandyman names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Fishtown.
Search it at the Pennsylvania Department of State before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
Most handyman businesses start as a sole proprietorship. An LLC is reasonable once you are in other people's houses every day and want the bank account and the insurance in a company name. It does not expand the list of jobs you may legally do. If a state sets a dollar cap on unlicensed work, read the current cap on the official page. Do not rely on a number from a forum.
We do not have a filing fee for Pennsylvania that we are willing to print. The Pennsylvania Department of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
If your customers are in Philadelphia, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy Pennsylvania. Read the filing office's rule. A neighbor's kitchen table is not always an acceptable address.
An employer identification number is the business tax ID. The IRS issues it online at no charge and says you never have to pay a company to get one. If you form an LLC, file with the state first. The IRS says an EIN application can stall when the state filing is not done. A sole proprietor can often start with a Social Security number and get an EIN when a bank or a hire requires it.
Apply on the IRS page if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner beside this step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero either way.
Read any handyman or small-job exemption on the contractor board, including the dollar cap and the trades it excludes. Then get the city business license. Refer panel, gas, sewer, and roof work unless you hold that license.
State page: Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration. Home improvement registration is not a license for every trade. Read the page, then check the city.
Philadelphia L&I permits is the local counter for work in Philadelphia. We are naming that office, not linking a fee schedule we have not read. Call them or open the city's own site and ask what a new handyman has to register before the first job in South Philadelphia.
The Pennsylvania guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability before you drill into someone's wall. Tell the insurer you are a handyman and name the jobs, so a claim is not denied for 'contractor work' you did not disclose. Commercial auto if the truck is the business. Workers' compensation if anyone helps, even occasionally. A property manager will ask for the certificate before the first punch list.
Workers' compensation is a state program. Before anyone works with you, including a friend, ask an insurer and the state labor office whether you must carry it. This guide does not quote a headcount, because those rules differ and the state page is the source. The SBA page describes the common policies. It does not sell them. Buy the policy before you work in a house in Philadelphia.
Small jobs paid in cash and checks disappear in a personal account. Deposit them into a business checking account and write the address on the deposit note. Set tax money aside weekly. The amounts feel too small to matter, which is why they become a tax problem.
The bank will usually ask for your ID, the EIN or your Social Security number, and the formation papers if you filed an LLC. A checking account and a habit of setting tax money aside are enough at the start.
Price from a short list: a minimum visit, an hourly rate after that, and a flat price for the jobs you repeat, such as a drywall patch or a door that sticks. Send the price before you load the truck when the list is clear.
Occupied houses take longer than empty ones. Stairs and parking change the hour. Say so. Decline the item on the list that belongs to a licensed trade, and price the rest.
cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry rowhouses with stacks and party walls, plus older suburban houses in the close-in towns That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. Plaster, doors, mounts, and rowhouse lists you can carry in.
Write the price you want for the common job in Fishtown and the price you want for a far stop in Media. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Media off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for Philadelphia, PA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Fishtown, South Philadelphia, and Manayunk if those are real stops, and it should leave off towns you will not drive.
Ask for a review after a clean job, and ask them to mention the neighborhood and the task. A review that says the work and Chestnut Hill helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
Google Business Profile with photos of finished small repairs in real rooms. Reviews should mention the task and the neighborhood. The website is a list of jobs you like and a sentence on what you refer out. The form lets them send several items. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps the list.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free handyman site with Philadelphia already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace Philadelphia L&I permits.
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Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade and city filled in. You can change every line after.
Pick the service you can finish, search the name at the Pennsylvania Department of State, get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration), call Philadelphia L&I permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Fishtown and the jobs you want. Plaster, doors, mounts, and rowhouse lists you can carry in.
Read any handyman or small-job exemption on the contractor board, including the dollar cap and the trades it excludes. Then get the city business license. Refer panel, gas, sewer, and roof work unless you hold that license. Start at the Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration. Then ask Philadelphia L&I permits what the city adds.
Price from a short list: a minimum visit, an hourly rate after that, and a flat price for the jobs you repeat, such as a drywall patch or a door that sticks. Send the price before you load the truck when the list is clear. cold winters, humid summers, ice, and nor'easters that test flat roofs and old masonry Time the first ten jobs in Fishtown and Manayunk before you copy a price from another city.
You can draft it. Put it in public under the name you will actually use, with the phone you answer. If the state requires the license before you advertise the work, wait. The free ServiceBase site does not file the company. Signup can open with handyman and Philadelphia filled in so you are not retyping them.
Pennsylvania filing and license · Free handyman website in Philadelphia, PA · All trades in Philadelphia, PA
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