How a web-savvy plumber is using social media sites to tap into a smarter way of working

NET RESULTS:The 'Grandaddy of Handymen' has shown the business potential of the web is no pipe dream, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

I REALISED that Jimmy Lynch didn’t run a typical handyman business over the summer when one of his carpenters told me he would have to check the scheduling on Jimmy’s Google Calendar to confirm a work date for me for a shelving unit.

“All our work schedules are on Google Calendar,” the carpenter said. That was a first in my book.

How did Jimmy start using Google Calendar for his handyman business? “I just discovered Google Calendar a while ago. One of my guys got one of those small netbooks and Google Calendar proved a very useful tool in monitoring the work and employees. By 4pm each day I have a pretty good idea of what’s been done and what needs to be done,” he says.

“We have a shared calendar, with nominated people having access. They can initiate jobs or reschedule, using different colours. It works well – at least most of the time!”

Jimmy Lynch’s Handyman for a Day business is also on Linked In and Facebook, and of course, he has a website, www.handymanforaday.ie. All of which is an interesting embrace of the web, social networking and internet tools by a small company in an area that might not seem to be the most obvious adopter of Web 2.0.

But what makes Jimmy even more unusual is the fact that he isn’t exactly generation X, Y, or Z. He would come a bit earlier in the alphabet – and while he doesn’t want to give his exact age for a newspaper article, he says people will get the idea if they know he also goes by the moniker the “Grandaddy of Handymen”.

“I have 20 grandchildren,” he laughs.

Now, in what he calls his second career (a degree in psychology from Trinity was set aside to pursue his real love, building and repairing things), Jimmy runs two teams that he sends out to do everything from corporate work and building maintenance to typical handyman tasks in residences.

The way in which he uses social media and runs the firm through online applications is a true example of geek bootstrapping – none of it came naturally to him and he started out with just about zero knowledge.

He picked up his computing and internet skills from taking a community course in Dublin.

“One thing I had decided was I’m not going to let this technology pass me by. I went up to Ballymun to do a course and they really took me by the hand. It’s a lot harder when you’re older, and actually trying things out is the only way to learn.”

He’s been running Handyman for a Day for close to a decade. Once he did the computer course, he knew he wanted to make use of social media and the internet in his own business. He decided the only thing to do was go and have a look at what his counterparts in Silicon Valley were doing.

“I went on the internet and checked what they were doing in the handyman business in California. I figured they’d be using all the latest internet tools.”

And many of them were. Taking his inspiration from the Californians, he set up a Linked In profile and his website. He’s just launched a Facebook page as well.

“I wouldn’t be without using social media. I just consider social media as an important vehicle for spreading awareness,” he says.

Initially he says Facebook seemed more trivial and less a location for business than Linked In, but he’s rethought his strategy given the size and the user base of Facebook and its shifting uses.

About 90 per cent of his business calls come from women, he says – and the evidence indicates that a lot of women use Facebook for finding and recommending services.

“I can’t say I’ve been inundated with calls from people saying they found me through using social media, but my business has improved since I started using Linked In,” he says. He’s interested to see whether Facebook will bring more direct contacts.

Using the internet and Google for running the business has become so central that he is getting two smart phones this week –“probably Android phones” – for the teams to use for doing their online scheduling.

He’s full of enthusiasm for both his small business and his internet tools.

“This is the first time in my life that I’ve gotten my arm around something that I really like,” he says. “I’ve always loved this kind of thing.”

He closes our conversation by noting he will schedule somebody to come finish off some work on my front hallway during the week, and will have one of his carpenters out to do a second shelving unit for me separately.

Which means, I suppose, that I am appearing on his Google Calendar at the moment, in the “not yet completed” scheduling colour. And by next week, with luck, I should show up on the Android phones in a new colour, as a finished project.