Handy biz owner knows how to fix it

As the owner of House Doctors, Mike Esposito knows all about the competitive, cutthroat world of handymen.

"I go to Home Depot, and they'll say, 'Did you hear what so and so said? He said he's going to put you out of business.' "

People can say what they want, but Esposito's House Doctors franchise has been going strong since 1996, when it started as a one-man operation. Now, House Doctors employs seven handymen, owns 10 work trucks and brings in more than $1 million in revenue a year.

As Esposito puts it, handymen have always been ubiquitous, but "there was never a business model for handymen" in Hampton Roads.

At least until 1996, the year that Esposito said that he had somewhat of an epiphany. He had worked for Ford Motor Co. for 20 years, and decided he wanted to leave.

"I just woke up one day and decided I would never be the president of Ford," he said. "I was looking for something to get me into retirement."

A friend had told him about the Cincinnati-based House Doctors.

Esposito has always been handy around the house, so he flew to Cincinnati to meet with the company's owner.

The next thing he knew, he said, he had bought a franchise and set up shop in Virginia Beach. To drum up business, he sent out about 30,000 direct mail advertisements.

"The phone started ringing at 3 o'clock in the morning, and we've been running ever since," he said.

The handymen are on call 24 hours a day to take care of whatever needs taking care of around the house, from installing a ceiling fan to remodeling a bathroom.

"If it is done to a house, we do it, from floor to ceiling," he said.

Pre-recession, Esposito was called to a Hampton Roads bank to install Astroturf on the roof of a building just outside a conference room, so the bankers could look out and see grass from the window.

"It was a lot of money. It was in the thousands. They wanted to look out at the grass and go out there and have cigars."

The recession put an end to such jobs. Esposito said the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 were brutal, but things have picked up since then.

House Doctors doesn't charge by the hour. Instead, Esposito charges a flat fee that includes labor and materials, ranging from $95 to install a ceiling fan into the thousands to remodel a bathroom.

Most of his customers are middle-aged, and are either too busy to do handy work around the house, or, most often, either don't know how or simply don't want to do it themselves.

"Mostly I deal with the lady of the house," he said.

But there are times that he deals with both the man and the woman of the house, which can get uncomfortable.

"The wife says, 'We need to get the fence fixed,' and the husband says, 'I'll take care of it next week,' " Esposito said. "The next week, he'll go play golf. Finally, she says, 'I'll find someone to get it fixed,' and she'll call me."

Esposito will arrive to do the repairs and will find himself refereeing the husband and wife over what needs to be done. The husband wants one thing, and the wife wants another.

"It can get very uncomfortable," Esposito said.

But that's just part of the job, as are dog bites. Esposito once arrived at a house to give an estimate on a potential job. He rang the doorbell. Through the storm door, he saw two big dogs charging down the stairs. He didn't know that they knew how to open the door.

"The dog comes flying at me," he said. "I spun around and the dog bites me on the butt. Then the other dog comes out and he bites me on the other cheek. I could feel the blood running down my leg. The lady said that had never happened before. They all say that. I told her that I'm probably going to need a few stitches, but let's look at the job."

By Bill Cresenzo
Inside Business - The Hampton Roads Business Journal