Jon Sanders took one of the more unusual roads into the trades. He went from full-time firefighter, to church-planting pastor, to running Dakota Small Jobs, a professional handyman business in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that crossed $400,000 in revenue last year and is chasing seven figures in 2026.

What makes his story worth your drive time is that he built it on the least glamorous stuff in business. Show up when you say you will. Answer the phone. Do good work. Treat your team like they matter. As Jon puts it, that alone puts you head and shoulders above most of the trades.

In this episode:

• The "three F's" Jon used to land his first jobs with zero budget, plus the Facebook and Nextdoor move most guys get wrong
• Why he doesn't make his crew clock out for lunch, and how he builds a team that keeps the business running while he's on vacation
• Revenue vs profit, requiring 50% deposits for cash flow, and the Profit First system that changed how he sees his money (with Coby's hard-earned warning about spending money you haven't earned yet)
• When to make your first hire (hint: sooner than you're comfortable) and how to hand off work without becoming the bottleneck
• Turning van wraps, a strong Google Business Profile, and word of mouth into a lead engine you can dial up when you need it

Whether you're booking your first jobs off your personal Facebook page or trying to get off the truck for good, Jon's story is full of practical, do-it-this-week ideas.

Connect with Jon and his Handyman Starters community at handymanstarters.com.

Hosted by Jason Call and Coby McManaman of Handyman Marketing Pros

👉 Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com
👉 Grab the free 3-in-1 Handyman Playbook Bundle: go.handymanmarketingpros.com/playbook-form
👉 Connect with us:
💻 Website: handymanmarketingpros.com
✉️ Email: sales@handymanmarketingpros.com

New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

Google just started testing something worth paying attention to: it's pulling social media posts straight into Google Business Profiles. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can now feed right into the profile homeowners see when they search "handyman near me."

In this episode, Jason and Coby break down what the update means and why it matters more than it might seem at first. The bigger story here is that organic social posting is quietly becoming a ranking signal. Google and AI search tools like ChatGPT are looking for proof that you're a real, active, local business, not just an address with a website. Posting about the work you're doing is one of the clearest ways to show that.

What we cover:

👉 How to set it up: add your social links in the edit info section of your Google Business Profile so you're eligible when the feature rolls out

👉Why authenticity is the keyword, and how being a real local business is your advantage over the big franchises

👉 How social posts may actually get more visibility on Google than they do inside Facebook's own feed

👉 Why "all else equal," the business that posts on social will rank above the one that doesn't

👉 The simplest possible posting habit: one post a week, a photo or quick video of the job you're on, no overthinking required

If you've been telling yourself you'll get around to social media eventually, this is the episode to change that. It takes two or three minutes and it compounds.

👉Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com

👉Grab the free 3-in-1 Handyman Playbook Bundle: go.handymanmarketingpros.com/playbook-form

👉Connect with us:
💻Website: handymanmarketingpros.com
✉️Email: sales@handymanmarketingpros.com

New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

Everyone in the marketing world is buzzing about ChatGPT rolling out a paid advertising platform, and the usual voices are already telling you to jump on it or get left behind. So should a family-owned handyman or home service business actually care?

In this episode, Jason Call and Coby McManaman break down what's real and what's noise. They cover who these ads are actually built for (hint: it starts at a $50K per month minimum ad spend), what the new ChatGPT ad placements look like, and why Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is becoming the AI version of SEO. The kicker: one home service operator running $3 million companies tracked thousands of leads last quarter and got exactly one documented lead from ChatGPT. That's less than 1% of total visibility, even though AI dominates 90% of the marketing conversation right now.

The takeaway is simple. Be where people are actually searching, be prudent about chasing hype, and focus on the things moving the needle: Google rankings, a Google Business Profile loaded with reviews, a website that converts, and showing up organically across AI platforms as they grow.

Want marketing built specifically for family-owned handyman businesses?

👉Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com

👉Grab the free 3-in-1 Handyman Playbook Bundle: go.handymanmarketingpros.com/playbook-form

👉Connect with us:

💻Website: handymanmarketingpros.com

✉️Email: sales@handymanmarketingpros.com

New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

👉Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com

👉Grab the free 3-in-1 Handyman Playbook Bundle: go.handymanmarketingpros.com/playbook-form

👉Connect with us:
💻Website: handymanmarketingpros.com
✉️Email: sales@handymanmarketingpros.com

New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.