Scope Creep: The Free Favor Trap Every Handyman Falls Into

Every handyman knows this scene. 

You're wrapping up a job, about to hand over the invoice, and the homeowner says: "Hey, while you're here..." Suddenly you're 90 minutes deep into a "quick favor" you didn't quote for, with a leaky valve you now own forever and a client who's going to call YOU when it breaks again.

 In this episode of the Home Hero Podcast, we break down:

- Why "quick favors" are a hidden liability bomb

- The plumbing rule: when free work is NEVER worth it 

- The invoice trick that makes clients respect your time 

- How to set scope expectations BEFORE you start work 

- When to say yes (and how to say no without losing the client) 

- The line between building goodwill and getting taken advantage of 

If you've ever finished a job feeling like you got nickel-and- dimed in reverse, this one's for you. 

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The Home Hero Podcast is real stories and tactics to grow a profitable home service business. Hosted by Jason Call and Coby McManaman. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, at the end of the day, you're a business and you need to show up and do the thing you are uh are getting paid to do, and anything extra, it just falls outside that. It's hard to scale when you don't have that set expectation and the way you do things. And the way you do things is showing up to do jobs that are agreed upon to do. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Home Hero Podcast, where we're sharing real stories and tactics to build a practical, profitable, handyman and home service business. Today we are talking about scope creep. This is addressing when you're on site and a client is asking, oh, while you're here, can you just check out this quick little thing or do this quick little thing? It's a really common uh issue that can really build up to be a bigger problem, especially, I imagine habitually, if you just get used to wavering one way or the other. Um, so Kobe, we'd love to um hear your thoughts on like your experiences with Scope Creep and how you would advise uh like navigating those kind of situations with clients that you know you want to take care of.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, yeah. I think anybody listening to this, if you've been working in people's houses long enough, you know exactly what we're talking about. Um it's the tricky part about it, it's it's a it's a fine line to to to to walk between you know going the extra mile for for your clients, your your customers, um especially if they're if they're a great, you know, repeat customer. Um you don't want people to feel like you're you're nickel and diming them all the time by just oh that'll that'll be extra. Um and so it's so you have to be able to balance it. Um but it's also very easy to to get taken advantage of. Um and it adds up quick when these little things happen. And and everybody's seen it, just like you said, you're you're patching you know Mary's drywall and you wrap up and you're about to go, you know, collect your check and ask for the review, and she's like, hey, while you're here, you know, my gate's sagging a little bit. Do you think you could, you know, you know, look at it or whatever? Um and and a lot of times it's something super quick and it's like, yeah, let me just knock it out for you. You're a good client. Um and then other times you gotta be careful because what can happen is you know, the client gets gets used to that, and then you know, they they decide to push it a little further, a little further. It's a slippery slope. Um, you can also get into something that's a a a can of worms that you're not getting that you're not getting paid for. Um so you know, they're like, hey, can you you know take a look at my my toilet's leaking? And you go to just tighten up the valve a little bit, um, which is a you know a two-minute fix. And then you break the valve off, or the you know, it's still it's still leaking, and you know, you can't go tell her, uh, you know, it's still still leaking. Sorry, couldn't do anything about it. Um you end up having to make a Home Depot trip to go get a new valve and you're there for an extra couple hours. Um, and so super important to be conscious of you know what you're gonna say yes to, what you're not gonna say yes to, and understand um, you know, if you could be opening a can of worms and um and and again, just making sure the homeowners, you know, you're you're not heading down that slippery slope of the homeowner, you know, just adding on more and more and more and more um every time you're there. Um there's also the the liability aspect of it also. Um so you know, the toilet example, toilets leaking, let's say you you tighten up the valve and you do fix it, and cool, everybody's happy, and it took it two minutes. You got a happy customer, you went the extra mile for. Um, what's gonna happen, you know, a week from now, let's say it starts leaking again. Who are they gonna call? Like, hey, you did something to my toilet, it's leaking. Not that that's gonna happen every time, but something to kind of be something to be careful of.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah. And this like the the big picture topic here is that like we're businesses and we need to have really clear, transparent expectations of we're showing up to, you know, do this drywall patch. We're not showing up to fix a leaky toilet. Um, and that should be cleared up in your estimate and agreed upon. We know what we're here to do. And so any deviation from that, most of the time, is is kind of a breach of that expectation. It's a breach of the agreement. And not that these things are like breaches necessarily and are disrespectful. It's natural, right? Oh, shoot, I totally forgot about this. Like, I'm guilty of that with my handyman. Um, like, can you take a look at that if it's an extra estimate, another job, totally cool with that. Um, but having really crystal clear expectations because um, you know, at the end of the day, you're a business and you need to show up and do the thing you are uh are getting paid to do, and anything extra, it just falls outside that. It's hard to scale when you don't have that set expectation and the way you do things. And the way you do things is showing up to do jobs that are agreed upon to do, right? Um, and there's always going to be some wavering there. Um, so what like how did you uh like in your experience, Kobe, like handle those kind of requests?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yeah, so this kind of highlights the importance, I think, of having an agreement with every estimate you send. Even if it's a repeat client, um, you know, you've worked for them you know a million times, they should you should have an estimate that you give to these people in writing that has, you know, a contract attached. And and contract sounds scary, call it an agreement, whatever you want to say, but basically outlining specifically in writing what the expectations are. And something in there should say, you know, doesn't include scopes that aren't explicitly listed, you know, here on this estimate. Um, and and so set setting those expectations, you know, on the front end and having those expectations in in writing. Um, and then again, it really just comes down to you have to know, you know, whether or not you're you're again you're taking on risk or added liability by doing an extra thing, um, if it's actually gonna be, you know, a super quick thing you can knock out to go the extra mile, um, because there's definitely something to be said about building trust and rapport and goodwill with people by going the extra mile for them. Um, you just have to be careful about it. And in those events where I would choose to go the extra mile, um, and I even I left it up to my employees, like if they ask you for something extra, you know, these are kind of like the parameters of like, is this gonna be a potential can of worms? Um, and if you choose to go the extra mile, when I go to send the final invoice, I would add it in there as a line item. And so it would say, you know, fix leaky toilet, and I would put in there what I would normally charge to fix a leaky toilet, and then I would add a discount below that for the amount uh you know that that it would normally cost. So you're not actually charging them for them, but you're you're putting in writing, like, hey, this is the value that you just got for for free. Um just so so they're they're they're aware of um you know what that extra mile actually looks like. Because if you have a homeowner who's they they like they just don't they they just don't know you know how this kind of stuff works. Um and so they might they might think like, hey, this was a you know five minute thing. It's like I'm not asking for much, but when you actually assign a dollar value, that's a legitimate dollar value you would have charged. It says them, like, oh, he did all of this extra for me. That was super nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Cool. Um, so a couple things that that uh came up there. One is like the contract. I think absolutely like especially like remodels, larger projects, that like written, clear contract that's likely signed with a deposit. That's necessary. When we're talking about the small handyman projects, I know most handle this when you send your estimate. Um, there's there's a little, you know, kind of disclaimer at the bottom, if you will, that can link to a more deeper, like catch-all. Um, so that would be my recommendation for most handyman businesses to handle that and anything larger, um, where it's it just kind of warrants that that extra care into the details and and expectations. Um, that's super important as far as a written sign contract. Um another thing you mentioned there is this gray line of like, you know, what request is like a super simple, easy, free value add. Um now I kind of flip to the other side of that in a way where we've interviewed people on the Handyman Success podcast, and a handful of them mentioned that their job, when they're on the job, they are actively looking for these common issues that they can do for free as just a value ad. Like, for example, like a squeaky door carrying on some WD 40, uh, tightening up some like, you know, some screws like in the in the drawer or something like that, or the the hardware in the bathroom. So on the flip side, there is a really good customer experience, like a positive customer experience one could exhibit by being proactive on the common stuff. Um so how would you relationally, because it's hard when people ask you, oh, can you check this out for me or do you mind fixing this up real quick? Um whenever it does fall outside of that scope of like, you know, this is a separate job, separate estimate. Um like how do you navigate that that with the client if something, you know, where's the cutoff of like, oh, it's gonna just be a couple minutes? It's gonna be five minutes, it's gonna be 10 minutes. Um, like how would you handle that relationally with the client, like like verbally addressing that? Um, and then what are your thoughts too on like what are those examples where you know you could certainly be more willing to consider doing it versus like, you know, this is that's too much what they're asking me to look at here?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, it's it it's it's always tough. You get that whether you're a business owner or not, you get that social pressure when somebody's asking you to do something, saying no or saying sure, but for more money, like it never feels good to do that. You just want to say yes, you just want to do it, even if it's something you don't actually want to do. Um and the answer is it it's it's difficult. And you know, a lot of the times, I'd say most of the time, when when a customer asks you to do a small thing, it's actually it actually is a small thing, like, hey, this door's squeaky. I mean, it takes you again, literally five minutes to you know pop out the hinges and you know, put some some WD 40 in there and you fix the door and they're happy. And there's totally, absolutely 100% real value in doing those little things that don't take you much time that mean a lot to the customer for free. With nothing hanging over their head, you're not you know holding it against them or anything like that. No strings attached. There's definitely value there. And where you draw the line, I mean it really comes down to I think it comes down to where you are in your business. Um, so for example, even if it's a super quick thing, if you've got a job you've got to get to that's 30 minutes away, and you know it's you gotta be there in 35 minutes, you know, you're cutting it close. But like, hey Mary, I I'm sorry, I really gotta get to the next project. Um, I don't I don't have time to do that today. Next time I'm here, I'll you know I'll take care of you. Um so and and especially early on, I think you have to if if you're you're not if you already don't have enough work, you're really trying to build up your client base, um, doing some of that early on can can really help again build that trust but as you're establishing the business. Um and so you might have to you might move that line um a little bit further back and say, oh, I'll do a little bit more extra um as I'm trying to establish myself. Um but then on the flip side of that same coin, as you your business grows, you get more established, and you're like, well, I moved the line forward again, I'm doing I'm not doing that kind of stuff for free anymore. When Mary asks you for the same thing, it's like, well, you did it, you did it for me last time. Um it's a tough question to answer because it's it's just a tough thing to to navigate in your business. Um but at the end of the day, you just have to decide again, am I opening a can of worms if I do this, being able to identify that? So I'd say anything that involves plumbing, if somebody's like, Hey, can you take a look at anything plumbing related? Probably not for free, because that's always a can of worms. Can of worms. Um and it's kind of like if you go to the grocery store and you're buying, you know, a bag of chips, you're not gonna go to the cash register and be like, hey, by the way, since I'm here, do you think you could throw in a second bag of chips for me? That's bold. Yeah, like it's like you can go grab one off the shelf and you can pay for it, right? Um and so it's a it's again, it's definitely a dichotomy. You have to be able to balance building goodwill, going the extra mile for your clients and taking care of people and not being taken advantage of because at the end of the day, you're a business and you're doing it to make money and provide for your family, and you can still take care of your clients. Um, but you have to you have to draw the line somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah. Uh, and what you said there about the chips reminded me of uh there was this business kind of uh video I watched years ago when I was first starting, and it was a it was kind of on the subject of you know, kind of giving too much and there's someone asking too much and how you approach that. And it's this guy, he's at a at a fast food restaurant, and you you know, you go up and you get a drink refill. Oh, can I refill? I'll get some Dr. Pepper or whatever. And he goes up to the counter, he's like, Yeah, can I get a burger refill? And uh and like it was just a funny video where the employee was like, a burger refill? Like, yeah, yeah, I finished my burger and I'd like I'd like a refill on my burger. And you know, it's just a funny, cute video. And one of the employees went, Oh, let me ask my manager if I can get this burger refill. Um, so kind of zooming back out here, uh the big take, one of the big takeaways for me from a conversation so far, Kobe, is there's there's gonna be a difference between owner-operator and uh someone with employees. Um, my encouragement for people with employees is address this in in a positive company culture. For example, uh there was a local, uh large local plumbing company called Bonnie's, uh Bonnie's Plumbing or Bonnie's Home Services in the Sacramento, California area. And their culture, their technicians, even though they're showing up for a plumbing job or doing an HVAC tune-up, if they saw something in the house, um, not even in the house, uh, like just something that they could help with with their experience, uh, expertise, usually it's little small home fixes, you know, uh fixing some squeaky, you know, cupboards, doors, et cetera. Uh, I saw this one social post where a guy uh helped somebody with his vehicle, something with his car. Um and that was their culture of going above and beyond for their clients, even though they're just there for a little HVAC tune-up. They were is part of their culture to have those eyeballs, those glasses on to look for how I can go above and beyond for this person. Um, and that comes down to culture and who you're hiring and how you're really pouring into them so that they positively are doing this on behalf of your company. So um, that would be my encouragement for anyone with employees, and of course, just drawing those clear boundaries of black and white of what's acceptable, what's not, as far as time or plumbing, for example, is just a no-go. Um now, owner-operator, it's very different because you have a more personal relationship with people that you're talking, you know, you talk to them about the estimate, you talk to them on the job. A an idea that I would have for addressing scope creep for owner operators is uh this is just a cool idea I saw recently, um, is creating a uh a note, uh, whether it's Apple, Google, and sharing it with your client uh for little to-do lists around the house. And they can add little things that they won't forget, they'll remember. And it goes into the list. You could set it up so you actually get notified. Um, so if you're an owner operator and something like that is feasible, you work with a really nice group of core clients, um, just work on referrals, et cetera. Um, that's a really manual personal touch that I think is a little bit harder to scale unless you have an office manager that can keep up with these lists and reaching out to people and it builds up. But that is a potential solution for scope create for the owner operator. It is more personal, but it kind of is a way to capture those uh little items that pile up. Also, it could be solved with a notepad, a sticker magnet notepad that someone can write all their little items to capture those. So next time you're there, you can um help them with those little things that are easy to be like, hey, Kobe, I I forgot about this. Can you take a look at that? It just should be a few minutes. Um, those are some bigger takeaways too, as far as the different kind of business that might be out there listening. Um, what any other thoughts that you have on scope creep or encouragement you'd have, Kobe?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Well, that that last thing you said about you know sharing, you know, sharing Apple notes or whatever. So, you know, if if you get an iPhone, you can do it with Google, I'm sure too, or Android, but an iPhone, I can share a note with you know with a homeowner, and we can both add things, you know, onto this, onto this note, and it populates kind of like a you know Google Doc that's shared with somebody or or whatever. Um, and so my project manager, this just reminded me, my project manager, he used to with all of our clients, and this is when we were doing remodels, he would start a note and he would share it with the client, and the client would add some of their punch list stuff on there. Like if anybody's done remodels, even handyman stuff. I'm sure you've had the client that goes and they they put little uh you know bits of masking tape all over, like little you know, spots of paint on the wall and things that that need touched up, and you're like, I'm gonna get to it, we're not done yet. Um so a project manager would share this, you know, a note with the um with the homeowner, and he would type that type in there, um, here's all you know the punch list stuff we've identified, and that says to the homeowner, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna get to this. So you don't have to go to your masking tape. And so identifying before the homeowner does there's some things that need fixed, um, shows we're paying attention, we care. And then the homeowner would then go and add things that maybe we didn't have on the list, and and they just, you know, they feel a little bit more um, you know, at ease. And then if there's some of the smaller things they'd added in there. Um, and and so that's that's a that's a great idea. But in and even if you're not an owner operator, like you can still do that. Again, that was my project manager that was doing that, and that was his idea. It was a great idea. But as far as scope creep goes, none of this is to say that you shouldn't you shouldn't go the extra mile for for your customers. Um, and you should be looking around and and identifying like, hey, where can I go the extra mile? Not looking around like, hey, by the way, your door's squeaky, you know, 50 bucks to fix your door or whatever. Just if you identify something like that and you have the time, it's low risk, low liability, and it's a good client you want to take care of, like just do it for them. Um it goes such a long, long, long, long way with you know, building that that's the type of client when you do things like that for them, they're gonna refer you to other people. Um and so the effects of it are exponential, but you just have to know like you know where that line is, and you have to kind of set it in your head ahead of time, and I mean really set it in a in an agreement, setting the expectation with the customer, but knowing where the line is and not negotiating with yourself, you're like, man, I said I wouldn't, you know, go fix toilets anymore because every time it's a can of worms, and then you do it anyways because you can't say no, yeah, which is which is tough. Um, and the and the scope creep is I I think it tends to be a lot more noticeable in in the larger projects, the remodels and yeah and and things like that. We had a client who, you know, we did their kitchen, you know, and this is like a you know sixty thousand dollar kitchen remodel, and we did the flooring in the kitchen, we put a transition strip in, and she's like, Well, now you know, I kind of want the transition strips and the rest of the house to to mash. Do you think you can do that? And so my my project manager went and bought all the new transition strips, and we put them in, and you know, it took you know maybe an extra extra three hours on it, you know, a sixty thousand dollar project, it seems like a small thing, but those little things really tend to absolutely add up. So it's just something to pay attention to. But again, don't don't lose your your heart and um you know, you're like you're doing this, you want it, you want to take care of people. You should take care of people and go the extra mile. Um you just have to keep in mind you also have to take care of yourself and your business and your family employees if you have them. Um and and so sometimes sometimes it can come down to like, okay, am I being if I'm being nice to this client, am I taking away from my my family, from my employees?

SPEAKER_00 20:55

And that's an extreme example, but yeah, yeah, there's a difference uh between being nice and being good. I think good is a more reasonable, tempered approach of what's fair and right. Um, and uh my biggest encouragement for for our listeners here today is you should seek to go above and beyond because at the end of the day, whether you have the heart to do that or not, um the you want to have a service, it's a premium service that appeals to a premium clientele. And premium clients want to pay premium rates. Uh, that's the level of service that maybe they don't expect that above and beyond, but it's that level that's gonna really affirm that you're a great option, that you're totally worth the the cost for professional handyman services. Um, so it's a worthwhile endeavor to be on the lookout for these things, but with good guard and and guardrails around the the yes and the no's.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah. Yeah. And I I I think the la last thing I'll say about it is if you're struggling to identify where that where that line might be. kind of think, you know, if I do this, I'm adding value to the homeowner, but am I also taking value away from me, my business, or my family, my employees. And so if you're you know if you're taking from one to give to the other, you know, you might be net negative and you know maybe it's maybe that's where the line is. Um you know if you can do the nice thing for the homeowner and you know you're not losing out on um you know any anything from the business or your family or take home pay anything like that then you should absolutely do it.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Cool. Yeah it's okay to say no guys and it's also okay to go above and beyond with the right expectations. So uh great conversation Kobe um if anyone out there has any questions or other thoughts on scope creep we'd love to hear it. Uh any any specific questions that you'd like to hear our thoughts on from me and Kobe, uh let us know. Drop us a comment. This is truly we're here to help and lift up the industry.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Home Hero Podcast brought to you by Handyman Marketing Pros.