I guess this is a short history of my business over the years since I started in 1992 as a handyman in Edinburgh, although as of 2015 I moved to Ireland and after a year or so of getting settled, as of September 2016 I am happy to report the business is again running smoothly. Despite the move I do and hopefully always will enjoy the global reach of the internet and ship worldwide.
After leaving my job working in the offshore oil industry mainly in the Danish sector of the North Sea, I embarked on an Open University course starting with a foundation in technology and innovation. I gained some great computing skills from the OU at the very start of the internet age, skills which have benefited me greatly over the years and I very much recommend the Open University generally.
I also had another couple of projects in mind, doing up my flat and painting pictures. Unfortunately I ran out of money and went to work for a Locksmithing company part time. It didn’t work out, but I managed to gain enough on the job knowledge to set up in business for myself, starting with the only transport I had, a push bike ? Anyway it succeeded and grew into a couple of vans and employees.
Almost from the very start I had a web site which while my competitors were still using more traditional methods helped me get established. Those of you who have used me over the years will recognise the Fitting Services logo below
Believe it or not web shops weren’t the norm back in 1993, more just a web presence. As soon as I found out I could have a buy online type of site I started adding the products which I had by now specialised in supplying, fitting and maintaining. The business started to become more web orientated as the internet became more and more popular, and when my last employee went back to New Zealand after his two year working holiday in Scotland I gradually wound down my handyman fitting services to concentrate on my web sites.
One aspect of my web site has been setting up a Handyman business series of text, photos and good quality video on paid for content pages. While I would say this because I wrote the texts and produced the videos; the setting up a handyman business series is well worth the money for anyone setting up a small business and more specifically anyone setting up a handyman business. You can view all the content for the starting a handyman business if you buy Setting up a Handyman Business.
I feel I do have a valuable contribution to make for those starting a handyman business and will add to the content in this section as time goes on.
Anyway a bit of side tracking there although the Handyman content is part of the content on the oomtoo site and led to the next change of site to this one. Previously I used to sell the content as digital download, but with the huge expansion of smart phones and tablets, the requirement to make content available cross platform is important, not everyone has access to a desktop pc at the the time they want to view downloaded digital content. The way content is delivered now means it can be viewed on any operating system, and on any phone, tablet of desktop with an internet connection.
Hence my business although still very loosely based on the original handyman model, has evolved into an online retail business which also sells access to how to content for handy people and DIY enthusiasts.
Enjoy
I used to be very much into mountain walking and mountain biking ! Not so many opportunities to go mountain walking in Ireland, but I still use the mountain bike more or less daily.
Very much into health and weight loss, or as now healthy weight maintenance. You can check out what I have to say about it on my site ancancha 😉
Since being in Ireland growing Eucalyptus trees has become a passion, check out my blog, Eucalyputs & Me I also sell them, but only ship within the Republic of Ireland.
