No one was teaching what to do in back in 1987 when I was out of a job and had no prospects of getting a similar job in my local area. I was stumped as to what I could do. I now know if I wanted to stay in the area, I had to create my own job by accessing my skills, my likes and dislikes, and evaluating the local needs for all of them.
You can make a list of all the skills you Handyman services have acquired during your lifetime. You will notice right away that the longer you have been on this planet, the longer the skill list usually is, this is great for older folks and older people tend to be laid off first, even though that is always covered up, the higher salaried or wage people can provide a bigger cost savings to the company that lays them off. So young or old you have a list of skills in front of you, do not dwell on any details like am I really good at this or will people pay for this, just write the list.
Now is the time to think about what you like or dislike right now in your life. Do you like inside or outdoors work? Do you want to travel or not travel? What do you want to be when you grow up? Do you like physical labor or clerical desk type environment? Do you want to do a lot of brain work or just mentally detach and make the dirt fly. Do you want to work by the hour or do piecework or contract work? You will eventually have to decide simple things like; do I work for one individual person or a company, or a whole bunch of them so my eggs are never in one basket again.
Take a look at your local area now and look for companies or people that can use the skills you have listed and that also align with your own likes list. Is the local population large enough to carve out your own handyman services business using your skill set? If not, are you willing to travel, if so, how far? Another words expand your local area to make it a bigger area that can support you and still jive with your feel good likes list. Is there a lot of competition that you will be butting heads with? If so are you willing to butt heads or perhaps modify the handyman services you offer.
As you can see handyman services can be a great way to monetize your unique personal skills that you have identified and at the same time allow you to integrate those skills into ideal work environment you have chosen and still stay in your local community if you want. This is exactly what I did in 1987, I went from being an unemployed hi-tech electronics R&D CAD system technician to a Farrier with my own handyman business for the next 19 years til I retired from horseshoeing. I know some of you may say a farrier is not a handyman, I say yes he is, a handyman is someone who is handy doing something that other people will pay for. Actually I really wanted to be a cowboy but my local area mainly has dairy cows and no open range. I did all the tasks I mentioned; identified my skill sets, my likes, and local potential customers then identified services I could provide to them. I ended up not only making good money but doing what I liked without that fear of losing the job ever again.