Peace of mind at an hourly rate

When Robert Moschorak is asked to describe the market in which he is now active, he thinks of just one small word: "hot". And Moschorak knows what he's saying when he describes the do-it-for-me segment in the major home improvement business of the USA. After all, he was active in organisations such as Ace Hardware for five years, one of the largest specialist trade cooperatives in the world in the field of hardware and DIY and responsible for international business as president and general manager. He also led the Sears Home Improvement business across the USA before becoming an Ace Handyman Services franchisee for Central Florida. The fact that he also worked for a total of 14 years for the Midas auto service chain, a franchise group, doesn't seem to be a coincidence either.
Because since March the veteran franchise exec has been getting to know the market once again from a different perspective - namely that of the franchisee. He has joined his old employer Ace again, however not as independent hardware retailer, but in the still young handyman service business field. Together with his wife Samantha, he now works in his market as a franchisee of Ace Handyman Services with his own business based in Lakeland, Florida.
This is still a young field of activity for the venerable cooperative Ace: while Ace Hardware is now already 98 years old, the cooperative only entered the handyman service business in the year 2019. At that time, namely, it acquired Handyman Matters, a Denver, CO based company founded in 1998 - and turned a pioneer's good idea of a little niche into a professionally organised franchise system that wants to professionalise and exhaust the potential of an ever-expanding market.
Qualified franchisees such as Moschorak have also recognised this potential and have made the system successful: Ace Handyman Services is the fastest growing subsidiary for the Ace Hardware cooperative globally. The number of territories has doubled since Ace acquired the business, and it has grown from a regional presence across some 100 markets in the USA to market coverage across 41 of the 50 states during 2021.
This growth has also benefited from "unique circumstances", the strength of the Ace brand and its reputation for quality products and service, and the spike in demand for home improvement services as a consequence of the Covid-19 virus that will likely increase prolonged demand as the percentage of work from home activity increases to the "new normal…