Skilled with tools and armed with practical experience, Jared Madden starts handyman business

Tim Harty, The Business Times

If he had his druthers, Jared Madden would paint cars.

He already does, and he’s exceptional at it – his smart phone has plenty of photos that support the claim – but it’s a part-time, off-hours thing. He can’t quit his day job and pay the mortgage solely painting cars.

One day. Not yet.

In the meantime, the 24-year-old Grand Junction High School alum does other things, lots of other things, which is what a handyman does. And that’s what he is, what he officially has been since mid-September, when he started his home-based handyman business, Madden Paintworks LLC.

Don’t let the name fool you. Painting houses, interior and exterior, is a big part of what he does, but Madden has an aptitude for tools and mastering them, even when the teacher is the untrained man he sees in the mirror. Making a tool do what it’s supposed to do comes natural to him, and he can’t explain it. It’s just what happens.

As a result, he’s as serious as a heart attack when he says, “I’m not scared to take on any job.”

“I’ve lived a lot of lives already,” Madden said. “It’s been quite the experience, especially when it comes to career fields, because I’m interested in learning how every different aspect of everything works, and I’ve just got a knack for picking up on new trades, I guess.”

It goes back to being a teenager and getting his first car, which he painted, by the way. Madden also did the necessary work under the hood.

“I got my first car when I was 16, and it needed a clutch, so that was an intimidating job for somebody that doesn’t know how to work on cars,” he said. “And it was either figure it out and have a car to drive or don’t and have an expensive paperweight.

“And so I took the first option and learned how to get it done. And ever since I haven’t been scared to jump into new projects and challenge myself.”

Two years later Madden was learning to paint aircraft at West Star Aviation in Grand Junction, a great experience for someone who wants to paint automobiles.

“I was taught by some really world-class guys on how to paint aircraft,” he said.

Madden did that for two years, then decided he wanted to see if another trade might suit him. He said he was an electrician apprentice for about six months, but that wasn’t what he wanted to do. Then, he helped a friend who has a painting business and got a lot of good pointers.

Eventually he found himself back at West Star and worked there for another two years, which brings him to the present.

What the work resume doesn’t include is what he did on two homes that he bought. Yes, Madden is 24 and bought two homes.

He acknowledged he was making decent money, but he attributes his ability to buy each home to taking advantage of the help that’s available to young home buyers.

“Just financial literacy was 90 percent of the battle,” he said. “And there’s definitely programs out there to help people get into houses, which is what helped me get my start, and a lot of good advice from friends.”

The home price was more affordable, too, because both homes were fixer-uppers – actually, his word for each was “trashed” – and he was up for fixing them.

Home renovation involved lots of work he’d never done, but Madden is a quick study and has that aptitude for tools. And what’s that old adage? There’s no better way to learn to do something than to do it.

Madden swam into waves of on-the-job experience as a homeowner.

“Buying my first house, and then on to my second house, I’ve really enjoyed the process of just making it what I want it to be and enjoying the space and making it look new,” he said. “I found that I really like working on houses.”

Now, he brims with confidence, saying he can do “pretty much anything when it comes to remodeling, whether it be flooring, installing doors, light fixtures. If you want to make a space look nice, I’m the guy to do it.”

Madden said his friends saw how he transformed each home, realized he was good at remodeling, “and they wanted me to come help them with their projects.”

Hence came Madden’s realization that he was ready to start his own business.

“I just assumed that that was the way to go,” he said. “And the timing lined up right, and I had the ability to do it and the tools to do it finally, and clientele started popping up, and I’ve had some really good friends in the industry that have shown me how to get started.”

And nearly two months in, he has found:

• He likes the independence of running his own business and being involved in the totality of a project, not just one, small, repetitive part of it.
• Problem solving and overcoming challenges get his motor running.
• And the gratification in a job well done and a happy customer are rewards beyond remuneration.

To learn more about Madden Paintworks, find it on Facebook, or call owner Jared Madden at (970) 314-8348.