Just call her ‘Ms. Handywoman’
Published 12:24 pm Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Mr. Handyman is a well-known international company. There are franchises all over the world and in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and Everett. Locally, these handymen are called Glenn, Karl-Heinz, Bob, Craig and Cindy.
That’s right. Cindy Zynda.
Zynda has owned the Everett Mr. Handyman franchise for five years. Besides throwing unsuspecting callers off when they get this handy woman on the phone, Zynda said being a female owner pays off in other ways.
“Sixty or 70 percent of our customers are women,” Zynda said. “All those little things that need to be fixed are on the man’s to-do list, but usually it’s the woman who puts them there. She’s the one who calls.”
And for all you guys who expect Mr. Handyman to be just that, check out Zynda’s credentials.
She’s a licensed contractor and an engineer who once ran the maintenance department of a G.E. Chemical plant. She was raised by an engineer dad in a family that built houses. At age 16, Zynda had already wired an entire house for electricity.
Zynda and her crew don’t do electrical work, but she and her four technicians are busy with lots of other odd jobs that fall into the two-hour-to-two-day range.
Think rain and you’ll guess what most of those jobs are: repairing drywall or fixing leaks.
Other typical jobs include fixing a bathroom leak, replacing countertops, repairing stairs and installing railings.
And just recently, the Mr. Handyman franchise has begun offering a list of 16 projects under a new program called Green Home Repair.
Green Home Repair will be featured at the Mr. Handyman booth at the Everett Home &Garden Show, where visitors can learn about free energy audits.
“This is going to be the first home show where we advertise our Green Home Repair program and talk to hundreds of people in person about it, so we’ll see how it goes,” Zynda said. “In so many ways, it’s the right thing to do.”
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424, goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Mr. Handyman of Snohomish County
Everett 888-522-2930 www.mrhandymanwa.com
