‘I can barely change a lightbulb’: Carrick man launches app for getting jobs DoneNow

“I'm not at all a handyman myself, like I can barely change a lightbulb,” says Alex Hanley, a young Carrick-on-Shannon man who has launched a new app to help people who need jobs done find local help from workers in need of extra jobs nearby.

The idea for the app came to him while in college and in need of extra cash on weekends.

“I just found myself on weekends with extra time looking for cash, looking for some side hustles, I suppose, as they call it, and I just found myself scrolling through Facebook groups, looking at forums online to see if people were willing to pay money for a service, basically.

“I just thought to myself, this is extremely inefficient, you know, like, surely there's something out there that is a one-stop shop for all these kinds of odd jobs”

He did not find any jobs, but he came away with an idea, and he went after it.

“I went and got in touch with the Leitrim Enterprise office. I literally just landed into them one day like a crazy man with my idea,” he said.

“They sent me on to some workshops and from there I got great guidance.”

“I went home later that night, went on to YouTube and literally learned how to build a prototype of the app, of a working prototype, and from there then I started looking for web developers and was recommended one.”

“So we got to work then, showed them the prototype, gave them all the instructions, the insights, my ideas, and they were great. So they kind of made it fit for market.”

The service allows people to easily sign up and start looking for jobs posted in the area.

On DoneNow, a customer can post jobs for free, from mowing a lawn for €20 to cleaning a roof and sets the price.

Workers nearby see the job on a map and claim it. Chat stays in the app, and payment is held in an independent account until the customer confirms the work is finished.

Anyone opening the app can see workers nearby across the main categories: Moving; Hauling; Assembly; Cleaning; Gardening; Repairs/handyman; Errands; Installations.

In the three days since the launch, the site has had over 200 members sign up to use the service.

Despite his young age, Hanley has a background in Business. A sales assistant at Eircom studied general business for four years at the National College of Ireland in Dublin.

“I love business, to be honest; I think I'm very business-minded in some ways,” said Hanley.

He also used to run an events company, organising electronic music shows all over Europe in the UK, Berlin, Milan, Budapest and some in Dublin.