I just bought a new house and I want to add some cool automations. I have no experience at all with home automation and I am looking to hire someone to do some of the initial setup/development for me. Does anyone offer these kinds of services?
The issue you’re going to find, which I believe @JDRoberts has commented on for somebody that was looking to get into this line of work, is that any bonded and licensed installer is not installing a consumer grade system like SmartThings. They are installing a “professional” and usually much more expensive solution. There is just too much liability for someone to install a system which has proven itself to be randomly unreliable.
I’m not saying you wouldn’t find anybody but in general those that know the system well enough to help you won’t want to because they know better and those that are willing to do the work probably shouldn’t…
With that said if you are willing to learn a bit on your own these forums will get you pointed in the right direction. Many people get suggestions and guidance in here on what to do and then hire a qualified electrician or contractor to do the actual work so even if you don’t consider yourself handy you can still get something done.
-Allan
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Out of curiosity, where are you located (Country, State)?
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Most people have not found SmartThings to be reliable enough or, to be honest, to have a high enough profit margin to justify a professional support business. And as was mentioned, license requirements vary a lot in different parts of the country because it could be classified as a security system, and then usually license requirements are very tight.
If you happen to live in the Dallas, Texas area There is a community member, @ashutosh1982 , Who does work for a business which does SmartThings set up and installation, but they have a geographically limited service area.
Other than that though, it’s not usually the platform which is chosen by professional consultants. That would more typically be either control 4 or whatever home automation services are offered by your local cable company.
Amazon also has a smart home services group (Amazon employees) which will set up a Wink 2 hub, but not SmartThings. And I think so far they are only in five cities, but you can check and see. They’ll do a free in-home consultation also.
Best Buy has partnered with Vivint for free in home consultations. Again, not smart things, but it’s an interesting set of devices and will meet a lot of people’s needs.
And if you’re primarily interested in lighting and window coverings, Lutrron is always worth talking to. They do have a DIY line, Caseta, which also works with SmartThings, but that’s not usually covered in the home consultations.
So there are some choices out there, but unless you happen to live in Dallas, I’m not sure SmartThings will be part of the solution if you want everything professionally set up.
It might also be worth it to do a couple of the free in-home consultation and from different services if they are available in your area just to help get a better idea for yourself of exactly what kind of automation and you would be interested in. And then if you want to come back and look at DIY solutions you can, with the clear frame of what your top priorities would be. 
The primary reason I asked where you were located was that potentially there is someone local to you that might be willing to spend an hour having a real conversation or discussing over a beer or 3 all of the possibilities that SmartThings has to offer, what you can and can’t do yourself, what it is overall you are looking to achieve, give you some general guidance where to start. Trials and tribulations, pitfalls, things to avoid, etc. What a concept huh?
Personally I would have rather had a quick sit-down with someone over a few beers (I would have paid) to go over the ins n outs of SmartThings at the beginning. However with that said, the documentation and guidance from others out here will definitely get you pointed in the right direction. My opinion is that it will just take you a little longer to get the overall understanding of the basics, custom SmartApps, webCoRE, supported devices, troubleshooting, IDE. LOL it’s overwhelming in the beginning!
This product is designed to DIY and unless you have some major major installation that you are going to accomplish and a loose budget, there isn’t a reason to look at hiring an outside/independent consultant that even someone without a clue about technology or smart home automation can easily learn and accomplish with a little time and patience. In other words, you don’t need a degree 
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I agree with all that @wb70 as I said, but I also understand the value of just being able to trade my money for somebody else’s time and get something done. Choice is good. 
The reason I suggested possibly checking to see what free consultations might be available in your area from different brand offerings is just that that can sometimes help clarify what kind of features you yourself would find the most useful and interesting to have in your own home. And get a better sense of your own feeling about budgets as in “that’s not too bad” versus “wow, I’ve never pay that much for that feature!”
Once you have a stronger sense of that, you can come back here and then ask much more specific questions like, “I saw a system that does A, B, and C, how hard is that to do with SmartThings?”
And then the answers you get to that kind of question would help you decide whether you want to choose a package solution or go the DIY route.
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Like @JDRoberts mentioned above, we have been consulting and installing smart home systems with our own custom solutions and we leverage primarily the SmartThings platform. Thanks @JDRoberts for the reference. If you just want to talk and get ideas, please feel free to contact me… I dont charge for community members. This community has given back a lot, so it is a pleasure if I can give anything back in whatever way I can. In the last 2-3 years, we have learned a lot about SmartThings platform, we have seen it go from a platform that required so many redundancies to a relatively more mature platform, we came up with best practices and narrowed down the devices that work the best in different scenarios etc. While ST is a DIY platform, the moment one tries to expand it beyond a certain level, you will be inviting chaos and frustration, unless it is organized and structured for smooth implementation - both from technical and management perspective. So drop me a PM and we can chat. Cheers!
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I saw this post and was interested in your services. Nothing major I just don’t have cycles to do it. Can you discuss it?
Sure, where are you located?
Murrayville, GA. I can send you a file with details.
Sure, Please send it to sales@smart-dots.com
I have used a Device Handler and virtual device to operate my Daikin Ducted Air Con. I can see all the buttons in the device but they don’t actually do anything? I have followed the instructions posted and others have had success with their setups. I would love to get it going (I seem to be so close) and wondered if you would be able to get it working? Happy to pay for your services of course. Please let me know. I’m in Australia, but can provide you anything you need.