Because of your brand. What are you doing to build your brand? I know it’s got a certain amount of momentum now but what do you do continually to keep that brand in front of people’s faces?
The biggest thing we do is focus on service. We’re so well-known here that most people in Australia, a great majority, would actually have used us or know somebody well who’s used us, so what really counts is the level of service they get when they come through. We don’t have a huge advertising bill. Our total Jim’s advertising bill worldwide is about $3 million. It’s about 1% or 2% of turnover, it’s very small compared with most companies.
What really makes a difference is that we’ve got this extraordinary presence with our trailers and vehicles. We recently had this big blitz to make sure that all of our trailers are in good condition. We got franchisees to send in photos and we’re doing that regularly now.
Now how have you set up your management team? There’s you at the top, you still sound like you’re very involved.
Yes, every franchisee in the system has my direct contact details, my direct email and my phone numbers. And also I’m available to clients. If you have a look at my website under ‘Book a job’ you’ll see a guarantee which says if a client can’t get satisfaction by ringing the office once, they can contact me personally and my email address provided.
Now how have you set your team up, your leadership team so that that’s possible? So that you have the time in your day to still personally be involved?
Let me tell you, we do 100,000 jobs a week. The number of clients on average who would contact me during the week would be one, because our system is so strong. See if a client complains to a franchisee, the franchisee knows what’s going to happen if they don’t fix it. So overwhelmingly if there’s an issue, they will fix it on the spot. If they don’t, their franchisor will jump on it. Nobody wants me, the founder of the company, getting in contact with him and saying why haven’t you looked after this client, why haven’t you redone that job?
When I do get these messages by the way, it’s very easy. All I do is contact the franchisor and tell them to fix it and then I tell the client what is going to happen if they haven’t fixed it within a fortnight. It’s all a matter of systems. So I don’t lead all that busy a life in some ways.
And just tell me about the leadership team then that you’ve set up. What have you learnt about setting up that team that then overseas everything?
The point about the Jim’s leadership team is this: it’s largely people who own their own business. Every franchisee reports to a franchisor, a master franchisee who owns the business and is responsible and needs to do certain things. He needs to phone franchisees every week or every month depending on how long they’ve been in, needs to respond to their calls, needs to run a certain number of meetings, etc. So they’ve got responsibilities.
The franchisors are looked after by a divisional franchisor who runs the whole division and each of them have their own mentor and their personal business coach. And these people all own businesses, so basically it’s very thoroughly franchised.
My head office here has about 15 people and that’s the whole world. And out of that, four people are in IT, there’s myself, I have someone managing the mowing division, that’s probably the closest you’ve got to a leadership team. But generally speaking it’s the franchisors, my master franchisees that look after things. And we just basically support them and try and help them to be successful as well as their franchisees.
To someone setting out, they’ve got their basic business, they’ve got the leadership team that you’ve got and then they want to franchise, what are some tips you can give them about starting off?
Mostly it comes down to attitude. What you’ve got to have is a focus. I’m going to keep on saying (you’re probably bored with hearing it) but what you’ve got to have is a focus on service to franchisees. We have a code of values and our first priority is the welfare of our franchisees. That’s got to be absolutely number one.
If you’re going to franchise, you’ve got to make sure your franchisees are successful. So every day we’re talking about how we can do something to help our franchisees to do better. Better forms of support, better information, better programs for the computer they can use to run their jobs. Just better access, better training, better everything, because if you’re going to attract and keep great people, you’re going to have a great business and you can look after clients well. So focus on franchisees first.
From a fees point of view, I think you will make a mistake charging too much up front. We charge relatively modest upfront fees. We look to make our money out of long-term service. So the ongoing fees are what you should focus on.
And your average fees are?
As I said probably about 8% of turnover would be typical. So a mowing guy might turnover $1,800 a week, it depends on the city and so forth. His fees, say about $8,000 a month, his fees might be something like $550 to $600, something like that.
Now Jim how old are you now?
57.
What’s in the future for you, have you still got the same energy levels and passion for it? It sounds like you have.
Oh definitely yes. I reckon I’ve got another 25 years running Jim’s. I love what I do; it’s a wonderful, wonderful job. It’s very exciting and it’s growing very well. I mean business is booming and it’s the greatest buzz in the world. I love being in business.
Yes, but there is the ‘but’. You know the ‘but’ that might hit you tomorrow. What would be your succession plan? What do you see as the end product? What’s your exit strategy? I mean even if it’s in 25 years time, what could you see happening with it?
Well, I have 10 children as of about a fortnight ago. So I’ve got a fairly good chance of having some very capable successes there.
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