From the outset, the co-founders had a long-term vision, but a challenge has been finding the right employees and franchise partners to actualise it.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve been lucky, but we’ve found good people to train and people who want to be brought into our vision as part of our growth, but this has been one of the biggest difficulties we’ve faced.
“When hiring we look for charisma, speaking solely from a sales perspective. I can take people without sales experience and train them,” he says.
Kennedy says when it comes to forecasting the number of sales and revenue projections, he’s “purposefully conservative”.
“From our forecasting, we’ve always been well ahead of our projections. We’re now on track to turnover $24 million.
“Our goal is to grow the business first across New South Wales. Currently there are seven offices in NSW, one in the Gold Coast and one in the Australian Capital Territory.”
Each day, Kennedy analyses metrics from the business.
“Reporting is a massive part of the CRM system we’ve implemented. It’s part of how we improve every person from every team. I teach our franchise owners how to read a report – everything form names, phone numbers, if we gain an appointment and if we sell to that appointment.
“We’re measuring everything to do with lead generation and appointments,” he says.
Part of forming a successful business is knowing your co-founders’ strengths and weaknesses. Kennedy says this was a key benefit of going into business with his brother and good friend.
“It’s a huge advantage which has allowed us to focus on our own areas. We meet and discuss and analyse each other’s departments, but we do have that confidence in each other.
“We each bring very different things to the table and have our own expertise. I’m the sales director, Blair oversees the finances and administration, while Dave oversees the commercial aspect, as well as some marketing,” he says.
While becoming franchise wasn’t what they’d originally intended, they quickly realised – by bringing on franchise partners – the business would grow more quickly as a result.
“It’s easier to manage owners than it is to manage mangers. When someone has paid for a business, they are a lot more passionate about its success.”
In the evenings, Kennedy does yoga or goes surfing.
“I try to balance it out as much as I can, but we all work hard in the business. However, we also try to play hard as well and maintain some sort of work/life balance. I went for a six-hour motorbike ride on Sunday.
Kennedy says you can’t grow an international business without putting in the hard yards, but making time to have a bit of fun, both inside and out of the business, is important.
“We all ride motorbikes together a few times a year, we run a franchise conference and play a round of golf with the franchisees. There is a party as well.
“We usually wind up at someone’s hotel room till the wee hours of the morning,” he says.
Kennedy says he intends to establish six more offices in NSW, strengthen Ventis’ presence in Queensland and expand to Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
“We anticipate we’ll have 40 offices over the next four to five years.
“The first box for us to tick is to get New Zealand pumping, then we’ll expand further nationally and internationally. We have a fantastic company and welcome the opportunity to partner with bigger companies to help achieve this,” he says.
Kennedy has quarterly strategy meetings, but also meets weekly with his team to ensure the business is on track.
He says aspiring business owners need to “set themselves a vision and be prepared”.
“Keep your eyes open for opportunities because they don’t come along that often.
“You have to be prepared to make quick decisions and to work twice as hard.”
