Originally living in Australia, Garvin Maxworth headed off for a stint in New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud. Garvin recently decided to return to Australia with his family to try his hand at something new. Rather than going for the usual nine-to-five he purchased a franchise from
Jannie's Cleaning Services that he runs with his wife.
What exactly were you doing before taking on a Jannie's franchise?
I was working for the New Zealand government 'Work and Income' department which is equivalent to Centrelink in Australia.
How did you settle on purchasing a cleaning franchise to make a living?
I wanted something different because all my life I'd done accounting and finance. So when I came back to Australia I wanted to do something different. I didn't mind doing cleaning. I mentioned it to a friend who was friends with the people from Jannie's and they gave me a call.
Had you ever run a franchise before?
First time!
So what was it that appealed to you about having a franchise?
The thing that appealed to me was the idea of having your own business. The thing that was good about Jannie's was that they have a 1300 number where all the calls are taken, as well as all the advertising. So that took away a bit of that pressure of having to do your own personalized ads.
How did you find the training?
We received training for the first two weeks. It's good because if you haven't done [professional] cleaning you're not too sure what's required. From when you walk into a house until when you leave the house, they explained what has to be done.
Are Jannie's an easy company to deal with? We actually do a lot of our communication with Jannie's through texting and it seems to be quite effective. With verbal communication sometimes you miss a few things. Most of it is texting and the rest is emails.
Have you been able to build up a good customer base? When you first start the franchise you take every job that comes on and you get your regular clients. After a while, depending on your financial circumstances, what you can actually do is pick the clients you want to keep and on set days so it works out pretty well. You help them out and they help you out.
How is the work/life balance when running your own franchise? You get your weeks where it's a bit quiet, which I don't mind. Sometimes when I want more work I'll text Jannie's on Monday morning. I might say that I want "move-out" cleans and I want two of them. And they'll send four or five leads across! We'll ring the client and see what they want and most times we get the jobs.
What type of person would be suited to running their own cleaning franchise?
Someone who wants to be independent in their own business. The flexibility is excellent and you can change things around to suit yourself. If something comes up on a particular day you can easily change things around.
Your biggest challenge in running the business? Keeping up with the book work. I don't mind it too much I suppose!
What has been the biggest bonus so far in having the business?
I like being my own boss. With
cleaning work you have to be the kind of person who takes pride in what they do. My wife and I like to walk out of a place with that sense of satisfaction - that it's completed and that we're happy with the job.
What's it like working together on the job?
It makes it easier, faster - it just makes such a difference. I'd recommend working with a partner, no doubt about it.
What advice do you have for someone thinking of taking on a franchise like you have? The number one thing is that you have to be fair dinkum and be able to take it -all onboard. You have to be diligent in what you do with the work itself to make sure that you do a thorough job.
Make sure that your finances and bookkeeping is up to date. At the end of the day there's not too much involved in your finances - there's not many expenses besides the chemicals. Keep things under control and keep your receipts for everything, and every two or three days enter everything into your accounting records.
12-Nov-2007