Jim Penman is the founder of the Jim’s Group franchise, which now has more than 2,500 franchisees and branches all around Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Why did you choose the lawn-mowing business – was it something that you enjoyed doing?
I did enjoy it. After sitting at my student desk all week, it was good to get exercise in the open air. Even today, I feel that life falls short without some daily contact with grass and trees. I made sure that my mowing business never interfered with my studies though – mowing lawns just seemed to fit in really well back in those days.
At what point did you realise that your lawn-mowing business could be franchised and how did you learn what to do?
My mowing business was going so well that I soon realised I needed to reduce my personal workload, which had become excessive. I began by advertising my mowing round in the paper. This developed and I soon found success selling lawn mowing rounds. At this time my ambition was to create a research institute, and I needed a major business to fund it, so I asked myself how I could do this if I kept selling off my customers. The answer was obvious – by getting the purchasers to keep on paying me, therefore franchising was the way to go. I went to a franchising presentation by my main competitor, VIP, and learnt about how they successfully franchise. The VIP system made sense to me, especially the way it concentrated on working in one area. I suddenly felt the future was bright and I knew I could make franchising work for me.
How do you go about attracting the right type of people and what are the criteria you look for when selecting a franchisee?
I wanted Jim’s Mowing to be a quality business run by quality people, therefore I had specific characteristics that I was looking for in my franchisees. I wanted them to be trained in management with business experience and a professional background as well as having terrific interpersonal and communication skills. Also, the key characteristics of any entrepreneur (such as persistence, self discipline and motivation) are vital components to ensuring the success of the business.
I had to make sure that I attracted this type of person and the way I went about it was by basically offering them a deal that they couldn't refuse. Our contract put franchisees in a very strong position, it gave them clear territory rights, but allowed them the freedom to find work wherever they chose. This forced me to treat my franchisees like customers and also ensured that I attracted quality people. I could not rely on the contract to make them stay, so I had no choice but to look after them.
What type of ongoing support and training do you provide for your franchisees?
The core value of Jim’s Group is putting franchisees first. I am never, ever satisfied with how much we do for our franchisees. Improving our franchisee support is the single biggest obsession of my life, and it is intolerable to me that any franchisee should fail for lack of anything that we could do. For this reason we provide a myriad of different aspects of ongoing support and training for franchisees.
During our earlier days, we used to run meetings where the normal practice was to start with discussion about the system, gripes and so on, and end with training talks on subjects such as landscaping and customer relations. Any new ideas about how to do things were added to the Jim's Mowing operations manual, which we stored on our word processor and continually updated. As the business grew, so too did our methods of training and support. We began making training audio tapes, and asked franchisees who had flourished in tough times to train and mentor others.
One of my main concerns as the business grew was that it would become less personal and that the franchisees would lose the influence they had in the early days, so we set up a franchisee representative committee. Our group meetings alternated between large training meetings and smaller localised discussion groups, which were asked to come up with suggestions or complaints and delegate someone to take them to the committee. Representatives could be relied on to tell us, without pulling any punches, if we needed to change our ways.
The great thing about this system is that it is mutually beneficial – by helping our franchisees, it helps to grow and strengthen the business. And it’s not difficult to find the right type of new franchisee when you have your current franchisees willing to tell anyone how well they were treated and how much support they received.
What are the most important things you have learnt about succeeding in business?
There are three principles which I consider to be the most important things I have learnt to succeed in business. The first is that service to franchisees should always be above everything else.
The second is service to clients, which is something that has always been a passion for me. If you always look to the interests of your customers you are sure to succeed in whatever you do. It is vital that customers like and trust you and that you have enough understanding of them to know what they really want. I strongly recommend that no one ever refuse a cup of coffee or a chance for a brief chat, no matter how busy they might be. They should remember and even note down any personal details offered, such as names of children, forthcoming weddings and so on.
The third principle has to do with my own dislike of power hierarchies. I was determined that we maintain a sense of equality, and as the company grew I took steps to make myself even more accessible. In fact, I decided that staying in contact with franchisees was one of my key jobs and I invited any franchisee with a problem to call my mobile number. This same number is given in a personal letter that I send to welcome new arrivals, in newsletters and in audio tapes. My staff know that any franchisee who phones for me is to be put through with the highest possible priority. Emails will usually be answered within a few hours. There is a saying in the Bible that 'not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing'. I wanted something similar for Jim's, that no franchisee should run into difficulties without us knowing exactly what was going wrong and doing everything possible to help.
What advice would you give to other people who would one day like to franchise their own business?
Success in franchising is a balance between two opposing principles: the need to give the best possible service and to do it while charging the lowest possible fees. In general we aim to keep fees below 10 percent of turnover, which is a lot less than what a retail franchisor gets. Out of this must come advertising, administration, training, personal advice and support, and a host of other functions. The temptation is to rely on franchise sales, which often leads to poor selection and a focus on sales rather than support. In the past few years at least three of our serious competitors have become unstuck for this reason.
Your primary concern should always be your franchisees. They are the ones that entrust you with their money and their financial future. The growth of Jim's is determined by our ability to find and keep good franchisees – good people make it easy to find and keep good customers. You must always be intensely aware of any problem your franchisees have with the system.
Read more about buying a franchise and running a franchise.
24-May-2006