Jani-King franchisee celebrates 10th anniversary

With the statistics against small businesses these days, it’s quite rare to find one that has survived to celebrate its first birthday, let alone its tenth, but Queensland resident and Jani-King franchise partner, Max Christie, said he’s just getting started.

Christie, who earlier this year celebrated the tenth anniversary of owning his Jani-King franchise, said he was finally enjoying the satisfying and comfortable lifestyle that so many small business owners rarely survived to appreciate.

“There’s no doubt it was hard in the beginning; starting your own business is a huge challenge and one not without its sacrifices.

“However, being part of a franchise I believe you have an added chance of succeeding, due to the back-up and support of the franchise system and the ability to draw on the experiences and advice of other franchisees in the network,” Christie said.

Ten years ago, Christie was the Business Manager at a car dealership, and although he wanted to own his own business, he was sceptical about the prospect of joining a franchise like Jani-King.

“I had no previous experience in commercial cleaning and was completely unaware as to how lucrative and solid the market was, however upon my accountant’s advice and after researching various other business opportunities, I knew I was onto something.

“I was impressed with Jani-King because they made me aware of the thorns, rather than the roses right at the outset, which I believe is extremely important as people need to know what they’re getting themselves into.

“Jani-King also had low start-up costs and a guaranteed income for two years, and provided all training,” he said.

Christie, who still services his two original contracts, initially embraced a business strategy of ‘bigger is better’, but soon realised a bigger business also meant bigger problems.

“I got to a point where I was working 60 hours over seven days a week, and was having problems with staff inconsistency because there was no reliability, and my clients were complaining – quality control was a huge problem.

“I said ‘what am I doing?’ and finally made the decision to cut back and now service just four contracts without any staff, and my income has remained pretty much the same.”

With the occasional help of his wife, Joan, Christie now enjoys a working week of about 30 hours over five days and doesn’t have the extra pressures of additional staff insurances, superannuation and so forth.

For Christie, owning his own business has not always been about the remuneration, but rather about being able to live comfortably and enjoy the kind of lifestyle that he and his wife wanted.

Over ten years, the Christies have been able to clear all their financial debts, including paying off the franchise and owning their own car, and without these expenses, the profitability of the business will continue to grow.

“We’ve been able to re-furnish our house, and I don’t have any concern when the bills arrive”, Christie said.

“My wife and I are now able to enjoy overseas holidays together, whereas before I started with Jani-King the most we did was take a week off and head interstate.

“I owe a lot of my recent successes to Jani-King’s Brisbane office who are always just a phone call away and follow through on all that they promise.”

Like most, Max has had his fair share of ups and downs over the past ten years, but plans to remain in business for a long time to come.

“My advice to anyone looking to pursue a small business opportunity would be to consider Jani-King; it has a no-fail system and the ongoing support provided is truly invaluable.”

With the back up of Jani-King and his hard work, Christie has never lost an account, and if this is anything to go by, his success is sure to continue.

Jani-King Australasia was established in Perth in 1993 and now has more than 800 commercial cleaning franchise outlets across Australia and New Zealand and annual billing in excess of $80 million.