By BRIDGET COOK
WHEN the founder of Jim’s Mowing franchised his business 25 years ago, he was asked by a friend how many franchisees he would like to have in the future if it all went well.
Jim Penman said he was being optimistic when he answered with 100.
Fast forward to today and the Jim’s brand has more than 3000 franchisees across four countries and is the second largest franchise in Australia, only behind Australia Post.
Mr Penman shared his story with more than 100 people at the Cranbourne Golf Club on Wednesday last week at the Casey-Cardinia Business Breakfast.
From humble beginnings, Mr Penman’s journey started with $24 in his bank account, a $30,000 debt and him mowing people’s lawn while he completed his PhD in history.
He said it was his obsession with looking after his customers and ensuring they were happy that saw him build a solid client base.
“When I look at the business I’ve grown and the reasons I believe it to be successful, its very different than most of the stuff I’ve read about in business books,” he said.
“I’m an extraordinary unlikely person to be a success in business.
“By nature I’m extremely lazy, I’m also a very poor manager and have very poor people skills.
“And to add to all of that, I’m bad with names and find it hard to recognise people’s faces.
“I’m bad at a lot of things but one thing I’m very good at is I have an obsession with looking after customers.
“I had to get their lawns to look the absolute best they could.”
It was when Mr Penman needed to find some time to complete his PhD, that he decided to sell off his lawn mowing rounds.
“By the time I sold off my first round, I had already built up more customers through recommendation so I had another round ready to sell,” he said.
“And that happened again. I realised I was making more money selling lawn mowing rounds than I was mowing lawn.
“My problem was I was not a good salesman.”
Mr Penman sought the advice of a friend not long after that in relation to advertising, and it was through this conversation that he discovered the best way to sell his business.
His friend was an advertising agent and told him all he knew about the field.
“At the end of the talk, he told me that I was not in the need of an advertising agency at this stage and that if I went and did what he had told me it would help.
“He hadn’t sold me his business, but I knew if I ever needed an advertising agency in the future that I would go back to him.”
Mr Penman said from then on his sole interest was in those he was selling his business to and their best interests were at heart.
“This lousy salesperson never had a problem selling lawn mowing rounds ever again,” he said.
When he franchised the business in 1989, Mr Penman said he continued that ethos with his franchisees.
“I set out to design a franchise that was so good for the franchisee that you’d be mad not to join it,” he said.
“My lawyers said I was being too nice and tried to make the contract to suit me.
“But I wanted it to be about the franchisee and a fantastic contract that suited them.”
In the first year he sold more than 60 franchises, something he said was beyond his imagination.
The business continued its rapid growth and has expanded to a range of Jim’s services including painting, plumbing, cleaning, dog washing and fencing.
Mr Penman said the story of Jim’s was all about putting the customer first.
“It’s not a story of someone with great skills, great sales skills or great management skills,” he said.
“It’s a story of fundamental principal.
“At the bottom on my email it says ’my first priority is the welfare of my franchisees and we are also passionate about customer service’.
“Look to the people you’re dealing with first and foremost then figure out a way to make some money out of it.”
The next Casey-Cardinia Business Breakfast will be held on Wednesday 25 June at Cardinia Cultural Centre.
Layne Beachley, regarded as the most successful female surfer in history, will be the guest speaker.
To book a spot visit www.trybooking.com/52316.
