What New Franchise Owners Wish They Knew Before Starting | The Real Franchise Ep 62

Rhiannon Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Real Franchise, a podcast that goes where others simply won’t. An unfiltered view of franchising, business mindset and everything that we stand for when it comes to supporting a community of small business owners. Join me, Rhiannon, the CEO for James Services, and Justin, one of our owners, as we unpack it all with no topics off limits.

Today we are talking about what our new business owners wish they knew before they started. Justin there’s a little bit of a story as to why we’re talking about this today. Normally, this wouldn’t be a topic that you would necessarily broadcast publicly and say, hey, here are the things that other people who started with our network wish they knew before they got started.

But in true James fashion, we go where others won’t. And so we are going to give our listeners today a heads up as to all the little things to think about before you make the big decision of joining a franchise network or starting your own business. Justin, do you want to paint the picture? Where is this information coming from?

Justin So part of as you know, I want people who are looking at James. So if you’re watching this and thinking of joining James, you when you contact us, we’ll just take you through an information process. And the second part of that process we host a meeting like this. Except there’s half a dozen, you know, business owners from James, as well as a business coach and probably 3 or 4 other people that are at the same point of the process.

Looking at joining. And so I host two of these meetings every week. So we do one for people looking at a cleaning business, another one to take a look at the lawn and garden business. And it’s been really awesome. We’ve got a couple of the guys that have been on these meetings recently, business owners with James and and, ironically, they’re all from different states and they’re all of the three that I’m thinking overall, been with us for under a year.

And one of them been with us for less than a month. And so great guys. And just so enthusiastic and just wanting to share their knowledge to people that are looking. And last week and that’s where this idea came out of for this episode, is that we’re very much sharing things I wish they knew or things they picked up in this first year.

You know, the challenges as well as the good stuff. And I thought, well, this would be great. I wish I could have all three of them on here now and just get that discussion going again. But I thought they.

Rhiannon Got businesses to run. So when we did, yeah, they’re out there running those businesses getting lots of jobs, which is great. But maybe that’s not a bad idea.

Justin Yeah, absolutely. Do because I do the Meet the Team podcast as well that we could get them on, but, yes. So, yeah, I guess I just wanted to talk about. Yeah, some of the things that they were sharing that for them. They hadn’t thought of or hadn’t realized, you know, and they some common themes that I, that I hear from our business owners, it was like, wow, I didn’t realize just how physical it would be.

Yeah. You know, it’s what I love.

Rhiannon I love our meet the teams because, so often what actually ends up happening is our existing business owners end up almost taking these new potential business owners under their wing, so to speak, and, you know, wrapping them in like this warm hug and going, here’s everything that I want you to know before you make the decisions so that you’re making the right decision.

And it’s so great because, you know, you and I can talk to people and Bella can talk to people and go, hey, this is really important that you make the right decision. And we’re just going to walk you through the process. And, you know, it’s a discovery process. We’re not trying to pull you. We’re not trying to convince you.

We’re not trying to sell to you. It’s a discovery process, and we can do all of those things, but it’s so much more powerful when it comes from an existing business owner going, let me tell you what I wish I knew. And also let me tell you what the outcomes are so that you’re best informed. Yeah. So let’s start with some of the things that they wish they knew before they started their own business.

What are some of those key things that you were saying?

Justin I think particularly in the lawn and garden. Well, the cleaning guys say the same thing. It’s just the physicality of the actual jobs themselves. And it doesn’t matter how fit you are, it’s different muscles, different things. So the first week in particular, they’re sore and it takes, you know, it takes 2 to 3 months to get what I know

Greg talks about being work fit, and one of our business coaches like it’s it’s a different sort of fitness. And you know, particularly for cleaning businesses it’s a lot of shoulder tight type stuff going on. So that’s one thing. The other thing, and this is the thing that guys, we’re really talking about, all three of them that were on there have had, as you know, a very they really engage with their business process.

And I really got active and just did the things that that their coach was working with them on and consequently their business has just exploded. You know, and I Luke, he wouldn’t mind me sharing this. In his first week, he came back to training and had 20 quotes booked to do in his first week. And I think he won like 18 or 17 of the jobs.

So he was just bang on the ground and so many people, and I’m sure people listening to this are wanting a work life balance, want to get out of the rut at the 9 to 5 and get that work life balance, family balance back. And if you’re not careful in the beginning, you’re going to be putting in a lot of effort.

And so for Luke, the business just took off. And it’s like if you’re a horse rider, it’s like the horse bolting and you haven’t got a hold of the reins and and what the what they were talking about is learning how to control the reins. You know, you need to yes, it’s going to be 150% effort for the first few weeks, but you’ve got to learn how to then control the reins and continue to grow or get to a level you’re comfortable at.

And that’s where your coach will work with you. Yeah. So that was, I think for them, a real surprise.

Rhiannon Yeah. Was it a surprise that it grew so quickly, or was it or was the fact that it grew so quickly? It created the surprise of, oh goodness, I didn’t quite expect this growth. And now what on earth do I do?

Justin In a post. Yeah. Like it was very much. I mean, everyone hopes for that. But you know, hope is one thing and you make hope reality by action. And, you know, we’ve both seen people who haven’t got active, you know, few of finished my job. I’m now the boss. I’m just going to take it easy for the first few weeks because I need to recover.

You know, life’s been. And it’s like, whoa, you just, you know, you’ve got to build momentum. Yeah. And so, you know what the common theme with every, I would say, every single one of the people we see explode out of the blocks is even before their training, they’re doing working with their coaches. They’re getting everything in place that doing all this stuff and then bang.

And that surprises them just how quick it happens.

Rhiannon I’ll be honest, it never surprises me. Not once. Yeah. Because when you work that hard and you follow a system that, you know, we’ve developed over a very long time, but specifically highly, highly refined over the last six years. You know, we expect those results when that system is followed to the letter. It’s it’s really quite lovely when somebody does all of the things that we asked them to do and what we’re talking when we say you and I say this often, you know, does all the things right.

What we are actually talking about specifically is we have an early onboarding process that gets the ball rolling on all of the boring admin set up of the business stuff. We get that out of the way early so that you can focus on activity that generates revenue and essentially what I mean by that is marketing. We do lots of marketing for our business owners, but we also take a really it’s really important to us that we actually teach our business owners how to do the marketing that is free, local, on the ground and impactful, because that’s the marketing that takes off really quickly and allows that business to grow really fast.

And so we’ve got this really highly refined marketing activity program that we what that we teach someone to do. In fact, we start teaching people to do some of those activities even before they’ve done their formal training. And so when you say, you know, they show up to training with already quite locked in, it’s because they’ve started implementing the strategies that we started teaching them before training.

And when you’re following that system that we’re giving you, these are the results that are possible. So it never surprises me. But it does get a really nice, warm feeling when somebody else is, you know, they’ve really diligently followed our guidance and they’re like, oh my goodness, it’s working. I just think, yes, I’m really glad that you’re seeing those results because you deserve them, because you’ve just put the effort in that created them.

Justin Yeah, yeah. The other big one that that we see is the emotional roller coaster is sort of surprised these guys were talking about it. It’s surprise surprise them. Just the emotions you know and and Dan in South Australia was talking about I remember well in his first week I called him to see how he went in his training and whatever.

And he was like he had heaps of work booked or whatever, but just and I’ve still got gaps in my diary was his exact words, you know, and he.

Rhiannon Was like.

Justin I said, week one. Yeah. It’s like, come on, Mike, you just started a business that’s based on regular clients. You’re not going to open the doors week one and have I mean, wouldn’t that be wonderful? But you know, and he’s just, fantastic money from week one. But for him, even he was like, oh, man, you know, I’ve got gaps in my diary

That was sort of the way he was communicating to me. And it’s sets up and are that that surprises people. Because it and and then when you get your first knock back or you get your first customer complaint that can really rock you when it’s your business. And I put my heart and soul into that job and I’ve got a complaint like that.

It’s interesting. You know, we observe when people do get their first complaint that really does rock a lot of people.

Rhiannon Yeah.

Justin And being prepared for that. Yeah.

Rhiannon I think those first 12 weeks we often talk about internally, the first 12 weeks and we talk about, you know, those highs and those lows, the highs are high and the lows are low. You know, and as a business coaching team in a head office team, we do actually spend a lot of time developing our skill set in identifying when someone’s sort of, on the downhill a little bit, identifying it early and having really open conversations with that person about just how normal this is.

Because I don’t think that anybody in the history of starting a business has just, you know, kept an even keel the whole way through and never deviated. Feeling better or worse? It’s so normal. And there are even some, you know, I, I spend a lot of time looking at data and, and at work there are even some patterns in terms of like weeks in that we expect to say someone have a bit of a low point if they’re going to, you know, a specifically, we generally see the first low point around week three or week four.

Justin I was going to say yep.

Rhiannon Yeah. And we put that down to, you know, that adrenaline and that enthusiasm and the energy, it allows people to self motivate quite easily for about 3 to 3 and a half weeks. And then usually we start to see that first little bit of a low where they start, the doubt starts to creep in a little bit. They start to question whether they’re seeing growth fast enough.

They start to worry about whether they are indeed delivering the best kind of service they can. It usually happens for the first time around. Week three. Awake four. We’re very aware of it. It’s very normal. We have open conversations with our business owners all the time about how they feel in their business, because in our network, it’s not just important to us that we focus on building business skills and capability.

It’s equally as important that we actually focus on how someone’s feeling and their mental and emotional health as well. Yeah. Anyway, so that was a bit of a deviation. Are there any other were there any other themes that you’re picking up between these new business owners.

Justin The other one that, that comes to mind that we’re talking about managing the unexpected because unexpected things happen. And Nick was sort of sharing he had this one week it I think it was week five. And his business, he was saying where his car broke down like major breakdown. He had to go hire a car. His something else weird happened to his main piece of machinery.

He had a personal tragedy and it was just all these things all at once. And and he said he was just feeling so flat. And then he had in his calendar, he saw for the day. He had a coaching appointment with his coach in the afternoon, and he was just like, I don’t want to talk, you know, I don’t want to talk to anyone.

It was really down And he said, I didn’t send the text to cancel. I turned up, I didn’t want to be there. And in his coach, he said, was amazing. He said, they just got me focus back on what I need to be focused on. We put a strategy in place for all these different things. And he said, I came out of that coaching appointment back mentally where I needed to be, and I went and then Luke jumped on and he said, yeah, it’s like me.

Last week, Thursday, he said, I went out to the trailer in the morning. I had a full day of jobs booked and someone had broken into me trailer and flog my mower

Rhiannon Justin And it’s this, like he said, and it really rocked me. He said mentally it was, it was. And it’s those sort of things that you will have things happen that and being able to get back centered on by the second we’re in this. This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. You know, we’re in this for the long haul.

And just getting your mind back on the game. So okay.

Rhiannon Things unexpected happen even every day in our lives. Right. But I think that the reason why they feel so much bigger and heavier for our new business owners is because new business life is not just life as normal. You’ve just started a brand new business. You’re probably the most stressed and working the hardest and thinking more, you know, after hours about this than you’ve ever had to do before.

And so you’re already in a totally different situation and mindset when you’re starting a new business, and then you have these hard things happen and the cup just starts overflowing. You know, the hard things going in, the water’s just flowing yet, and it’s just too much. We really have focused so much on helping our coaches to help our business owners when these hard things happen, because just as you’ve explained, most of the time it’s just a case of listening and acknowledging that hard feels hard some days and it feels heavy, and then saying, all right, there are things in life we can’t control.

We’re not going to worry about those. There are things in life we can control. That’s where we’re going to focus. So what of this current situation can we control, and what are we going to do about each of the things we can control to help get you back in? That drivers seat and often it is just about having a plan.

When things feel heavy and dense, it is just about having someone who can bring some clarity to the situation and help you find a plan. And once you have a plan and you start taking the first step, then the second step is a bit easier, in the third steps a bit easier, and then we see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Justin Yeah. Yes.

Rhiannon Oh so let’s talk about let’s change gears. Let’s talk about the good stuff. Because I know I know these names that you’re mentioning and I know how their businesses are performing. And I know the sorts of comments they have made to you and to me and to our team about how happy they are in their businesses. What are some of the things that, for them, make the challenges and the hard, well worthwhile sticking out?

Justin Yeah, and I will say all of them have like when I talk them through these challenges, they all said I wouldn’t change it for the world. I wish I had done this so much sooner. I say, yes, these are the challenges. But then they went on to talk about the good things. Actually, I, I also had one of our franchisees in Sydney last night and just said to him, hey, you’ve been in this business for a couple of years.

Is there anything unexpected? It’s been a really good thing that you didn’t sort of anticipate. And he said to me, and it was, it was love what you said. I’ve just my partner and I work together so well. He said that was unexpected. You know, everyone says, oh, when you work with your partner or, you know, wife or spouse, you know, you’re living together, working together creates friction, blah, blah, blah, he said.

It’s been the reverse for us. It’s been fantastic. And I know for my wife and I, that’s been the same because Sonya, as you know, was one of our business coaches. We worked together and it’s been fantastic. But for him, that was an unexpected benefit, which I thought was was lovely. I think the real big one is just getting back control that we just hear over and over it.

I would say probably every one of our business owners nearly would attest to this, that, yes, putting in 150% effort, particularly in those first 12 weeks, as we have talked about so often in these episodes. But you’re the driver and you reap the rewards. And, just the story after story. And these guys last week just saying, you know, I can actually my kids sports days, I can you know, I just saw a post on Facebook this morning, one of our guys posting up, I’m the boss, I’m not going off Friday.

And there’s a picture of him with a camper trailer on the eight, and the family had enough for the weekend, you know, literally this morning on Facebook. And it’s those sorts of things that mean the world, you know, sometimes even more than the money. That’s been the focus of so many of our business owners. Yes. We need to earn enough, but it’s really about having that family because we only have family with us for, you know, kids grow up and leave and that sort of stuff.

So it’s that’s all of them. Last week was sort of talking a bit on that. Yeah. That is yeah. If any things that you see, like you oversee all of the business things that you’ve picked up from our business owners that good things that you, he’s filter up to you.

Rhiannon I mean, I really love the anecdotal feedback that comes comes from all directions and and it really is it is about control. It’s about I wish I did this sooner. It’s about I get to make my own decisions. I get to prioritize my family. Often for those that really do work hard and apply the system, the the money available is unexpected.

That’s actually what stands out for me is that, there are people that come into our network with expectations of, of making lots and lots of money, and it’s possible, but the money that you make in your own business is purely proportionate to the effort that you put in. Right. And there are other business owners that come in saying, well, I need to replace my income.

I need to make enough to to support the family. And they come in with very modest or very reasonable expectations, but because they’ve got great work ethic to them and because they really apply themselves to following our system, working with their business coach, they see that money, that that money side of the equation ends up far surpassing what they thought.

And for me, I think this is a three way stool. You know, I think that franchisee wealth is is a three way equation. You have to have money. It has it. The money has to be there. But it’s also about time, wealth and fulfillment wealth. And I honestly I honestly believe that we get a really good balance of feedback from our business owners that our system and our model enables all three reasonably equally.

The money’s there. So long as your effort in is there, you know, what you’ve just highlighted is that that time wealth I have and time wealth is not about, you know, I only have to work one day a week. Time wealth is do you simply have enough time outside of work to do the things with the people that you love, that bring you joy?

So it’s not always about, oh, I only want to work one day a week or two days a week. But it could simply be about, Will I work really hard? But today’s Friday, I’m the boss, and frankly, I’m not going to Philly and I’m taking the kids camping. That’s time. Well, so when you’re in control of it and fulfillment wealth.

Honestly, I think my favorite stories personally are fulfillment wealth I love I love the story of Mel and Graham and, you know, they joined the business and both of them had come from Mel, from a very high, demanding corporate background. Graham from, demanding shift work in an industry that, you know, does not allow you to drop the ball and doesn’t allow you flexibility.

And I remember Mel telling me one day, tears welling in her eyes, telling me this, mind you, that one of the most expected, unexpected joys about their business was watching her be able. What was her watching Graham be able to take their kids off to soccer practice every single week and I, I still I have I just had a chill go over my body because those are the stories that mean so much to me, because there’s so much purpose in their world now, you know, their business is creating that lifestyle they want.

It’s creating them revenue, it’s creating them time, but it’s also creating them. That lifestyle that they wanted. I love those stories. I love those stories where fulfillment is brimming. And there’s one other story. I know I’ve just talked for 1,000,000 minutes, but there’s one other story I want to share. Really, really beautiful woman down here in, Melbourne, Victoria.

And when she came to us, she said, I’ve never really I’ve never truly felt appreciated in any role I’ve ever worked. And mind you, this woman is in her 40s, so she’s no stranger to working at this point of her life. She said. I’ve never felt truly appreciated in any role I’ve ever worked. And after around six months in her business, she said to her business coach, my clients truly appreciate me.

I’ve never felt like this before, that those are my favorite stories. It’s those little I call the minty moments. You know, just those moments where you go, oh my goodness, this is the best. How is this my job that I get to work with a network of people? I get to work with a group of people in our head office team that enable everyday Australians to feel this way about how they generate revenue and support their families.

I’m living my dream life and I we get to help people have these little meaty moments in their lives every day. It is such a privilege.

Justin It is. And that’s what I love about our network is the transparency of it. You know, if you’re listening to this and you’re considering jump on a website, every, every one of our business owners has a web page that a story on them, the phone number you can ring anyone in the company and chat to them and and you’ll hear these stories because it’s just.

Rhiannon They really don’t make them up.

Justin Wait time. And that’s why we do this. It’s just for that transparency because we have a great system that’s unique. It empowers I like it empowers people, you know, and I think we did an episode recently, or it might have been a TikTok that that I saw where you were talking about making sure that any business you join that their success is tied to yours.

Rhiannon Yes.

Justin Yep. And that’s what I love about our business model is the only way we can be successful is by helping. The people that join us be successful. And everything that you and I do and our team do is focused on that. And it’s just that’s the upside of just we could sit here and just go through that map and just tell a story after story of we could individuals.

Yeah. And and where they are now versus where they’d come from. And you know, I think of Ross, and Karen in Brisbane. I just just popped into mind where. Yeah, he was doing shift work. She was studying one thing. He started his business. He he loves it. She finished her degree, has started her own counseling business.

Rhiannon Oh, yeah.

Justin And the eight step system that he used to build his James business that we trained them in. She just applied the eight steps business, took a counseling business. And guess what? She’s growing a very successful counseling business in Brisbane, you know, and it’s it’s awesome hearing those sort of stories of. Yeah. Yeah.

Rhiannon You know, where also you and I personally and as leaders of this company, you know, we’re very focused on creating impact bigger than just us. You know, we we don’t just measure our networks success by whether the company at the head of at all is making profit or not. Indeed, it’s a measure, but it’s frankly a tick and flick.

If, I mean, we should be clever enough people to get our model right, that it is profitable when our businesses are successful. But for you and I, what’s really important is that greater contribution that we can make to franchising, to business ownership, to the economy, to society, to communities and to people. And what we’re just talking about there with Ross is, you know, he’s worth taking on those eight steps, you know, through our, through our model and, and, you know, maybe some, maybe some people would feel, you know, a level of frustration that someone else has benefited from our knowledge who wasn’t technically paying for it.

And I just think you know what? What a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing that our system can create business owners within it and also business owners outside of it who can go on and be incredible economic and societal contributors. It’s so it’s so much this network is so much bigger than just us.

Justin Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Rhiannon I think that is the perfect place to play today’s episode. Otherwise, you and I will continue to talk for hours on, the stories of our network. And maybe we should do that one day. Maybe we should just talk for 45 minutes about the stories in our network, because there are so many good ones. But let’s park it here for today.

Well, if you.

Justin Can, I just make a plug then. If you want to hear the stories there is every week, interviewing different business owners around the country. So on the Real Franchise, you’ll see episodes on and it’s their stories. So yes, jump on and watch some more episodes.

Rhiannon Yes. If you’re looking at the YouTube channel and you see a tile that isn’t Justin’s face or my face, it’s somebody else’s, that means that is a real franchisee in our network, and that’s a conversation that you’re having with them. On what their experience has been. Yeah, those videos are fantastic to watch. They’re very real. They’re totally unscripted.

We don’t apply the individual with the questions that you’re going to ask. And, so what you’re listening to is a very real account of their experience with us.

Justin Yeah.

Rhiannon Beautiful. All right. Let’s park this episode right here. And we hope that you’ll join us very soon for another episode of the real franchise.