Meet Luke & Laura: Building Balance Through Business | The Real Franchise Episode 46

Justin Well, welcome. If you’re watching this, to another episode of The Real franchise where we’re actually interviewing people who have recently joined with us, some who have been with us for a long time. And we’re joined today by Luke and Laura, and Luke and Laura, you guys are in Leopold and Victoria, is that right?

Luke Yeah.

Justin That’s great. And, you what, well off the top of your head. Do you remember? What? How long have you been operating now, Luke?

Luke 13.

Justin 13 weeks in, still green just out of the 12 week period, which we sort of call is the the make or break. Yeah. So, yeah, looking forward to we haven’t caught up, really like this since you first. Well, since before you’re training. Is that right? Yeah. That’s.

Luke Yeah. Exactly. Right.

Justin Yeah, yeah. So we’ve had a few chats on the fan side. And for those of you watching, I walked through the journey with these guys. I was just looking at at our system when we first spoke back in July. 4th of July was the first time I told us. Yeah. Was I talking with you? Laura or Luke?

Yes.

Laura No, Luke was, I think, still at work at the time.

Luke Yeah, I was at the time I was and I was a bit like, yeah. As a with the business, like, and and borderline. Oh, yeah.

Laura Oh yeah.

Justin Very good. And it took us about two months to walk through that info process, and then you start writing, and then you’re now 13 weeks in and, yeah, I was just reflecting back over some of our first few meetings. So if you can recall for you guys what what made you want to look at having your own business?

Why were you looking at a change, Luke?

Luke Just, family balance really, like, Yeah, but kids, two kids being, wanting. Can, one at school? Yeah. As as, you know, kids get sick and stuff like that. It was just a big, inconvenience for me, too. And Laura, she’s got another job as well. So she, is always busy, and, Yeah, it was hard for me just to take on the boss at the time going, oh, I really need to leave to pick me kid up and and stuff like they did understand, but, it was more on me, like, I was just like, yeah, burden sort of thing on me.

So, yeah, that family life balance and, just, owning my own work as well sort of thing is a big thing for me as well.

Justin Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good. And I know you’ve the busiest time of we find of our businesses is when we first kick off, because you’re putting in so much extra effort to get the momentum happening. So you guys, are you pretty busy at the moment? Do you find that you’re flat out.

Luke Yeah, they’re.

Laura Actually been quite overwhelming. Yeah. Because we’re we’re down here and, we’re sort of on our lonesome at the moment. There’s not a whole lot of other franchises, particularly in Lawn and Garden, around. So being in the Leopold Geelong area, the I guess reliance if we’re looking at solely James home is is on us, no matter who’s looking for us in Geelong.

So we’ve had many, many inquiries and quite a lot of, phone calls and messages and whatnot. So certainly been a lot of work. But it’s all going to work out in the end. Do something really good.

Luke Yeah.

Justin Good. Yeah, yeah. And I’ve must I’ve been really I knew after our first meeting like I was just looking looking at my notes here. Great couple. Perfect bloke will be next. Right now that’s what I’ve got written in my notes after our first meeting. And yeah, I know, we’ve already approached you to go through. We are trying to find a look to be be a trainer because of the great job you’re doing.

And you know, when you think in the context of a normal business, 13 weeks to be at the point you’re at is is quite incredible. You’ve had an incredibly pastor. Yeah. And that’s something we’ve as a company really worked on helping people get started fast. So what do you put that down to? Why why have things start like I, I recall hearing that when you came back from your training work, you had all these quotes lined up and I was like 12 quotes in your first week or something.

Luke Yeah. That’s right. And we just really, we’re on the front foot early, knowing, all the this like.

Laura The needs.

Luke The needs of us around, you know, in our area, we’ve just gone out on the front foot with advertising. As soon as we got got the pamphlets, we were out handing them out, and as soon as we business cards, handing them out, Facebook. Yeah. Just like being on that front foot. So we knew.

Yeah. As soon as that training finished, we could kick off and, like, hit the ground running with them. Quote, straight out and hopefully. And the training, told us how to port us, how to.

Laura Submit them.

Luke Submit the quotes and get them jobs in that first week.

Justin So correct. So you just want your one mind to your quotes so that you blow them all or.

Luke No I yeah yeah actually I think I was 12 out of 12.

Justin That’s a lot of quotes this week.

Luke And I don’t think I would have been that way if I wasn’t trying to. So that because it was very eye opening the way, how you. Yeah, the training presented in how, to go about in quotes like I never knew that in. Yeah. If and I and I thought about this a lot to sell ice to Eskimos but, I can sell more ice to Eskimos now.

Justin yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. And I guess you’ve come you came with experience and sort of gardening and stuff as well. Yeah. And, and so even you like often have people say, oh no, no, I don’t need any training. You know, I’ve done this sort of thing before, but it’s different isn’t it. Well I did you find it’s different now.

It’s your business.

Luke Yeah. Just so when I was, hands on training was, more, like, showing how to present yourself, showing how to, quote customers jobs, stuff like that, which I didn’t know. I’ll call the hands on stuff I was happy to do. Like an on you. Yeah. But when it comes to quoting and, other stuff in that whole business plan and it’s, it all come together sort of thing, if you, if you didn’t have lucky if you missed any of them steps it, it drops off a cent each of you getting jobs a hell of a lot.

So like I, I’ve no worries about, my work. I was happy about, to do everything that, my training, it showed me. But, like, work wise. But in the other aspect of it where, closing quote and closing jobs and stuff, like, as in, getting the jobs done with, new, a new, concept of a year.

So which, yeah, which was really, really good.

Justin Yeah. And I was just looking over our notes from our first zoom meeting that we did where we went through that information session that I take everyone through. And, and I was looking over the concerns that you had that had written down and the key concern that you had is one that a lot of people have. And that was just, you know, there’s no other Jims anywhere near us.

And I will mention names, you know, wherein I think you said the Jims, heartland, there’s Jims everywhere. How are we going to compete when we start? And at the moment we’ve got quite a few, actually. You’re going to be training if you go first start as in South Australia, and that’ll be coming across in January. That’s their key concern.

Yeah. And how would you go on with that? You’re the first. You know, I don’t think you have another James lawn and garden guy within four years of you.

Luke Yeah. It’s been overwhelming, to be honest. Yeah. Look, I just the loyal. I just just, name behind it. Yeah. Like a big company. The national brand and national brand behind your, and being that new face around because everyone sees them all people. Jims, Jims. And that’s all they’ve had. But then they say these new, professional look like outfit that comes around and checks everything out, and then, oh, hang on, it’s a national company.

Like Jim’s But. And then.

Laura Someone through.

Luke Yeah. Go to your first second and word of mouth gets around and and all of a sudden like I had a I had a phone call today saying, NDIS customer I’ve, it’s. Yeah, between you and Jims and I’ll charge you James because and I go, I don’t want to go to work, but it’s at but yeah, you go and let’s just because I guess.

Laura I’m gonna trust in the world.

Luke Yeah. And also and also being that new person around. Yeah. And so if, if you weren’t professional or you weren’t, showing, your work look as in good stuff out there on Google and Facebook. You, you’re going to obviously not get as many jobs, but I think with all the photos and, stuff that we’ve put up of the work that I’ve done, people out.

Yeah, always look, customers come to me and go, look, I have a customer that once they’re looking for me, I, I can you make it look easy and, you know, showing me a photo that I’ve done. Yeah. The previous one, I said yes, I can make it look like that, but it’s not going to happen overnight. But yeah that’s.

Justin Right. It’s. Yeah.

Luke Yeah. But actually now being honest 100% now their loans are looking tremendous. And life and that’s.

Laura Satisfaction.

Luke Satisfaction at the end. And that’s where you get you get more customers all your new customers. And also like push the brand out there. And we have got a couple of cleaning companies like James and service cleaning in our area as well. So the it’s not like they’ve just seen just the brand. So the brand is out there in our area, but, there’s only two.

Yeah, I believe. Yeah. The cleaning and. Yeah. And, and.

Justin Then failing you as well.

Luke Yeah. Yeah. That’s right there I think not too much older than us but yeah. That’s kind of free advertising for all of us. Yeah. Really getting that name out there with their cars and my car and, my new trailer sort of thing, which, and yeah, it’s been good luck with I’ve actually helped a couple of the guys out with some, jobs along the line as well.

Look, I’ve had people go, oh, we need a cleaner as well. I do you know anyone? I’m like, yeah, yeah. So which is.

Justin I didn’t realize how close you guys were to refresh in April. Yes. The because I just happened to be like I did the last episode of this real franchise with them, because I started about the same time, like two weeks before you or something.

Yeah. So yeah, that’s great. And the reason I was googling and saw how close you were is I was looking to see how you’re ranking in Google because, you know, that was one of the concerns as you rise this other lawn mowing companies that have been going for decades. Yeah. And then, you know, the big one that we were just talking about also, you’re the thing and I’m looking at my notes from that first meeting, you know, how are we going to compete with all of that.

Will your number two, you saw anyone looking for a lawn mowing service in that part of Victoria that you’re coming up is number two. The last time I looked, you were number one. You know, the good thing is you’re right there. And. Yeah, the big company that we were just talking about isn’t even on the.

Luke List, which was I. I followed one other person. I think that we take this thing that.

Justin I’m going to think of that any better business for a long time and I had I hate the Google reviews.

Luke They do yeah

Justin The more reviews you get, you’ll, because you’re doing all that other stuff that they probably not as well that we bring you today. You’ll you will overtake that in time. You’re going to be going there. That looks.

Luke Yeah. Luckily we have been up to the top and down and top and that. Yeah, I think that’s okay because I think, it’s I think it’s a healthy thing to have a little bit of, competition there. Just so you know, that you’re not the only one that’s doing the same thing, and it pushes you more to actually, oh, Google, like remind you to go, I got to do things on Google.

I got to do this and that, like advertising and whatever.

Justin So yeah. Yeah. So realistically there’s probably another 30 lawn mowing businesses in your area. Right. Realistically, yeah. So how did you get to be number 1 or 2. And you’ve only been in the business 13 weeks. Like that doesn’t happen by accident. And that is how did it happen?

Laura We started with good, good customer satisfaction and then, asked for their reviews and, and just built on that and training. Yeah.

Luke I’ll try the, I, I, I that’s I that, that, and that’s something we wouldn’t have even known either where

Laura It’s quite eye opening, actually. Yeah. I don’t know about marketing.

Luke You think. You think you do like. Well, I thought, yeah, we’re with you. We’ve got this. But it’s a whole. Yeah, it’s a whole different big world out there. Yeah.

Laura Smart things that.

Luke Yeah. Smarter. Fuck yeah. Actually, it’s any business smarts, to be honest. Like, and doing things right to get them, you know, four star reviews and.

Laura Support behind it to like, a game.

Luke Yeah.

Laura It’s not a lot like, in the know how and then the how to get.

Justin The business coach. Yep. Yeah.

Laura Yeah. And he’s been really, really helpful in ways that we can get better each time we get reviews.

Luke And I think every time that I’ve got a five star review, I’ve had a phone call for luck. Like, that’s how closely he watches it. I’m like, yes, at the business coach. Watch it. All the, data there. So if anything is ever dropping or whatever, which, he’s on her, fingers crossed that I haven’t had as yet, but,

Justin He’d be on the phone for that as well.

Luke Yeah. That’s right. And but yeah, it’s always, like today I had one, five star review and, I was, I was busy, but he’s like, let’s put it on your voicemail. Like, any, like, compliment from, like, saying how how good it looks and like, people like that don’t do it just because they do it because they’re satisfied with the work that you’re doing.

Justin Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah. And, Laura, I hope you don’t mind me calling, but I just saw a note in that Ian had made it in the coaching notes in the third week of your business. You apparently said to Ian that Luke was already earning more in his previous role, already earning more in the one week in this than he did in four weeks.

Laura So yeah, yeah. And I was also a point, I think around the same time, well, not long after, where in one day you’d actually earned more in that one day than he did in a week in a previous job. So that was a huge incentive to keep going, keep building on what we’re currently doing is really working, making ends all over.

And then he’s like, just keep doing what you’re doing because it’s it’s successful. It is overwhelming. But, once we’re we’re sort of at that, the top of the peak. And then we’ve got all the regulars sat out and, and everything is, is, sort of streaming there that we can sort of start taking some breaths. It’s all about building still at the moment.

And, Yeah, we’re getting there.

Justin It’s good. Yeah. Awesome. Well, in January, when you’re training people, you’ll have an extra set of hands on it. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah. So one of the things I wanted to touch on today in our chat is attitude. I think to me, that’s probably the number one ingredient. You know, we, I think obviously I’m totally biased, but I think we’ve created an awesome system for people to use.

And we for support. But without the right attitude, it’s sort of like having an awesome car, I think, in the garage, but not putting it in. You know, I think that likes. Yeah. So like, you know, for you, I think it’s been awesome to watch your journey and your attitude. What sort of attitude would you say to people that need to bring to the table if they’re going to do something like this?

Luke Just like a positive attitude? Proactive out of, like, just, the always bubbly. I’m a talker, so I love I love to talk, but, always be on that front foot and make sure that, customers are not at, like, asking. You’re not asking you too many questions. Where? Because. Not because I don’t want to. It’s because I don’t need to ask you questions.

Because you’re giving it all the information to them already. And trust me, it’s not going to be just on good days. Like there is some there is some bad days out there, like I seen not not bad days, but like, you get your crappy jobs, like, it’s not just all beautiful jobs and and always actually in the first week, I didn’t have any of them jobs.

And I was really looking forward to some like one of them jobs just because.

Justin Like a terror job.

Luke Yeah. Like I actually wanted to see like the bad sort of stuff compared to. Yeah easier job. So like you get you and I actually love all them, harder jobs because it gives you in the end, it gives you more satisfaction. Looking back at the before photos and the after photos, it’s amazing. Like, but, yeah, always be on that.

Yeah. Be driven on. And, it’s not going to just the attitude. It’s not all going to come to you. You have to actually get out there like, yes. You guys do help a lot, but, it’s your business. Yeah, it’s your business. Make sure you are the front of that business and, be positive and just always, never reflect.

Like, reflect how you want to be, reflected upon like, yeah, because it is. You are the face. So, yeah, it’s not because you, you’re an actual brand on. You can just like, sit back and relax and wait for them, cause to come in if you’re getting no nothing going out there and look for really just it’s not going to come easy.

But in the end, it’s rewarding. Yeah.

Justin Yeah. I love the way you your coach Ian says. He says you’ve got to make yourself locally famous.

Laura Yeah, yeah.

Justin And I think a big plus for you and something I think it’s great to mention is you were already involved in so much of the community, you know. Yeah.

Luke That’s right.

Justin And and do you feel that’s helped you in this.

Luke Yeah. Yeah a lot just because,

Laura Being a well-known person. Yeah. There.

Luke Yeah. That’s right. And like, yeah, people know me then and then like, it’s like a big, pyramid affect, like one person knows someone and that’s it, one person and another person. Then all the sudden you’ve got 30 people looking at your, profile and going, oh, yeah, let’s get him. He knows how to talk. Yeah, yeah.

So which is the.

Laura Customers do the same thing. Yeah. There’s now customers that have asked to, send along his details because they’ve got a friend. Yeah, he makes their own stuff.

Luke Yeah.

Laura That’s right. Just for data. So when we’re in a mask, it’s out there. It’s one of the strongest, most polished, positive and useful things.

Justin Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Very good. Now I want to get a bit personal if it’s all right. So, 38 weeks in, you feel the business has given you anything so far? Like you mentioned at the beginning, you wanted to do this for 48? Well, we said that work life balance. I mean, you flat out at the moment, do you feel you’re getting any more balance?

And has there been any financial rewards in comparison to where you were.

Luke On at all? Definitely. And also, rewards as in, you get to spend some time, more time with the family. And if there’s something special on it, the Kindle or the school, I can, Yeah, like, schedule that around it so I can. Yeah. So I don’t have to miss any of them.

Which I was previously. Yeah. Yeah. So, Yeah. Both. It’s it feel. I feel like it’s opened me up into a new, Yeah. New mate on the block. Yeah.

Justin Do you feel? It was a good decision that you’ve made.

Luke No, not at all. Yes. I’m kind of excited. 100%. Yeah, I would, I would do it over again. I was actually really, like, even my family, my sisters and brothers, like, I’m one of seven. No. Oh, look, like you should have done this. Really? You should have won me on this sooner. Why haven’t you done that?

And I’m just like, I’ve never actually, I’ve always been too scared to. Yeah. Like that next step. Where? And even if it wasn’t for Laura going. Yep. Let’s do that. Yeah. Look, I don’t think I would have taken that step still, but. Yeah, but, very, very grateful that I have taken one step.

Justin Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well that’s good. Just looking at my notes to see if there’s anything else that I wanted to ask tonight, because this has been, I don’t want to get too long for everyone watching, but, I guess any pearls of wisdom, any advice that you can think of, things you’ve learned that would help someone that’s looking.

Laura I think utilize the advice that you get from those who know. Yeah. The, the training was really, really useful. And as I said, opened our eyes up to the things that we probably wouldn’t have thought of. And I attended the eight steps training and it with, with Rihanna. It was really good insight into how the business works and how it differentiates from the likes of the other franchises and the other cowboys, they call them down here.

Luke The street prior. We did look into other like you. James well, in the first one we actually looked at, but and also there’s one as when when you go into make sure you write everything down and you quoted like that’s one thing that’s like because it just any, any little thing, a customer will if they then they will pick up on that.

Yeah. And I will like I, I’ve, there’s been a couple of jobs that where I haven’t, written down everything by the book number and by, like, everything that I, I was doing or wasn’t doing. And it’s come a, it’s come back, but that’s what you do and live and learn. But, Yeah. If I can get that across to like the new people starting early where I don’t have to maybe, and it’s not because it was always told on training, but sometimes you just get, that, ahead of yourself and you’re just like, oh, I’ll quickly do that quote, but just actually don’t just quickly, yeah, just take your time and

actually do that quite properly because it will come back to bite you. But at the time.

Justin It’s an interesting step. We used to say in James, about 90% of the customer complaints that would get, at head office, like fed through from a customer or whatever. Generally it was just a miscommunication. Like it wasn’t actually that the person had done a bad job. It’s just that the customer thought, oh, I thought they were going to do that as well.

Luke Yeah.

Justin But the franchisee didn’t know that. And yeah. And because they hadn’t put the data and once, you know, once that the communication happens, not a problem, we can go we can sort that.

Luke And yeah. And that’s and that’s all it took me to give the customer back a call and it was sorted. But like it is. But if it’s all down the court then you’ve got nothing to. Yeah.

Laura The questions.

Luke Around.

Justin Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Make sure you’re all on the same page in the exact customer.

Luke Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.

Justin Oh, well, thank you so much for coming on today.

Luke And.

Justin Hope you enjoy your trying. The trainer training.

Luke And yeah, we’ll do.

Justin Looking forward to seeing how all the new guys that you start see if I can replicate what you’ve done. So congratulations on the awesome start to your business.