The Real Franchise – Ep13 – Building a business with staff

Watch the full episode of The Real Franchise Episode 13 – here

Justin Hello and welcome to another edition of The Real Franchise. This is a series that we’re putting together to cover real topics in franchising up front. No sales, not just straight information. In a very real setting. Just having a discussion. My name is Justin Kelly. I’m one of the owners of James Home Services and James Home Services Australia.

The organization that has put this series together. And today I’m joined, by one of our business coaches, Sonya Kelly. And, a couple of our business owners, Greg and Gina Morrison from Caboolture on the Sunshine Coast. But no, Caboolture is part of Brisbane in south east Queensland. And we’re going to be looking at how to grow business and using staff.

Gina So good morning. Thank you.

Greg Thank you.

Justin And today’s topic we’re going to be looking at is growing a business in James with staff. And I guess one of the key reasons Greg and Jane are here are you guys have done that over the years. Yep. So firstly congratulations on growing a great business. Thank you. It’s never easy, particularly at the beginning, is it?

Gina That’s true. Yeah.

Justin So for you guys, I guess just having a chat about it. When you first joined James, I was just thinking this morning. Greg. I think I was involved. You were. You were in the training with business training? Yes.

Greg One year ago. First.

Justin Six years ago now.

Greg Well, by the time we did that to when we really got going. Get me five and a half years at least.

Justin Goodness. Amazing how quick time.

Gina Does get away

Greg Yeah Justin So when you guys started, was that your original intention to have a business with staff?

Greg Probably not. I left a reasonably well-paying job in, you know, IT after 30 years, and we’re really looking to try and duplicate my wage. Yeah. But not have to commute an hour and a half each way to the city. Oh, so we were just trying to get back time in her life. And we believe we could do that if we both were working pretty much full time in the business.

Yeah. But Jane is still had a part time job, which was great, which meant that we didn’t know. Both need to be going flat out straight away. Yeah. Which gave us time to grow the business. And the physical demands were probably more than we realized. Yeah, it first started, and it’s. It is a physical job. Yes.

So yeah, the. Yeah. We couldn’t maintain that, on our own. Yeah. And. Yeah. So it’s sort of naturally evolved. We needed someone else, you know, started needing to employ staff. Yeah. Yeah. So we didn’t intend to. Yeah.

Justin So when you.

Greg Started. Yeah, we needed to.

Justin Yeah. Needed to. Yeah.

Greg We were looking to replace the main incoming house. Yep. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin So when you started from memory, it was just you working in the business? Yes.

Greg And so a little bit. A little bit of help from Jane on occasion

Justin Yeah. So how long did it take you to need Gina’s help to give it.

Greg Ah, to need Gina’s help? probably two months. Yep. Yeah.

Gina And then I eventually I gave up my job after six months.

Greg Yeah, about six months. Yeah.

Gina To work full time in the business? Yeah. Yeah.

Justin So how did I know? Because we’ve had everyone cleaning franchises as well with James. How did you go through that? That. I call it the awkward phase of deciding when to put, somebody on.

Greg We were probably physically close to our capacity, in regards to us both. Yeah. Both getting to work. And, we happened to have a family member semi-retired, looking for a bit of part time work. He started own his own business running. But it was only a few days a week, and he had a few days up his sleeve.

And so to keep active. Yep. Fitted in perfectly winter in a good move away from the physical component of the business. Yeah. And it was just time he was looking, and we were looking at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. No. Good.

Sonya That’s great.

Gina So having that flexibility there that you can, I can step back and let someone else come in till we build up the business up a little bit more, get some more working, and then I can come back in. And we just built it from now. Yeah.

Greg And and realistically that method allowed us to then go, well, let’s get someone else, in and, then, Gina would run a car. I’d run a car. So suddenly we had two cars running. Yeah. And then we got someone else in and. Okay, we now trust you guys enough. Yeah. You go as you guys go. That’s your car. That’s your run sheet.

That’s. Yeah. Have you seen today? And then just just sort of has kept going to a point where finally we’re we’re at. Yeah. With the unable to not work as much. Yep. In the business. More on the business than in the business.

Justin All right. Yeah, I guess that’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it? Yeah.

Greg But it’s just,

Justin So I guess for yourselves. And what sort of role to the staff take?

Greg Really? We’ve tried to keep it, that they’re doing the physical work. Yep. And to keep client relationships up. So for our staff. Yeah. I need you to know. The the owner’s names, the dog’s names, what the kids are doing. Become blend. Not blend with the families, but become close. Yeah. Have close relationships with the family so that you’re not just some random stranger coming in to clean the house.

And actually, someone that they’re happy to see, a lot of clients get cleaners in because they’re retired and sitting at home by themselves and. Yeah. Yeah. It’s part of what breaks their week up. Yeah. So yeah. Don’t just come in and do the job. Come in and interact with the clients.

Gina And and because they have, we haven’t lost it so that they have the same clients each week. So they know they get to know their clients and they build a rapport. And because we have such a good rapport with our clients, it just makes the business flourish, I think.

Greg Yeah. And we we, I know Justin, way back in the day, you you were the one who said to me, the amount of effort required to replace a client, is, what, 6 or 8 times what is worth to keep the client? Yeah. And, I, you know, obviously we’ve lost clients. Yeah. Whether it be NDIS funding not being redone, people moving, that sort of stuff.

But, I mean, in six years or five years, I honestly reckon it be maybe half a dozen clients we’ve lost due to not being happy with the work. Yeah. Some sort of clash. Yeah. So, yeah, we’ve been able to look out for our clients, have been great for us. And also allows flexibility. When I need a inspection clean done on Tuesday and my normal cleans on Thursday.

No worries. We’ll sort you out, Yeah. Yeah. Someone’s car’s broken down. So someone’s or the girls, We just like one of our teams. Had just one moving house on Monday. Guys, we need to move all your jobs from Monday to Wednesday. Yep. No worries. Yep. So, so it works both ways.

Justin So do you do all the quoting, like you said, one of you like you’re do all the quoting? Yep. Okay, so your staff don’t do quoting, you do the quoting. Yep. I know one of the episodes that we’ve done in this real franchise series is about how to grow Jamie’s business. But I guess for you, if it’s having stuff, you’ve got to have clients, which means you’ve got to find the clients.

Yeah. So thinking back, I mean, how did you guys actually go about. And I’ll get you to answer that question, too, because you guys grew a business a few years ago. So what what did you do to get customers?

Greg What was obviously, you know, a part of a national network? Yeah. With a 20 471 800 number. Yeah. So fantastic. And, yeah, there were jobs coming in from that. One of the big ones for us back then was, sites like Oneflare.

Justin Yes. He’s in the lead generation.

Greg Positive side pages and one for it. Yeah. That was very good for us.

Justin So getting a start.

Greg Yep. I’d right. In the first few months I actually kept track of. And we were getting, leaflet drops that were giving us, like, a three in a thousand or something, which, at the time were more than six in a thousand, which at the time is like double the average average.

Justin Yeah, right.

Greg Yep. Yeah. And so it was a mixture of pure visibility. I’ve had people ring me sitting a stoplights. Yep. Because the number is on the back of the car. Yeah. Yeah. All those sort of things. What wasn’t big for us five years ago was our Google presence. Yes. Which. And because our business was able to quickly get to that point where we were selling stuff and how do we fit more jobs in.

We didn’t ever actually push out a Google profile like that. We didn’t have franchises. Yes. Yeah.

Justin And so.

Greg I when I talk to new franchises, and they, they talk about what’s a Google page like. So I actually couldn’t tell you.

Sonya Yeah.

Justin Yeah. Yeah. You did it the hard way.

Greg Yeah. Yeah. So but basically just pure visibility. One of the other big things it’s work for us is we now have a lawn and garden franchise. Yeah. In the local area as well. Right. So instead of having our three vehicles, they’ve also got two vehicles plus their trailer. So there’s just visibility in the local area. Yeah. Nicola and and Victor.

basically, you know, we were able to go here’s a list of all of our clients, and you would be talking to them. And how do they do their cards? And it just works. It’s no like I’ll pick up a new client if they haven’t mentioned anything about interior cleaning. Hey, whose card is a number? Yeah. Bring this guy.

Yeah. So it’s just visibility.

Gina And I think a lot of it, too, is when the business did build and we did get that reputation. Word of mouth.

Greg Yep.

Justin That’s right.

Gina You know, getting recommended, which was really good.

Justin So yeah. Yeah I always describe that to to guys through the process information process that in the beginning it’s like a snowball. That’s my theory. You got to push this snowball hard hard hard. And then once it starts to roll, those referrals start to kick in. And it’s just you’re not so much chasing work. It’s.

Greg And and the thing thing for us was always that was no one thing. Yeah. Yeah. Whether it be a big billboard on the side road, the phone number on the back of the car, but the leaflet drop you’ve done. That’s right. You Google profile or all those things just if you’re in front of people’s eyes when they’re looking, if they’re looking, you’re one of those ones that stick out.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sonya It’s so important to be doing everything. Yes. Visibility and that potency and frequency of marketing working together.

Gina Yeah. And it does. It pays off in the end. You know it. It’s a hard slog to start with, but yeah. Yeah, it does pay off.

Greg Yeah. One of the, one of the other things that we’ve been sort of mentioning is that an ad is a word of mouth style thing. Is it we do NDIS clients. And under the new structure, it’s reasonably Yeah. Good value to happen.

Justin Yes.

Greg They’ll be going through a plan manager. They’ll be. The plan manager will get new clients. They’ll have their 3 or 4 cleaners and mowing services and whatever else that they they use. Yep. He’s someone who might be able to help you. Oh, he’s a couple of rooms. Might be able to help you, or they’ll contact us. Do you have capacity?

Yeah. So it’s it’s like nowadays it’s not chasing work. It’s trying to keep on top of your work. Yeah. Can we. Can we take on more work? Yes.

Sonya That’s good. Yeah.

Greg They can get a couple of days off and then you start again. We’ll actually. There’s a gap there.

Justin I can fill that with someone else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Greg Tell you what stops you.

Sonya Yeah. Yes. Remember why we’re doing this. Yeah. So quality of life is vital, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Gina And it did take a while to get there too.

Sonya It does.

Gina Yeah. We have a good kind of.

Greg Home of, of being my own worst enemy. You know if there’s a gap in my calendar I’ve got a fellow I can fit another job in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sonya Yeah. So how do you find that? With the demand filling your calendar? How easy is that? How hard is it to fill the gaps in your calendar now that you’ve got momentum?

Greg It’s almost the other way of. Do we want to take this job? Yeah. Okay. We’re at. Yeah. There’s always room for more work.

Sorry darl

Justin Well that’s the philosophy that like.

Greg That there’s always spring for more work. Do we want to work? Yes.

Gina Do you want to keep pushing ourselves? Yeah. No.

Justin Well, so what does your average day look like now.

Greg For us personally? So, so on back to working sort of 3 to 3 and a half days a week in any sort of jobs that turn up on that, that that day, day and a half is supposed to be more paperwork. Quoting. Yeah. Organizing finances for the taxman. Yeah. You know, all those sort of things.

Maintenance. What equipment do we need? Do I need to be talking to people?

Gina Greg and I work together on a Monday and Friday are our days.

Greg I work Tuesday with one of our workers. Yeah. And then the other two days four workers. Yeah, we have people, four staff. So every day, we have two cars go out, and we always work in pairs. So, four people on the road. Yep. And that Wednesday. Thursday when I’m normally off. Yeah. I might go out or Jane and I might go out if there’s stuff that needs to be done.

Yeah. Oh, this week? Yeah. We normally work on a Friday. We’re going to a festival. Yep. Tomorrow. So we talk to our clients. They’re all flexible. Yep. No worries. So your Wednesday. So we worked yesterday. Yeah.

Gina Yeah.

Sonya Move that.

Gina Around. Yeah. And I guess that’s all a part of the work life balance where you can shuffle things, too. Suit you.

Greg Yeah. Yeah. And. Yeah. And try to keep. Well, I do two small commercial jobs on a sometime over the weekend. Clients don’t care. Okay. So take. Yeah. Take my son. He’s in year 12. Comes out. Puts money in his pocket. Yeah. There. And he’s. Yeah. Means we can knock those over quickly. You lose a couple of hours that weekend.

Good profit margin. So. Yeah. Yeah, that’s what it’s worth doing, but. Yeah. Yeah.

Sonya Sorry to interrupt it, but speaking of profit, how do you ensure you’ll make a profit when you’re running stuff?

Greg The. I’ll have to look up the actual wording for that. But there is a reward if not the so.

Justin Oh the calculator. There’s a.

Greg Calculator. Minimum charge out, James website. Yes. Allows you to plug in all of your expenses. So that’s you know obviously wages superannuation. The joys of working in south east Queensland for casual staff is it. Also I told them long service life. Oh yes. Queensland. I should say not just south. Yeah. Yeah. Then you have WorkCover insurances.

Yeah. We we own, our vehicles. So. I don’t expect, like, if someone’s going to come and work for us, we have a vehicle for them to work in. Yes. Registration, fuel, maintenance, tires, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah. You can, you know, sending two cars out a day, your chemical messages. Yep. You go through scours, you go you go through equipment.

Yep. You break vacuum heads like I did yesterday. Yeah. And because I wasn’t in one of our normal work cars, I didn’t have a spare. So in the middle of the day, I just had to run them to the. Yeah, store to buy a new vacuum head. You know, things break. So there’s all of those costs that go into.

Laundry, water bills, washing powder.

Justin Power, Who does the rags? That’s it. That’s one thing that blew me away when we had a cleaning business. Is the amount of rags. Yeah.

Gina Yeah. We have one washer, one washing machine, and two dry. It’s just to keep on top of it.

Greg Yeah. And realistically, we could probably have two washing machines. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So all of those things you can feed into the calculator, and it will generate a, a figure based on realistically what it costs. So the cost for employing a person isn’t just like a super and then service. It’s always yeah you’re factoring. Yes.

And travel time.

Sonya Travel time. Yes.

Greg And you know they clock on and they clock off in the 15 minutes in between each job or ten minutes in between each job all got to be accounted for. So that allows you to then we’ll go to figure that it does cost per hour per employee. Yeah. Yeah. And if not quoting in excess of that figure. You’re losing money.

Yeah. You know so that that tool.

Justin So as a guess.

Greg What would it.

Justin What do you think. Because this is an interesting I see we get a lot of comments on our Facebook page, you know. Oh we’ll pay $30 an hour for it a claim. What do you reckon it cost you as a business owner? What do you reckon it costs you per head office stuff?

Greg I’m pretty confident. Our cost at the moment is probably below $60 now. Yeah, exactly. And I say to my if I have people question what potential clients question that, it’s like, well, if people are willing to pay, they’re to charge $40 an hour. I’m not trying to compete against that. No one I know, or if I’m not 100% sure, I’m 99.5% sure what it cost me.

So I’m like, there’s no point me down broke. Yeah. To clean your house? Yeah. So, yeah, if you’re not employing staff, those figures change drastically because suddenly, you know, are you running multiple vehicles? Are you paying the wage? The super, the long service lead? Yeah. If you’re keeping it to a single vehicle and it’s husband and wife team and you’re not, the.

Yeah, those costs of running the next car and the next car and the next car all come down or don’t come down, but it’s, Yeah, it comes back to a figure that allows you to maybe come in a little bit lower. And when you’re starting a business, you need business. You need clients. So you need to be competitive around what’s the.

But within 12 months, I can guarantee you that if. Yeah, I think that I need to be quoting at a minimum of $70 an hour these days. Yeah. Yeah. Minimum. Absolute minimum. Yep. Very.

Gina It’s an invaluable tool.

Greg And yeah, it is.

Sonya It’s like to have no idea. No I.

Gina Know. And then, when you do explain to them, it’s like the light bulb goes. Yeah, I do, I get it. Yes. You do have expenses.

Greg Yeah. And yes, it is really difficult to not jump into a Facebook thread with.

Justin Yes, I know on the side because I feel sorry for these people that advertising. They all do it for 35 or 40 an hour because I don’t understand the cost.

Greg I, I feel not sorry, but I, you know, around the people who come in in there and go. Yeah. Who would pay that? Who pay more than $30 an hour for for untrained skill. For an untrained.

Sonya Labor. Yes, yes.

Greg So ol’ mate obviously never run a business. Yeah. Don’t be a keyboard warrior don’t get involved. But. Yeah. Don’t waste your energy. Yeah, know your true worth.

Justin Yeah. That’s it. Know your true worth. Yeah.

Sonya And I think we are in. We’re in a customer service business. And part of our role is to help our clients understand absolutely that we are running a business. We’re not a backyard cleaning company. Working out of our car boot. Yeah. With Woolworths Chemicals.

Gina And we have it on insurance. And, you know, things that the place checks. You know who’s come into your home?

Sonya Absolutely. That security. Yeah. The peace of mind. Exactly. And as you said earlier, it’s about getting to know your client. It’s knowing their family. It’s that trust of who’s coming into their home. We are such a customer service business, and we are offering the service of cleaning or lawn and garden or window cleaning or whatever it is that we’re doing to make their lives easier.

But so much of it is that relationship letting someone into your personal space.

Greg And that relationship allows that flexibility of if they have. Yeah. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment. What can I do today?

Gina Yeah.

Greg And you just go. Yep. No worries. You know, it might cost you a job that way. Yeah. Hopefully not. And hopefully you can reschedule it, but that’s great. Yeah, but the flexibility goes both ways when you turn around and go. I’ve just had staff call in sick. Yeah. A week from today to tomorrow. Yes. Friday or.

Gina whatever and.

Greg Or you’re weekly clients. You mind if we give you a skip this week will be the next Monday. Yep. But like, a normal schedule? Yeah. If you have fortnightly client, I’ll find a gap for you. Yeah, I’ll make it work.

Sonya Yeah, yeah. That’s good.

Justin So one of the things we’re doing, James, is everybody has a business coach. So when it like this particular episode, we’re talking about staffing. So for our franchisees how does a business coach help with that decision of when to employ staff and how.

Sonya Good question. I do think the role of the business coach is to ask questions with you and look objectively at your figures, really, and look at that within light of your goals. And fortunately with, computer customer management platform, now you’ve got access. We talk about know your figures, you know your figures, you know your figures, you’ve got access to those figures and working with you on balancing when to bring a staff member in.

I guess you were very fortunate in that, Gina. You were happy to step back a little bit while you introduced a staff member. Sometimes, franchising doesn’t have the luxury of that. They really need that additional income straight away. And it’s looking at it holistically, I think, as well. I’m I’m working with someone at the moment who wants to put on a staff member.

But the question is, I’m at capacity. I can’t physically manage more with my schedule, but I need more clients. So we’re talking about marketing. We’re talking about visibility beginning to scale. Already the tool that you talked about, the calculate your minimum charge out, rate. Making sure that you’re, managing the business efficiently and costing out exactly what is it going to cost to work with that?

You know, so, yeah, a whole range of things, I think. Have you accessed the file library in the human Resources? Not folder there. Not lately, not lately? Yes. No, you probably haven’t had need to have you. But that’s another another area where fortunately, you have some people ask, why on earth would I buy a franchise?

Why wouldn’t I just go and do it myself?

Greg But my solicitor, asked me that exact question. It, you know, 6 years or 5 years ago when we were going through our due diligence on.

Justin Buying Greg Buying a franchise.

Sonya Exactly.

Greg And you said, well, there is do it yourself. I had really good answer for that. What was never work for myself. I’ve never worked as a cleaner, come from a totally different industry. I don’t know what I’m doing. Yeah. Yeah yeah I need all the help I can get.

Justin And it’s obviously worked. Yeah. Oh that’s good.

Sonya Yeah absolutely. And I think we have resources like the human resources. Documentation and resources in the file library. Right. So you’ve got templates for employment agreements. You’ve got access to what, award. What money award. You’ve got access to tools.

Greg And just.

Sonya Just.

Greg On the model. The important thing is. Yeah. Yeah. You just need to be aware that on the 1st of July most years, wages are going to go up.

Sonya Yeah, exactly.

Greg Make sure you’re on top of it. Make sure people are being paid the right amount. Yes. You got to look after your staff if you got stuff, if you have if you manage to get staff that you want.

Do everything you can to keep them.

Sonya Absolutely. Yes. How to look after them? Yep. Making sure you’re making all of your compliance and what happens, you know, if you have a worker’s compensation claim. I’ve had several phone calls from franchisees going help. What do I do? Yeah, it’s just knowing that you’ve got someone to help you through that process and and constantly I think as a, as a coach, one of the things I hear from the team is, gee, it’s great to have someone to call.

I know that there’s someone there who I can call, who I can ask with that knowledge. Yeah, absolutely. And if we don’t know it, we can find out or put you in touch with someone who does know it.

Greg And just on that, when we started, we were using and a lot of franchises were using subcontractors. Basically, you’re paying them, right? Like this is years ago. Yes. You’re paying a rate, per hour for somebody. That’s no worries. Everything’s great. It’s one of the uniforms buying chemicals. Supplying them a vehicle in this case. Yeah. Everything else, they look like us.

The backing on our behalf. We’re telling them who to say, when to see how long to be there, what’s expected of them, what they need to do, what they need to do, and then realizing, well, actually, and this coming from the fact that it’s a large network when the stand, these things that everybody suddenly found out at the same time, hey, they might be subcontractors, but.

Sonya That’s.

Greg Effectively they are employees. That’s right. Because you are doing all of those things. We just I just mentioned before, you need to be paying super. They need to be covered under work. They need this light. And at that point we may well, I might as well just make them casual employees.

Sonya Yes.

Greg Yeah. And that was just took over. Yeah. So I mean, there’s a whole, of, payments to you that need to be rectified and balanced at the end of every year and more paperwork and it’s like, well, I’ll just take that away as subcontractors and just focus on the fact that we have 4 or 5 casual employees.

It’s all done the same way. Yes. Yep. Simplify it. But yeah, if if it all of a sudden hadn’t brought that up. That’s right.

Justin Yeah. It would have been a world of pain. Something that we.

Greg A world of pain, in regards to fit works for all.

Justin I have so many people ask me that are looking at a business order. You know we just employ subcontractors and the ATO has really tightened up on the legislation around that. And I think anyone that has a genuine look at what the regulations are, it’s very clear, you know, like you said, all those demands, if you make them wear your uniform, you wear your chemicals, follow your procedures.

Well, they’re not a subcontractor. They’re an employee. And then yeah. So it’s just safer.

Greg And we would have been continue down that path for years and years until the ATO when tapped on the shoulder. Yeah. So, you know, to get that clarification from head office was why one of those another one of those reasons to join a supply chain.

Sonya And what role did your coach play for you at the different stages of your business?

Greg Well, Stuart was, an enormous factor in us taking on this franchise purely because of the support. And he he advised us he would be able to. Yeah. And then to follow through and then with the bigger network behind that as well. But, you know, our business coaches, you know, he almost he obviously has a checklist almost of stages of your business.

Sonya Yeah.

Greg You know, start up, what can we do? Once we’re having a few jobs on board and stuff. Yeah, within the first week or so. Yeah, he would actually monitor our Oneflare and pages advertising, and b so instead of relying on got a text from Stewie. It was like job.

Do you want it. Yes. Okay. But getting details through and because we were in those infancy stages, it was. Yeah. And I’m working by myself was generally working on dev tools. Yeah. Yeah okay. Thanks. That is, is the phone call that first five minute thing of being able to touch base with someone. Oh yeah. I’ve got a thought

on how I might get a cleaner, put something out there. And people contacted me straight away.

Gina We wouldn’t be where we are without Stuart’s support.

Justin He’s he’s he’s amazing, isn’t it?

Greg Yeah. Yeah.

Gina He went above and beyond.

Greg Yeah. Yeah. To write down right down to sitting down to going. Yeah. Initially what what do you need to do financially. And it’s like support. Yeah. Replace where we currently are. Yeah. That joint income. Yep. Okay. Let’s let’s plan that. This this is in the sell stage of. Yeah. Yeah. If you want this business these are the things we need to think about.

Yeah okay. Well let’s look at have. Yeah. If jobs average averaged this much blah blah. How many jobs do we need. Can we fit that into like yeah. How many people that whole just give me that comfort of going to we do this. We we can do this. Yeah, yeah.

Gina And it hasn’t stopped.

Greg Yeah.

Gina That’s fine. Is that we’ve been, you know, he’s he’s there.

Greg Yep. Yep. Okay.

Gina If this question, just ring Stu he’ll know.

Greg Yeah. Yeah. We’ll find out or. Yeah. Whatever. But yeah, it’s and it’s just yeah. Everything in different stages of okay, we’re at point X, where do you want to get to, you know how big you want your business to be? Yeah. Well, if you want to get to that stage. Yeah. You need staff.

Sonya Yeah.

Greg So how are we going to do that. Let’s let’s figure, and. Yeah. So the, the, just the, asset of having an advisor. Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t have to be my business coach. It can be some. It could be I want it can be. Yeah, I thought I don’t know what I should say, but I touch base with Rhiannon occasionally.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s the what’s her current title? is it still.

Justin CEO?

Greg CEO. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I just everyone’s available. Yeah. Just just to to depending on how I’ve been in the business. So we’ve been in the business now long enough to have a fairly good understanding of where responsibilities lie here overall. Yeah. So yeah. I might shoot. Yeah. One of the owners of the business an email and CC my business coach, or the other way around.

Yeah. or the CEO and.

Justin You know not to email me about IT stuff. Yeah yeah yeah.

Greg Yeah yeah yeah. So that that flexibility and and knowledge that supports their across the board. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah yeah I mean really to try and do the right thing for each other. Yeah. So that’s it. Yeah.

Justin So for you I guess what’s been some of the biggest lessons for you Gina in back to the having staff for example, what’s been some of the biggest lessons or challenges that you’ve had to work through?

Gina Should I be really honest? Yeah, yeah.

Justin I it could be.

Sonya Scary.

Gina Just staffing has been one of our biggest issues. I think one the right fit.

Justin That’s right.

Gina Yeah. That’s just so hard.

Greg Yeah.

Gina Yeah, there’s been some challenges. Challenges there.

Greg And when you do get the right stuff, I mean, it’s a physical, demanding job. It’s all of those things. Yeah. What do you do? And one of your best workers, guys, who buys a franchise?

Justin Yeah. Yes. We’ve had that happen a few times in the country.

Greg Yes. Yeah. It’s like I want you to succeed in that.

Can you wait a couple of years?

Justin And they’re doing fantastic. And they’re.

Greg Doing fantastic. Yeah. So it’s. But yeah, we’ve been through some ordinary staff.

Justin Yes.

Greg You know, we’ve we’ve had some great staff. We’ve had people help us out when, you know, and go above and beyond force.

Gina I think that’s one of the biggest challenges is finding. So. Yeah. It’s, you know, we’ve tried recruiting agencies, we’ve tried friends, family.

Greg It’s a it’s, I’ve put it down to being a bit like, getting leads, and having visibility everywhere, you know, recruiting agencies, you might pick one up from there or two up from there. Great. Fantastic. They might be some benefits. They they might be paying the police check. They might be willing to pay for a uniform.

Yeah. That sort of stuff that you might get a subsidy on their wage for the first six months. You can you can mix ours. You know, we’ve been we’ve had all those benefits. Family members who have our first staff member was, you know, a family member in semi-retirement. Yeah. Gary was great for a couple of years and then went “I’m done”,

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, now I’m getting closer to the retirement age and the semi retirement age. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No worries. And and yeah. Friends of people who have, you know, they might do a week and then go, gosh, this is not working.

Sonya Yes, yes.

Greg And it. Yeah. So it’s and people will come from Facebook. Yep. Seriously you had young guys from who had literally gone looking for work and Jane contacted. Yep. Two guys one day. One of them worked with me for years. One of them work with me for weeks. Yeah. And if you put it, if you gave me the option of which one to pick, I would have picked the wrong one.

Sonya Don’t know until they are actually on the job. Yeah.

Gina Let’s,

Greg You. I would have picked the wrong one when looking for stuff. Two weeks later, we pick both of them. I’m going to look for one staff member to.

Justin And it is a chat, I think, for any business. You know, through my work career, a business is only as good as its people. And I think, you know, for James, that’s what I do, the information process, because I get to know, I can honestly say I know every single franchisee in this network. And part of the reason for that is we’re trying to select the right people.

Correct. You know, you get it wrong. What you just said sometimes, but it’s it’s all about the people. And I know when we had our cleaning business, if you had the right team it was easy.

Gina Yeah.

Justin But you get there every now and again. You’re gonna there’s make a mistake.

Greg There’s why there’s ups and downs to everything. Yeah. We had a young girl working for us, went off to work with her mother in law doing hotel cleaning, but she was a good worker. And then six months later, hear on the grape vine, they’re not happy.

And, And so to get one back, we got her. Plus her mother in law. Well, now running our second car, four days a week. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And get. Like I said, it’s it’s just. Yeah. You never get it right. Every time and yeah there’s a, there’s issues that come with stuff. There’s benefits. Come with stuff. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

And and no matter how good your staff are, you’ll always have issues that probably wouldn’t be there if you could do all the work. So yeah, let’s not worry about the business. Exactly.

Justin Exactly. So do you feel it’s giving you a bit more balance work life balance now this year?

Greg Yeah. As of this year. So basically probably four years in for us but definitely is, but as I said before, I’ve been my own worst enemy. It was a gap in the calendar. I fill it, needs to be filled. Yeah, yeah.

Gina They saying that like your work hours are nowhere near what they used to be.

Greg Yeah. No. So one of the things I always like to say is when I was working in the city, like these days, or even after two years of 4:00 in the afternoon and got so sort of 830 to 4. Yeah, I was angry, not not angry, but I was disappointed of what most people would. And then they don’t have to think, oh, that’s right, I would leave the city at five to hopefully home by seven.

So yeah.

Sonya Amazing.

Greg And I’ll be leaving at 630 in the morning to start the day. Yeah.

Justin So way better hours now.

Gina Yeah. Yeah. But by two.

Greg O’clock in those days, everything’s a sort of 2:00. Yeah. Like 8:30 to 2 sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which yeah, it’s. And these days like with the, that sort of trying to keep it to three days a week, it’s I actually struggle with. Being anxious that I’m not working or I’m not.

Justin That’s right. You feel guilty that it’s so good.

Greg Yeah. You know people working out and you’re not out there with them. Yeah. But yeah.

Sonya It is actually a shift. And that’s a it’s a very interesting point that you’ve. Right. So there’s a big shift from an employee mentality to a business owner mentality. How do you manage that. How have you how have you achieved that or how do you achieve that.

Greg Or have you had a have I achieved that question.

Sonya Yeah.

Greg Well, starting my own business, it really was one of the big things for me was because I’ve worked in a really large corporation for the 20 years before that. Was that I wanted to do the go no go scenario. All the decisions were mine. Yep. And your business gets a bit bigger. And it’s just a lot of decisions to make isn’t there.

Yes.

Justin That’s right, that’s right.

Greg Yeah. So it just you evolve as your business evolves. See you. You learn from your mistakes. You figure out what does work for you and your family. You lean on the people in the network to, to help you make better decisions. Yeah. So it’s a now now it’s got to that point where it’s. Yeah, we we do.

So I think last year we would take a long weekend 3 or 4 times a year and try and go away now, whereas this year it’s to 3 or 4, 4 or 5 day breaks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this year’s probably the first year we will be closing for Christmas or, or over the Christmas period, but it’ll be more extended.

this year, and our staff know that. Yeah. So they know they’re not going to be paid for 2 or 3 weeks. Yep. And they’re all okay with that? Yeah. Whereas last year was a even last year was we closed for a week over Christmas, Gina and I didn’t work for two weeks. But the managing of the business, the talking to clients and making sure the cars are ready to go, chemicals ready to go.

You still work. Still you still be still sitting on invoices, receiving incoming money. All of that sort of stuff. It would would take 2 or 3 hours every day, every day. And then you going, well, must I just be working? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because you haven’t even had a break. Yeah, yeah yeah. So yeah. And it’s been, it was said to me when I first started this, the first 2 to 3 years, it’s 100%.

It’s business, it’s work. It’s don’t go looking for holidays. Don’t don’t expect to be heading off to Hawaii for three weeks, don’t, yes. Yeah. Take what breaks, you can take. Yep. But if you want your businesses to succeed, you need to work really, really hard. Yep, yep. Exactly right. But then last year was started to relax a bit more.

And then this year they did more. And this year also bring it back to service for you to be able to bring it back home. But financially, I would bring it back twice as a week because the income stream from the employees is now enough. Yes. Right. Yes.

Justin That’s great.

Sonya So to someone who starts their business and thinks great, within six months I’m going to have a team of staff and I should be able to just take it a bit easy, which surprisingly, some people do, regardless of how much they told that that might not be the case. Some people do start their franchise with that belief.

What would you say to them.

Greg If you have, if you almost if you have a plan that will allow the income to come in to meet your financial requirements. You have a network where you can draw on to employ staff. It’s a possibility. But if you’re relying on and really to do that from an interior perspective, I would say a lot of your work is going to need to be commercial work.

Sonya Yeah.

Greg If you are a magician and you can actually do that, tip my hat to you. Fantastic. But if you were going to be looking at, for ourselves and, and, we were replacing the majority of our income with this franchise, and it took and we expected it to take three, three years. And, and 98% of our clients are probably.

you know, normal housecleaning stuff.

Justin Yeah. So residential more so than commercial. Yeah, yeah.

Greg I mean, the rates on our commercial stuff a great Saturday night, 5:00 in the morning, that sort of stuff. You know, it’s it’s it’s where you’re prepared to sacrifice.

Gina We always looked at as our regular clients were our bread and butter and anything above that was extra.

Greg Yeah.

Justin Yeah. You’d be amazed how many people have. And I have inquire. They want to join. Have a join us. And they want the work life balance. So that’s why they join in a lot more time with their family. So but I only want to do commercial work. Yeah. And you’re like well what is second commercial is after hours weekends, early mornings when you want to be with your family.

You look at the two that really very difficult to make the two match.

Greg And even now, like I have clients who do a couple of clients who want us to work. Yeah. Can’t be in before 6:00 on Friday night? Must be out by 6:00 on Monday morning. Yeah. Yes. I’ve got a couple calls of that once. I said so in between, you don’t care. And then actually offices across the road from each other.

Sonya Yeah. Perfect.

Greg Great Connor, what are you doing This Saturday morning?

Gina I’m waiting for my commercial job. That that we had to do. We did ourselves every Sunday for 18 months. I slept, and.

Greg It was a night. It wasn’t.

Gina It wasn’t like a point for people to employ someone to do it, but it was financially beneficial for the two of us to do it. So we made that sacrifice in the beginning to, um, to get that income in.

Greg And and that job was realistically the cut off point where Jane was able to go, okay, got a need to work elsewhere three days a week in my parttime job, casual job, I can work one day. Admittedly, it’s a Sunday. Admittedly, you’re out a bit at 4:00 on a Sunday morning and you’re not home until 2:00 in the afternoon.

Yeah, or 1:00 in the afternoon. But you bring in no more money than that three days. Yep. In the other direction. Other job. And that was like that one job was able to turn on somebody our slow growth to. Yeah a spike that allows the idea we don’t need that other component. Yeah. So yeah. And if you’re lucky enough or unlucky enough to to land one of those sort of jobs.

Right. So again you have to make the decision. Yeah. Do I want to sacrifice every Sunday for the next year and a half.

Gina And we can afford to pay penalty rates on that type of stuff. Yeah. So it was a work can. It had to be.

Greg We got we got to a point where we could probably the last 4 or 5 months of that, I didn’t want to do it. But for that, year just a bit more demand. Yeah. It was. Yeah. That’s what took us from being. We’re almost there to. Okay. This is our business. This is what puts a roof over our head.

This is what pays school fees this is what pays the power bill, everything. Everything. Yeah. I mean, that at that point was like, we’re sacrificing one day in a weekend, you know, the financial stability we’ve been looking for. Yep yep yep.

Sonya That’s what comes back to those goals doesn’t it. It does. And that short term pain for the long term gains like you’ve got those goals.

Greg And when am I not finished. The rest of our business should continue to you know that steady growth. Yeah. And and so it wasn’t that that well for a start it was off one person or and if we needed to go away for a week and had a wedding or, or whatever, or I would call, yeah, I’ve staffing to run that day and we were making I think we were today, I was like $80, the ideal for 16 hours with two people, for eight hours on a Sunday, and we’re putting $80 in a pocket.

Sonya Yeah, well.

Justin That was really no good.

Greg That was, that was still asking, can you do it any cheaper. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. So that was I possibly could if Gina and I work it. Yeah. But I’m not. We’ve done this for now. Yeah. So it needs to be at a point where I can at least not be losing money. Yes. To bring people in to do this. Yeah.

Sonya But how important is that to know, you know, someone who goes. Yep, not a problem. I’m just going to jump on YouTube, look at how to run a cleaning business, and off I go. Would possibly walk into a situation like that and go, fantastic, I’ll put my staff in, I’ll do the work. Not really understanding because do the research.

That’s right. There may not have the tools like you do to go well. Actually, at the end of the day, when we consider all of our costs, we’re getting $80 for that job. Yeah.

Greg Yeah, yeah.

Sonya Know your numbers. Know your figures.

Greg Whether. Okay works great if you want to do it yourself, you charge premium. You make good money when you sacrifice that time with. Yeah. Yeah. That time.

Sonya Yes.

Justin You’re paying staff

Greg All the way down the beach.

Sonya That’s right. You would, wouldn’t you. Yeah.

Greg Yeah yeah.

Sonya Yeah. Well now you now get the opportunity to go to the beach and.

Gina Yeah, we have our weekends back. Yeah. That’s a week. Yeah. And an extra two days through the week too. Yeah. Catch up on other stuff.

Greg Awesome. That’s great.

Justin We’ll just we’re wrapping up this episode just, a final question. So if having staff in your business was a recipe for you what would some of the key ingredients to having staff in your business be.

Greg Know your financial situation.

Justin Numbers.

Greg Yeah. So yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Justin That’s good.

Greg Have found the right stuff.

Justin Yes.

Greg It’s not easy. Yeah.

Justin That’s good.

Yeah. How about you Gina, any anything that you can.

Gina Think and, you know, it really comes down to. Yeah. From now financials. Yeah. Because that’s what’s going to break you.

Greg Yeah. Yeah I mean that is the key point. And then and then there’s the other stuff. But just knowing that your staff will, no matter how good your staff are, it’s not their business. Yes. You’ll say something out of the corner of your eye and you do it, and you can’t expect it.

Sonya Yeah.

Greg Yep, yep. I can, you know, fundamentally, the boss doesn’t know. Yeah, yeah.

Gina Trust is a big thing.

Greg Trust in. Yes. And. And then the other part of with staff is just having building that trust and relationships, both with your staff and with your clients. Yes. I wouldn’t I would never send staff initially in the early phases. I would never have said staff out unless I had been to the job. I had spent time with that staff member and spent time with them and with the clients.

The clients were comfortable with us. That staff or those staff members, those that I don’t have a lot these days, but to have a couple where, I don’t even know what the client looks like. I’ve never set foot in the house. Yep. Yeah. Where it’s been an agency. Ask whether we have capacity. Yeah. And where I would.

Yeah, yes we do. This is the rate, and like, I. Yeah. No worries. So you just talk to the staff in the car that you’ve scheduled for that day yeah, ok new client. Here’s here’s things we’ve been advised of. Yep. This is how long you’ve got. No new client. Make ’em happy. It’s good start. Start to earn their trust and do so then.

Justin So there’s trust. Knowing your numbers, getting the right people. Yeah. That’s some of the key ingredients.

Greg Yeah absolutely.

Justin Yeah. That’s good. Well thank you Greg. And Gina, that’s been awesome the catchup And we hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode on building your James business with staff. If you’ve got any comments or questions, feel free to put them below in the comment section of this video. Or if there’s something else you’d like us to cover in one of these episodes, feel free to put that in the comment section as well.

So thanks very much for watching and have a great day.

Sonya Thanks.