The Real Franchise – Ep7 – Meet the team – Craig & Theresa

Watch the full episode of The Real Franchise Episode 7 – here

Justin
Well, hello. Today, if you’re joining us, this is another one of our interviews with some of our team across the country so that if you’re researching and having a look at possibly joining our team, you’ll get to meet some of like minded people, that have gone through the same process you’re considering starting. So, my name is Justin Kelly. I’m one of the owners of James Home Services and was a franchisee myself for over a decade in this network. and today we are joined will I will let these wonderful people introduce themselves. So over to you guys. Where are you and who are you?

Craig
so, I’m Craig. And I’m the owener of James Lawn and Garden business in Ormeau. And I’m based in the Gold Coast.

Justin
Right.

Theresa
And, Theresa and on the better half. I work full time independently from the business, but obviously also I support Craig with what he’s doing as well.

Justin
Right. And so for you guys, well, how long have you been with James now? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were walking through the information journey.

Craig
So it’s been seven months.

Justin
Seven months. Okay, so still fairly fresh.

Craig
Yes.

Justin
And so, Theresa. Yeah, you’re you’ve stayed in your current role. and this was mainly for Craig. So who found how did you find James?

Theresa
So I think we spent a lot of time talking about options for Craig, because he was sick of working for, companies and then reaping all the rewards and him working ridiculous hours. So we were looking at something that was also like a bit of a passion. He spends a lot of time in the garden, so it makes sense to get paid for doing that.

Theresa
so that’s when we started looking at different franchises. Craig did most of the homework because I said, if this is your baby, then, you know, you need to put the the work in to find out what suits you best. and, and that’s when we came across James, and I see the information was really available, and, that started us on the journey.

Craig
Yeah. Not looking back.

Justin
So you often hear about a painter in their house, do you reckon? Craig loves working in the, And so now that he’s working in everyone else’s yard, has your yard looking.

Theresa
It’s still looking. Shmick.

Justin
Oh. Very good. Good to see.

Theresa
Yeah. So I mean this this is the beauty of it is that he can tailor his work time to also incorporate the home time. Whereas before all of a working week was based on him being out away from home, and by the time he got home, it was dark and he couldn’t do all that other stuff. So in the weekends were taking up with doing all the gardening and then there was no fun time.

Theresa
So, you know, he can put as much in a little notes, much as he wants to put in and still tailor doing that around. Also keeping hair look good because I don’t I don’t do lawns.

Justin
So I know what he’s doing. What were you doing for work or as before James, what’s your background?

Craig
So I’m a butcher by trade. Yeah. And was a butcher with Woolworths for six? No, sorry. With Woolworths for five years as a butcher. And then my last year or so, I was, went into grocery because obviously the meat industry has changed in supermarkets. Now. It’s not done in the store. It’s centralized

Craig
So yeah. And I was the manager of the butchery and I was a night full manager, so. Okay. Yeah, it was a lot of responsibility.

Justin
yeah. So how are you finding the responsibility of having your own business now?

Craig
it’s probably a bit easier, to be honest, because, well, it’s me. It’s up to me now, so I find it not too bad. It’s up to me to control and and, look after and then and my. What’s to my benefit, isn’t it? To do things right and look after it and keep it run on properly?

Craig
Yeah. So I don’t mind, obviously through some of it I did. There’s some long hours. Yeah. But you appreciate you appreciate it more because you’re doing long hours, for yourself not for someone else. Yeah. Yeah. It’s

Justin
And so had you been thinking of doing your own thing for a while or was a sort of a spur of the moment thing or.

Craig
I had thought, I’m always thinking about things and opportunities, but probably had left it for a while. We did take quite a few years back, and then all of a sudden decided that, I just needed to do something completely different and something that I enjoy and had a passion for. So, yeah, lawn and garden was obviously the thing I sort of favored most out of, you know, maybe or maybe pressure cleaning because I don’t mind hosing and different things like that.

Craig
Yeah. But,

Theresa
I think though I was talking about it, it’s easy to talk about it, but taking that leap of faith is really hard, so. Yeah, exactly. Do you worry about the finances and the interest rates are going up. And so that stops you from, I guess, being courageous enough to to do that. Yeah. and obviously with me working full time, that’s that helped our decision in terms of, yeah, knowing that I had stability of things.

Theresa
But things have gone really, really well and we haven’t had any concerns financially with it. And, yeah, it’s it’s worked well for us.

Craig
And our financial situation. We’re reasonably comfortable but in saying that if we weren’t, I would have still been happy to look into the subscription model as well for sure, because they just thought of giving me an opportunity to give them different way. Yeah, yeah. So, you know.

Justin
So casting your mind back, it was probably about nine, ten months ago when that you first inquired. So if you can remember back that far, can you remember what sort of things you were scared about? What sort of things were you worried about back then?

Craig
I guess bring in enough money because you still have to bring in some money to help out with the the household, you know, bills and everything. Yeah. I guess understanding, you know, the invoicing, the quoting, the, you know, there was a not there was a lot of computer work, but just understanding how it all works and that and just getting my head round that, you know, you kind of worry a little bit whether you can do it.

Justin
Yeah. That’s the one thing I remember about you, Craig, through that information process. I mean, you’re an absolute computer guru, aren’t you? yeah. Yeah, but it was one of your big concerns, wasn’t it? The computer.

Theresa
It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, right?

Justin
Okay, I have you on that side of it.

Craig
it’s a it’s not a I wouldn’t say a breeze but it’s certainly easy. Yeah. Okay. The training that you do with Ian, certainly, you know, made me feel a whole lot more comfortable. And you support the. You’ve got, like I said, I’ve never, ever felt unsupported through the whole journey so far. And I’ve been with you seven months.

Craig
And the communication, the support, the the, you know, the backup, the information with the butler you know, there’s always you don’t even have to ring somebody. You can actually find all the problems yourself. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah. No it’s good. It’s a good system. I think it’s really great. And as a side, it’s it’s very user friendly.

Craig
Yeah.
–
Justin
The. And do you help much at all with the admin side any more Theresa.

Theresa
No. So from the very beginning I said to Craig he needs to suss it all out himself because obviously with my job I didn’t want to have to also be responsible for all side of things as well. So sometimes he’d ask me, I’d help him through some things, but he picked it up really quickly. But no, I generally have nothing to do except for in the mornings say

Theresa
What’s that you are doing today? Have you got a big day? It’s about it. I just let him do his thing, and he. Yeah. He comes. I’m a lot happier than I used to when he was working for that companies. Yeah.

Justin
So what does a normal day look like for you, Craig? At what time do you sort of generally leave home and get home, that sort of thing.

Craig
So during summer, obviously, I was sort of leaving home about and not getting home was six at night, but that’s fine, I was happy with. It was very busy. So that was good. You know. and working probably most week, six days a week. But what is it? I’m not one to, you know, I’m not going to tune down work and and it’s for the potential of picking up those long term customers for those quiet periods in winter.

Craig
So and I have picked up a good pace of so far. You know, regular customers and then a winter job and sort of, you know, let me leave home. I started out normally if I’m I’m quite lucky because I’m pretty central now so I can leave home at quarter to at the earliest, you know, I’m home any time between sort of three and

Justin
But.

Theresa
You’ve been beating me home.

Craig
I’m beating you home quite a bit. And she finishes at So. Yeah. Yeah, it’s been nice and it’s a good time. Yeah. To be finishing a bit earlier. It is a bit colder in the morning, but starting later is nice and the finishing early because it cools down and gets dark early. So yeah it is nice right.

Craig
But that I’m more than happy I now I can stretch it out if I have to our work till at the latest in winter. Otherwise just sort of running out of daylight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it’s been good.

Justin
So you’ve talked about what’s been good, what’s been hard?

Craig
Nothing. Nothing to do with the business side of things when it comes to alternate invoicing paperwork. I’ve been lucky because my mother in law was an accountant, so she’s looked after a lot of that for other things for me and helped me out through that. So that’s been great. So I with BAS and everything. But probably the hardest thing for me was the summer we just had.

Craig
Yeah, you know, at It takes a bit of a toll on your body. You know, those hot humid days long days you did, you know. And you you’re on the go all the time. You sort of stop a job. You have a bit of a break in between jobs. In the end, it’s the next job and you’re straight into it again.

Craig
So that was that was probably a bit of a challenge, just trying to keep yourself going. Drink plenty of water. It’s, probably never drunk. So much good in my life, to be honest. I did summer, which is and not. That’s something that Mark taught me. Make sure when I was doing my training with Mark. I’m a practical to drink. Plenty of water, too.

Craig
Yeah, yeah. You’re right, whether you like water or not. And he’s not a fan of water. But I said you got to drink it because he said. And try it one day when I was helping Mark at Ipswich, I hadn’t drunk enough water and I started to feel I had to have stopped for about minutes because I was almost gone.

Craig
Yeah.

Justin
Yeah, yeah, you got to look after yourself, don’t you? It’s. Yeah, that was.

Craig
Probably the fair to say I haven’t found anything really that hard at all, to be honest. And as I said, it’s been a have been a good journey. I’ve had no regrets at all.

Justin
I’ve, What’s been the funnest thing?

Craig
the looking at the job once you’ve finished? Yeah. It just makes you feel so much happier because, you know, we’ve done some monster jobs, some very, very untidy properties. And when you stand back and look and it’s just amazing that the finished job and and and the reward you get from the customer, they so grateful that you’ve done such a good job.

Craig
They’ve said puts a big smile on my face. And because I’m very passionate about that sort of thing. So I take pride in what I do. So the end result to me is important. And that’s something Mark taught me to, you know, look at, have a look back. And then if you don’t have a look at the work either, you wont pick up things that you may have missed as well.

Craig
Yes. but yeah, you know, that’s been very satisfying. Just, input and my, my reviews have been great. And it’s because obviously they feel like I do a great job and I’ve been very happy with what they’ve done. So that that makes me feel happy. It certainly does. Yeah. I’m easy to please.

Justin
One of the things that a lot of people I find are concerned about, particularly in Lawn and Garden, when they start, like for yourself, you were butchered by background. You hadn’t had your own lawn and garden business role. Also, no previous experience other than looking after your own place. how did you go with winning the jobs?

Justin
The quoting, the things like that. Did that take long to learn, or was there enough training, or how did you work out the prices of your jobs?

Craig
I just from the training and from a just a little bit, I took a lot of notice of when I was Mark picking up, when did the practical training of just how he, you know, sort of the side of the yard, what sort of price are you look at. Yes. Okay. So yeah, it’s just it’s a little bit of trial and error to you might cause you generally do the first one as a one off obviously, because quite often the first job is only about bigger than you, because a lot of the lawns are a little bit out of hand.

Craig
Yes. And then you kind of get an idea after that first job, maybe that you need to if they want to move forward with anything long term, you can work at your price a little bit better then I have. I must admit, there’s been a few times in, we’ve all probably done to do that. I have probably unrequited on jobs.

Craig
Yeah, look at it and you go, oh, this doesn’t look too bad. But then once you start moving it, when you really get into it, the lawn’s are a lot thicker and longer than and you can’t, you know, you’re dragging a lot. You’re picking up a lot of grass, I mean, and then you’re having to fill up a lot of bags and drag it to the try to the dump.

Craig
So that takes time. But hey, that trial and error on it’s just one of those things is not that doesn’t deter me. It just, you know, makes me a better person for the next time that I do the quote.

Theresa
And I think that’s a thing that I would say is that you did sometimes question. Oh, I think maybe I haven’t charged enough. Yes. But I mean, I think, how are you supposed to know when you first start off if you’ve never done it like you said? So I think it’s just like over time you just get more experienced at judging that.

Justin
And exactly.

Craig
And a few of the quotes that I had probably got a little bit of quite a bit wrong. The customers were lovely, actually, because I realized how long I actually spent on their property, and they actually offered to pay me more. So that was a little bit of a bonus. you know, I was not going to ask them for more because I kind of felt, well, I answered the price, but like I said, it took a lot longer than you thought

Craig
and they’ve kind of said, how about we pay you this much? And I’m like, oh, yeah, I’m happy with that so,

Theresa
Yeah. And we’ve been very lucky to with not had anyone not pay.

Craig
No I’ve been very. Yeah.

Theresa
So I’m really actually really nice too to I guess not you know, not have that happen and, and be dealing with people who actually appreciative of what you’re doing as well.

Craig
Yeah. Because that’s probably another hard thing with you with any business is chasing people for money.

Theresa
It’s uncomfortable. No, it’s not nice to do it. yeah.

Craig
But,

Justin
To be honest, guys, that’s that’s a credit to you. Following the process. Like, I find if people don’t follow process, then it can be an issue. But it’s a simple process and you’d probably do it without even thinking now. Like when you do the quote just yes, we call it organizing for payment. You know, if you communicate with the customer when payment is expected.

Justin
Yeah. you know, then it happens like that and if it doesn’t, then you’re straight onto it. So yeah.

Theresa
And you just say little friendly reminders haven’t you in terms messages and things as well to say, just a friendly reminder I have about payment and then people dates are.

Craig
Like, oh, so sorry I forgot. You know, they forget. We also I think, you know, I think we humans and then, and you know, the ones generally that that you probably think are they forgotten? Good. but now I’ve had no major issues, and I’ve, Yeah, I’ve a lot of my customers. It’s blows me away. Pretty much.

Craig
Pay me that the minute I invoice, I’m like, oh, look at the bank account and go, geez, it’s in me already. You know, like, yeah, it’s no hesitation So yeah. And like you say, if you follow the process and you do the job properly, you’ll break the rewards because people, you know, they appreciate it. And a lot of them send me nice little comments.

Craig
You know another great job again today Craig. Thank you. You know. Yeah. yeah it’s lovely. Yeah. It’s fair to say, I enjoyed going to work on you to join my job, but bit of a struggle with cold mornings to get out of bed. But once you get going.

Justin
In the middle of winter. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Craig
Yeah, yeah. So.

Justin
has. So I guess for you did all the, the customers come in fairly quickly in the beginning, or did it take a long time to get to a decent income, or how was it for you when you started?

Craig
it probably took the first week was very slow, but that’s a lot of doing the, you know, the brochures and the promotion and visiting people. But, but I’ve got a few inquiries, obviously through the call center. Yes. quotes and all, I did do a few jobs in the first week. The second week started to really ramp up real quick, and I think was because obviously we’d had a,

Theresa
Hot and wet.

Craig
Hot and wet December, Christmas, New Year. so I was probably oh, there’s more luck. I was lucky because things got,

Theresa
Started at the right time.

Craig
Yeah. And things ramped up real quick. but I still had to go out there and, you know, look for work as well. That didn’t you know, the call centre doesn’t, you know, I know I know that from the start, you know, I can’t expect all the work to come to me. I’ve got to look for the work.

Craig
And the minute I got an inquiry or phone call, I did my best to get to see them within or days at the at the worst, you know, to to let them know. Obviously they knew I was busy, but you know, as long as you’re honest and open with them about it and told them when you get there, that were great.

Craig
And most people were happy to give you their address. leave the gate open if it had a lock, and you just go and have a look and then that, have to be home. So, yeah, I was very lucky, I think in some ways, but still had to work hard,

Justin
Yeah. That’s right. And and it’s something we’ve learned with, you know, as we were talking earlier with the subscription model, we’ve started so many people, we’ve learned. And one of the things we do as a company now is we don’t start lawn businesses wherever possible. We don’t start them in winter. So, you know, if we have someone down south that’s keen to start in June, we’re like, well, how about we book it for the start of spring?

Justin
Let’s kick you off in and August or early September, because then you’re coming in as you found, for you came in when everyone’s just with such demand because things are out of control and there’s so much work happening. Yeah. And that gives you a chance to that, isn’t it, to pick up that good customer base like going into winter.

Justin
Has your winter been first? Winter normally is really stressful. How have you been? Workwise.

Craig
pretty good. I mean, I’ve, you know, don’t get me wrong, things have slowed down, but I’ve still been bringing in enough money to, you know, help out with the bills and everything. It’s not been diabolical. And as you say this week, it. And next week so far, they’re looking really good. Like I’m probably going to do a little bit of work on Saturday this week because it will take quite a few.

Craig
Yeah, a bit of stuff going on. So you know it’s been good. It’s been a little bit more surprised than expected I think, because we had such a crazy summer. A lot of people just got lawn and garden like the lawns and edging are all done but neglected like hedges and trees in there. So I’m picking up a lot of hedging work, cutting down some trees, you know, trimming trees that are up above the roof and gutters.

Craig
I’ve done a bit of gutter cleaning, which is nice for a change, you know, just on the single levels, just with the blower down around blowing. shooting out a bit of dirt. yeah. but a bit of yard tidy sorting up people’s rubbish in that. Yeah. So yeah, I’ve picked up a bit, something a bit different than just pushing a lawn mower and whippersnapper and you know, it’s nice to do some other things.

Justin
And he hasn’t dragged you out on the weekends. Theresa has he.

Craig
Up been tempted. But she’s got a bad back at the moment. Honestly often yes.

Theresa
But I I would still refuse.

Justin
I think.

Theresa
I would find other things today.

Craig
I did have, though.
 
Theresa
I wouldn’t do it to his standard anyway. So that’s the problems.

Craig
But this is quite interesting. So my son is has never ever had to mow lawns because obviously I loved my lawns and he was never allowed to do it. Not that because he would just wouldn’t do it how I’d want it done. Yes. a few weeks ago, his company, they had those strikes with the cross river rail so he couldn’t go to work.

Craig
So actually, he wanted to come and help me, not for money, he just wanted to come and help. So he actually got to mow his first lawns and his life. And it was it was kind of nice to have never, you know, we were able to work together and have a bit of fun and get some stuff done, and I sort have gone on top of a few things and and he enjoyed it.

Craig
He enjoyed it. Yes. It’s but he just did the mowing I did the whippersnapper and if I trimmed ta hedge he would clean up the bits and pieces. So yeah, so it was nice. So that was good. Those are things that you would never get to do with your children in a normal job. Is that you can’t. That’s right.

Craig
That was coming at me tonight and he’s got no work to help me. Yeah, but other. Yeah.

Justin
And when you started, as you know, we we provide a kit. So was it, was it everything that you needed to get started in your business there, or did you have to run around and get extra gear or.

Craig
No, more than enough, probably some things I, to be honest, haven’t even used yet. Yeah, yeah. No no no. You say now the kits are great. Yeah.

Justin
So lots of toys to play with.

Craig
It’s like yeah, yeah. It’s like when everything picking everything up and open everything up in the and it setting it all out, and you try to have a little sit out and everything’s all nicely set out.

Justin
Yeah. We’ve. Yeah, we’ve got a new go guy starting down the bottom of the Gold Coast near Burleigh, and he’s in the process of picking up, you know, all that stuff’s being delivered at the moment. So it’s Christmas in July for him, right?

Theresa
Yeah. Yeah.

Craig
No, I was good. Yeah. I had no issues. obviously through utilities, Bunnings and, the lawn mower place, And that was all good. I did have an issue with my whippersnipper took it back. That was all good. Got it all sorted. This one of those things, luck of the draw in it with new things have, you know, sometimes have a few problems.

Justin
may I just remember, do you hurt yourself fairly early on in your business? How did you go being self-employed, not having staff, How did you juggle things?

Craig
yes.

Justin
Go for it Theresa

Theresa
Well, well, that’s where obviously where my my job come into play financially. because. Yeah. Yeah, it’s,

Craig
Yeah, I had a week.

Theresa
Week and a.

Craig
Half, almost a week and a half off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was, but it was a shock of a. So far, so good. I’ve learned from that lesson. I just still can’t figure out how it actually happened. But it’s just one of those things.

Theresa
They it an accident for a reason right?

Justin
Yeah.

Craig
And I think it obviously tried to actually hit you, which you probably should never do. Maybe in my head, in the back of my mind, you know, it’s shopping and, but, yeah, I was juggling the customers around. They were great, Never. You know, I didn’t lose the customer because I couldn’t get the lawn done. It just mean I had to work a little bit harder to catch up on things.

Craig
But that was fine.

Theresa
And the lady that you did, you cut yourself at the house. She was so lovely sending you messages. Oh, she was, like, so worried about him. And it was the first time you’d been there.

Craig
Well, it’s my first big job.

Theresa
And she was like, apologizing and everything is like. It’s not your fault, but checking in, which was really nice as well.

Craig
And once I was all good, you know, went back and finished her job off. So. Yeah. And, she was great, you know.

Justin
So she had your back?

Craig
Yes. Yeah.

Theresa
And, yeah, even though we left a nice blood trail up her front steps.

Craig
But I’ll call an ambulance and everything, but no, it’s just, you know, one of those things in. We got to have accidents tonight, and I’ve smashed windows, you know, that’s inevitable. Was just luck of the draw. You know, you just take it on the chin. It’s frustrating. Especially two of them were my first job, I’ve actually done three windows in one night, one house and two cars and but two of them were first thing in the morning, and they weren’t.

Craig
One of them wasn’t a massive job, but it’s just it just got to because one of them was a Saturday morning to, you know, it just plays on your mind for the rest of the day. But it is what it is. You know, it’s just to the whippersnipper and stones. It’s one thing we’ve got to accept up sort of I don’t know whether it’s a whole of Queensland, but it’s certainly Gold Coast, Logan City, Brisbane Rocks, they’re everywhere.

Craig
It’s very. Yeah, yeah. Missiles everywhere. Yeah. It’s

Justin
Yeah. Well one of the other tough kind of it. I have a lot of people when that one of their big concerns when they’re joining a franchise is fees You know, why would you join a franchise. They charge you fees and obviously there’s fees because, you know, there’s marketing they support. So for yourself and be totally honest, you know, do you find you’re getting value for the fees.

Justin
Do you feel the fees are too high to low? Well, obviously I wouldn’t say too low, but yeah.

Craig
No I it’s I just accept that it’s, you know, it’s part of the business because you help us out with the business. You know the advertising to start with. You know, I got plenty of advertising through Facebook and everything. Yeah.

Theresa
and I think we because we factored it in from the very beginning, we don’t even actually think about it now. Like, you know, we just knew that was part of it. And so it’s just not even it’s not even an issue, you know, like we just thought that’s just what happens, you know, that when you take it on.

Theresa
So, and it was really moan about it, can’t change it.

Craig
The cost of the business and like before I knew what a franchise was like. So if you don’t want to pay the fees, you know, obviously you don’t join a franchise. But yeah, my age, I needed support. Yeah. And, there’s no way I could have done this properly by myself. I probably would be.

Theresa
And we talked about it would have been strong.

Craig
I’m not. Yeah, I don’t think I would have been as successful as I have been so far with with James. Yeah. Yeah.

Theresa
Well, I think also we would have had had to pay out ourselves well and getting everything anyway and knowing how to start that.

Craig
The marketing.

Theresa
You.

Craig
Know, it’s, you know, a lot. Yeah. But we say we run our own Google business profile. That’s fine. That’s that’s good. But, for the marketing, you know, James is done for me. To do that myself. I just don’t know how I would have gone about, you know, competing. I wouldn’t, you know.

Theresa
I think that took the it takes the stress out of starting too knowing that that stuff was covered. And then you do that yourself. you got other things, obviously. And you need to try and, you know, move to the brain and learn. and that’s just. Yeah, not something you have to even consider because it’s just done

Craig
And you will. It’s always worth yourself and of us, open and honest. And we know what the percentages, we know how it all works. And, you know, these incentives, obviously if you have a bigger week as well, it’s just not an we talked about this hadn’t we, that, well, some of them do the whole monthly fee, which is all very well when you’re busy.

Craig
But in your quieter months, you know, you’re still going to pay that figure, yeah, that’s it doesn’t it. So it’s really better. I find it’s great. And yeah, it’s been no, you know what it is. There’s no change. It’s you’ve been open honest about it. It’s. You know what I mean? There’s no there’s no extra costs.

Craig
So anything hidden. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, who is right.

Justin
Yeah. Good. Yeah. I can actually remember it would have been November when I first had the James guy come and go through that first information session with me when I was looking at joining James as a franchisee, and I went through the same thing, and it was % back then as well. And, literally when I left, I remember sitting on our veranda and I pulled out a Abit of paper and I put a line down the middle and up the top.

Justin
I wrote Justin’s Lawn and Garden Business and James Lawn and Garden Business. And because I’d been running as an employee some big businesses in North Queensland, I just wrote, started to write down all the things I thought, well, I’m going to need a website. You know, James gives me brochures, business cards, and I just started to write all this stuff down.

Justin
Yeah. And then I started working out and I worked out okay. Well, in my first year, I reckon I’ll do about this much in my James on God business. %. That’s how much you’re not paying fees over the year. And then I totaled up everything, and it was actually more then the fees And I would have had to spend all the time trying to work all these things out by myself.

Justin
Yes. And like, I had no idea about marketing and all that sort of stuff. And particularly now it’s got even more complicated. But back to one that was listed that in the Yellow Pages with the yeah.

Theresa
Yeah, you need that extra stress. Like you want to focus on the business and how you can run the business and getting started, not about all the other stuff to the side. Exactly. Yeah. You got to do it with so many people. Like you’ve obviously got it right because otherwise we wouldn’t be here.

Craig
Yeah. No, because I feel like we’ve been reasonably successful. And I think a big part of that is because of going to James and, and like I said, you from day one, I applied for probably half a dozen franchises that night. It was a Friday night. I message, you know, send all the things, you know, and you were the first person to ring me in the morning, you know, and we had a conversation and we went from there.

Craig
And you organized the meeting and all. And it was very good from day one. And to me, that’s how I work. I’m a little bit old school of someone calls me talks to me and, you know, explain to me everything and then organizes another meeting where we catch up like this. So that’s great because to be honest, none of the others called me, they email, you know, all saying

Craig
If you want to go further.

Theresa
ra ra ra now there’s one call you like no three months later.

Craig
Yeah. Then a pressure cleaning guy called me about three months later. Like, too late buddy, there he is. I’m well and truly into those things now. I sort of gave up waiting you know, like because you, they ask you to do an inquiry. It’s day job to get back to you, isn’t it? You know, it’s not my job up to chase them that as a sign from the get go.

Craig
Once we spoke, I was never looking. getting anyone else other than James?

Justin
And so has there been any costs or charges or anything happen that was unexpected?

Craig
No no no no.

Theresa
No, except for the smashed windows.

Justin
Yeah, yeah.

Craig
And stupidity. well, I’ll just bad luck.

Theresa
And bandage fingers.

Craig
You. Yeah. No no nothing. No, no, I had no surprises. And I know that knowing yourself. Justin and you know everything. You wouldn’t do that to you. You wouldn’t do that to your franchises. I feel like that something you would label straight away, you know, the you’ve been honest and open from day one, and then you let us talk to the other franchise owners about, you know, if we want to ask them questions, you know, transparency, you know, yeah, there’s nothing hidden.

Craig
And that’s great to me by now. That’s how I’m, you know, I operate, I like to talk to people, I like you, we diagnose and like because we work on that. I’ve had probably or I think. Now guys ring me, ask me about how it’s going because you have given my number and that’s been right. Right.

Craig
Talking to them makes you one of the figures on the phone with him for about half an hour. That was the gentleman that saw me down at Reedy Creek.

Justin
Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Craig
He was. Yeah. So it was great. And I just asked, you know, and I’m honest, you know, I’m not hiding anything. I’m not going along because that’s going to come back to bite us isn’t if we don’t be honest exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You know so it’s been quite the whole the process from day one was James has been great.

Craig
Yeah.

Justin
But yeah. Oh thank you, that’s awesome

Craig
Got stressful. The paperwork we went through everything together. The contracts the whole lot. The whole lot’s been great, Jo. She’s brilliant.

Justin
And what does she do?

Craig
She or she’s what I call the everything lady. Okay, go for everything. She runs the call center. she she helps her Facebook lead time, pages and all that, and she fixes a lot of things.

Justin
Yeah, absolutely.

Craig
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s good to have a, like the lovely lady.

Justin
Yeah. That’s like, that’s actually would be a good job title for her wouldn’t it. Tell you the the everything lady.

Craig
Yeah. That’s what I’ve got on my phone. It. Is I have little things next to her and her. And Jo is the everything lady. We’re because she does. Yeah. And the thing about Jo too is if I ring her and she’s busy, she’ll send me a text message, strike back on so I can’t talk now. I’ll call you when I’m finished.

Craig
You know, like, which is. Yeah. She’s awesome. Yeah. And she lives close by. So let’s even head through and I do mow her lawns, which is probably. I haven’t lately, though. She’s had a new spa put in. I haven’t got to see it in the backyard. So I do a.

Theresa
Give away all your secrets.

Craig
Yeah, that’s the Jo. Lara been right. Like. Yeah. Yeah. Rhiannon the CEO, I’ve spoken a couple of times. She’s good. Yeah. No, I see the busy lady, but, you know, she’s there for you to. Like you’ve always said, don’t hesitate to ring anybody that will help you out. get help from this one or that one, and.

Craig
Yeah, but even so, I see and, you know, Mark as a practical trainer, he’s he’s here if I need him. So I’ll don’t I haven’t. So I was going to say I’ve been lucky. I haven’t had to rely on them a hell of a lot, which is probably nice in a way because they’ve got enough to do themselves sometimes.

Craig
But I know that they’re if I need them. Yeah, yeah.

Justin
So for both of you casting your eyes back over the journey, if you could do anything differently, is there anything you could do if you had it over again that you’d do differently?

Theresa
Sooner

Craig
Yeah, I yeah, it’s probably the only thing we probably should have done this sooner. I probably should have done this five years ago. Yeah. Because my job was getting quite stressful and it was taking a toll on me and everything was it was getting me down. but not. No. As I say, like you said, getting us into the business in the peak season is probably the best thing you could do for people.

Craig
Because when you start to build your business, if get exciting and when you get busier, then it’s not, it’s not say to me, it’s not all about the money. The money, the money’s a bonus. But you know, you still want to be happy and enjoy what you do. And I mean, you don’t want to solely think, oh, it’s all about money because, you know, it’s all about job satisfaction.

Craig
Wanting to go to work, get up in the morning, you know, enjoying your job. So yeah. So now we’ve had no regrets. We’ve never really.

Theresa
But we also now have the flexibility as well. Like if we wanted to go away for a long weekend or something, you know, you can still do the same amount of work and just juggle it around a little bit to be able to do that. Yeah, and that was hard when he was in management to be able to actually have the freedom to do that.

Craig
And say with supermarkets or the industry, then you can never have Christmas. You know, that time between. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You. Yeah. There was a sort of lockout period even a few weeks before Christmas, like if stopped, you know, now at least people don’t want you between Christmas and New Year. I’ll be able to get a little bit of time for myself over Christmas, New Year.

Craig
I had a bit of a holiday, obviously in March. Juggle that round. That was World Book World before I took on the business, but I got my customers round that way too, right? You know, it was was good. yeah. We’ve. Yeah, we’ve had some.

Theresa
I think that’s the beauty of it. You can make it work to suit.

Craig
Yes.

Theresa
How you know lifestyle to be.

Justin
Yeah. That’s really what I’ve known with this is I’ve never forget this last Christmas, I saw a picture Christmas morning. Harold, I’m not sure if you know Harold and Pia, but, he, like you, had worked in management and supermarkets for years. He was cracking a beer at Christmas morning, the first Christmas in years.

Justin
He’d be at been able to go. Oh, you know, I have. Well, even consider doing that. Yeah.

Craig
Yeah, yeah. No, no, that’s not good. Yeah. And what I think that’s a benefit for people like you say with families because they can have that a lot of jobs now, you know now the rest seven days a week. It’s it’s a world that a lot of people have that retail and all that sort of small work Christmas Day to and also but.

Theresa
Even weekends missing and you think like they even like tailor it to suit should.

Craig
Kid sports during the week at school. You know you can yeah you can juggle things. around it’s very hard when you work for somebody to take all this time off and get the time off. Yeah.

Justin
Yeah, I can remember that was one of my first goals. When I joined James. I was in corporate management before, and I realized my daughter, the eldest daughter, was in grade seven, and I realized I had never dropped the kids to school in the morning. yeah. And so once I joined James, that was my job every morning until the school run.

Justin
And then I always book my first appointments for after the school run. So, you know, you can do that when it’s your business.

Craig
Yeah. That’s right, because, you can work obviously a little bit later. It doesn’t, you know, what I mean you can drop them off and then do your work and still fit your customers. just means you start a bit later, work a little bit later. That’s fine. You can juggle your life around family and.

Theresa
And have jobs and.

Craig
Have jobs. Yeah, yeah yeah.

Justin
Yeah.

Craig
So so I was going to say there was, I must admit, now during summer, you do when those hot times you do get a few times. Jeez, I wish I was still working at Woolworths and aircon, but and then I’m saying, nah, it’s really still. But you know, as some of that did sort of that and wears you down, but you’ve just got to make sure you look after your body.

Craig
Really. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin
Absolutely. Yes. And that’s sort of, I guess coming sort of to a close, because we have been gone for a little while, but, just given that people who are thinking of doing this, looking what would be, I guess, some words of advice from both of you, things that people should be thinking about, looking at that sort of thing.

Justin
Do you have any lessons that you’ve learned that you could pass on to them?

Theresa
I think for me, it’d be, if you’re thinking about it, get all the information and look at it and don’t sit around thinking you’re going to do it the next year or the next year, or next year. and yeah, you can really have a better work balance lifestyle, work life. So balance. Sorry. Then. Yeah. Then just working for someone else and not being able to, to choose how you want to live your life off.

Craig
Yeah, yeah. And like, I feel like you, even though Theresa is not on the business, you both got to be on board. You got to work together, go through the process together, you know? And like Theresa said, if you’re looking, you’re obviously looking for the now. So if you’re looking, you know, look at properly and have a crack at it now, you will have no regrets.

Craig
Yeah. And I think most of the people I’ve spoken to through the business when we had a Christmas catch up on everything, most of them have no real regrets of, you know, having a crack at it. Yeah, yeah. No, I, I couldn’t think of anything other than just support each other and have a decent Go at it. Yeah, yeah.

Justin
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. well,