How Two Young Guns are Growing the Jim’s Brand
Andrew Parke and Brett Blair are responsible for more than 250 franchised businesses between them and feel that the best is yet to come.
Brett Blair has been growing the Jim’s Mobile Pool Shop division for seven years and now has 89 franchised businesses Australia wide and Andrew Parke has 165 after 12 years at the helm of Jim’s Antennas.
Both firmly believe in the franchising concept and the benefits that buying an established franchised brand brings.
“I still ask people, why would you try and start a business from scratch when we have the recipe, the systems and the support to get you off to a flying start,” says Blair.
“We are both always trying to improve our systems for our franchisees, that’s our number one goal. If we can help franchisees build a great business, help them follow the systems that work, and achieve the goals they set, then we all win” adds Parke.
Blair says “Working together is the key. Andrew has been a great support to me and my business since I started and shared invaluable ideas that may have taken years to develop. I in turn provide feedback and bounce ideas off him that challenge him and his business.
“This fast track to success culture is what we try and pass on to the franchise team. There’s no need to wing it, when you can follow the system.”
In recent years the use of technology, national campaigns, conferencing ideas and dealing with system fine tuning are all areas the two motivated entrepreneurs have been able to collaborate on.
Parke says “There are some great system developments coming out of our own divisions and also Jim’s head office that are all focused on the franchisee, helping them manage their business better, track their customers and accounts and ultimately provide even better service.
“There are some very strong and successful national marketing processes being researched, developed and implemented to complement the local area marketing franchisees should be doing.
“The franchisees just have to focus on their business at hand and the local territory they purchased. If they look after their customers we will do the best we can on their behalf in the back end of their business by improving their buying power, their work systems, marketing and developing tools to make their business life easier,” he explains.
Parke started his own I&T team several years ago which is now commercially helping other Jim’s divisions with areas such as App development, dynamic websites and financial reporting.
“It’s definitely not perfect, but what system really is, we can always do better. We are investing a lot of time and money in this space on behalf of our franchisees and we know we are making our systems better each year and adding value to our team’s business systems.
“We won’t sit still, we are both motivated guys who enjoy a challenge and we want franchisees to be the best they can be. We are enjoying the journey and the benefits of being in business for yourself offers, but we are definitely passionate about bringing success to our business models,” he says.
This article first appeared on www.FranchiseBusiness.com.au/
