#ASKJIM episode 76 with Jim's Group founder, Jim Penman and Joel Kleber - www.jims.net - 131 546

Welcome to another episode of Archie number 76. And probably it's going to be a little bit off the normal, normal track of programming of what we normally do, for obvious reasons. So I'll get into it straight away. I'm just letting everyone know Jim's HQ here from midnight tonight is closed. So six weeks for staff and obviously all online.

We're functioning but we're not here.

Correct. So, yeah, all online, which is why we've closed the shop as well. So people ordering monopolies and stuff, you're gonna have to wait because we can't physically be here to post them and various things like that. So make sure guys who are watching. There's 123 people watching now. Leave your comments and questions tonight in the Jim's Group page if you're watching on the mowing pages or anywhere else. Jim's group page, please. So we can see them in real time. And we'll try and get to as many as we can. Please be respectful and we'll try and work our way down there. So let's get into it, Jim. Jonny May, you just start off with general today. How's today been with everything going on?

I guess interesting. I spoke more to the media in the last day or so than I have normally in a typical decade.

It's been more national coverage, as you said, in a decade, than anything else, hasn't it?

Yeah, it's been huge. And inbox has flooded mostly with message of support, actually. I've had so many things. Jim, you're a legend. It's fantastic. Thanks for standing up, little guy. I mean, so much of that, actually, some of it from franchisees, but most of it from outsiders.

Yeah, we've had members of the public emailing and sending messages and stuff as well. I think 170 people are tuning in now, Jim, which is great. So hopefully all the franchisees and zors are there. Please ask questions as well, guys, and we'll get there as well. Okay, let's keep going down here. A lot of people tuning in saying g'. Day. All right. Someone said. Did you invite Dan on tonight, David?

Yes.

Okay, then. Simo in Bessie has gone. Just suspended my franchise today. So that's from Simo. Must be a franchisee in Melbourne Metro. He said, just suspended my franchise today. Which is in response to it. A few people.

Well, we have actually, as most of the mowing guys will know, we have suspended all the mowing franchisees in Melbourne because it's really just too much pressure from government to continue. I think it's outrageous, actually, the whole thing. I think it's illegal what he's done and I think it's appalling. I think our franchisees, particularly in Moeing and anybody who works outside, present pretty well zero rate of impression to the public. And I think what the Premier has done is throwing tens of thousands of people out of work or into massive confusion is an awful thing to do. We always obey the law. If the guidelines were there, we would absolutely. When New Zealand locked down all of our services, we suspended everybody, was no asshole at all. I didn't agree with the decision, I don't think it really helped. But we obeyed the law. The problem is this tremendous difference between the clear guidelines, stage four guidelines sent out by the government, by the Department of Health and Human Services and then the Premier coming in and contradicting totally everything that was said.

And that's where the main crux of the confusion was, wasn't it? We weren't taking a stand against it anyway. You're just doing what the things are.

We did not ever, ever. I've never suggested that we should breach stage four guidelines. We should do everything possible to halt this thing. But the Premier was completely at odds with his own guidelines from his own department.

So that was the crux of it. The guideline specifically said, as you said, that would have been no issue. We even got to this.

I wouldn't object. I would have thought it was a bad decision, but we wouldn't afford it. But the way he's done it is appalling.

And the example is New Zealand, isn't it, with what happened in nz.

Yeah, yeah, we did that. We closed everybody down. We closed the call centre, we suspended all fees. We did everything absolutely by the book.

So guys, there's two hundred and sixty people now, which is great if you're franchisees and franchisors especially. Please leave a comment or question the Jim's Group one so we can see it. We'll work our way down. If you're on the mowing page, leave them comments and stuff and not ignore them. Just hard to see them in real time. Chuck them in the Jim's Group page. So Steve Darn's got anything of all in Victoria in these tough times. Stay strong. Gonna be hard for franchisees to keep working. Tough times for all involved.

I feel so sorry. I've had so many franchisees writing to me. Just terrible stories of how badly they're affected by this. What can I do? I just feel so bad for them.

The ones who just started as well. We had one Chris from Jim's Cleaning come to the store yesterday. Just started two weeks.

I had a mowing guy who's just started off taking heavy loans out, got all these repayments. What on earth is he going to do? He just doesn't know he's going to survive the next six weeks. If it is only six weeks, we don't know it could go for another six weeks. The Premier can do whatever he likes, apparently. It's really heart written to hear these stories.

And Matt, Bar's gone. It's so sad that one gets demonised for looking after their employees. Franchisees in this day and age. Sharon Connell says. Hi, Jim, thank you for the heart of all your hard work. You have been working very, very hard. And then here we go. Bri, Lance, some people are so rude on the phones. Must work in the call centre. Maybe, Bri, I can apologize for that.

Unfortunately, it's been tough on the girls in the call centre too. You get some idiots who ring up who just want to have a go. All I can say is the people who object tend to be those with nice, fat, comfortable jobs like in Springtree or somewhere. They just have no understanding of what it's like to be out there in the workforce. And actually our guys are relatively privileged because their incomes tend to be pretty good normally. But there's a lot of people out there in the industry who just are really, really on the edge and what's happened, what the Premier's done to them, is a disaster.

Well, I interviewed the story they did with you last night. I had an independent bloke on at the end as well and I was talking to him and I felt so over him as well. Especially Malcolm Bradley says Jim Smyne got a great plug on the national radio station today about the thing. Malcolm's in nz. Hayden Null says his gyms operating tomorrow.

Well, obviously you're operating across the rest of the country, but gyms mowing, Metro, Metro shut down and obviously there's divisions like dogwash in Melbourne is shut down. There's no question, because the Stage 4 guidelines specifically do not include dogwash as an example. The building inspections are shut down. There's divisions, there's no question about. It's really the mowing and cleaning divisions in particular that have been affected by this that I think very unfairly and wrongly.

270 people tuning on now, which is great. Please chuck your comments and questions in there, guys. We'll try and get to as many as we can. Head to Sutherland. Hi, there is a Jim's car cleaning service in Rockhampton, Queensland or truck cleaning services. Absolutely. There's car detailing up in Queensland. Okay, here we go. Nicole Callan, this is a great question. What happens to the NDIS customers for cleaning? Can we still go out?

You can. There's a form that you can fill in with yourself as the employer and the employee that may work but the trouble is nobody knows the guidelines. They're pretty clear in the in what's officially gone out but the premier can step in anytime and just totally contradict it. So nobody knows. People are ringing up their state MPs saying what's the guidelines? What can I do? Haven't got a clue. Even people who in parliament don't even know what the government's doing. So it's total, total confusion and I'd love to be able to give you guidance but I can't. All I can say is what the law says which is yes, you can operate, you can operate a cleaning business, especially people but who knows what the government police can stop you and they can say oh Dan Andrews has said we're going to arrest you, we're going to fine you but you know huge amount of money for doing it even though the guidelines say you can. Who knows.

And then there's a couple hundred. I want to be quickly for you, Jim. Shane Major's gone. Hello. I contracted Jim's. Can you please explain why tree work leads went from 15 bucks to $49.

Cheers for Jim's plus.

That's you just said that in for gyms. Why 1549?

Because basically because what's happened Jim's plus is the overflow work from gyms going to be independent contractors and the principle is they have to be charged at least as much as hard to guys do for leads.

That's the reason 305 people watching now which is great. We're going to whip through these questions so keep putting them in there guys and we'll work our way down. Kurt Hudson. Hey, Jim and Joel. Do the contractors pay people off the books with cash in hand or not? Well who wouldn't know? That's up to how would we know exactly.

We would never ever be in a situation where we'd advise anybody to take cash and I think it's less and less common these days and it's particularly with the virus it's a really bad idea.

Very risky to take cash, isn't it?

Very risky to take cash. And you know generally speaking of your own business you've got pretty good deductions. You know your Vehicle, part of your rent, your phone, a whole stack of things. You can split the income with your, with your partner. So. But you know, we know what goes on. What can I say?

Kelly Burgess, are you sky still open? Vic Metro's been affected, but everywhere else in Australia and New Zealand and Canada.

Absolutely we are, yeah.

All right, let's keep going down here as well. So, Kurt Hudson, thanks for that question. Just trying to get there. Oh, here we go. Nicole Callanan, will you suspend fees? Now we are in stage four. Question mark.

Yes, Any franchisee in a division that can't work and that includes ones like Mowing in Melbourne and Dogwash. And of course we'll suspend the fees, all the franchisees fees, not that, but the franchisor fees will be suspended too. So we're not going to build a franchisor when they're receiving no income. Of course we would.

And Katie Reading says sending all the best wishes to franchisees from Dogwash. Absolutely. Dogwash has been on the front foot today with a lot of announcements for their customers. Luke o' Neill says, completely agree with everything you have said, Jim. Love what you stand for. Such a shame that there are so many out there who are so ill informed and making dumb comments without actually knowing what's going on.

There's been a lot of support in the community, actually the, the under channel 7, the actual comments were about 60% against, 40% in favor, but the likes were overwhelmingly more in favor. So it's kind of, there's a lot of people out who agree. They're maybe not as noisy as the ones that disagree.

I was more interested in what I am and that's what I was telling you this morning, wasn't it, when we showed it to you? So there was a lot more outrage in the comments, but we actually showed the reaction ratio. There was more people for likes than let's say the angry emoji, for example.

So I think a lot of people actually fed up with what's happened. I don't know that the Premier has as much support as he thinks he does.

And then someone says, you're a legend, mate. Keep it up. Malcolm Bradley says Jim's mum kind of got a great plug on national radio station today here in nz along with the Jim's Monopoly.

Wow.

So that is really good to hear.

For what though, is it? For what we.

I must have leveraged into Jim's Monopoly somehow. So Michael Vella, can fencing continue? Question mark from Michael Vella, can fencing continue?

Who knows? Who knows? Construction is allowed to continue so based on the, on the, on the actual guidelines, I'd say yes. Based on the Premier's whim, who knows?

I'd say check with your divisional, maybe make some calls as well. I don't know if we can.

Well, your divisional is arch, so what do you say? The fact of the matter is, as far as we're concerned, you can continue because the stage four guidelines say that. You can quite clearly say that you can. But as I said, the Premier could overrule that tomorrow, so we've got no idea.

Rachel, man has gone. It's only six weeks. That's going to be a positive attitude. Absolutely.

Six weeks is a long time for some people to be without income and that's if it is controlled in that period of time. What really infuriates me about this is the mess that the Premier's made of it and it's basically his fault. It's the quarantine fiasco that's caused this outbreak. There's really no other reason why Victoria's done so much worse than the rest of the country, except for that. And he's the one who started it and he's still, he's still messing up.

The state and Peter Jones has gone. Are you consider reducing franchise fees? Once we were able, once we are able to go back to work, are you going to consider reducing.

No, not at all. Because you're going to be so, so, so busy. If you can, if you can work 100 hours a week, you work 100 hours a week. Absolutely not. Why would we reduce them when you're making the income of your life, when you're not working, we get no income at all.

And 330 people tuning in now, which is great. So keep leaving your comments and questions. Guys work from the top. Then Paul has always gone, how is this affecting fencing? Question mark?

As I said, Stage 4 guidelines suggest that you can. Yes, I'd suggest that you just keep on doing it until the Premier comes in, decides to shut you down as well. But until that time, keep on going.

And then John renders gone. I was worried. A gentleman walked past and said we should. We should be called. Karen's mowing. So I think there's a bit of a meme going around online. Karen's mowing. I think I'll blow over. John. I know how this stuff goes. It's generally something coming up tomorrow and I feel sorry for some of the franchisees feeling that way.

But, yeah, some franchisees feel it's damaging. I think it's a fairly small Minority who are negative. And there's an awful lot of people who are positive and are saying good on you. It's not as one sided as you might think. I think we're going to, I think in the end we'll probably get a boost out of this. I know that sounds strange right now, but they say no, any publicity is good publicity.

Well, number three on Twitter today in Australia, that's a first for Jim's name.

Is all over the place. And famous example is Tylenol, which is a painkiller and it had a disaster many, many years ago when somebody tampered and they put poison into it and people. It was really, really terrible. And the company withdrew all the Tylenol. They paid everything. They completely redesigned the bottle to make it tamp proof and they put it out again and it was the best thing ever happened to them. Their cells actually went through the roof because of name recognition. So it's strange. How can poisoning people with your pill cause you to have a fantastically improved market? But that's what happened and I believe the same thing with gyms. Actually a lot of people are in favor of us. Some people may cancel their services. Mind you, if you can't work anyway, so what's the point? But I think in the long run it'll probably do us some good.

Yeah, and that's, and that's the thing is I feel sorry for reading the comments and stuff but just it's a lot of vitriol and it's a lot of similar type of things going on with those. So just don't get too worked into it. Kelly Burch says, I loved it. I'd love to book it in prepay if that helps at all when they reopen. I'd love to support my local franchise. I'm in Roeville Prepay, so prepaying for gyms services.

Anything that can be done to help people through this difficult time would be great. I'd say take it, take it easy, have a good rest, spend all your time with your family. And when we come out of Lockhart, you're going to be so busy. You just got to be prepared to work, you know, any hours to catch up on the income to catch up on the work.

Now Eric Juergens gone. Melbourne Metro can apply for the $10,000 grant from the government. Maybe Jim's could sort of give him some information on how to help them out with that.

Yeah, there is some information we're going to pass around about this kind of thing. The bookkeeping division has some Stuff about grants and things. Yeah.

And then Julie Baldry said I had an independent gardener from Ringwood said the council gardeners are still allowed to work. And he asked me to let you know that.

Absolutely. Yeah, that's right. That's the insanity of the whole thing. If you're actually a council gardener, somehow you're an essential service. But someone looking after NDIs or elderly, elderly clients is not considered essential. It's the absurdity of the whole system, the sheer insanity, the inconsistency of it.

David Donald says the problem with cash is your business is worth nothing if you have no income to prove you make a living. Oh, that's a very good point.

It's also a problem with insurance too. You've got a person who has accident insurance and they've got an income of $2,000 a week or whatever it is, $3,000 a week or whatever. And then the insurance company, then they have to break their leg and the insurance company says, I can prove your income. Well, I've only made $600 a week. I mean, goodness gracious. I mean, what can you do?

James Thompson says Jim's fencing three days into a job and it requires two days to complete. Can I continue the job?

Yes.

The fencing is for security.

Security.

I think you can if you started the job.

Basically construction is okay. The Premier just, just as I said, there's no logic to it. He just decided to hit mowing and cleaning.

He says no, Simon's, Simone's gone. No new construction can start. Only exiting. I think so. I don't know. Existing.

Sorry, Existing. That possibly applies to a fence. Yes.

Then Helen's gone. Raygat just asked if he has a working permit to work his local school grounds, which he has a contract for. Can he work? Just get the permit? I'd just check. Maybe. I don't know. This is the confusion, isn't it?

Yeah. The trouble is when you can't rely on official guidelines, what can you rely on? I mean, I mean, what can I say? We don't know. Nobody knows. State Members of Parliament don't know. Bureaucrats don't know. Nobody knows. The Premier will decide on them on a minute by minute basis what's going to happen and nobody has any say.

Apart from that someone from the YouTube channel's gone. It's in the FAQs regarding Victoria. Can I have my lawns mowed or home cleaned? No. Well, well, yep, that's what we're going saying as well. The travel sandal. Something unrelated. Whose idea was to make the Jim's Monopoly game. Got to shout a beer for somebody.

Eugene, Eugene, Eugene, our brilliant head of security.

Yeah, he loves doing the security deficient emails.

He's always. He's always. He's crazy about that sort of thing. He's always sending around fake emails to try and catch out the staff. If you get. You get caught, you put on the wall of shame. I've been caught once or twice, but not recently. Very true.

My Wingard's gone Jinxman. Godfather nz. His staying saying stay strong. I was in the same position six weeks into being a new owner in NZ went into lockdown. I can see some light now. It's tough. So wishing you well. So that's a good point as well. The Dan McDonald says we go through this every 10 years. In a drought, businesses can be down 20% in any one year. Stephen Ford, there is many confused people. Can you reassure regional customers that services continue as normal?

Well, it's only applying in Melbourne Metro, basically. So, yes, as far as we're knowing at the moment, but again, that could change tomorrow. All we can say is right now there's no indication that you can't operate. But then again, I think if you're on stage three, it's not an issue. It's only Stage four. We think the Premier is saying it's stage four, but that's all I can say.

Yes, the Nationally Valid has gone. Hi, I'm in Deniloquin. Can I still get my Grassmate? Absolutely. You're in Deniliquin, I think is nsw. So Denny Bushmasters up there. Sadeep Silver.

Hi.

How about Vacate Cleaning with zero contact, of course.

Of course, that's sensible, but not according to what the Premier says. This is the point. There's no standards, there's no consistency anywhere.

The Nicole Callan's Callanan's gone here. Do you think if we drive our Jim's Cleaning car, are we a target now? Question mark. We could be.

I mean. I mean, what can I say? The police may decide that Jim's Cleaning is to be targeted as well as Jim's Mowing. Who knows? It's terrible to say this, but when you can't rely on the law, when you can't rely on the official statements of government departments, then how do you know anything? Not even. Not even Government ministers can probably tell you anything. Nobody can tell you anything because it depends on the women of the Premier.

And I'll read this comment. That's not a nice one. I read it out. Mikhail's gone. All of us know you Want for the franchisees to work to push them to pay the franchise fees. You don't want to lose money. You're selfish.

Yeah, except I get about 2% of what franchisees earn. Let me have a think about the franchisees who got me other 90% and let's fan it. I can last six weeks without the franchisees income. How long. How well do you think our franchisees are going to last? Many of them. Let's look who's in the most vulnerable position. Let's think of the ordinary people in society not the well heeled fat cats. Frankly it's not going to worry you much at all the loss of income. But it worries a lot of people that I know very very badly.

Let's consider them and the Malcolm brothers gone. The rock radio station DJs weren't sure if Jim was still alive while he's here and looking for contacting them and offering some Jim's monopoly if they will promote the group as a whole. Sent through an email to Jim at Jim's Donet or myself Malcolm and we can maybe arrange something as well. It's great to see the NZ guys getting involved.

Yeah sure.

Amrik Singh hi, I'm Amrik from Jim's Clean South Geelong. Have a question like how many workers can can I carry in my car during stage three restrictions in Geelong? It's a good question. I don't know the answer to that one exactly.

The normal thing I think is two and you should be one at the front diagonally opposite. If you want more workers you have to go in separate cars. That's basically the guideline.

But I'll check the websites, any official government websites and Rick they're just let me check. And you're in Geelong so hopefully you're stage. Stage three. Yeah. Which would be okay.

Yes.

Okay. And then Ibrahim's gone. All I can say is that the only company stands by is franchisees. Great job Jim.

Thank you.

Matt. Sheldon's gone. Are leads only online now. Feel for the franchisees in Melbourne. I'm in Rural Vic so okay at the moment.

No, no, everything's going as normal. We actually we should make sure we shut down all the mowing advertising. I'm sure we're doing that in Melbourne but everything's going. Everything's working still. The call center's still working offline. Of course the websites are still working. We're going to be flooded with calls that we can't handle. There's just no way around it.

There's some streaming issue guys so stay tuned we're going to work on it. Keep going. Let's keep going. Just catching up.

Hi.

I've been working in the course in IT for nearly nine years now. My heart goes out to all the franchisees and your families hanging there guys. We're all thinking of us.

We are.

And thanks for the great job in the course and our staff do. Greg, Pete says no gyms plumbing in Newcastle. No, there's not. Emma Burgess gone. Well done for standing up.

Thank you.

And Steve Dunn's gone. If the call center closes, how does that affect leads for us in other states?

No, it doesn't close.

Stay strong, buddy.

It's all online. Actually the call center hasn't had anybody in there for weeks. Even during stage three. It's all online. It works amazingly well. Most of our national office was actually online. All the documents, software developers, most of accounts they've been online for weeks and now they're all online. So it really doesn't affect what we do at all.

And during the first thing that call center we're preparing stuff, they're now doing it all online, weren't they?

Yes. Yeah. We're very well set up in an IT sense too to go online. It's interesting actually. Some people will not come back. Our software developers actually do more work at home than they did in the office and they prefer it because they're all introverts. So it's going to change the way we operate long term.

And Simo Lenko's gone here as I sit here filling out my job keep my job seeker application. I thank you for all your efforts you put in this week. Andrews is binge use and in six weeks will come soon enough. He was stubborn and wrong with golf and fishing and all the rest and now he can't admit he's wrong there too. His time is ticking so strong.

The way it's been handled is shocking. It's all right for 10,000 people to go to the streets of the city and let's not do anything about that and cause mass infections. But for somebody to go and mow somebody's lawn by themselves, never touching or never talking to that's somehow going to be dangerous. Where's the consistency in this?

And then Pierre app's gone. Thanks for your support, Jim. I wish Channel 7 put you in a better light because I think they mad you're looking like you were definitely the rules.

Yes. Which is completely untrue and I made it totally clear that's the problem with tv. They'll edit it in such a way that makes it seem like I'm defying the law. Not at all. I never, ever done that. When New Zealand had lockdown, we completely went along with it. I thought it was a bad idea, but we completely obeyed the law there. We shut the whole system down totally. We did what the government says. It's the inconsistency that's caused the problem here.

And, Jim, you did 20 minutes, I reckon, of questions from Channel 7 and.

10 and they take like 30 seconds and they pick what makes good theatre.

That's all but saying that the recent one you did, I watched a few today, which went on to seven years later on today, was when you were in your office was a lot better in terms of. They let you go a bit longer and provided a bit.

I'm also learning to be a bit more of a politician. In other words, all the time you've got to make the same point again and again and again and again. And that works better then.

Jenny Allen's gone. What if I cancel my services in Queensland?

Why would you cancel your services?

I would hope you wouldn't. I don't know why. Why would you? It's a local franchisee. You're hurting. They're not.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

So we hope you don't. Jenny Malcolm Raleigh says this has to be a record with well over 300 online. Absolutely. I think it is a record. And Mal's gone here. How do we do quotations under Stage four restrictions for fencing, as we do site inspections, especially for fence replacements, There.

Is a question of whether you can start a construction job. I have to say, somebody said you can finish it, but actually starting it could be a bit dicey. The only thing is, if you are. Again, as I said, the guidelines say that if you're a sole operator working by yourself, then you're allowed to operate regardless of any other conditions. So that's what the actual guidelines from the government say. Again, who knows what the Premier will say, but at the moment, just act as if. As if the guidelines are the law of the land, which of course they are.

And then Lavi's gone here. If there is an issue with you, with this. Another, unrelated question, if there is an issue with a security camera system you've installed, whereby the fault is your setup and it can't be resolved by your company, do you provide a customer with a refund?

If it's our fault, we'll refund anything. I mean, obviously we stand behind our product. We've got a thing called a warranty fund, which actually is we give out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year actually and it's funded when franchisees start. They put a small amount into a pie and that's used to pay our customers.

Sorry for the stream interruption there, guys. It was a bit jittery. Now we're back online. Matthew Dwyer's gone. Thanks for going to Bafrest, Jim. This is why I come back to the group.

Thanks, Matt.

Refugee call center's operational. They've been working from home from now some time and doing a great job. So it's fantastic.

They have. They've done a great job. They're a really great bunch of ladies.

Okay, now this is one from YouTube. If the call center is closed, there should be reduced fees. Angelo McGill from West in franchise M. It's not closed the call centre, they're off site.

Yeah, there's no difference at all. You wouldn't even notice the difference unless you came here and had a look and there's nobody there. No difference at all.

And Justin Tramps has gone in from Jim's Fence and Gatorade. Justin, do we have a sense of when governments will update their formal advice towards align with the Premier's stance? Which is a good question or point?

That's what I've been asking for. I've said it again and again into the media. Just give us clear guidelines as to what to do, not just have to listen to what the Premier says and try and interpret it. Let's have some clear guidelines, let's have some consistency. Let's have some leadership.

I think G Casey's replied to Jenny saying we are not affected in Queensland as we aren't in lockdown. Please don't cancel your services. Absolutely. I wouldn't say local franchisees of local family businesses this place keep them going. Jeff Carroll, due to stage four restrictions, are you unable to mow lawns for in Melbourne Metro? Yes, we're not allowed to according to the rules.

Well, not according to the rules, according to the Premier.

Sorry.

The rules say you can. The law says you can. The Premier says if you try to mow lawns, we'll smash you. I mean that's basically the situation because I've decided mowing and cleaning are not necessarily important unless you happen to work for the government, of course. In which case, of course, you're a different.

Michael Ribbon's gone. Great work standing up against incompetence. And Sarah Cripster says would have the light cleaning. Would it be essential as they can disinfect services to help promote people start fresh sending good Wishes from wa. Yeah, that's of course it is.

A lot of the work that our cleaners do is actually cleaning up to prevent infection and the government says okay, to actually reduce infection, let's stop cleaning up. Which is insane because the virus sits on surfaces. Somebody coming in with with the proper disinfectant, cleaning it up properly and professionally is the best guard against it. We've made this point again and again and again and yet the Premier simply says no, no, no cleaning.

Yeah, they go on the. The fogger and it's actually helped.

Which is actually against all the best medical advice there is.

I'm not ignoring your weight as well. I can't just. So many comments coming in as well. Damiec Don says supplies in Melbourne will be getting close so it might be hard to get stocked soon if NSW can't get freight soon. Two weeks to get stock from Melbourne already absolutely stopped stock for our. It's going to be interesting.

It will be difficult.

And Emma Sarasa the thing is that there is anything in regards to guarding and cleaning that urgent and cannot wait six weeks. Not in regards to people's additional needs, no.

Not according to what the Premier says. Unless you happen to work for the government, if you're doing the parks then you're okay. But an NDIS or a crippled client or anybody else, no way. It's just not possible. You can't distinguish it. You can't separate them out. There's no way of doing it. There's no providing service to those who need it or emergencies.

If you shut the businesses down, then Chisel's gone. Time to throw your hat in the ring. Jim.

I don't think I make a good politician.

Oh no, I was going to say the poor and us internally as well. We sort of. We feel like a political team today, didn't we, with advice on what's going on.

I do feel very political, actually. It's amazing. You would think from some people that we're not very popular. I have so many people. I've never, never ever seen such an outpouring of support and congratulations and thanks from so many people. Mostly outside of gyms, by the way, because most people, it's a very fragmented business. People, they see somebody standing up for them and it's not just for our guys, it's for the industry as a whole. They appreciate it and it's great.

Stephen boos goes hi Jim. I suggest you have a meeting with the Premier to obtain clear guidelines and share with the 4000 franchisees.

As if he'd tell Me, I don't think he likes me very much.

People even refer to him by name today. He goes, I know that business owner or something like that, rather than saying the name Peter Whitzkon. As a Jim's Mining franchisee in Regional Vic, I really feel for you guys in Melbourne. Just doesn't make sense.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter. Okay, here we go. Richard Keeves. Hey, Jim, who the heck do you think you are, mate? You should be setting an example of good behavior and not behaving like a super selfish, prophecy focused something.

Yeah, yeah, I'm looking after my franchisees. I'm looking after the community. I respect that you think that's different. But the best medical advice there is, including when the Stage 4 guidelines were drawn up, somebody quite intelligent was involved in that and they looked at all the different, different categories of work in the carefully calculated, where you can get infected and things like lawn mowing would be very, very, very low down. This was extremely well thought out, probably over weeks to minimize the risk of infection. And it was a very carefully designed plan and the Premier went through that with a steamroller. It's nothing to do with my profits. Do you really think that a little bit of income from a few franchisees is going to affect me personally? No. But you think of franchisees who've just bought a business and whose income is suddenly cut and they've got no resources and stuff. There's some very needy people out there and there's tens of thousands out there too. These aren't wealthy people. They need to be considered. Just because you've got a nice fat job in Spring street or you're a top lawyer or something and your income is. Those people get looked after well enough. What about the battlers? What about the ordinary people who are hurting from this?

And then Devark has gone. Jim, I've taken a cleaning franchise and I'm a temporary resident and not eligible for jobkeeper or jobseeker payments.

Absolutely.

Is there any way to support us?

No, there isn't. What can I do? What can anybody do? It's a horrible, It's a horrifying situation. It really is. And I feel for you so badly. I know others in the same situation too. You'll get nothing. Nothing.

Then Charang's gone. Obviously nobody would intend to get caught on the wrong foot. But out of curiosity, what made you change the decision you made yesterday for taking the responsibility of paying the fines in regards to Stage four lockdown restrictions?

It was made very clear to us that the government would come down extremely hard on us if we didn't, and the law doesn't matter in that case. That's really the honest truth of it. I won't go into the details, but it's made very clear that we have no choice. The Premier's Women's Law.

Nitro. Jack's gone. So do we get leads as usual? Yes. If you're not inside Melbourne Metro, and you're not. Absolutely. It's business as usual. Consonants has gone. Thanks for trying, Jim. Milan Bogonovic is gone. Jim. I think it's a good name. Jim, just a question. If I work for myself and do handyman jobs, so that is not allowed for me to make any type of income, am I correct on that?

Generally speaking, based on the Premier, probably not. But honestly, it's very hard to tell because the law doesn't mean anything anymore. If you looked at the Stage Four guidelines, yes, you can. Because if you're a sole operator working by yourself on a site, there's no question. So in that sense, I'd say yes. But who knows? Honestly, who knows? Nobody knows. State MPs don't know, the bureaucrats don't know and the Premier doesn't know. And he doesn't know until he opens his mouth.

So Dwayne Paisley's gone, Jim. Can I or should I continue to mow for commercial customers who are staying open and ndis disabled clients who need lawns made to ensure? Oh, according to my premium site.

No, you can't. You can't. It doesn't matter how many, how needy they are, you can't do it. It said emergency, like you mentioned. A tree falling across the driveway. Well, you NDIS clients know you can't do it. It's insane, but that's what the Premier's saying.

There's a lot of comments in here, guys. Thanks for the comments. There's 330 people watching now, which is great. I'm not ignoring them. It's just a heap of comments coming in the feed. I'm trying to go as fair as I can. Pierre's gone here. I think it's amazing how Westfarmers blackmailed the government by saying all their staff will be fired if they're not allowed to trade. So the government changed their stance and allow them to stay open. What about all of us?

That's because we're fragmented and that's the point about our clothes.