#ASKJIM episode 77 with Jim's Group founder, Jim Penman and Joel Kleber

And hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Ask Jim. We're up to episode number 77 in a very unique circumstance and obviously due to the current conditions, we have to do this via Zoom. So big thanks to Jake and Ben, who've been working hard to set it up, and also as well to Jim to agreeing to keep asking going during this time, which I think is very important. So make sure everyone who's watching leave a comment or question into the comments section there so we can see it and we can ask as many of your questions as we want to go. So I. All right, Dave McDonald's. First up, Jim with his basically saying, do we have Jim's branded face masks or a supplier that can make them question mark?

Well, we are getting them done, but I don't know how we're going to get them out to you because we're at lockdown right now or the whole office is closed. There's nobody there, not even grounds maintenance. Real locked. So when they come back, we'll probably have them.

Yeah, true. I think it's 250 on order and they're black with the white sort of Jim's logo on it, so that'd be pretty cool.

Great fashion statement. Everybody's got to win. They're going to still like hotcakes.

Absolutely. Well, why not? You know, Jim, all the media you're doing. Jim, I forgot to ask you to restart, but you've obviously been doing a lot of the media circuit. You've been doing Sunrise, you've been doing seven, 10, everything.

Yeah.

How's the overall been? Yeah, how's it been?

It's been good, actually. Got a little bit negative at the beginning, but Channel seven got me a little bit distorted, but since then it's been amazing. I've been flooded with. Most of the negatives are anti vaxxers, actually. People stop me in the street and say, well done. You know, I put rubbish out and this guy said, oh, that's fantastic what you're doing. Keep it up all over. Yeah.

So people have been emailing for support to Gym at Gyms London, which has been fantastic there. So we got one in from Sean Daly, which is. Hi, Jim. Overall, how is all gym whatever going? Is all franchises still going, question mark?

Yeah, we're going. Well, the only place we're not doing well is in Victoria, where we shut down by law. But the leads are actually up over the last year, substantially up. Franchise inquiries have gone through the roof, people. Apart from this one stage. I mean, I don't want to sound Callous. It's been dreadful for the economy and so many people but for Jim's group it's been a bonanza. I mean we should have a virus every year. I really don't mean that, I really, really don't mean that. But from an economic point of view it's been great. In fact we've already, before the lockdown we've hit our highest level ever of.

Franchisees and the question that we always see on is like you'd be crazy to buy a franchise now. Whereas we think it's probably the opposite, isn't it? You're probably unsafe in a job because.

We'Ve got so much work, work's gone up. I mean we had, we were close to 30% unserviced before the outbreak and now we've got so much work and you can make a good living out of it. You know, with people who have been business executives and corporates and all kinds of people now they're looking for something to do and a service business is a great option and they put their.

Business skills to the service businesses. They can grow massive things and away they go.

Same thing had it back in the 90s when we had the Keating recession we had a fantastic growth spurt there because a lot of really business savvy people bought franchises and did very, very well.

Now let's go to one here from the RMIT Liberal Club is commenting, says when restriction end would you come to an RMIT Liberal Club event gym? They're inviting you out.

Yeah, I guess so we'll travel again when it's going to be? I don't know. Yeah mate, yeah, sure, why not?

Alright, so send us an invite there at gmachinslanet on the Facebook page.

Well as long as it's in Melbourne. I hate airplanes so I don't mind. I do know that.

Ed Sutherland's gone. He hired a Jim's Taxi service. I don't know. We don't have Jim's Taxi service of Jim's Curry starting up, do we? On the horizon then Sam Bates has.

Gone actually taxis we'd love to do if it was deregulated that would be a great one. But at the moment it's a busy tightly controlled quasi monopoly and then you have its own broken billion dollar companies like Uber if they ever open it up as they should do so everybody could get cheaper service and you know, better service as well. It's a thing we wouldn't mind doing but right now, hopeless.

So make sure there's a few people watching now140, which is going to make sure you share and leave a comment or question to Jim. We're going to get through as many as we can this week. Sam Bates, gone here for you, Jim. Who wins tonight, Jim? The Bombers or the Suns? Let's put you going on tonight. Bombers or the Suns? Why the Bombers?

I have no idea.

I have no idea.

I'd never be a politician because I never could pretend an interest in football. Sorry, that's it.

And Seth Wingard goes. I've had a question. Why would you want to work with the circumstances at the moment? Question mark from Seth Wingard.

Because work is fun. Work is making a living. Work is great. I enjoy work. I'm 68. I don't ever intend to retire. Working is wonderful. And now's a great opportunity. In fact, I think there's more opportunity now than there ever has been in human history for an ordinary individual to do really, really well. Because the world is so changed with IT and everything else. With the software, with the IT revolution. It's a fantastic time to be in business. And look, I know there's negatives, like housing is very expensive, but in terms of business, I mean, who can go out there, like, they can start mowing lawns and become multimillionaire. And we've got lots of franchisees who've done that kind of thing, not just me.

Eric Jurgens has gone in. Hi, guys.

How.

It's great to see you there. Hope you've all had a wonderful week. It's been a different week. Eric's still going with the media from.

Jim, so different is true, different.

And Paul Sanders is going, hey, Jim and Joel, hope you're both well. Any response from today's letter? Thanks for standing up for everyone.

Yeah, we had a great response from news.com that was fantastic article. As long as this thing goes, the more positives we're getting, the less negatives. That's the pattern we've seen. And I think people are getting sick of it. We just got a picture sent to us now. People that are so outraged, like, and this is many, many people, three workers working on a flower bed opposite the Victoria Barracks.

Yeah, yeah.

People are so curious. They write to us and say, you, you guys, we can't operate, we can't mow a lawn, we can't garden by ourselves. But three people can do it together right out in public to do a flower bed garden. How is that essential for safety and health? Whereas a poor, late old lady who needs to get her gutters cleaned, oh, she's not important. Her safety and health don't count. I mean, it's so hypocritical and that saps the actual support from the community. More and more people are getting fed up with this.

Justin Kirkham's going, hi, guys. Just wondering how you support your franchisees with mental illness. I think Justin Kirkham's a fencing franchisee.

Well, one of the things I know that franchisors have done, even though they're not being paid and there's no fees, they are ringing their franchisees regularly and just keeping in touch with them. I know one guy was telling me, ring them every couple of days because they're under such stress. So we've got a lot of fantastic franchisors in gyms and they really care. They're not getting paid a cent this month, they've got no income at all, but they're still talking to their franchisees and still counseling them and helping. They really care.

I've spoken to Michael and Rachel of Franchise, and they're doing like weekly, like, game nights and bingos and stuff. Just, you know, there's nothing I can do but keep in contact with everyone and sort of bring a bit of community to it, so. Yeah, that's right.

One of the things is that we do different is that when in New Zealand, when they were shut down Green Acres, their guys couldn't work and they still charged them fees. Nobody in gyms would ever suggest such a stupid thing. So we're actually not only not charging fees, but we're saying to them, if you can work legally, go out and work with our blessing, we're still not going to charge you. We just want you to get through these next few weeks.

That was a big comment online when it first went live. That said the news was the gym just wants everyone to keep his workers to keep working for the fees. But as you said, obviously not the case.

Look, seriously, the amount of money I will lose from this thing is about what I spend on my research project every month, and that is to do with the fundamentals of trying to cure mental illness. It really isn't a big amount of money. I actually offered to write a letter to the Premier and saying, listen, if you will cancel this really callous and dreadful measure, I will donate all my profits to World to Beyond Blue. Yeah. And they said, don't put that out. It doesn't sound good. But that's my situation. It really isn't about me, it's about. And it's not just our franchisees. It's so many out there who are suffering. It's really hard to take.

And you've got a lot of me emailing you. This is what people don't realize. It's a lot of these independent business owners are making personal contact with you directly, aren't they?

Yeah. I get a lot more from independence than I do from our people because. And there's so much anger. Our people are probably better off than most because they're somewhat more successful higher earners from the start. But there's so much hurt out there now.

Brett Craig's got any hygiene. Is there any opening for a Daniel Andrews removal franchise?

Well, we're trying actually. The good thing about a parliamentary democracy is that the Labour members of Parliament can kick him out if they wish to or you're in the majority and they will. I'm sure it's going to happen too. But the amount of mistakes this guy's made, the appalling blunders. I mean even Labor Party. I know, they recognize that he's toxic. He'll go by the end of the year. I just hope he goes soon enough so he doesn't cause an too much more damage.

And Troy. Troy so has gone here. Are you giving your franchisees in Victoria a break from. I think that must mean fees.

So none of the ones affected pay fees and the franchisors don't pay fees to us. We just completely wipe them out. As I said, nobody would ever imagine that we would do anything different to that. Be so unfair.

Yeah. Then Dave McDonald's. I can see that. The comment on the news tomorrow taken out of context. Well, hope not. They actually done pretty well in the news.com article. They. They've done most of the letter, didn't they? Which is good.

They do. Letters are good because you can't take them out of context. This is what's said. So. Yeah, I like the letter. It worked very well. Got the point out and we found that since we've been able to get the point out direct instead of having it distorted, we get a lot more positives and a lot less negatives and the negative is mostly anti vaxxers anyway.

Yeah. The compulsory vaccination comment was the one that stirred up the most trouble online, so.

Well, I believe in compulsory vaccination. I'm not going to pretend I don't. I think that we should crack down on idiots who don't want to be vaccinated. I'm getting a lot of. Anyway, that's what I think.

Okay. Okay. Parker, Matthew, Scotty, what do you think of this new company called Urban Company. I don't know what that. Have you heard of Urban Company?

No, sorry. Explain what it does.

Yeah, let us know what it is. Matthew, in the comments there now. And Malcolm Valley's tuning, which is great.

All right.

Jim's Mobile ties. Jim, when the lockdown is over, our franchise franchisor in Epping would like you to attend their open day at the new Jim's Mobile Tire Centre.

Well, I don't mind doing that. As I said, I don't like flying, but if it's in Melbourne, I'll come.

We can come out with the camera and stuff.

Absolutely, yeah, sure. We'd love to. Love to support you.

Done.

All right.

Matthew Dwyer's got. Hi, Jim and Joel. Jim, please consider boycotting seven News. They are not interested in this story. Seven News aren't interested in doing a hatchet job. If only they would report the whole story. Just the five seconds about challenging the legality. Channel 7, take note. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Look, partly my own fault. I'm not a politician. I'm not used to it. I didn't quite understand how you can distort somebody by taking. So actually, in all the later interviews, I was very careful that everything I said conveyed the full message, like a politician. So I learned my lesson. You can't blame them for trying to make a big, big beat up about it. They distort a bit, so they do. It's my fault. I shouldn't let myself be used that way.

You went for 20 minutes. So JWizard was their most popular thing on socials and they kept resharing it all the time. I kept using it again to keep getting some more people to their page. So you're the most popular thing on their page for the last two months, I reckon, in terms of their Facebook page.

Well, the media likes me because they. Because they own Big Story.

They love the logo. Jim is Marlin. It's always Jim's Marlin bosses the logo in there because everyone recognizes it. Right. So everyone shares it online, the way it goes. And Sean Daly says, you want the masks? Absolutely. So the mask, we get them. Sean, we're going to put them online. You can buy RMIT Club says thank you and thanks to Paul Evans as well. Okay. Raoul Francisco's going, hi, I'm a painter. I'd love to work with Jims. We do have painting franchise rail. So you can join as well.

Absolutely. We've not only got franchisee roles, we've also got franchisor. Roles for people who want to, you know, rise in the organization. People can come in and start up into a new division and build the franchisee numbers from there. It's a great way to build a major business if you've got those kinds of skills. But you've got to be a person who likes people, who likes helping people. That, that's what you need at that position.

And then Troy's going with the face question. So, yes, Jim's giving Metro fees a break if they cannot work. Absolutely, absolutely. James Stewart's gone. Jim's Covid immunizations, mobile immunizations with the new Russian vaccine. I don't know if you saw that in the news.

I'm hoping this. There's a whole lot of treatments, vaccines being tested right now. Who knows, early next year maybe if we're lucky, they'll have something. They've never done anything like this before. It's. We're really hoping now.

James Lee's the first time viewer, I reckon so go. James has gone. What company started Jim's businesses? Was it the lawn service?

Yes, it was me. Well, it was me mowing lawns. Jim's mowing was Jim mowing originally and I just got a bit big for my boots. I mean, that's what it was and it wasn't for quite a few years. We actually decided to try something else.

That's it then. Paul Evans has gone on Jim's Lawyers. So I know it's something you're passionate about, isn't it?

Jim's legal. I'd love to do. And I'd love to do it with a feedback mechanism. Look, there are. It's, it's fun to make jokes about lawyers and there's some, there's some good ones, but I could, I could tell you quite a few if I had time. But the fact is there are some lawyers who are the worst scumbags in the world who will just rip people off who would take enormous amounts of money. We had a case once that was settled for $35,000 and the lawyer, as a mediation, the lawyer charged $100,000. I mean that guy is a psychopath, whoever did that. At the same time you have some incredibly decent, wonderful human beings. Our own in house Lawyer Harper has her own business too, which is a fantastic lady. So what I like to do is to have a business with. By the most rigorous system of customer surveys, we find people who really look after the interests of their clients. And there's some great people who can do some great things.

So make sure guys, everyone watches 140 people, which is great. Make sure you share the feed and make sure you like it as well. So we've got Peter, he's gone for comment. Jim, I have 10,000 bucks in savings, a mortgage and married with a four year old child. Is a franchise purchase a good move for me?

If you're the right person to run it. And bear in mind that not everybody succeeds in business. We lose around about 10, 10 and a half percent of our franchisees in the first year. Not all fail. Some of them go independent or just get offered another job. So it's not for everybody. But if you've got the basic business skills to do it, it's a fantastic way ahead. I would say it's a vastly, vastly better investment for most people than something like an arts degree. Seriously?

Well, it's your young family.

Or a law degree.

That's true. Or a law degree. Absolutely.

There are more law students than lawyers in the country. A law degree is not a royal road to massive wealth, I can tell you.

I know, I know, I've got one.

Yeah, that's right. Whereas, you know, a service business is fantastic because you get in there and you start. We've got young people who've been 24, 25 years old who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and having a great lifestyle and working towards immense wealth. It's a terrific way to go if.

You'Ve got the skills and you've got a young family there, Peter. So it's probably something good to get you right behind you and make yourself a great life. Then we've got Matthew. Dwyer's got him. Next. Next election, Jim needs to make substantial dog donations to the major party that will form government. That way, the next pandemic, we get looked after, unlike union backed jobs.

Did I wish I was that rich? Matt? One of the things people don't quite understand is that when one of our franchisees makes $100, I get less than $1. It's a trickle down thing. Or I might say trickle up. I'm not nearly as wealthy as I imagined to be, you know, Business Review Weekly wanted to do me is part of the rich 500. And I gotta say, you gotta be joking. I wouldn't be 10% of the value of one of those guys.

Yeah, the comment online all the time is, oh, Jim's more money for his property portfolio, mansions or something like that. Online we saw a lot of.

I wish, I wish if I could get to speak a lot more of the half billion dollars we're supposed to turn over. I'd be a lot better off, I can assure you. And we'll keep going.

David Dynes going. I've been training with Craig from Portland because you lot are all infected, lol. It's been great. All my customers love me to come and fix their problems. Face mask getting a bit tiring. By the end of the day. You are in region of Victoria, David, so absolutely lovely for you. Then Hay day's jumping on, which is fantastic as well. So hopefully let's know the cleaning division's going Hay day with everything as well. That'd be nice, you know, then James Lee's gone. Jim's merchandise. We do have Jim's merchandise, but we can't post it because we can't beat the office.

Jim is Monopoly, Jim's hats, Jim's Bears and all kinds of good stuff, but it's all stuck there. We can't do anything about it.

We will when we come back, hopefully very soon. Eric Jergens gone. Hi, Jim. Are you connected in any way or have considered getting into touch with the law firm that is looking at doing a class action against Daniel Andrews?

Yes, I've been speaking to a qc, the same guy that did the Israel Fulau case. Actually, we've been talking about it and considering what we can do. We are looking for a franchisee also to act as a. As a front for a legal action which would cost them nothing but for loss of income. So there's having to find anybody so far. But if any franchisees watching who don't mind taking a bit of flack, we'd love to hear from you, Jim, at.

Jim's, get a bit of press. Get a bit of press out of it.

Whoever it is, it would too. And they might. They might actually get the lost income back too. So you've got to have fun with the guts to run it. But we should be challenging Andrews on every level we possibly can.

There we go. So make sure jims.net if you think you can, can do it. Danny Donald's gone. Paul sandals. Ring everyone you can. Z should ring Z's often as well. So other Z's. Ringing Z's during this time is definitely, if, you know, reach out to someone.

Yes, absolutely. It's important to keep connections in this day and age. Look, mental health is a huge issue right now. It was bad enough before. With what's gone on, it's really awful. You know, the lights of depression, of suicide. Everything's gone way up in this time, which is why what the Premier has done is so lacking in conscience. He must know the suffering that people are going through. He probably doesn't and if he does, he doesn't care. Honestly, how could he do what he's done and not see the damage it's doing to people's lives and their families?

Let us know how you're doing in there in the comments if you need someone. Guys, make sure you message on the friggin. Help each other out. Mohammed's gone. Here. Builder Cleaning refused to pay me. Job done last week is excused because of the lockdown. Can you tell me how I can get my payment from this builder? Thanks. I've heard a bit of that going around with construction industries.

Yeah, people use any sort of excuse, I'm afraid. One of the things we want to do is to is get in touch with a company called Equifax, which actually allows you to, when you fall in a certain procedure, the mowing guys in Sydney use them. You can actually register them as bad debtors. That's going to be a fairly thing. I'd like our franchisees to have access to that. I've asked people from the office to chase them up and see if we can get onto that. But yes, we need to do a lot more for these dodgy so and so's who don't want to pay us. I've got no sympathy with somebody doesn't want to pay my franchisees.

If you're in the clearing group, Mohamed, I know they have letters and templates on their website as well for how to chase debtors and stuff. So talk to your franchise or for advice as well.

One of the things too, with Jim's Jobs, their new program, one of the planned things is to have actually a system in there which will enable us to chase debtors. Just send them email, emails, texts, all kinds of things. Just chase them and chase them and chase them till they get so fed up with this, they pay.

Speaking of Jim's Jobs, we're actually doing a Jim's Jobs webinar, I think in another six days as well. So we'll let more people know about that if they want to know how to use the program.

It's becoming better and better every week.