Jim’s Group Reaches 3100

The rapid growth in Jim’s Group continues in 2010, with Franchise numbers rising from 3,000 in January to 3,100 in early May. The Mowing Division reached 1864 in May 2010, an increase of 130 over the previous year. Western Australia did best with a rise of 17% over the past twelve months, followed by Queensland with 12.4%.

Demand for services also increased, with more than 150,000 leads in the past twelve months. Just under 10% went unserviced, because of a lack of Franchisees in certain areas. This problem was less than in previous years, partly because of the growth of larger Franchisees employing several teams of workers.

Attrition Down

Around 87% of Mowing Franchisees starting in the financial year 2008-9 were still in business a year later, an improvement on the past and strikingly better than for independent businesses, more than 50% of which have been found to fail in their first year. Reasons include a high volume of work and a new and more intensive five-day training course run by national training manager Mike Davenport.

Most of those who left sold at a good price, and for many it was for personal or family reasons rather than lack of income. Founder Jim Penman was pleased with the result, but expressed the view that ‘even a single failure is one too many’.

Business Coaches for Mowing Franchisors

For the first time ever, each Jim’s Mowing Franchisor has been assigned an experienced Business Coach. Part of their job involves teaching Franchisors how to act as Business Coaches for their own Franchisees, helping them improve income and job satisfaction. Business Coaches have proved very helpful to a number of Franchisors, but the high cost (normally $3-4,000 per month) has made it impractical until now. All costs are being paid by Jim’s Group national office.

If this experiment is successful, it may prove a model for other Divisions.

Litigation against former UK Divisional

Jim’s Group has started legal action against former UK Mowing Divisional Paul Carr, terminated for providing poor service to Franchisees. Jim’s Group is unique in allowing Franchisees to vote out their Franchisors, effectively forcing them to sell. Mr Carr was offered the option to sell his business but preferred to fight, the first time this has ever happened. Jim’s Group legal advisors are confident of success, especially given support from UK Franchisees and Franchisors. No Franchisees have left so far this year, compared with nine last year.