--------- HIGHLIGHTS ---------
0:00:06 - Guest Shares Modest Life Story (59 Seconds)
0:04:00 - Business Consulting and Franchise Acquisition (163 Seconds)
0:10:57 - Building the Netflix of Franchise (83 Seconds)
0:16:16 - Revolutionizing Franchise Sales (49 Seconds)
0:21:33 - Screening for Successful Partnerships in Franchising (104 Seconds)
0:32:28 - Importance of Support for Franchisees (107 Seconds)
0:36:43 - Adapting and Tweaking in the Market (37 Seconds)
0:41:29 - The Power of Living With Purpose (108 Seconds)
--------- HIGHLIGHTS WITH TRANSCRIPT ---------
* Guest Shares Modest Life Story | 0:00:06 - 0:01:05 (59 Seconds)
0:00:06 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
Okay, everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the one shot movement podcast, where we dive deep into the stories of entrepreneurs, business people, anyone that's out there making it happen. At the moment, we're running a special series where we're interviewing CEOs, franchisors, founders in the franchising industry to help, I guess, elevate and give people some really in good insights to different opportunities out there in the marketplace. Today we have the CEO of James Home Services, which is a business that's been around for 30 years. But also this is going to be a great story because we've got a new ownership takeover within the last three years, so we're going to be able to talk about some involvement in that, and the CEO, rhiannon Simcox, is here to join us today. So welcome to the show, rhiannon.
0:01:00 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
Thanks so much for having me, Craig.
0:01:02 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
Great, and I always like to invite each guest to just spend a couple of minutes
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* Business Consulting and Franchise Acquisition | 0:04:00 - 0:06:43 (163 Seconds)
0:04:00 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
Then I worked actually when I moved to Cairns. I'm based in Cairns now. I moved up here and I thought, you know I spent three years in the legal industry but my passion really was I kept thinking about how invigorated I had felt every morning, getting up and stepping into that management and leadership role and having, you know, the responsibility of my team and taking care of them and making sure that we were heading a business in the right direction. And that sort of drew me back to a business consulting and regional economic development space, which is where I worked for five years until I jumped on board with James Home Services. I was one of those people who ended up a little bit sort of jobless in COVID. You know I was working as a business consultant and of course COVID struck and all of our clients and all of our projects. You know, business and their confidence in their businesses, just you know, disappeared overnight, essentially. And everybody's saying, well, can we just put our project on hold? And I ended up sort of looking at my situation, thinking I don't have work, and and I, you know, have been introduced to somebody in the meantime who was looking for a bit of an all rounder in the business space. And I sat down opposite him and we had a bit of a chat and one thing led to another. And on day when I sat down opposite him and I said, okay, so what's my job? You know, we've talked to the high level about what my skills are and what you need, but what actually do you and his each me doing? And he said, well, I'm thinking about buying a national franchise network. Obviously, we need to put together a due diligence team and run through that process. You know, due diligence was a space that I had previous experience in as a business consultant, so not new ground to me. And he said, you know, so I'll include you in that team. And so here we are due diligence led to our sun covering that. It was a fabulous brand with really a revered history in the country fabulous bones, but needed some significant refreshing, needed, needed a rebuild of those foundations, really, that were established 30 years ago and and the previous owners had just you know, really had forgotten the importance of reinvestment and redevelopment of your product over the over the years. And so here I am, you know, as you diligence gig turned into a okay, well, now you understand what it looks like in there. Let's get, let's get you as part of this team to work on where we take this company into the future, and and that's that's how I got where I am- Well done and great story can resonate with a lot of that.
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* Building the Netflix of Franchise | 0:10:57 - 0:12:20 (83 Seconds)
0:10:57 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
Great and one of the things that did peak my interest when we first connected, you said I think it was we're building the Netflix of the franchise in industry. And yeah, I was like, wow, what's this all about? And you were describing your model around that and for me, one of the barriers of entry for getting into any business is upfront capital. So if you can reduce that, that, there is an easier way to enter into your own business and then go and build your own future One, I would say. Issue that I see with low entry, you don't necessarily have the ability to screen people out that may not be the right person. So is that something that you've found? I guess the less risks on the table opens the door for everyone. Does everyone want to come in? More screening required? Has that been a problem? And just share what you want to share about what this concept of a world first and Netflix of franchise.
0:12:13 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
Yeah, wow, that's a big question. We could spend an hour or lower and answer just that question. So many facets to it.
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* Revolutionizing Franchise Sales | 0:16:16 - 0:17:05 (49 Seconds)
0:16:16 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
We've now got a model that completely turns how the industry traditionally thought about selling franchises on its head, which is something that when I first came up with the concept was doing some research. I thought surely somebody else has thought of this. Surely there are case studies of people in Australia, globally, who have done this before us and I can use those case studies as my own research for how we might structure our model. And I couldn't find a thing. I could not find a single thing. So we've laced our own trail and we developed it from scratch. And some of the most interesting conversations I had was with our lawyer, who's a franchising specialist, and I rang her and I said got this idea. And she's an incredible woman. And she said great,
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* Screening for Successful Partnerships in Franchising | 0:21:33 - 0:23:17 (104 Seconds)
0:21:33 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
And I will say that sometimes we have to sit down with someone and say we just don't think this is going to work. We're sorry, but we just don't see that a partnership between the two of us is going to be a good decision for either of us in the longer term. And that's a really hard conversation to have, particularly when, on the one hand, we know we've got a great product. We know we've got a great product, we know that we can support our franchisees really well, we know that we can grow their businesses and we know that we want growth. We, you know, we've redeveloped this network so that we can help more people achieve the goal of becoming a business owner. So we want all of those things. But we also have to take a much higher level view and a long term strategic view, and that is that we don't want a network of people who aren't the right fit for us and who we don't suit what their goals and expectations are either. So if we don't have that alignment, we will have that conversation and say, hey, we just don't think that we're the right fit for you. So yeah, screening is a really big deal for us. It is the biggest risk that we have in opening up this model the way that we have it has meant that our process has adapted to the higher volume of inquiry and it has meant that there are more people that we're having that conversation with this by progress through the process.
0:22:48 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
Yeah, I'm going to go back to a question, because you're the first person in the franchise and that's been a takeover of an already established franchise and sometimes there might be someone out there that may go hey, I might be interested in buying a franchise network might be distressed, that might be doing really well and the people have just run their race and ready to reach out to them.
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* Importance of Support for Franchisees | 0:32:28 - 0:34:15 (107 Seconds)
0:32:28 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
When we purchased the network two and a half years ago, we were already sitting at that 100 mark, and this I want to share with you in full transparency, because I think it's so important for people to understand, when you're a business owner, the importance of reinvesting in your business and the importance of innovating and remodeling and questioning every single day. Am I doing enough to stay at the forefront? Because what we saw in James home services historically before our ownership was, you know, previous owners got a little tired and they forgot the importance of keeping up with market trends. So what we saw was that, you know, our business owners weren't getting the support that they specifically needed as business owners in our network and you know they were making the decision to exit because we weren't supporting them the way that they really needed to be supported. And so it's been a huge focus for us in the last two years is that we don't want to say that repeated. We want to make sure that we are, you know, delivering support and delivering training, delivering mentoring and coaching that really enables and empowers our business owners to own and operate their business. Because you know you join a franchise network, because you want that support. You want the support, you want the branding, you want the systems and the procedures you want. You want someone at the end of the phone if you've got a question and you don't know where to go. You know you want all of that and you really have to understand at the core why your franchisees have chosen to join your network, because only when you understand why they have can you actually then deliver a service to them that meets their needs and expectations so that they want to stay with you as a franchisee.
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* Adapting and Tweaking in the Market | 0:36:43 - 0:37:20 (37 Seconds)
0:36:43 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
That's what I do, that is all that we do, you know, and it's not massive change all of the time. It's small tweaks, it's adaptations, it's keeping your eye to the market all of the time and making sure you're adapting and adjusting at all times, you know. And so for us, the next three to five years looks much the same as the last couple of years in a lot of respects. You know it is continuous improvement and I know that we're all sick of seeing continuous improvement as a KPI on Stratplans all across the globe, but I mean that in a very actionable way, as in every single week. There are little
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* The Power of Living With Purpose | 0:41:29 - 0:43:17 (108 Seconds)
0:41:29 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
What about the best bit of advice you've ever received?
0:41:36 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
There's. There's so many, how do you possibly come up with one? I will say something that I, that I heard from someone about 13 years ago and it stuck with me to my core, is and it's not necessarily advice, but it's a statement, and I think it will resonate with a lot of people. When you die on your headstone is three things that define your entire life your date of birth, a dash, and your date of death. Make sure, every single day you are making decisions, you are doing things, you are taking action, you are living your life, so that that dash stands for what you want it to stand for at the end of it all, yeah, and that actually will.
0:42:31 Craig Schulze (Podcast Host)
That's actually my next question was the one shot podcast. One shot movement podcast is about an inspiring bit of advice to wake people up that might be just sitting there idling along and what you just said there really does resonate with that. But also, on the flip side, always ask what's the worst bit of advice you've ever received? Or it might be something that you just totally don't resonate with or believe in.
0:43:07 Rhiannon Simcocks - CEO James Homes Services Australia
Worst piece of advice? Again, so many, and I have this terrible habit of just pushing things that are not helpful to me out of my mind.
