0:00:07 - Craig Schulze
Okay, everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the one shot movement podcast, where we dive deep into the stories of entrepreneurs, business owners, anyone that's out there making it happen. At the moment, we are running a very special series where we're interviewing franchisors, ceos, founders of companies, people that are making a huge impact on the planet, and today we have a phenomenal guest. Her name's Amber Manning and she's the CEO of a phenomenal brand called Just Cuts, which is a 30 year old company, the biggest hairdressing or salon in the Southern Hemisphere, been going for over 30 years, over 200 stores but she'll showcase a lot more about their story. So, welcome to the show, amber. Thank you, craig, lovely to be here. I always like to invite each guest just to showcase a bit of their story, how they got to where they are today and maybe even provide a bit more context to Just Cuts as a business brand as well, and then we'll get into some questions and provide value to the audience, absolutely. 

0:01:15 - Amber Manning
Well, I guess I actually started out in franchising at the age of 21. So I left school in year 10 and didn't know what I wanted to do. So my mother made me study IT because she thought, well, computers is the way of the future, that's what you need to do. So I studied computers, went into IT and accounts and decided that I needed to make some more money. And how was I going to do that? And I started my own, my first business, which was an accounting franchise at the age I was actually 20. I was 21 when I sold that business and I was very good at building that business up and getting lots of people. But unfortunately at 21, doing business activity statements at two in the morning just wasn't my thing. So that was an interesting start for me. So I started out in the franchising space there quite young and then went into the state within franchising, working in the marketing accounts, business development and marketing space for Harvey Norman franchisees and Telstra franchisees. So that was. You know, I learned a lot from Harvey Norman steering committees and how their franchise models work, and working within the Telstra business as well. 

I then again really enjoyed the franchise space. I enjoyed travelling. I loved to travel, so I was looking after ACT Southern New South Wales, travelling all over the state. So that's what I loved about the franchise space too Obviously, franchisees are everywhere. 

And then I did a full swing and went into the not-for-profit space and that was a really exciting opportunity for me in terms of it was still business development and business management, but it was in the government sector, so rolling out government contracts and learning a lot from key stakeholders, but having to grow employment agencies throughout Southern New South Wales and ACT. So that was a big learning curve and had a lot of team members under me, a lot of staff, and gave me some great development. And then I looked at you know what was I going to do next? And that's where very lucky that JustCuts is actually in the family and my family were looking to grow the business more and put more of a manager in place to look after the JustCuts growth you know, domestically and internationally, and took the opportunity to jump into the family business and learn the ropes and I've worked my way up over nine years and now in the CEO role. 

0:04:12 - Craig Schulze
Wow, phenomenal story, and I can draw a lot of, I guess, parallels on my journey, in particular at year 10. I left home at year 10, not because I wasn't loved, it was because of our school was in a remote part of Tasmania and we only had school that went to year 10. 

So I then left home and I bought my first business when I was 22 years of age, which was a fitness franchise, and that ended up owning five clubs and setting up 22 franchises myself on that journey as well. 

But the thing that I really resonated with there is your evolution and continuing to, I guess, look for new opportunities, and this podcast is about making the most of your one shot at life, and ambition is certainly something there, and for those and my listeners know, my passion is travel and treating the world as their oyster, being to 120 different cities in the world and I really like the fact that you see opportunity in travel and growth overseas and so on. And I wanted to touch a little bit more on just cuts to get the ball rolling, because I've interviewed a lot of franchisors on this show and, interestingly, everyone's at different stages and I would refer to just cuts a brand and a salon size and a longevity and stability. The way you have to do business now is different to somebody coming into the industry. Do you want to just share a bit of the journey to date of just cuts and how it got started and give some more context to where you are as a business now, internationally and domestically? 

0:06:05 - Amber Manning
Sure, Look, I think the difference for us is not only being a franchise brand but also a family brand. We are extremely lucky that our very first franchisee is still in the network today, so she'll be celebrating 33 years with us this year and she's a huge part to the story of just cuts. Dennis opened his first just cuts in 1990, had quite a few sales before that in 1983, but first franchise in 1990. And the way that came about is, in hairdressing, a lot of hairdressers they learn their trade. They say thank you very much, I'm going to go start my own business or I'm going to go work somewhere else. And what we're lucky with at Just Cuts is that not all of our franchises are actually hairdressers, so they're investors and owner operators in the business. And how that came about is Leanne at Engadine said to Dennis you know I want to start my own business. And he said OK, great, you know you're leaving me. And she said no, I want you to speak to my dad. I want to do model, exactly what you do, and I want to call it exactly what you call it. And Leanne's father said to Dennis where's your franchise agreement? And Dennis said I'll get you that and didn't have a franchise agreement. 

Luckily, the Franchise Association of Australia was around back then in the 90s and when it got a franchise agreement. So that's how Leanne became our first franchisee and when the first franchise selling was opening in Engadine, leanne was was about to have a baby and what we realized, what Dennis realized at the time, is the systems and processes in place. The business was able to run itself. So absolutely we love having hairdressers as owners, but that's where where Dennis really identified that really you don't have to be a hairdresser to own a just cuts. And that's really been the growth phase for us and very much around multi unit ownership for us. So that's that's been a big growth and multi ownership has been quite successful in just cuts because we're a fixed fee franchise, so we don't take a percentage, so you know you can grow your business as much as you like. 

0:08:32 - Craig Schulze
And in regards to the growth, obviously nationally, but I noticed on your website that you do have franchises outside of Australia. What was the reason for that? Was it a multi franchise owner wanting to pack up and move to a different country? How did all that come about? 

0:08:53 - Amber Manning
Look, you know, if you look at you know our growth, we would love to see just just cuts around the world. We know, we know the models works. We're in that middle market. Our target market is families. You know we are 50% male, 50% female and everyone has hair all around the world. So isn't that a great opportunity. The UK market was very much. You know Dennis owned and operated quite a few cellons back in the in the 60s so it was always his passion to get back into the UK. So I was able to drive that, to pick up a master franchise agreement in the UK and get that going. And you know, opportunities have just really raised themselves through contacts and connections. Our franchisee in Taiwan is a hairdresser himself, learned and did his education in Australia and wanted to take the brand back to Taiwan. So we've had great growth and an opportunity there. 

0:09:54 - Craig Schulze
And you bring up a really good point and you know, when I'm on the other side of the podcast getting interviewed, people often ask me you know what's the best bit of advice? You know you'd like to give yourself as a you know 20 years ago type of thing and I always say, like building relationships and building networks, like there's so much technology in the world today but you can't operate. I guess I mean your business opportunities often come through your networks and you just touched on you know you've some of your international expansions happen from within the network or people that know people. Do you? Is that a big part of your recruitment strategy to find new franchises? 

0:10:38 - Amber Manning
Absolutely. But a lot of our growth is also come with, become from within. So an example of that is one of our stylists, you know, back 15 plus years ago, was a hairdresser at Bondi Junction and he said to Dennis, I really want to open my own business. Where could I open a business? And Dennis said we'd love to get into Tasmania. And he said, all right, I'll go down and start the first salon in Tasmania. And he's built that up to nine cell on today. So you know we're very lucky that people have wanted to grow with us, wanted to grow with our brand and follow those systems. So you know he doesn't have to work on the floor anymore so that it's people see that and they see the success internally and want to lead by that. So that's, that's great for us to see. 

0:11:31 - Craig Schulze
Hmm, and just on franchisee's, like I always say to people that you know in a franchise, the more skill required to do a TAS, a harder it is to grow a franchise, because you know you want to create that consistency across the brand with hair cutting and styling and salon type of work. Does a franchisee need to be, I guess, a hairdresser or have the level of skill or do they? Can they be an investor and find that person? 

0:12:07 - Amber Manning
Yeah. So when we talk about my investors, if you said to me who are your franchisee is, we would say they are mom and dad investors. So we love that. A lot of our franchisee is where to have. Some have the HR, the payroll hat and some have the, you know, relationship building, marketing, business development hat. So they really work really well as a team there and and so for us we try to model it that way. 

But no, you don't have to be hairdresser, because we put the systems and processes in place and we only hire fully qualified hairdressers to assist in running that business and the training and support that we provide to our team leaders and to our franchisees of how to run the business. But that also leads down into our data and data management. So, for example, we might measure a redo. So a redo style cut for us is you know, you can never put hair. 

The biggest complaint we get is he took too much hair off. Now you can never glue hair back on. So we always train our stylist. You know, less is more. So if someone wants to go really short, we'll take it a little bit short and we'll say here's a seven day guarantee, you know, if you'd like a little bit more off. You know, please come back. But we also use that as a complaint management process. Where someone is getting a lot of redo is, we can identify across the business very quickly where those redo is are and how to support and train up those team members if there's issues there. 

0:13:42 - Craig Schulze
Yeah, it's a great quality control measure. That's also a great marketing strategy in the same. Right now let's talk about businesses in different stages of growth. You got startups. You've got well established. You know, obviously your business is that a. You know longevity, lots of stores, big scale, international and the start up. You know I would say that they've got to invest more money into marketing and strategy. To you know, get their business and develop the sales. 

at what stage of growth would you say you are at 30 years into the journey with? Do you have to invest more resources into growing the existing network or are you a franchise brand that are really looking to grow more franchisees and grow your business that way? 

0:14:36 - Amber Manning
For us, it's really supporting the business network to be able to grow and looking for other opportunities. I mean, obviously, covid has been a major impact to all businesses. However, it's helped us restructure where we would go, so a lot of people have moved to regional areas. So if you look at shopping center growth, you know we can we actually use data to measure GPS how many people go through each shopping center every day. So we we can see that the majors in metro areas are a lot slower to come back than regional areas. So you know, our target is regional growth, whereas there might be some regional areas that we might not have looked at before because the population size. 

However, we can re look at that now because people are working from home. You know our busiest days used to be a Saturday. They're not anymore, they're a Monday or Tuesday. So so I guess for us, we've just sort of retargeted what our focus is, but also looking at new avenues being, I guess, around for 33 years now is how can we help our owners to make more profit? And so for us, that was about going out and manufacture our own product range. So we manufacture justice professional, which is our own haircare product range, and it's a lot more margin and, I guess, cream on top for our franchise ease to earn another revenue stream for them. So that's how we're looking at is how can we help them grow their business, how can we help them with their average spend? And for us, that's in investing in digital. 

0:16:10 - Craig Schulze
Yeah, yeah, and that's lucky. Just probably answered my next question with that size of business and the leverage in the scale by introducing a product range that you just named. I think, from my research, that was something that come about in around a decade ago, around 2013. 

0:16:31 - Amber Manning
Yes, correct. 

0:16:33 - Craig Schulze
Yes, you know, looking at those opportunities. So if you're a franchise or out there looking for opportunities and you've got an established network, how can you leverage the network, provide more profit and a product range like you developed? You said was really highly profitable for you? Other other opportunities like that that you think would be a good fit for your business model? 

0:17:01 - Amber Manning
Look, for us it's that digital connection right, you know, even in terms of data capture and database loyalty and loyalty management, we're finding that clients are our clients are checking in with us through the app, they're connecting with us through our kiosk, they want to talk to us online so that face-to-face I mean very luckiest hairdressers because you know they're connecting face-to-face For us it's about, obviously, you know, the biggest issue across every industry at the moment is recruitment and how do we support our stylist on the floor? And that is really around that digital investment so clients can check in online. So it's reducing, you know, stylists having to walk away from the chair and be away from that client, so that, you know we can speed up our processes. So our investment in technology is to again help our franchisees to be able to get more people through the door. 

0:18:01 - Craig Schulze
Well said. Also in business there's you go through I guess sometimes you nearly call it a cycle or something where you go through high growth phases and then re-establishing and building strength in your network and system. What are some of the challenges along your journey that you know you've had to overcome, like, obviously, the COVID era, when you've got a bricks and mortar business in Melbourne, was a challenge, and that mild industry, the fitness industry it decimated a lot of retail businesses because of the lockdowns of up to 300 days. Is there any other challenges that you felt or even you might want to address? How did you go through that era? 

0:18:50 - Amber Manning
Oh gosh, well, probably two parts of that question, I guess you know. Obviously, in Melbourne and across the network, you know we were able to support our franchisees, you know, through fee relief and also driving online. You know we're very lucky. In every country People wanted to support their local community and local business owners, so we drove our online sales that were able to give a kickback to our franchisees larger than we normally would to support them through that time. Biggest issues for us, obviously you know build prices are going up significantly. So you know our shop fits have gone up 40%. So we're looking at how can we reduce the cost of shop fits. You know negotiating leases is a big one and recruitment. So your strategies we're putting in place for that as well. 

0:19:43 - Craig Schulze
Yeah, I mean they're very common and obvious and for me I just to share. But when I had fitness clubs, I went through the global financial crisis and getting capital Very easy for me prior to the global financial crisis, and then go into a bank and say, I'm, we've just got a new boutique gym, we want to open with that, we need to do the fit out, etc. 

And they're saying no, and they're able to get creative around there. So I think, as a franchise or you really need to be looking years ahead at trends and so on, like that Is that? Sort of what you're doing to innovate your business. 

0:20:26 - Amber Manning
Absolutely. So we're already starting to look at you know, what is the 2024 sell and what does the sell on of the future look like to take our franchisees on that journey. So we've got plans in place for the next five years of what do our cell ones look like? What's the sell on of the future? What does digital of the future look like? How can we help our franchisees to increase their profitability and make sure that stylists want to work at just cuts and increase retention? So that's a key focus for us around our social movement as well, and getting that following of our stylist. 

0:21:04 - Craig Schulze
Hmm, when I was looking at your profile and I love talking about this topic the word that popped out for me quite constantly was around leadership, and just listening to your talk today, it's you're very articulate with how you understand the whole entire business. What would you say are important ingredients to becoming a good leader and then showing good leadership? 

0:21:37 - Amber Manning
Oh, interesting, interesting questions, look. I mean, obviously, key to leadership is listening, listening to your team, listening to your franchisees. You know, I really see it as my role and my team's role to make sure that our franchisees are happy and our franchisees are profitable. And really, you know, key to these days is flexibility. As I say, it's not always about money, and especially with COVID. You know we haven't returned to the office full time, so our team have the flexibility that you know they're in the office two days a week and the rest of the week they're remote or online and you know we're really coming together. 

We came together just last week as a leadership team and run wellness programs for our team so that they can focus on what's their focus for 2023. And how does our communication change that we're now not sitting by the printer or all the you know in the office. So really, for me, it's just been leading my team around. Our communication style has to change now that we're out of COVID and we're not in the office full time. So for me, it's really about listening. It's about wellness, mental health and making sure that everyone feels supported. 

0:22:57 - Craig Schulze
Hmm, well said. And just to add that, I mean, this is a big topic of mine. If you are a big believer to in your business and your life, and your wealth and your money will only ever grow to where you grow. If so, if you've got a six figure mindset, be sure you're going to end up with a six figure business. And so, you know, listen to podcasts like this and learn from people like Amber that have got extreme experience in the industry, which is why I'm putting together this series for founders and CEOs, etc. Because you know you might just pick up that one thing that you can implement into your life and business, and you know I probably invested the best part of a million dollars into my own mentorship programs over the years, and it's about, you know, I guess, continuing to grow and evolve, just to add something into that. 

And while we're talking about that, what is the vision for just cuts? You mentioned you've got a five year plan, etc. Is it to be more countries? Is it to yeah? I'd love to hear about what that's all looks like. 

0:24:03 - Amber Manning
Absolutely yes, look, you know just cuts. Our focus is is international growth. So going into the Asian market and obviously you know, uk and European market, where you know we've now got our product range into five countries as well. So we're growing that space. We're really lifting that profile. But again, we want to make sure that, you know, just cuts is around for another hundred years. So investing and planning in the cell on of the future. What does digital look like? What does shopping centers look like? What does the mix look like to make sure that we're the leaders in hairdressing throughout the world? That's our goal. 

0:24:47 - Craig Schulze
So if you are looking for business opportunity, a franchise, or you're listening to this and and you're passionate about the beauty health, though, or not necessarily health beauty and hairdressing space, you know, just cuts could be a good opportunity for you. At the end of each episode, always ask each guest a series of questions. I call it the rapid fire question section, but it's not necessarily rapid fire answers. Is there a book or could be on leadership, or a podcast, or a bit of content that you absolutely believe everyone reads or listens to will benefit significantly to get ahead in life? 

0:25:30 - Amber Manning
Gosh, I wish you asked me this question earlier, because I have so many books that I love reading. 

I just gosh. I love reading true stories you know about, about businesses. So yeah, for me it's just about any true stories and, to be honest, I'm having a memory blank, but I do. I do listen to podcasts on a on a regular basis. Obviously, for me it's in the franchising space or in the hair and beauty space. I'm always listening to podcasts in the e commerce space as well. You know online and digital. You know, for us, anthony Whitaker is quite a leader in the hairdressing space in the UK markets, so you know he has a podcast that we listen to regularly and share with our franchise ease on learning and development. But I will get you that list. 

0:26:30 - Craig Schulze
I'll put it in the show notes, but just if you are, if you true stories and, I guess, biographies I think I don't know the exact name, but I read this 20 years ago and it was the former founder and franchise or of Wendy's told their story of building their franchise network, which is quite an interesting story. I don't know the name because it was 20 years ago that I read that. Very empowering book at the time. 

0:27:00 - Amber Manning
Interesting. Well, I'll look that one up. And obviously, you know, key one for me is the e myth. I mean that's, you know, applicable to any business it's always good to go back to. 

0:27:09 - Craig Schulze
Absolutely An oldie but a goodie. What about the best bit of advice you've ever received? 

0:27:16 - Amber Manning
Oh gosh, yeah. One that Dennis, our founder, always says to me is take everyone else seriously, but don't take yourself so seriously. So you know, I think that's that helps you to sleep at night, right? Is that you know really pay attention and be respectful of and listen to everyone around you, but you know you don't have to to sweat small stuff and take it home with you either. 

0:27:40 - Craig Schulze
Very good wisdom in that bit of advice too. What about, on the flip side, the worst bit of advice or something that just you just totally disagree with? It could be something like hustle hard and you just don't agree with that as a concept. 

0:27:59 - Amber Manning
Oh, look, you know I guess one is about. You know it doesn't always have to be. You know everyone says what's the budget? Set the budget, you know, do this. But for me it's about the doing. The relationship and the growth in the building will actually get you there. So you know, it's always not just the target on what's the financial turnover, it's. You know, how are we going to get there, because really that's what's going to. 

You know, help you be successful at the end of the day. And you know, a key one for me. I mean, look, you know I say a less school in year 10, I'm a big believer in public school education and support the public school foundation. And for me, I think you know I'm and I think this is changing in big business, but I'm not a big believer in. You know you need to have a degree in this and a degree in that. You know, and I think that's around the highest low fire fast. You know, sometimes you can go out and recruit, you know, best in the business and they look amazing on paper but at the end of the day, someone that might not have that degree or higher level skill set could be just as more successful. So for me, I'm always open minded to, to who. 

0:29:12 - Craig Schulze
I recruit yeah, absolutely. And I can add a good story to that Again the manager of one of my fitness clubs. He was newly qualified but experienced in life and in the job interview he said to me, I've got a funny laugh. He laughed and he said I've got a funny laugh you probably hear that a lot because a lot making good jokes and I fell in the heart of hearts that he just had that personality to connect with people and we ended up working together for the best part of a decade. 

He ended up buying my business off me and it was really that enthusiasm on fire will always beat knowledge on ice, so you don't need to like that. 

0:29:55 - Amber Manning
I'll use that. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. 

0:30:00 - Craig Schulze
Yeah, like totally, totally. I'm all on with that as a. You know formal education will get you a good job, but you know, it's not necessarily it's. The school of hard knocks is referred to that for a very good reason, like learning through life. My biggest life learning at the time was, firstly, it was going through the global financial crisis, my first economic downturn, nearly semi bankrupt, and then I rebuilt and built something 10 times bigger than that. My second life lesson was when my wife and I lost our first son, who was a stillborn, and I was so focused on business and life and growth and everything there and that changed my perspective on the world. 

But you have to go through the school of hard knocks and the life lessons to become the person that you are. So I think that's really, really profound advice to take on board. What about this podcast is about making the most of your one shot at life. There's somebody out there right now. They're driving into the city, they're listening to this podcast and they're ready to take the plunge, but they just need that extra little step to do that. What's something that you would say for somebody to just go and give it their best shot. 

0:31:22 - Amber Manning
Look, I think it's giving your best shot is about to me. What is your passion and what do you love doing? What makes you feel good? You know. So you could be saying you know I want this top CEO role, but is that really going to make you happy? So I think that that one shot is being clear on is that really going to make you happy? And you know, for me it's about being able to travel still to this day. You know, I can travel in my role and I love that, and I can get on a plane because I love traveling and I've traveled all around the world, you know. So I guess what I would say to that person is make sure it's something that you're passionate about and that you love and that you know you wake up in the morning going. I love what I do because you know it's not all about the money at the end of the day. 

0:32:15 - Craig Schulze
Absolutely no point being the richest person in the cemetery, so be happy. That's another good one. I'll use that too In one interview and, at the end of every episode, always invite the guests to share about where do people find your website, your socials, where you want to send people, people connect with you, people looking for franchise opportunities. Feel free to share that with the audience. 

0:32:46 - Amber Manning
Oh, wonderful, thank you, craig. Well, look I. You know we have followings, obviously on LinkedIn from in the corporate space and newsletters and that type of thing. You know we're apparently tick tock famous injustice professional. So if you want to get to know our team a little bit more, we are on tick tock under justice professional haircare. But yeah, we do have a monthly newsletter that we send out and all our business topics and happenings in just cuts what sounds have opened what our franchise ease are up to. So feel free to to sign up online at just cutscom. 

0:33:21 - Craig Schulze
And from me, I want to thank you for taking the time for jumping on the show and, yeah, really got a lot of value out of this conversation, so thank you. 

0:33:31 - Amber Manning
Thank you, craig, and thank you for inviting me on your podcast. 

0:33:34 - Craig Schulze
No worries, bye.