Below are profiles/testimonials of some of our Jim's Fencing Franchisee Owners Australia Wide. To view Franchisor Profiles click here. To read their story just click on their name. All the profiles are in their own words...
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1. Dragan Baljkovic - Dandenong
From day one of the franchise development I got the highest possible support from the franchisor of North East Victoria, Nick Drake, and his wife Sharon. I had no familiarity with the fencing industry and had my doubts at the start but as I went through the training and the first few weeks of being in this business I adapted easily. The provided training, assurance and leads at the start of the business have assisted me in building my business up but also having the freedom to work for myself. The company being nationally well-known has helped me gain more jobs and the security to succeed. The team’s dedication and support as well as the ongoing customer satisfaction and knowledge about the Jims have motivated me to do well. It has also given me a more flexible way of life and an easier working setting. Over the past two years I have had a good encounter with being a Jim’s franchise and plan to expand my business in the coming years.
Jims Fencing Coburg was established in Feb 2001 as a small family business, specialising in a wide range of fences including Timber paling, colorbond, pool fences, retaining walls and our ultimate Feature fences and Automated sliding gates. The feature fences include mortising the posts for the rails and plinths, routing edges and turning post tops. Our gates range from the simplest design to feature cedar gates, swinging or sliding. Over nine years we have developed exceptional fencing standards and have obtained many accolades such as becoming regional trainees for the Jims fencing group, obtaining a Domestic building licence and all the necessary qualifications such as red cards etc. All thanks to Nick and Sharon whom made it all possible to not only obtain these achievement, but recognising and rewarding our accomplishments.
I investigated the Jim’s Fencing franchise soon after a rural job fell through. I was very impressed with the course in Melbourne and the initial training provided. I also liked the idea of being my own boss and the freedom that would come with my own business. In my first year there were a few learning curves which were challenging at times. I am grateful for the support I received, and continue to receive from the Jim’s group. It’s good to know there is always someone there, if needed. I have been very fortunate to have great clients, good advice and help from my family. Going into my second year I feel more confident and optimistic about growing my business.
Jims Fencing was new to the Bendigo region, so it was a challenge at the beginning to let the public know that Jims had a fencing division. After Sean completed his training in Ballarat we commenced our business in the middle of the year, missing out on a yellow pages advertisement. Our franchisors (Darren & Catherine Hayes – Jims Fencing Western Victoria & Geelong) advertised editorials and Jims Fencing adds in the local paper. They helped deliver pamphlets to the streets of Bendigo, and gave ongoing support when needed. Nearly two years on we have established a reputation for a high standard of work with Australian made products to the Bendigo region, which we now pass on to new franchise owners as regional trainers. We are proud of what we have achieved so far and are looking forward to expanding our business further in the near future.
I have always had the desire to run my own business and after extensive research (into various opportunities) I kept returning to the Jims Fencing Group. The brand awareness (exposure), support network and public reputation of the group are highly regarded. After an initial meeting with the Franchisor I soon started on site training. This was an invaluable hands on period that gave me the fast track needed to immediately launch into business. I still get a real buzz out of a completed job that a customer compliments me upon and knowing I have achieved something worthwhile with my time.
My wife noticed an ad in the paper for a Jim’s Franchising Expo and thought she might be interested in a bookkeeping franchise so we went along to check it out. However it was me that ended up considering a Jim’s franchise and after working with the franchisor for a week I signed up and after my training I was onto my first jobs. I started my Jim’s Fencing franchise in September 2004 and am now the longest standing Jim’s fencing franchisee in South Australia. Even after 4 ½ years in business I am never bored as every job is different and I am continually learning better ways to build fences and service my customers. I have built up working relationships real estate agents, builders and strata corporations and receive work from them as well as referrals from satisfied customers. Jim’s gives me loads of job satisfaction and the freedom to work the hours I want whilst still maintaining a great lifestyle - allowing me to buy all the tools I’ve ever wanted and some pretty good toys, too.
...
Jim's
Fencing offered me the support and training required to get my
business up and running. Having no official trade skills I found
this training exceptionally helpful it gave me the confidence
to know I can do this.. |
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I felt that this was the best of both worlds. I had the security of a large well-known company and the endorsement of an established brand to back me, as well as the freedom of working for myself and aspiring for more. Jim’s provided me with the training and initial leads to kick start my business. Over the past 5 years I have progressed from just erecting paling fences, through leads, to building colorbond, pool fencing, pickets, feature fences & retaining wall's. Today my business is booming via the most credible marketing channels; word of mouth and repeat business, to the point where I had to employee a full-time employee. The best part of it all is, I still attain a great deal of satisfaction from delivering a quality product with exceptional customer service. ... 10. Aden Harris - South Liverpool
My
business has continued to grow beyond my expectations over this
time and has given me many great opportunities. I have built my
business up and now primarily run on a referral basis.My
customer base is quite diverse ranging from commercial to domestic. Recently I have been given the opportunity to be part of the team of the domestic blitz show. This has given me a great deal of satisfaction; here we are dealing with people who have real problems who are true Aussie battler’s. It is not every day that you can say you have touched someone else’s life. I am currently the co-coordinator for my franchisors 3 regions providing support and training for the franchisee’s as required. Together Rodney and I are sourcing new information, organising tours and product information on a continuous basis. I have enjoyed this role immensely as I believe in the Jims system. Such opportunities have been fantastic but I think what one of the many highlights of being a Jims fencing franchisee is the everyday interaction with our customers. ... 11. Brett Turner - Yarrawarrah
I had heard about Jims Fencing but once I found out more about the fantastic business opportunities, support and training offered by Jims I had found what I was looking for. Since the initial contact was made to invest in a Jims franchise I was very happy with how the transition from signing contracts to attending the training course and on the job training flowed so smoothly. I have progressed from basic colorbond and timber fences, to pool fences, balustrades, gates and feature fences which may not have happened in such a short period of time without the dedication of the Jims team and the training provided. My business is going great with many clients sending thank you letters and emails for the quality of work I have done for them which gives me enormous job satisfaction. I have found with Jims that you can be your own boss but also be part of the Jims team. ...
12. Jaco De Klerk - North Perth
I love being my own boss and the flexibility that it offers. Also, the support that we get from not only our franchisor but from other Jimmies guys is great. Swapping ideas and knowing how they run their business's has been very helpful, especially for a novice business owner like myself. Initially myself and a mate wanted to start a fencing business ourselves from scratch but (fortunately) that never took off. Had I taken that path, I never would have got the training or support that Jim's Fencing offers (especially the computer based/ admin stuff that I really wasn't feeling confident about in the beginning). While it was hard at the start, overall I've found the Jims experience to be a very positive one. ...
During the last year or so of mowing I built a couple of paling fences at home & for my clients and, got a lot of satisfaction out of it and made pretty good money on them too. I’ve always enjoyed home handyman stuff & building things and messing with tools, and it was nice to be able to walk away from a job and think to yourself “that looks pretty good, I’d be happy to have it at my place” & know that you wouldn’t have to come back in three weeks & mow it!! About two years ago Gary Chick, at the time one of my fellow mowing franchisees became the Regional Franchisor for Fencing in Tasmania and a phone call on another matter resulted in my receiving an information pack on Jims Fencing. The Jim’s franchising system worked pretty well for us in mowing and I couldn’t see why it should be any different with fencing so here we go again with something completely different. A month of discussion with Gary & fast talking with my wife and the mowing franchise was on the market. We expected the sale to take a while but 3 weeks later it was sold, franchise, trailer, Walker mower all gone & I was for the first time ever out of a job and business. In January 2007 I went to Melbourne for training with Rodney Gadsden for a week, signed the contracts, met Jim and handed over the cheque. We were now the proud owners of Jim’s Fencing Lindisfarne. On my return I got to indulge in my passion for power tools without “what did you buy that for?”from my wife, organize a trailer etc etc… I did my on the job training with Mark, Gary & Andy for seven weeks and was certainly time well spent learning how to build fences the properly & efficiently, quoting etc . End of training came and I took my first step into fencing & we were away with 4 weeks of work booked from leads taken during training, referrals from old mowing clients and a couple of jobs from the previous owner of Jim’s Fencing Lindisfarne Geoff. Eighteen months down the track and we have a flourishing business going , plenty of referrals coming in from previous jobs, a casual employee working for us, and things are looking pretty good. We are very confident in our future in the fencing industry & are in the process of buying a mini skid steer loader with auger & trailer to increase our productivity (I hate digging holes by hand) & it will be the biggest big boys toy in the toolbox Maintaining the highest standard of workmanship, quality & service is the most important focus of our business & this generates much of the work we do, and allows us to charge a premium price for a top job. I believe attitude is the most important part of running your own business, you need to push yourself to do that little bit extra in particular generating future business & how you conduct yourself with your clients, ensuring you listen to what they want, NOT what you think they want. Our Private business mottos “You can have your fence built one of two ways: the cheap way or the proper way , we don’t build them the cheap way! “ “We never walk away from a job we wouldn’t be happy to have at our place”
. 14. Clayton Trantor - Waramanga/Weetangera
When
all the continuous work slowed down, I had to change my focus
from building the fences to marketing and sales. Instead of being
able to move from one job to another, I had to win jobs in a competitive
market. It was necessary to explain to clients the benefits of
choosing Jims Fencing rather than other companies and stay professional
and competitive. The subject not talked about in any other newsletters from other franchisees is the on going pressure to keep levels at a high rate in order to operate a successful business. It’s not all red roses running a business. There are benefits of being your own boss and having some flexibility but there is also a constant pressure to keep up to date and maintain high quality standards in all aspects of the business. Our job is more challenging than just the manual building of fences; it’s the customer service, quoting, never-ending bookwork and time management areas that all have to come together to operate it as a successful business. I am enjoying my time
as a Jim’s Fencing Franchisee and challenging myself in
the ups and downs of running my own business. I am hoping that
this enjoyment will continue into the future.
... .
December 2002 Warren Smith approached us to become regional franchisors. This was also one of our original goals, although it occurred two years ahead of schedule. My wife Kerri, our three boys were looking forward to starting Jims Fencing in the northern suburbs of Western Australia in March 2003, which we did with great success.
We are now at the start of 2010 and have 6 Children, 11 franchise owners on the North and East side of Perth and considering the global slowdown, we didn’t do bad in 2009 (a year the whole world just about hit recession), we doubled our numbers on the North and East side of Perth, as we set out to and raised the turnover of our franchise even more. Our growth was largely due to our existing great franchise owners. We look forward to building the region further with their support and their own business success and growth, which we can’t wait to assist them with. It is now 2012, and we sold out our regional rights to one of our franchise owners, being Dave and Mandy Fitzpatrick. We are still continuing on as Franchise Owners and building fences for our Perth market, we specialise in glass fencing.
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