Jim's Podcast

Tony Dunkley has nearly 1,500 five-star ratings from Jim's Antennas customers, and he has never asked for one.

Tony left eight years of 14-hour days as a CNC operator after spotting a Jim's Antennas franchise for sale in the Daily Telegraph. He bought it two weeks later. Almost 23 years on, his business covers antennas, CCTV, alarms, TV wall mounts and Starlink, with two staff, including one who has stayed 15 years.

In this episode, Tony shares his customer service formula: be reliable, turn up in uniform, clean up and be nice. He talks through the shift from antennas to security, why he installs every new product in his own home first, and why hardwired cameras keep replacing Wi-Fi systems.

He clears up the myth Jim's takes 40% of every job, shares the customer who called back 21 years later, and explains why he hired his first employee on the day he started.

If you want the long view on owning a Jim's franchise, Tony has 17 more years planned and plenty to share.

Kevin started his Jim's Mowing franchise on 1 August with 35 clients and doubled his client base by October.

He spent 14 years managing plumbing retail stores, on call 24/7, before a Jim's Mowing ad on his Facebook feed pulled him into mowing.

Ten years on, he runs 80 to 90 clients on his own, every one within 15 minutes of home, and most new work arrives through referrals rather than leads.

In this episode, Kevin explains how he grew to 140 clients, then sold splits to stop working seven days a week.

He shares how he prices edging, garden beds and footpaths, and why he messages every client the night before with an AM or PM window. You'll hear what "mowing fit" means after he lost 10 kilos in his first three months.

He also tells the story of a yard left untouched for three years, a $1,900 cleanup, and the property he still mows three owners later.

If you are weighing up a lawn mowing franchise in Australia, start with Kevin's answer to one question: why didn't he do this sooner?

0:00 Intro

1:15 From plumbing retail to Jim's Mowing

3:04 Growing on referrals, not leads

5:53 Equipment and battery tools

7:25 How to quote a mowing job

9:53 Advice before buying a franchise

12:08 Getting mowing fit

14:04 Life outside mowing: Masters hockey

16:29 A 3-year overgrown yard cleanup

19:36 Plans for the next 10 years

Ben Mallison is a new franchisee and has already implemented AI into his franchise. He shares how he uses it and the potential use cases for the future of Jim's Mowing.

How does a Jim's Bathrooms franchisee grow to $3 to 5 million in revenue in about two years? Sam joins Joel Kleber on the Jim's Podcast to break down the systems, people and mindset behind his bathroom renovation franchise in Melbourne.Sam started with one territory in Dandenong. A year later he added Glen Waverley, then Ringwood. His three teams now complete 10 to 15 bathrooms a month, with each job taking 2.5 to 4 weeks from demolition to handover. Joel saw the process firsthand when Sam's team renovated his own bathroom.Sam explains why the hardest part of scaling is letting go of the tools. He hired a project coordinator, mentored his site supervisors for years before handing them teams, and built a bonus structure to keep good people.Systems carry the load. Sam paid a specialist to customise ServiceMate, so he quotes a standard bathroom in 5 minutes and every quote gets an automatic follow-up. His win rate rose once follow-ups stopped slipping. He also uses AI to show clients a design on site within minutes.You'll also hear how Victorian homeowners choose to renovate instead of paying stamp duty to move, how Jim's Bathrooms has grown to around 35 franchisees and is heading to New Zealand, and why Sam wants 5 to 6 teams next.

Jack started a Jim's Mowing franchise from scratch in Brisbane's north.

Nearly two years later, he has doubled his regular clients from 30 to 60 and works a four day week on the tools.His biggest growth driver is BNI, a structured referral networking group. Jack joined before he even had his trailer.

One referral from a landscaping company in his chapter turned into maintenance work on a 300 house development, worth about $100,000 over two years between work done and work projected.

His cost: a $2,600 joining fee and 90 minutes a week.In this episode of the Jim's Mowing podcast, Jack explains why he is still a sole trader and how he plans to scale without losing money.

He shares why a $20,000 Scag stand-on mower now handles 90% of his work, how he sets boundaries with property managers, and why he writes a process for every task.

He also walks through how he uses ChatGPT to capture quote notes by voice, rewrite emotional emails and send him a daily weather report.

Jim's Cleaning franchisees make $2 to $3 an hour from each employee and up to $20,000 from a single split, and the division is rebuilding its training around those numbers.

Haydar Hussein is the divisional franchisor of the Jim's Cleaning Group and has been with Jim's since 2001.

He joins Joel Kleber for an October update on a network of about 1,700 franchisees and a goal to pass Jim's Mowing by the end of 2027.

Haydar explains why leads make franchisees lazy and what the best operators do with property managers instead.

He walks through the national contracts department, which sends $30 million of work a year across Jim's divisions, and a new car detailing contract with a major EV manufacturer. He gives his view on robots taking over vacuuming and mopping within five years and why deep cleaning becomes the franchisee's job.

He also covers the $17 lead fee, the pay for work guarantee and the real cost of starting solo. Listen before you compare a cleaning franchise with going alone.

0:00 Teaser: $30M in contract work0:47 Jim's Cleaning update2:40 Splits vs employees: the profit maths4:49 Local marketing beyond leads7:22 Passing Jim's Mowing by 202711:02 Robots and the future of cleaning14:00 Car detailing contract win17:03 $30M a year in national contracts18:54 New four-level head office20:44 Carpet, blinds, windows, car detailing23:32 Franchise fees and lead cost25:16 Going solo vs buying a franchise29:30 Enzyme-based cleaning products31:35 What happens after 2027

Julian runs a Jim's Mowing franchise in Sydney South and travels to a different country every month.

He batches three to four weeks of work, then flies out for five to seven days.He is nearly four years in. Around 70 regular lawns, plus 20 to 30 gutter jobs on a six to twelve month cycle.

Most of those clients have been with him almost the whole time.He did not start here. His first year was six days a week, driving 30 minutes for any lead that came through, taking every job going just to build the round.

He calls the first six to twelve months the tough part.Now he schedules the lenient clients into his week away and locks in the fortnightly ones before he flies out.

Weather is the only thing that breaks the plan.The other half of this is his travel channel, Globetrotter Julez. He films in poorer parts of Asia, mostly on Meta glasses and a GoPro, and outsources every edit.

He walks through exactly what he pays and why he does not edit himself.

Mike Davenport ran the Jim's Group training program for many years, moved to Bali, and has now returned to run the course again.

His first session back, the stage flooded and the power went out. Jim Penman found a dry spot and spoke for an hour.

Since then Mike has rewritten the whole course.

Joel Kleber asks him what changed and what new franchisees should expect. The program now runs 2.5 days with around 20 hours of content. Around 100 people attend every three weeks.

Mike explains why the franchise agreement, disclosure document, call centre and Pay for Work Guarantee now get more time, and why fees and lead fees are discussed openly in the room.

They also cover the new participants handbook, the pre and post training videos, the Jimbo app practical session, behaviour standards at training, and the rollout of the new course to New Zealand by the end of the year.

Mike finishes with what life looks like living in Bali and flying in to train.

If you are looking at a Jim's franchise, this episode shows you how you get trained and who trains you.

#ASKJIM Q & A Replay from September 2026 with Jim Penman and Joel Kleber.

A Jim's Window and Pressure Cleaning franchise doing $96,000 a year could start year three with $108,000 of work already booked. No new leads. No extra ad spend. Skagan shows exactly how.Skagan runs his own Jim's Window & Pressure Cleaning franchise in Queensland and took over as regional franchisor a year ago. In 12 months, he has grown the region from around 10 franchisees to 20. On this episode of the Jim's Group podcast, he explains why rising Google and Meta costs mean franchisees need more than paid leads, and the system his team uses to fill the gap.Repeat, recurring and referral work now makes up 75% of his own business, up from 40% a year ago. He breaks down the $100 gift card referral pack, the Window Wellness Plan, and why offering a service plan before the first clean converts better than after.

He also covers running Meta ads with Claude instead of an agency, the AI dashboard he built for his franchisees, and the real costs of getting started.