JPC Conference 2024 Darwin

THANK YOU TONY MEREDITH
We were introduced to Tony Meredith, our conference facilitator.
Tony is a fantastic business and motivational coach, after listening to some of his ideas, we all stepped back a little and thought more holistically about things. Tony made us think about why we got into business for ourselves and are we reaching our potential and what are our business and family goals?

A WORD FROM TONY
Thank you for an amazing 2024 Jim’s Pool Care National Conference. Whilst we spent time in Darwin learning, sharing, networking, and having fun, it’s now time to take action on growing your business.

IMPLEMENT JUST A FEW IDEAS TO START

Whilst I’m sure you came away from the conference with plenty of great ideas that you’d like to implement, I encourage you to start small and focus on implementing a few ideas really well. Let me or Brett know how that goes.

One suggestion is to start by getting clear on what you want in your business throughout this season. I call this, “Starting with the end in mind”. Consider what you want your business to look like in June 2025? How much revenue do you want? What level of growth do you want? How much profit do you want? Do you want to bring on a staff member? Would you like to split your territory? And so on.

When it comes to achieving your business goals, remember the SPACE acronym:

• Setting: Set a clear and specific goal.
• Planning: Create the plan to achieve your goal. What are the actions (lead indicators) that you will take to ensure you achieve your goal? Remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish.
• Action: Take action on your plan.
• Celebration: Celebrate all of your wins (big and small) along the way.
• Evaluation: Constantly review your actions, and course correct if necessary.

Also, customers are the lifeblood of your business. Customer service is not enough anymore, it’s about going above and beyond to create memorable moments.

Good luck with the season ahead.

Tony Meredith
Tony Meredith Consulting
https://tonymeredithcoaching.com.au/

JIM’S POOL CARE FRANCHISOR TEAM

Thursday 29th August

Arrival & Registration
The Adina Apartment and Vibe Hotel at Darwin Waterfront would be our home for the next three nights. The Darwin Waterfront was amazing with a wave pool and lagoon. Our accommodation offered a beautiful view of the waterfront and nearby was a number of bars and restaurants.

Thursday Welcome Dinner
We set sail on board Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin is a three-tier catamaran and boasts a Sun Deck that’s perfect for watching the spectacular Darwin sunset and enjoying the fresh sea breeze.

Brett provided a warm welcome speech to our Suppliers, Conference Delegates & Partners and we enjoyed a delicious Buffet Dinner with some local produce. The sunset did not disappoint, it was spectacular.

Plenty of laughs were shared this evening as new and existing Franchisees began to network. Some caught up for a quiet drink after dinner but it was an early night for most.

Friday 30th August

Delegates collected their lanyards and showbags from the Blair sisters. This year the showbags were overflowing with promo goods from our suppliers and the JPC merch was great too.

We headed into the Conference room and met Tony Meredith. He ran a great “Icebreaker” session and got us all up and moving tables to meet new people. Tony then took us on a learning path, the first session being WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM YOUR BUSINESS?

TIACS AND OUR TRADEMUTT SHIRTS

We heard from Brad Papworth, Franchisor Sydney East, who explained the TIACS (This is a conversation starter) story and our choice of Funky Friday conference shirts. Our fundraising for this great cause was a huge success.

Thanks Brad for taking charge and giving us a goal to meet. Thanks to Fluidra and Maytronics for donating prizes to raffle. Together we have raised $7935 for mental health initiatives. This will provide approx. 80+ counselling sessions. That’s 80 individuals receiving free mental health support!

Listen to the JPC TIACS message from Edward Ross, Co-Director of TradeMutt

—> and here is the TIACS Story

TIACS stands for THIS IS A CONVERSATION STARTER. TIACS is a non for profit organisation providing free mental health support Australia wide. TIACS has a mission to start conversations surrounding mental health among Australia’s blue-collar communities and provides free and accessible phone/txt counselling support

Love the shirts and want your own? We are currently waiting on special ordering details and will get back to you with this information as soon as we have it.

Gemma Smart, Franchisor Sydney Central and Rachael Bambry from IRL Learning took the mic and talked to us about professional development, covering Cert III and WHS.

We looked at Best practice, including pricing, quoting and invoicing.

With us all looking very smart in our Trademutt Conference shirts we headed outside for our traditional team photo before heading to a buffet lunch.

We had some real world scenarios on Managing Customers Expectations, with some excellent tables discussions on how keep our customers happy by clearly communicating at all stages of a job, and documenting via sms and emails.

Brett Blair and Andrew Weeks (JPC Maroochydore) were on stage sharing their words of wisdom on splitting, selling and sales. First step is to speak your franchisor about this opportunity.

We finally wrapped up the first day of conference and wrote down an action plan to implement when we got home. Have you reviewed yours and what you were going to implement?

Jim’s Pool Care 2024 Gala Awards Dinner

Glitz and Glamour Under the Stars

What an amazing location for a National Awards Dinner. We love seeing people rewarded and recognised for the work and strategies they put into growing their franchise and making their business successful.

Tonight we got to let our hair down and relax. We enjoyed another amazing sunset at Mindil Beach Casino Resort and were lucky enough to have The Youth Mill open the evening with Welcome to Country and three original songs. We enjoyed more great food and had plenty of laughs.

Congratulations to all the award winners and thanks also to our wonderful suppliers.

Saturday 31st August

Conference Day Two

KISSING FROGS
Then we had Theron who told us about his journey and his strategy for growing and refining a business. Always be reviewing customers & taking new leads. Great presentation and challenged a few of us.

GROWING A CUSTOMER FOCUSED BUSINESS
Next was an excellent presentation from our joint Franchisees of the year, Nikki & Trenton. They took us on their journey and strategies to grow a business, employ staff and to ensure we include holidays and life balance. Well done to these guys.

The next session was on the couch with some Award winners, Wayne, Daniel and Mathew. All told us about what they felt makes a successful business and it was no surprise to hear about great customer service, ask everyone for referrals and be prepared to work hard early in the growth stage of your business.

After morning tea we had an excellent Gold Nuggets and Tech Questions session where franchisees during the conference wrote down tips to share. There were some excellent ideas and everyone took a few away to think about.

We finished with a Conference Wrap Up, where everyone updated their workbook and wrote down something under the 7 Key Areas for improving their business this coming year. It is best to not write too many down, just focus on one key thing in a few areas of your business to get results.

If you did not attend conference, have a chat to your Franchisor about some key areas you want to focus in this year.

TEAM BUILDING – THE Adelaide River ORIGINAL CROC JUMPING TOUR

Now this was an awesome afternoon of chilling and catching up with fellow franchisees. Kelli arranged 2 x Coaches and 3 x Pathfinder Boats to take us up the Adelaide River on an amazing Crocodile Tour. We saw plenty of Crocs and were lucky enough to see some monsters jumping up for a feed. The photos are great and it was amazing to see first hand. Everyone enjoyed this relaxed afternoon and headed home to get ready for our last dinner function.

Our farewell Dinner was at Wharf One where we got to unwind and reflect on the 2024 Conference Journey. Plenty of laughs and stories with a few people kicking on.

It was a relaxed, fun and educational event in Darwin. We have had some great feedback already, so thank you to those people we really appreciate your kind words as it does take some effort.

Hope to see you next year.

2024 Franchisor Summary – What did they have to say…

Our Franchisors were asked to write about their experience and what they took away from the conference. Here is what they had to say:

Simon Farmer – WA
Darwin was a great venue and it was wonderful to see so many new franchisees at this year conference who were engaged and giving so much energy not only in the conference sessions but also in connecting with franchisees, franchisors and suppliers over the 3 days. Great short sharp sessions that I found informative and opened my eyes up to what some of the successful franchisees are doing to grow their business.

Greg & Gemma Smart – Sydney Central
Our JPC 2024 National Conference in Darwin was an incredible experience. The curated program over the 2 days was very effective in delivering great advice, best practice and many opportunities for learning and business growth. When you want to do great things in your business, there is nothing better than being surrounded with successful business people who are also gun pool technicians. That’s the huge benefit of opening yourself to being at conference, you can be that successful franchisee too. It is limitless. Additionally having our awesome suppliers attend and be available to ask questions was a huge gift to enhance our own processes, product selection and profitability. Working towards that nationally recognised Cert III in Swimming Pool and Spa Service is crucial to our business operations. Gemma and I would like to thank Brett and Kelli for all their effort in organising the conference. We are so thrilled to be part of JPC, it has changed our lives and we are so grateful. Thank you also to all the Franchisors and Franchisees attending, you made the conference so worthwhile and we are in awe of all of you. If you missed conference make sure you’re at the next one!

Stephen Cluff – Sunshine Coast
Darwin was a great place to hold a conference, and I believe the shortened conference format was a huge success.
Tony was at his best, suppliers were a wealth of information and their prizes were fantastic.
The Sunshine Coast delegates all got motivated to make positive changes to their business.
As a result of the conference the Sunshine Coast group have gotten motivated and as a team immediately called their local pool service companies to compare their service costs and put their prices up accordingly.
This coming season looks exciting.

Jason Pollack – Central Coast & Newcastle
This year’s conference was definitely not the one to have missed. Words to describe the conference would be engaging, knowledgeable, fun, interactive, entertaining, relaxing and very comfortable along with great supplier interaction and franchisee networking amongst a group of people that have common interests and goals. Fantastic effort by franchisees supporting our fundraising towards mental health and cancer. Brett and Kelli Thankyou for a wonderful experience.

Chris Pepper – North Brisbane
WOW, Darwin, what a cracker. great attendance, good content and socials. brett and Kelli, you keep raising the bar. Well done to all involved.

The girls surprised Brett for Father’s Day and dropped him into “The Cage of Death” with a 5m (750kgs) Crocodile. Very funny….for us.

And a big thanks to YOU ALL who made the time and effort to invest in yourself this year. Hope to see everyone next year.

xxx