Jim’s Mowing boss admits to sacking his sister
Jim Penman’s face must be one of the best known in Australia, it’s emblazoned on trailers, trucks and signs around the country as the founder of Jim’s Group.
There is Jim’s Mowing, Jim’s Antennas and soon to be Jim’s Personal Training with the business generating A$500 million (NZ$520m) in revenue a year on the back of its 4000 franchisees servicing roughly 35,000 customers a day.
But the thing about Jim is that ‘‘Jim’’ isn’t even his real name. A biography by Catherine Moolenschot released yesterday,
reveals Jim is just a nickname for Penman who is David J Penman on his driver’s licence and is called David by his family.
The book paints a picture of a successful but hard-nosed businessman who even fired his own sister who describes ‘‘wrath’’ as his greatest weakness.
Penman says was ‘‘quite a revelation’’ even to him, ‘‘there were lots of things I didn’t know’’, he said.
He launched Jim’s Mowing in 1989 and signed his first franchise after managing to uncover the franchise system of rival mowing franchise VIP. describes Penman as ‘‘a powerful man with tight control over his franchise system’’.
He is described as having
areputation for being a firer, with many franchisors laughing that ‘‘it’s always a revolving door at national office’’.
And yet Penman has multiple staff members who have worked for him for five to 10 years, and some who have been there for over 20.
One staff member describes Penman’s hardline attitude in the book.
‘‘When it comes to business: he’s ruthless,’’ they said. ‘‘If you’re not contributing, you’re gone. Regardless of your situation. I’ve seen him fire a guy who was a week from his first baby.’’
Penman is unapologetic.
‘‘I also fired my sister and she has never spoken to me since,’’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ahead of the book’s publication.
‘‘I have a very single-minded focus, more than 4000 families depend on what we do and ultimately they are what counts.’’
describes Penman as changing his mind often, making decisions very quickly and getting angry in an instant.
‘‘Of the seven sins, wrath is definitely my downfall,’’ he says.
While Penman is not someone to be crossed lightly, notes the franchise has avoided litigation ‘‘better than most franchise systems’’.
‘‘If a franchisee has a genuine problem it will get fixed and that is why franchisees almost never go to court,’’ Penman says.
‘‘I think in the whole history of Jim’s, in over 4000 franchisees and 30 years we have been to court three times. It is almost unprecedented because I take a very tough attitude.’’
Despite Penman’s success, he lives a simple lifestyle and puts his money into finding a cure for addiction and depression.
‘‘I drive a seven-year-old Mitsubishi Outlander which is probably worth A$10,000,’’ he says. ‘‘I never take holidays, if I eat out I go and buy pizza or go to the local Indian restaurant. We have someone clean the house once a week but apart from that we look after ourselves.’’
Penman says he still does all his own washing up at home after trying unsuccessfully to get Jim’s Cleaning to clean his house only to find there was no-one available in the area so he had to to through Gumtree to get some help once a week.
This, he says, is the main problem with Jim’s Group with client demand growing faster than franchise numbers.
In 2018 the Jim’s Group turned down 175,000 jobs because there were not enough franchisees to do the work.
also explores Penman’s eventful personal life, over the years he has been married four times and has 11 children.
‘‘It definitely took me a while to get it right,’’ he says. ‘‘I am obviously a difficult person to live with. There has to be some reason women can’t stand me.’’
However, Penman has been married to his current wife for 18 years.
‘‘My current wife, we absolutely adore each other. It has been like an 18-year honeymoon,’’ he says.