Latest news with #Jim'sMowing
The Spinoff
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Why doesn't the South Island get the comedy festival?
Our national comedy festival barely crosses the Cook Strait. Alex Casey tries to find out why. I've lived in Ōtautahi for two and a half years now, and I can tell you one thing for free: this city bloody loves a laugh. For example, I once saw a man in a curly blue clown wig driving a Suzuki Swift around and around the roundabout in St Martins. I've seen, on multiple occasions, a parody bumper sticker of Jim's Mowing that simply reads Jim's Pubic Trims. I've seen a chihuahua on Cashel Street wearing a straw hat and a tutu. All strong signifiers of a crack-up city. I've also been in extremely packed and buzzing rooms to see tonnes of stand up comedy, be it a shambolic work in progress show at Little Andromeda, experimental goings-on at Dark Room and Space Academy or a sold out night at James Hay with prodigal sons like Chris Parker and Guy Montgomery. Good Times Comedy Club has heaps on every week, and improv institution Scared Scriptless has just moved to its new home at the swanky Court Theatre in town. Why then, is Christchurch currently being plagued by posters for New Zealand International Comedy Festival shows in Wellington? Why are there just a handful of offerings daring to cross the Cook Strait to the South Island at all? And is Christchurch being overlooked as the next big comedy city? James Mustapic is one of those few brave comedians bringing his show south over the festival, and he explains his working simply: 'I like doing shows there, I get pretty good crowds, and I've got nothing else to do.' Coming down relatively often to visit his family in Christchurch, Mustapic started gigging here in 2019. He will often bring his work in progress shows to test out at Little Andromeda, before jumping on a line-up show across town at Good Times. 'Even if they don't have the biggest rooms, the audiences are always really nice,' he says. 'Sometimes in Auckland they just won't laugh unless there's a big audience, so I really enjoy it.' Mustapic also mentions Little Andromeda's All You Can Eat offering, in which people buy a $60 ticket to see as many shows as they like in a month. 'I think that really encourages people to get out and see lots of different things that they might not usually want to go see,' he says. Michael Bell runs Little Andromeda Theatre, which has been open on the Terrace since 2020 and programmes a mix of theatre and stand-up. 'I think stand up comedy is well attended in general in Christchurch,' he says. 'We've got really good venues that look after artists and make it an easy place to come and try out new material. So many of New Zealand's famous comedians are also from Christchurch, so we'll see them come home and try things out.' Because of these work in progress shows, Bell says Christchurch is already hosting an unofficial comedy festival of sorts. 'It's just that we get it a month or two early,' he laughs. 'That's why I'm not as up in arms about it, because I literally see the North Island comedy festival at Little Andromeda every year.' Pip Taylor, the owner of Good Times Comedy Club is slightly more emphatic about the absence of the comedy festival in the south. 'They say it is our national comedy festival, but it is really just a North Island comedy festival,' she says. 'We're the second biggest city in this country, so hopefully they'll come to the party soon.' Having been involved with the comedy club since it opened in 2020, Taylor echoes that things are 'thriving' in the local comedy scene. By way of example, she mentions a headline-grabbing mishap with her paperwork earlier this year that could have been disastrous. 'So I was a day late in getting my liquor license renewed, and I lost it for 25 days. But while I bled money over the bar, the audience was still turning up for comedy,' she says. 'I think that is such a strong indicator of how people feel about comedy here in Christchurch – they're still showing up for it, even when they can't get drunk.' This stone cold sober love for comedy not gone unnoticed by Lauren Whitney, director of The New Zealand International Comedy Festival. While Christchurch has previously been used as an occasional satellite location for the odd touring act or gala over the years, she says that there are plans to explore a closer relationship with the city, and soon. 'It's not about a lack of interest in Christchurch, it is really just about capacity and resource at this stage.' Whitney explains that the core funding for the festival comes from commercial sponsors like Best Foods Mayonnaise, and the rest is from Auckland and Wellington city councils (funding from Creative New Zealand is inconsistent, and they didn't get any this year). 'Because we're not getting long term consistent funding, it's very hard for us to future plan, because generally, by the time we finish a festival, we're then going out and seeking funding all over again,' she says. There's also the issue of timing. The schedule creep of comedy festivals in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane overlapping with New Zealand has meant that availability of talent is becoming an issue as it is. 'Currently we have about 650 performances across three and a half weeks in Auckland and Wellington, and so scheduling another city on top of that would produce some logistical challenges,' she says. 'Nothing we can't work out, of course.' So while I might be whinging down here in the south for the moment, scavenging for errant laughs wherever I can find them (Jim's Pubic Trims), Whitney assures me that momentum is building. 'The dream is to grow Christchurch as a market, not only for the work that we're doing, but also for the wider ecosystem so that comedians can perform with or without us,' she says. 'The long term aim is definitely to do more and more and bring stuff consistently.' In the meantime, South Islanders can check out a smattering of comedy festival shows here
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iconic boss issues plea for retired Aussies to return to work
The CEO of one of Australia's best-known chains has called on retired Australians to return to the workforce and help the nation's struggling small businesses. Abandoning your twilight years after decades of work may not be appealing, but you could earn up to $150,000 for your efforts. It's likely you recognise the iconic green and gold of garden maintenance brand, Jim's Mowing. But you may not know the Jim's Group has a stable of more than 50 divisions, from beauty and dog washing to security and electrical. Founder Jim Penman told Yahoo Finance his franchise network was seeking out retired business professionals and experienced entrepreneurs to become life coaches. RELATED Dad-of-four earns $50,000 a month after dropping out of high school: 'Pretty simple' Aussie 'dream' falls apart four months after young expat's arrival with $20,000: 'In Canada everything's free' Commonwealth Bank confirms $50,000 move for first-home buyers: 'Game changer' The father-of-10 said Jim's Life Coaching is a "cost effective" system that allows people to get advice about how to "improve their lives", but took a particular type of person to suit the role. 'You ask certain kinds of questions, you find out what a person really wants to do with their life, and then you help them to achieve that," Penman said. "It's having a certain attitude towards people, certain character, certain communication skills, which is why we think people who have been recently retired are very good options for this.' Australian Bureau of Statistics data found that there had been higher levels of retirement in Australia in recent months. Australians are also retiring later in life, with research from KPMG finding the expected retirement age for men was 66.2 and 64.8 for women — the highest since the 1970s. Penman said the biggest demand for the division's services was coming from business owners going through his franchise network.'The hardest thing with any franchise is not finding the clients. It's about finding the right kind of people with the right kind of attitudes and they don't grow on trees,' he told Yahoo Finance. However, he argued it's not just Jim's members that would benefit from the wisdom of experienced business people. 'Life coaching is about everything," he said. "It can be about exercise and health, it can be about better human relations, about having a sense of community, having a sense of purpose in your life. "It's about living a better life." Franchisees are responsible for running the day-to-day operations of their business, while franchisors are on hand to give them support and mentoring. Penman said the Jim's Life Coaching division was still fairly new, but '$3,000 a week should be a reasonable sort of aim' for franchisees to turn over. 'That's the case for most of our services. A single person should be able to turn over about $150,000 a year,' he said. Penman said he was hoping to attract people who had a 'genuine interest and concern with other people'. 'It pays well enough but it's not something that you can get fabulously rich on overnight,' he said. Penman said the group aims to create at least 30 franchises within three years. 'It can go a lot better. Our laundry division started and had over 100 within the first three years,' he said. Penman established Jim's Mowing in 1989 after picking up a side hustle tending to lawns while studying a PhD. But the founder has no intention of retiring himself. 'I have a retirement ceremony planned. It'll be in a church actually, I think that's appropriate and I'll be the guest of honour,' he joked. 'I might be in a box because I'll be dead. 'That's my plan. I turn 73 next month, and I do not feel like slowing down.'Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dad-of-four earns $50,000 a month after dropping out of high school: 'Pretty simple'
An Aussie father-of-four has shared how he went from dropping out of high school and working at McDonald's to becoming a millionaire business owner earning $50,000 a month. The best part? He said other Aussies can follow in his footsteps without any experience or skills. Dan Cahill was working as a manager at McDonald's and found his $50,000-a-year salary wasn't enough to support his family and give them the lifestyle they needed. The 31-year-old told Yahoo Finance he was struggling to keep up with his mortgage repayments and decided he needed to change careers. 'I went and bought a house that me and my wife really couldn't afford at the time and I needed a way to be able to cover the mortgage and still be able to give my kids a really good upbringing,' Cahill said. RELATED FIFO worker earning $90,000 for 'easy' job in the mines with no experience: 'Plenty of opportunities' Under-pressure landlords offering up to $11,840 of free rent in major 'pendulum swing' Retirees face $9,000 tax hit due to overlooked superannuation move: 'Big missing piece' 'The mortgage was about $1,000 a week that I was paying and my Macca's wage wasn't going to cover that, or it was, but we would be living pretty tight with two-minute noodles.' Cahill said he initially considered becoming a tradie but couldn't afford the low wages that are paid to apprentices when they start out. The Victorian man said he saw a Facebook ad for Jim's Mowing and was drawn to the seemingly simple business model. 'I'm definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, I'll be honest, I dropped out of school in Year 11 and I was expelled from my previous high school before that,' he said. 'But I went, 'well a mowing business seems pretty simple, actually'. I assumed that the way you would make it successful is you mow a lot of lawns, you make a lot of money. Which is exactly what it is.' Cahill ended up purchasing a Jim's Mowing franchise based in Frankston for $36,000 in 2017, with money partially borrowed from his family. For the first 18 months, he said he was working seven days a week straight with only Christmas and Easter off. 'I just kept on going at it seven days a week, just trying to earn as much as I possibly could because my wife and I were in a pretty tight financial position,' he told Yahoo Finance. Cahill said he initially did a mix of one-off jobs and regular clients like real estate agents, NDIS and insurance jobs. Eventually, he created 'mowing rounds' which were made up of about 80 customers who get their lawns mowed on a fortnightly basis. 'I built up the first mowing round and had it at $700 per day and I'd be able to do that in eight hours. From a five-day week that mowing business should make $3,500 per week,' he said. Cahill said he was able to hire his first employee six months in, his younger brother, who he got to do a mowing round. From there, he said he was able to build up a new mowing round every six months or so and hire more staff. 'I would hire an employee and give them a mowing round and pay them $1,500 per week,' he said. 'I had six employees working for me, all doing full-time hours, all making me $3,500 a week each. "Then, obviously, you would have weeks where I would go out and be on the tools as well and do jobs myself.' Cahill said he was turning over up to $24,000 a week with the business and six staff, with under half of that being profit after fees, wages, petrol and other expenses were taken into account. Jim's Group recently posted a video about Cahill's earnings as a Jim's Mowing franchisee and Aussies were blown away, with many simply not believing him. Jim Penman, owner of Jim's Group, responded to the 'blowup' and clarified that Cahill had six employees working with him at the time. However, he claimed other Aussies could make higher than average wages with the job. 'Our franchisees, we've done surveys, we know that on average they make well over the average Australian income and this is for somebody who maybe is a high-school dropout,' Penman said. 'If you don't believe me, give us a try and find out. Spend some time with our guys and you will see how much money you can actually make doing the basic jobs around society.' Cahill said becoming a franchisee wasn't easy when you first started out, but anyone willing to put in the hard yards and able to handle the physical work could do it. 'You got to go out there and you got to work a lot of hours and really put the hard yards in,' he said. 'You don't really need experience or skills when you come in. I think you really just need a can-do, positive attitude and a good work ethic. 'If you want to make a lot of money, you're going to need to mow a lot of lawns. So as long as you understand that, you're going to be alright.' In 2021, Cahill decided to make the switch from being a Jim's Mowing franchisee to become a franchisor. 'A franchisor is someone that coaches the franchisees on how to run their businesses and then sells businesses in that area,' he explained. 'As a franchisor my role is to recruit and retain franchisees… Part of the work is trying to bring in enough work for all your franchisees to keep them happy and see the value in the Jim's Mowing franchise.' Cahill said he had saved up about $500,000 from his mowing business and decided to make the leap so he could spend more time with his kids. Cahill partnered with Penman to purchase the Brisbane region of Jim's Mowing as a franchisor. When it worked out well, they ended up buying more and more parts of Jim's Mowing together. 'Jim has never partnered up with anyone before but he did with me, very luckily. I'm now at a point where my profit is about $50,000 a month,' Cahill said. 'I still do need to pay income tax on that but I look at that and I go, 'Jesus, that's fantastic'. Obviously my profit from my mowing business wasn't anywhere near that high. 'I've bought quite a big chunk of Australia. I've bought nearly 80 to 85 per cent of Queensland, I've got Northern Territory that I own and about 30 per cent of New South Wales.' Cahill shared that he and Penman had spent about $1 million each and looked after more than 200 franchisees. 'You've got some like me that want to bring on employees and some that don't," he said. "So you find a way for them to earn at least $3,500 from a mowing round and that's from my own experience that I'm teaching them." Cahill said he and Penman are now looking at starting up a Jim's Mowing in Florida, in to access your portfolio
