Latest news with #JimPenman
Daily Mail
11-08-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Jim's Mowing founder shocks with throwback photos - as he makes an unexpected confession about his rebellious teen years
The founder of Jim's Mowing has stunned Aussies by sharing a series of pictures taken decades earlier. Jim Penman, who founded the iconic franchise business, has been busily posting a series of LinkedIn posts this past week sharing advice and reflections with fellow entrepreneurs. The Aussie millionaire has recently been touching on everything from early life lessons to brand values and leadership strategies. One post even included the surprising admission that the Jim's Group CEO was once 'suspended' from school 'for being a bad influence'. But perhaps what has resonated the most is the series of retro photographs that Jim has shared alongside his inspirational messages. Viewers of the posts were stunned to see the striking likeness between the Jim's Mowing illustrated logo and the real-life Jim in his younger years. Sharing pictures of himself as a younger man wearing his brand's dark green shirt and sporting a full moustache and beard, Aussies were astonished at just how accurately the businessman is depicted in the instantly recognisable company logo. A post shared to the 'Jim's Group' page made the same observation after posting an old picture of Jim taken during the late 1980s era. 'The logo does look like its origin,' read one stunned reply. Another person remarked that the current logo should be updated to more accurately reflect Jim's present-day appearance. 'When does the current logo get a shave, considering Jim hasn't had a beard in 10+ years,' they wrote. Jim himself has previously acknowledged in a social media video that the business logo was designed based off an old 'picture' of himself. 'The artist just made a rendition from that particular photo. So it was me,' he confirmed. The latest series of LinkedIn post offered interesting insights into the businessman's life story and lessons learnt while founding his successful namesake company. 'They called me a bad influence. Now, I run one of the most influential businesses in the country,' Jim's first post in the series commenced. The CEO and businessman shared examples of outspoken behaviour during his younger years, including them time he was 'suspended' from school. Jim went on to detail how these very same qualities would one day give him the 'nerve' to make decisions that contributed to his business success story. The next post shared a few days later on August 8 saw Jim reflecting on his business' leadership style. Jim demonstrated his point by reflecting on a recent interaction with a Jim's Mowing franchisee. 'Leadership isn't just about solving problems. It's about noticing before they become problems,' he concluded. The latest post offered an explanation for why Jim had never felt compelled to 'sell Jim's Group' - despite being offered several 'life-changing offers'. The CEO went on to explain the reason he'd 'turned down' every single offer. 'I've seen what happens when a founder sells out,' he wrote. 'The culture changes. The focus shifts from service to squeezing every last dollar. And the people who built the business, our franchisees, get left behind.' 'That will never happen here,' he resolutely added. The recent series of posts have attracted hundreds of likes along with comments from CEOs and CFOs praising his willingness to share his hard-learnt business advice. Jim's Group specialises in practical trades such as plumbing, mowing, fencing, roofing, and cleaning. The company was launched in 1982 and has since expanded into a franchise operation in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jim's Mowing reveals shock move nobody saw coming: 'It's real'
The millionaire founder of Jim's Mowing has expanded his business empire and now offers professional life advice to customers. Jim's Life Coaching was registered in March 2024, joining a more than 50-strong cohort of service businesses under the Jim's Group banner. Even though the business has been around for longer than a year, many Aussies are still wrapping their heads around the idea. 'This almost seems like satire,' one Reddit user commented. 'It's real,' another insisted. 'What doesn't Jim do now?' a third asked. Founder Jim Penman told Daily Mail Australia the life coaching business was no joke. 'We get all sorts of strange things being suggested to us. Some people even put up logos. There was one for Jim's Brazil Waxing and all kinds of things,' he said. 'But no, this is serious.' The business was first pitched by head life coach Sue Thomas, a former student of self-help author Bob Proctor. A cancer survivor previously beleaguered by mental health complications, Ms Thomas took the lessons learnt in seven years under Mr Proctor to heart. 'I did one of his short programs and it transformed my life,' she said. 'I was blown away to see that this could be taught to people, because I had struggled a lot with anxiety, depression and had cancer myself because of all the stress that was living within my mind.' 'And when I realised I could share it and teach it and help transform people's lives, I started doing it straight away.' The idea to take her life coaching services to Jim's Group came several years later, when she took on a Jim's Building franchisee as a client. 'When I saw the amount of people in Jim's Group, wow, they've got all these people in there I know need help, because the majority of people do. 'So I thought, "Wow. How could I get in there?"' A trained life coach and leader of a fortnightly Crossroads Baptist Church 'life group' himself, Mr Penman saw the vision - but not exactly the way Ms Thomas had pitched it. 'She had this system that was set up to be based on an American product, but it was fantastically expensive,' Mr Penman said. 'That was the biggest issue. The people doing it just can't find enough clients because the costs are too high, because there's huge amounts of money going back to this US corporation. 'So when she brought it to me, I said, 'Okay, what we need to do is for you to set up the system, but allow it to be done so that, you know, basically we own the IP so we can actually provide it cost-effectively'.' 'That's kind of where it came from. I know the idea. I love it. I know it works. It's very effective, but it just needs to be done in a cost effective manner.' Encouraged, Ms Thomas spent months creating a franchise model for a homegrown life coaching industry - one with Ms Thomas as head coach, responsible for selecting and training all franchisees. By design, Jim's Life Coaching so far has just one franchisee based in Ballarat, Victoria and, while it took a while to get it off the ground, Mr Penman said it was an early moneymaker. 'It's going slower than most divisions. I think simply because one of the things we're concerned about is that it's not quite like something like dog washing or mowing where it's easy to get a flood of leads. 'You've really got to be cautious. That the life coaching industry suffers from a lack of oversight and a less than desirable reputation is an open secret. Asked what she made of the venture, Australian Association of Psychologists president Sahra O'Doherty was unreserved in her criticism. 'This seems to be yet another organisation capitalising on a broken mental health system, where accessing a qualified and affordable mental health professional is already fraught with confusion and challenges,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'Life coaches have existed for quite some time, but we know that the title is unregulated - anyone can call themselves a "life coach" or a "dating coach" or any kind of "coach" with any qualification, or no qualification at all. 'This creates confusion for the consumer, and places both them and the provider at risk.' But Mr Penman insisted it was important to keep in mind the difference between life coaching and traditional therapy. 'I would not see life coaching as an alternative to professional counselling,' he said. 'Most of our clients have no specific psychological issues but simply want to live more successful lives.' All Jim's Group franchisees are offered no-cost access to licensed therapists. Life coaching, he said, services another need. Ms Thomas agreed, claiming therapy is more focused on addressing past traumas and experiences, whereas life coaching tends to be more future-oriented. 'We start off with, you know... what would you like your life to be like? What would you like to be happening? 'The most common answer is: "I don't have a goal. I wouldn't know what I want in my life." And they just tell me all the all the reasons why they can't have anything they want in their life. 'And that's where most people's minds are at, stuck in the past, and they're not thinking about their future.'
