Simon Russell came to Canada from Scotland in 1981, arriving in Calgary to find the city hit hard by the global recession. He went back to school and earned an MBA, then worked for BC Hydro for several years.
But Russell had always hankered to own his own business. In 2004 he became a master franchisee in Vancouver for Jan-Pro, a janitorial company based in Atlanta. The business model involves the master franchisee recruiting clients as well as a number of franchisees who are responsible for handling several accounts.
Franchisees are typically couples or families who have recently immigrated to Canada and are taking on the job to earn some extra money to augment their incomes, Russell said.
Recruiting for both clients and franchisees has always been a challenge in Vancouver, Russell said, because the city doesn’t have a lot of big office clients to draw on and customers tend to be smaller businesses and restaurants and bars that require cleaning at night.
Russell learned from some early recruiting missteps.
“In the early days we taught [franchisees] how to clean, and that was pretty useless,” he said, noting that most people already have that fairly basic skill.
Now the company focuses on instilling a sense of pride in business ownership and the importance of maintaining the company’s brand. Training also includes business management skills and emphasizes the importance of forming good relationships with customers.
“A lot of people come in thinking they’ve bought a job, and we tell them they’ve bought a business,” Russell said.
Over the years, the company has also focused on diversifying its client base to avoid being dependent on a few large contracts.
“We focus more on getting small and medium-sized contracts, because that’s the type of contract that will work well with our franchisees,” he said.
On business ownership | “Being my own boss was very important for me. When you work for a corporation ... somebody makes decisions that affect you, and I prefer to make the decisions. I think that if you own your own business, you’re more inclined to enjoy your work.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
