We get asked these questions every week. Here are honest answers from Long Nguyen, a Jim’s Mowing franchise owner within Jim’s Group. This article covers 7 of the most common questions about how to run a Jim’s Mowing business with 10 employees.
Watch the video above, or keep reading for the full Q&A.
How long have you been with Jim’s Mowing?
Long Nguyen has been with Jim’s Mowing since October 2021, starting during COVID.
He came in after his F45 business was shut down for more than 270 days. He did not want to go back to working for someone else, and he did not want an office job either. Jim’s Mowing stood out because it looked more secure, more flexible, and more practical during a period when contactless work mattered.
When he bought his franchise in Fairfield, he started the hard way by working on the tools himself. He spent about three to six months learning the mowers, trimmers, whipper snippers, materials, and customer expectations. During peak season, he was doing 12-hour days. That gave him a proper feel for the work before he shifted into a more management-heavy role.
He later brought in a business partner on a 50 percent split. Long took the admin side, including quotes, leads, and invoices. His business partner took the field side. That move helped him grow to about 10 staff without having every part of the business frying his brain. If you are still looking into starting a Jim’s Mowing franchise, this is a strong real-world example of what early growth can look like.
How do you maintain the quality of work?
He maintains quality by getting the full job detail upfront and making sure the team knows exactly what the customer wants.
That starts with clear communication. Long collects the customer’s requirements, uses photos where needed, and gets his business partner to inspect the site when necessary. The team does not just get sent to an address and told to work it out. They get photos, job notes, and a clear description of the scope.
He also makes the crew contact the customer before starting. Then, at the end of the job, the customer sees the finished work before anyone leaves. Long’s rule is simple: they do not leave the site until the customer is happy and agrees that the work matches what they are paying for.
After that, he follows up on himself. He asks how the job went and how the boys were on site. That extra touch helps him catch issues early and keeps standards from slipping as the team grows.
How do you find good workers?
He says finding good workers is the hard bit.
Long is blunt here. If you do not have the right staff, your business suffers fast. His approach is not fancy. He screens people, trains them, and keeps communication strong so they do not feel like they are on their own. In his view, workers who feel unsupported will eventually leave or go freelance.
He has had better results from word of mouth than from formal job boards. He gets referrals through customers, family, friends, Facebook, and Instagram. He also keeps an ear out on client sites because people often know someone looking for work.
His view is that practical skills can be taught if the person is handy enough to use a mower, blower, and whipper snipper. The bigger issue is attitude and communication. If they can speak English, communicate properly, and take guidance, he sees that as a strong base.
For those seeking to move from day-to-day operations to a more strategic role, what guidance would you provide?
His guidance is that the move starts with mindset, leadership, and balance.
Long does not believe everyone is naturally built for that shift. If you cannot lead, your staff will feel it. Once they lose respect for your direction, they stop listening, and the business becomes harder to hold together. That is why he keeps stressing support, fairness, and being present for the team.
He also makes the point that solo mowing can wear people down fast. Five jobs in a day, then admin at night, is not much of a life. That is one reason he prefers to coordinate, delegate, and manage the flow of work rather than stay trapped in day-to-day operations forever. That lines up with the broader structure behind how a Jim’s franchise works, where systems and support matter just as much as the actual service work.
His practical fix is job balancing. He does not load one worker up with heavy hedging all day while someone else gets all the easy runs. He mixes longer, harder jobs with shorter, lighter ones so the workload feels fair. That protects morale and helps the team stay productive without constant arguments.
How did you establish your entrepreneurial mindset?
Long says his entrepreneurial mindset came from family, ambition, and knowing he never wanted a corporate life.
He says his siblings all run businesses too, so that thinking was already around him. But he also makes it personal. He never saw himself working nine to five, and at 41, he sees this stage of life as the time to push hard and build properly.
The result is real scale, not just talk. In about two years with Jim’s Mowing, he has built to 10 people with four or five utes on the road. He keeps his leads open even in winter because he knows Melbourne demand drops, and he wants his workers to keep getting jobs. He is also willing to take on extra work like rubbish removals and laying pavers if the team can do it confidently and properly.
A big part of his mindset is that growth comes from output. If you close your leads, you shrink your own opportunity. If you keep leads open, answer quickly, and turn one-off work into repeat clients, you give yourself a better chance to grow into something much bigger.
What do you think about Jim’s fees?
His view on Jim’s fees is that they are manageable and worth it if you know how to keep customers.
His first reaction was surprise. He basically thought, “Is that it?” He does say lead fees are a bit higher than some other divisions, but he also says you make that money back if you stay proactive. For a broader overview, see how Jim’s franchising fees work. For the mowing-specific context, Jim’s Mowing franchise fees explained is the more direct page.
The real point is not the fee itself. The real point is what you do after the lead comes in. Long follows up, calls customers after the job, checks in again two weeks later, and tries to turn a single visit into regular work.
You can make the fees back, but only if you behave like an operator, not a passenger. Keep customers informed. Call them again after the job. Rebook them before they forget you. Treat each lead like the start of a long-term client, not a one-off mow.
He also mentions the two-hour lead response window. His advice is simple: respond to the lead, do the work, then handle admin later in the evening. That gives you room to run the business without letting it eat your whole family life.
Were you expecting your business to grow as rapidly as it has?
He says the speed of growth has been fantastic, and he sees the upside as endless.
Long’s strongest message here is about value. He believes you create your own wealth in this business, but only if you stop underpricing yourself. He warns hard against price-matching cheaper operators because once you start doing that, word spreads and you drag your own market down.
His approach is to know what you are worth, stick to your price, and let the wrong customers walk. That takes a bit of nerve, but it protects the business long term. It also matches the way he has built everything else: clear standards, fast follow-up, strong lead flow, and growth by design rather than by accident.
If this is the stage you are at, the next sensible step is to read the Jim’s Group franchise FAQ and compare Long’s on-the-ground experience with the broader franchise model before making a move.