Business Brain Food

How To Open Over 400 Outlets In Just 7 Years

Jacinta McDonell is an inspiration to all of us. In only 7 years she has built up the Anytime Fitness brand to be the leading gym franchise in Australia, and has managed to find time to look after three children, raise big money for charitable causes, and even start her own charitable foundation, the Human Kind Project. There just do not seem to be the hours in the day to have done what she’s done, but it really comes across in the interview just how straight forward her methods have been to get her where she is today. The point she keeps going back to is being honest with yourself about what your strengths and weaknesses are, so you can simply hire people to take up the slack in the areas that are most tricky. There is no shame in realising that you can’t do everything, and you can still be fiercely ambitious at the same time. This is how her growing business just kept growing.

Anytime Fitness was a US-based franchise that Jacinta and her brother saw in a fitness trade-magazine, which they thought would be perfect for the Australian market. They quickly secured the rights to take the franchise to Australia, figuring that their mid-market offering was exactly what was missing in the local marketplace at the time. Having built over 400 outlets in 7 years, Jacinta knows a thing or two about building and managing a franchise. See below for a sneak preview of some of her top tips from the interview:

** The franchise model is great for scalability.

** The franchisees who are most successful are the ones who have the best grasp of sales and marketing.

** Differentiate yourself from the competition by making sure there is a strong refresh policy across all outlets.  In the case of Anytime Fitness, that would mean investing in new, state-of-the-art gym equipment regularly.

** Take time out from day-to-day business regularly to build strategy at board level.

** Find the right senior executive team. If you don’t like the idea of managing 50 people, don’t worry about it – just get someone in who does.

** Consider recruitment to be something that’s ongoing rather than just when somebody leaves.  By definition, a franchise is often going to be growing, so it makes sense to hire talented people when they become available, because there is likely to be something for them to do.

** If you are considering entering a marketplace, don’t be put off if your concept is different to the industry’s current way of doing things.  The key consideration is what the consumer wants, not what the industry is in the habit of giving them.

Jacinta’s charity work is also a heart-warming and interesting story.  Her foundation is as much about empowering entrepreneurs to be able to do charitable work as it is about donations.  There is also a good commercial angle for any organisation to get involved with charity work, as she explains in the podcast. In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** How Jacinta built her fitness empire

** How it is possible to achieve corporate success with three small children

** How to manage the growth of a franchise

** The importance of sales and marketing in the franchise process

** How charity work can be a win win for you and your business

** The Human Kind Project

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** ProfitLab – join this site and ask about it: http://actioncoachanz.com/l/business-coach-mini/

** Jacinta McDonell’s own website: http://www.jacintamcdonell.com

** Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

Subscribe on iTunes Jacinta’s story shows just how much it is possible to achieve across a variety of different sectors if you are able to work smart.  It is not just about being busy all the time – you can actually change the world for you and for others if you plan it right. Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers, Ben Fewtrell (02) 9111 5000

Direct download: BBF070_How_to_open_over_400_outlets_in_just_7_years_with_Jacinta_McDonell.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

How A Whistle Blower Uncovered $22 Million In Fraud

It is said that fraud accounts for an average of 5% of any company’s revenue, so the process of whistleblowing is certainly something that ought to be taken seriously. You might think that it’s not going on in your business, but Sylvain Mansotte’s story is living proof of just how much fraud can happen if no one has the courage to blow the whistle. He unearthed a scam that had been going on for 12 years that was worth $22 million – the largest corporate fraud in Queensland’s history.

Sylvain’s experience inspired him to create an app to make it easier for people to blow the whistle on corruption. His app, Fraudsec, is aimed at any organisation of any size, and provides total anonymity for whistleblowers, as well as allowing for completely anonymous interaction between the whistleblower and their employees. Sylvain explains in the podcast how the system scrubs IP addresses and uses QR codes to ensure there is no awkwardness in the whistleblowing process, and he also shared some useful info about fraud that every business ought to know:

** 20% of fraud worldwide is over $1 million per case.

** The average fraud is over $150,000 per case.

** Employees setting up fake suppliers and generating invoices for them is easier than you think.

** Don’t forget how fearful people will be about blowing the whistle.  If you don’t have a mechanism in place that retains their anonymity, they will probably not want to come forward and risk their job and sometimes their family life.

** Management should have a proper policy relating to fraud.

** Each new employee should be made aware of the above policy.

** Training should be done at least annually to make sure all policies are adhered to, and to strike fear into anyone who might be thinking of breaking the rules.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** The inner workings of http://www.fraudsec.com

** The scale of the fraud problem worldwide

** The importance on anonymity in the whistle-blowing process

** How to implement a whistle-blowing policy

** How Fraudsec is particularly useful in the procurement function

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Business Coaching (http://actioncoachanz.com/businessrich)

** Fraudsec (http://www.fraudsec.com)

** Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

Subscribe on iTunes The statistics speak for themselves: this could be going on in your business, right here, right now.  If $20 million can go missing in 12 years from a business that had an annual spending budget of only $6 million, then it can happen to anyone.  Don’t let it be you!! Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers, Ben Fewtrell (02) 9111 5000


Achieving High Human Performance With Dr Adam Fraser

Every day in business – in life in fact – we face challenges. That’s obvious, right? But what is less obvious is the importance of the downtime between each challenge. If you treat it with the right amount of respect, your success can go through the roof. Play it wrongly and you set yourself up to fail, time and again. Dr Adam Fraser has done mountains of research on the topic and has kindly offered to share some of the results with us on this week’s podcast. It really is astonishing just how much more happy and successful people can be once they implement some very simple rules. In short, if you are able to reset your mind in between each challenge, your chances of succeeding at the next one are greatly increased, and this is backed up by some seriously compelling data. But how do you ‘reset your mind’? Dr Fraser has a simple three-point method that anybody can do. Having worked with elite athletes, the military, and the high-fliying corporate world, he developed the method when trying to answer the question of “what makes these people high achievers?” The answer was in how effectively they moved from one action to the next, e.g. how a pro tennis player thinks in between points is the difference between them being a champion and an also-ran. Dr Fraser’s book, ‘The Third Place’ explores this murky and often ignored part of the human psyche. In the podcast he elaborates on the methods in the book, which can do a lot more than merely prepare you for the next challenge. They can actually be the first step in achieving some of those holy grail aspirations like “work/life balance”, “being a good leader” etc. etc. Below are some nuggets from the chat:

** Between every challenge, you must: 1. Reflect on the last one. Rest your mind afterwards by doing something that brings you into ‘the now’ (a call centre worker achieved good results by pulling out one piece of jenga after every call, for example).  3. Reset your mind by then focusing on exactly what you want to achieve from the next challenge.

** Humans have a default negative bias, so there is no shame in needing to use a method like this in order to be happy and successful.

** Spending a long time at work away from home doesn’t automatically make for an unhappy family life. Your mindset when returning home has actually been proven to be more important than the amount of time you are there.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** The difference between ‘respond’ and ‘react’

** How to be a better manager and leader

** How to achieve a work/life balance

** How your behaviour affects others

** Why struggling is actually a positive thing

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Business Coaching (http://actioncoachanz.com/businessrich)

** Dr Adam Fraser’s website (http://www.dradamfraser.com)

** Dr Adam Fraser’s twitter (http://www.twitter.com/dradamfraser)

** The Third Space book (http://www.thethirdspace.com.au)

** Facebook (facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

  Subscribe on iTunes It is very reassuring to know just how many good results Dr Fraser’s simple methods have achieved, but you don’t need to be a doctor to actually implement them.  In less than an hour of conversation, he has provided some of the best shortcuts to success you will ever hear.  If you follow them, you can literally change your life tomorrow… and we’re not exaggerating! Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers, Ben Fewtrell (02) 9111 5000

Direct download: BBF068_Achieving_High_Human_Performance_with_Dr_Adam_Fraser.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

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