We don’t know many people (especially Mum’s) who enjoy cleaning their house. That’s why to celebrate Mum’s this Mother’s day we are offering 5 lucky women the chance to win a Mum’s Day Off Experience. Part of this relaxing day will include having your home cleaned by the professionals at VIP Home Services.
Like Whole Kids, VIP is based on a small business with great heart. We love the story of founder Bill and how he turned a negative into a positive like a true entrepreneur and wound up with one of Australia leading premier cleaning services. Find out more about how a lawn mowing side job lead to a great Aussie business…
Founded by Bill Vis, V.I.P. Home Services remains Australian owned and operated and has the same core value from the very day it started – exceptional customer service.
It is this great service, essentially treating customers like V.I.P.’s, that has enabled the company to grow into an award-winning franchise system that has over 1,000 franchisees across Australia, helping customers with their cleaning and lawns and gardens needs for more than three decades.
Starting in South Australia in 1972, V.I.P. made history as the first home services business to franchise in Australia.
Bill began his career as a door to door Electrolux salesman. Not giving up when a sale fell through or the potential customer did not appear interested, Bill would ask the customer, ‘do you need your lawns mowed?’. Working gardening jobs on the weekend was soon making him more money than his Monday – Friday job as an Electrolux salesman.
Finding this type of work not only more successful, but more enjoyable, Bill sat down with a stack of newspapers and looked for every lawn mowing round he could find advertised. He bought them all and re-packaged them under what he referred to as memberships at the time, unknowingly getting into what was the start of a very successful franchise business.
‘I paid a $50 deposit and had a one month settlement then I would re-package the round and on-sell it under a membership agreement to people who wanted the lifestyle and the appeal of a higher income.’ – explains Bill.
V.I.P. Home Services was born, and Bill would be known from then on as a pioneer for the industry. With the introduction of technology in the form of a customer database, Bill went on to create the sell-back system, resulting in better profitability for his franchisees and saw a huge growth in the company.
‘I feel like the biggest achievement in creating V.I.P. Home Services, and what remains as the driving force behind wanting to ensure that the company keeps getting better and better, is the ability to help change people’s lives. One of our early franchisees called just to talk six months after joining V.I.P. He thanked me for changing his life. He had financial security, increased fitness; he was happy. I began to wonder how many other people like him were out there.’ – says Vis
V.I.P. continued to grow and became an Australia-wide operator in 1989.
Today at V.I.P. we continue to develop the skills and share the knowledge learned over the 30+ year history of the company with our franchisees, so that they can deliver outstanding results for every customer; we want to ensure that the very concept which started the business never wavers and continues into the future of V.I.P. Home Services.
To win your very own VIP cleaning experience then enter our Mum’s Day Off competition HERE by telling us (In 25 words or less) ‘what advise would you give your new mum self?’
