DAY IN THE LIFE OF

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF PHIL COLBURN

How does this award-winning Poolwerx business development manager spend his working day covering the Brisbane South and Far North Queensland region?

How do you start your day? Before I head out into the field, I start my day by reviewing emails and the day’s agenda before collating a ‘To Do’ list to achieve throughout the day.

Can you briefly describe a typical day at work? Each day I set an agenda for those franchise partners I’m scheduled to visit in my area. These visits can take three to four hours depending on their requirements, which can cover anything from cash flow, profits, sales opportunities or marketing initiatives. Because of this, no two days are the same and can change quickly depending on the time of year.

I finish each day by creating reports on my meetings and providing an update to those franchise partners I’ve met. Lastly, I then prep for the following day.

What do you do in your job that influences franchisees? My role is to provide advice and coaching to our franchise partners and help their businesses succeed. I’m also available to provide support and encouragement, bridging the gap between the Poolwerx support centre, suppliers and the local businesses. An example of this is seeing those businesses in my area grow exponentially. In the past two years I’ve had franchise partners grow their revenue by two to three times previous years’, which has enabled them to invest in new stores, more vans and refurbishments.

What are the biggest challenges of the job? Every business has varying needs and every franchise partner is different, so I need to take a distinct approach depending on personalities and experience. Overall, it’s about understanding the needs of our individual franchise partners and how I can best support them.

Support is different for different people. It could be a sounding board to move the business to the next level or it could be doing cash flows to maximise profit.

Other facets of the support and coaching could be clarity on a quote to get the best return or assisting with staff issues. And often this support extends outside of business issues. It could be support for personal issues such as, ‘My mum has had a heart attack and has been rushed to the hospital – what do I do?’ How do you measure the success of your role? If the franchise partner is successful and achieving their KPIs and targets, then I’ve done my job well. As a business, Poolwerx’s number one KPI is franchise partner profitability.

What do you enjoy most about the job? We work with a terrific network of franchise partners, and it’s very rewarding watching their businesses grow and seeing their goals achieved.

How do you keep yourself motivated? Motivation for me comes by helping our franchisees achieve their success, even if those are small wins along the way to their bigger goals.

What's the best thing about working for Poolwerx? The people, career opportunities and working with one of Australia’s most successful franchise networks. The dedication to our franchise partners is second to none and very inspiring.

What one thing about you or your job would surprise people? I captained Queensland in Soccer for the Under 16s team and am still playing!

Support is different for different people. It could be a sounding board to move the business to the next level or it could be doing cash flows to maximise profit.