Brand New Jobs

The recruitment market is overflowing with Australian and multinational giants, as well as a sizeable number of plucky start-ups.

 

So why would you want to wade into what is already a saturated industry?

 

Brand New Jobs is a new Gold Coast-based jobs site that aims to do things a little differently, by offering job ad templates to busy franchisors.

 

Brother and sister team Bernadette Williams and Danny Hawks are the brains behind Brand New Jobs. Williams talks to StartupSmart about how she hopes the business will stand out from the crowd.

 

What is your background?

 

I was a shareholder in a number of franchised brands, such as Eagle Boys and Noodle Box.

 

It was very exciting training these brands, but one of the main things they had to do was finding the right staff, as there was fairly high turnover.

 

When you’re a franchise, it’s very important to keep your brand integrity. That can be tough when you add in a lot of franchisees.

 

I found recruitment to be a very time-consuming process – it could take a week to get a job ad right and out there. Some other ads weren’t so strict and put information out there that was incorrect, or full of spelling errors.

 

I thought there was a better way of doing it, so we decided to work on this new concept.

 

So, what’s the big idea?

 

The idea is that franchisors can create templates for their job ads, including logos and company information. Franchisees can then go on the site, log on and use the templates when they are hiring.

 

So, if you’re a pizza restaurant operator and you need a delivery driver, you can go on the site and use an easy template. You can amend the location and the type of work, but the vacancies will pretty much be the same across the franchisees.

 

What’s the pricing model?

 

Brands can build their profile and template for free but it costs $215 for a franchisee to place an ad.

 

We had a look at what others were charging and we actually offer quite a lot for free. We’ve gone for a flat rate that’s fairly simple to understand.

 

What’s the point of difference to all the other jobs sites out there?

 

The point of difference is that franchisors, as well as other employers, can have a database on the site that can be easily accessed. Many smaller companies don’t have these kind of templates – some recruiters lack them too – and we can offer them this.

 

I used to get very frustrated at all the things that needed approval before a job ad went out. This cuts down on that and saves the employer time.

 

Also, when a job ad goes up, the employer won’t get 100 or 200 resumes flood in on email. They just go to their profile on the site and view the applications that have been sent.

 

The site helps you quickly decide if the applications have the skills you desire and you can click on ‘shortlist’ if you want to shortlist them.

 

If they are not suitable, there’s an automated email that tells the applicant they weren’t successful. I saw that this kind of thing was lacking on other sites – job seekers would never get a reply saying ‘no thanks’, which wasted their time and didn’t do much for the employer’s integrity either.

 

How was the start-up process?

 

We got an in-house developer to build the site, which is one of the best decisions we made. We had someone involved day-to-day in the business, as well as having more control over the process.

 

We used our own savings to start the business. The main cost was the developers, we kept everything else fairly lean.

 

There are seven of us now – the developers, HR, accountant, myself, brother and his wife.

 

I’ve had experience in franchising and Danny’s strength is in small business and sales, so we looked to surround ourselves with people who have strengths where we have weaknesses.

 

We were lucky to find the right staff – we spoke to a lot of people and did a lot of research.

 

How are you going to drive numbers to the site?

 

We got a company called Eightball Media to help us with the SEO and SEM side of things, but our real focus is to talk to the people we know in the franchise industry.

 

The response has been very positive. They can see how the site will save them time. We’ve spoken to about a dozen who are going through the process of deciding whether to join up and we’ll take it from there.

 

We are very active on social media, especially Facebook. It’s very early days, but I’m happy with how things have gone so far.

 

Franchising is a first step into business for a lot of people,. I know friends who are out of work and have looked at franchising as it gives you the tools you need.

 

What are your goals for the business?

 

Obviously, we want to be the best online job seeking site around. We will take on feedback and develop the site. We’ll listen, innovative and deliver.

 

I also want us to be a great place to work. Being based in the Gold Coast is important to us – we have high unemployment here and we want to help make the situation better as we grow.