My biggest mistake: Pamela Jabbour, CEO of Total Image Group

Pamela Jabbour started her uniform supplier company, Total Image Group, at the age of 21. Seventeen years later, Total Image Group dresses 350,000 Australians every single day and Jabbour has a second company to her name — Capsule Collection Wardrobe.

But two years ago, Jabbour made her biggest mistake when she lost sight of Total Image Group’s values and worth.

In a recent interview with SmartCompany Plus, Jabbour explained how losing one client that generated 40% of her company’s revenue was the best thing possible.

The mistake

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jabbour received news that her biggest customers were going to market and Total Image Group might lose its business.

“We’d had this contract for 13 years, and for the longest time, it had been great,” Jabbour explains. “But it became more and more about the cost to them and not the relationship. Yet, mentally, I kept focusing on the fact that this client was our largest contract that generated decent revenue. I kept thinking, ‘What are we going to do if we lose this customer?’”

Knowing how long the process would take for the customers to find a new supplier, Jabbour had time to consider her options. But, the tender process was ultimately delayed further because of the pandemic, meaning Jabbour spent years living with uncertainty because she wouldn’t let go of the contract by choice.

In hindsight, Jabbour realises she should have understood that the contract wasn’t “actually generating profit” and “doesn’t align with our values”. 

“My biggest mistake was not knowing our worth, losing track of the importance of values and mutual respect, and being terrified to lose a client based on sales revenue instead of profit,” Jabbour explains.

The context

During 2020 and 2021 — the years when Total Image Group were faced with losing its biggest customers — the market was especially difficult. “There had been bushfires, COVID-19, and the economy had gone through a really tough cycle,” Jabbour explained.

“I was terrified to lose this contract because no big contracts were coming our way and the market was very unstable and uncertain.”

Jabbour noticed a huge change in how her customers used uniforms during the pandemic. Many of her clients no longer needed uniforms because their teams worked from home, while other clients in healthcare or construction suddenly needed more than ever. Then, there were supply chain issues to work through, and Jabbour had to temporarily cut her staff’s hours to reflect the market’s instability.

The impact

While the financial impact of losing customers responsible for 40% of Total Image Group’s revenue was obvious, the mental effect wasn’t as immediately obvious. Looking back, Jabbour believes her judgement became “clouded”, and the whole experience ended up “harder and more drawn out” than it should have.

“Losing that contract caused me to question everything,” Jabbour said. “For a long time, I questioned how big a brand I wanted to have and lost sight of the growth mindset I had always had.” 

Jabbour says she even started to doubt her own ability, how good Total Image Group was as a brand, and whether they “really had this secret sauce that I have believed in for so long”.

The fix

Things began to change for Jabbour and Total Image Group when she finally walked away from the contract and deeply thought about herself and her business.

“I did a lot of self-evaluation, workshopping, and had to work out our growth strategy and ideal revenue number,” Jabbour said.

“When I eventually realised that it served Total Image Group to walk away, we got these great big opportunities,” Jabbour continued.

“We were closing contracts in six months, which had never been done, and generated the same amount of revenue in a short period.”

The pandemic and the loss of her biggest customers ultimately allowed Jabour to deep-dive into her business structure and make some hard decisions. She restructured the company and got more involved with the day-to-day business operations.

“I became a lot more hands-on, which isn’t always a great thing in a CEO, but it served us,” Jabbour said. “We started to perform better than we had over the last five years. Every business is different, but for our sized business, it meant the team got a lot of direct contact and drive. I also have a lot of sales experience, so I helped close some big enquiries and provided coaching to win more business. COVID-19 provided the opportunity to get more connected.”

Jabbour also decided to invest heavily in more marketing.

“My dad always told me that in tough times, people don’t spend marketing money, and that’s when you should — in tough times, double your marketing budget.”

“We spent a lot of money on marketing and our website, and as a result, our inquiries have tripled over the last few years. And, we made back the revenue lost from that client with new business.”

The lesson

“In hindsight, I think we could have grown far quicker had I been comfortable letting go of that client or realising that it might be best to change paths because if there’s no value alignment, first and foremost, if the client doesn’t really appreciate what you do for them, then you’re just not setting yourself up to succeed,” Jabbour said.

“I lost track of the importance of values, mutual respect and how things can thrive when your energies align with clients.”

All that evaluation and learning allowed Jabbour to reposition Total Image Group to be louder and stronger than ever.

“I gained back a whole lot of my confidence, and I know that we have a different offering to what most of our competitors can offer,” said Jabbour. “We do have our secret sauce, after all.”