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From bumper to bumper – The car care couple

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In 2005 Australia was gripped by drought and Australian drivers were stranded. Water restrictions in most states meant car owners could no longer pull out the trusty garden hose to wash their vehicles. To wash a car at home required about nine frustrating buckets of water and splashing water over a car didn’t have the pressure to lift grit, the volume to properly remove suds or the spray pattern to tidy up the wheels.

Start of a Business Idea

“This was too frustrating,” says business owner Ian Godwin, “I thought, there has to be a better way to wash a car that’s legal and water efficient.”

car wash fun

In 2005 Ian started developing a 12V high pressure low flow pump inside a compact tank. In 2007 the prototype was ready enabling a car to be washed in just two buckets of water providing users with a convenient and efficient way to wash a car at home.

Home Made Carwash – Wash me

Ian’s wife, Miriam Tulevski, who has a background in sales and marketing, encouraged the initial production run. “If we can’t get retail support I’ll sell them to Bondi Markets,” she recalls saying.Small business

The product was launched at a major car show in June 2007 and by 2009 it had distribution in Australia’s premium auto outlets including Repco, Autobarn and Super Cheap Auto.

We started winning awards. Car Cube was voted best-in-class by Choice magazine – Australia’s leading independent consumer magazine. Smart Approved WaterMark awarded it 2009 Product of the Year.

Since then, the business expanded into car care accessories under the name Car Cube sold at Big W and Auto One and Wash Me!, a ranged positioned as high performance and low fuss. We also do premium private label car care products.

“We want Wash Me! to be Australia’s best value car care range” says Miriam. “Parts of the range are already available at Woolworths and Retail Adventures.”

“Of course it can be challenging working with your spouse but we’re a strong fit. Our skills are quite different so in business we complement each other. He’s more technical and operational while I’m more business development and strategy. We share a passion for great quality and excellent value and bring this passion to the products we create and supply for our customers,” says Miriam.

Guest article part of the “New small business start up  series”

Related links for Small business start up series

 

Get your own Publicity and start up your business

 

Oven fairy ( Small Business- Start up Series)

Get your own Publicity and start up your business

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We often hear stories of people who set up their business with no start up funds, reinvest the income in the business and grow organically.Small business

Enter the two women who run DIY publicity

Founders, Jules Brooke and Simone Heydon, started Handle Your Own PR in Australia three years ago. And now they are a global business! In 2010 they opened an office in the US and recently started operating in the UK. Handle Your Own PR: Jules Brooke and Simone Heydon. Set up for small businesses and individuals who want or need publicity but don’t have the funds to pay an agency

 

Handle Your Own PR is Small businesses

“We truly have a passion for small business” founding partner Jules Brooke says. “We have a full service PR agency and felt awful turning away potential clients who simply didn’t have the funds to pay for a campaign when we were aware that the media would probably love their story.”

Small business Publicity

Now running in three countries, Australia, the USA and England, (www.handleyourownpr.com.au, www.handleyourownpr.com and www.handleyourownpr.co.uk) Handle Your Own PR is one-of-a-kind. Nowhere else in the world has someone set out to inform and facilitate how to get publicity for small businesses. These two women saw a niche and went for it.

HYOPR is a do-it-yourself publicity business, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs generate publicity without the use of a PR agency. The Australian, UK and US websites are particularly useful for those businesses selling online and are able to post internationally.

Jules and Simone are entrepreneurs with an Australian online business success story. They found a gap in the market and a solution when it was at its lowest. Consequently, Handle Your Own PR was born.

Guest article part of the “new small business start up  series”

Small business

 

Related Links Start up

oven-fairy-small-business-start-up-series

Oven fairy ( Small Business- Start up Series)

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We are starting a new small business start up  series  where  we will feature Small businesses  that have launched  and willing to share their launch, how they run their business and their success story.

First in the series – Oven fairy www.ovenfairy.com.au

At age 63 you would hardly think starting a new business would be on your mind but that is what I did.

oven fairy

Oven fairy- Get your Dirt y oven clean

Staring into my dirty oven one day I just could not face the thought of cleaning it again. I searched for someone who would do the job for me and discovered that this service was not available here in Sydney. I immediately thought that here was a business opportunity.

My successful Interior Design business which I have had now for 40 years was extremely busy with many projects in the pipeline but despite that Oven Fairy was born.

Going from never wanting to clean my oven again I was out there developing my new enterprise by cleaning other people’s oven
Key to the “jump start” is the name Oven Fairy.s! It took several months to get the whole system right, training staff, implementing office procedures and imbuing everyone with our commitment to excellent customer service.

Tracking all our advertising a nd promotions told us what worked and what did not. Apart from our repeat business we ask every client where they heard about us so we know month by month where our business comes from.

Small business

The challenges were many from finding the right products that are environmentally safe to honouring our promise to return all the ovens to showroom condition.Oven Fairy is recommended by Ilve, Miele and Smeg and our statistics show that 65% of our business is returning clients and recommendations. We are the premier oven cleaning business in Sydney and we now have 7 Oven Fairies delighting passionate cooks in Sydney.

Oven Fairy also cleans stove tops, range hoods, microwaves and BBQs. Juggling Oven Fairy and Momo Interiors has kept me very busy and I am still enjoying all the excitement and rewards owning a business presents.

I will be 70 years old this year with no plans for slowing down. Passion and commitment to the highest levels of customer service, doing wh at you promise, being on time for appointments all contribute to success.

Get in touch with Rosemary at www.ovenfairy.com.au

Guest article part of the “new small business start up  series”

Related links for Small business start up series

http://get-your-own-publicity-and-start-up-your-business/