Jonno's Carwash

A Business Enterprise Centre can help you at many stages and at many times throughout the life of your business... especially when circumstances (such as the availability of water) change, just like Jonno's Car Wash, a business owned and operated by Jonathon Sciola. The water shortage in Victoria could have seen his car wash business close, but instead it gave this business the advantage over many competitors and has seen his waterless carwash business skyrocket!

Jonno's Car Wash commenced in 2004 after Jonathon completed the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) through Box Hill BEC. Initially the business was a traditional water-based mobile car wash with a residential focus.

Through the NEIS mentoring process, Jonathon turned the focus of his business towards the corporate sector, visiting workplaces and washing numerous cars in one location, rather than one car at numerous locations. At the end of his period on NEIS he had achieved his goals and had a comfortable income and large loyal customer base, but he didn't know what to do to take the business to the next growth level. He needed ideas and again turned to Box Hill BEC for assistance.

This time he participated in Box Hill's Business Breakthrough Program, a program developed by the BEC in 2003. Business Breakthrough involves five workshops and five mentoring - the workshops cover the different ways a business can grow, the various considerations and planning issues whilst the mentoring assists with the tailoring of this to the individual businesses needs, the development of an individualised growth strategy/plan and its implementation in the business. Here Jonathon again received the inspiration which helped his business to grow.

"The Box Hill mentors taught me to keep my eyes on environmental and economic factors that would affect my business," said Jonathon. "I identified that the water shortage and water restrictions were going to be a concern to my business and so found a waterless product to clean cars."

"It has been so successful in helping my business to grow that I now supply waterless car wash chemicals to 35% of Melbourne's car dealers, including many Mercedes, BMW and Ford dealerships."

Since instigating the waterless wash, business for Jonno's Carwash has boomed. He promotes the waterless aspect to the business - car owners can now be guilt-free for having a car that is clean and maintaining value. Jonathon has distributors selling the product for him throughout Melbourne and is hiring contractors to physically wash cars for him. He is moving from being a sole trader to a proprietary company and has found a venture capitalist to invest in the business. There are exciting times ahead for Jonathon and Jonno's Car Wash - and this success is all because he was observant of external forces on his business and then flexible enough to respond... with the help of his local BEC.

If you would like some assistance in performing a SWOT analysis of your business, your local BEC can assist. Whether your business is in start-up mode, or more established, your friendly BEC business facilitators can help you with business planning and review to ensure you drought proof your business to the best of your ability.