I launched a new business during the pandemic, here’s what happened…

Every entrepreneur dreams of running a successful company, starting from scratch with a single idea and working all hours of the day and night getting it to market before it finally takes off. That feeling of validation, of accomplishment, of success, is hard to beat, but it's equally as hard to achieve.?

So how do you achieve success as a start-up? Well, you take a risk.

In 2019, I left my job at SNAP, a market leading cashless payment solution for HGV drivers. I had worked there for five years alongside my Dad who had founded the company in 2008 by taking a risk and following his dreams of building a successful company. During those five years I learnt a huge amount about running a business.?

In my early days, the company needed one thing only, and that was customers. Bashing away at the phone day-in-day-out was not the easiest, but it was necessary. Further down the line I began developing my own skill set and settled into a role growing the business. I set up new products, designed systems, and fostered partnerships with companies all over Europe.?

Then I opted for the road less travelled.

Taking a giant leap of faith I left SNAP. I didn’t have a plan, I just knew it was the right time to go. So I jumped and trusted I would land on reasonably soft ground. A week later I was sitting in a hand car wash after driving around to find an ATM to get some cash to pay for it. Eureka! I’d spotted an industry problem and quickly identified a simple solution.?

Lots of people have these moments, the "why hasn’t someone invented this?” moment. That’s how mankind has evolved and continues to adapt to the world around us. We want convenience, to make our lives easier, and hence the eagle-eyed among us are constantly spotting ways to improve day-to-day life.?

Identifying an issue is half the challenge, taking a risk and investing your heart and soul into finding a workable solution is the bit that requires so much more than just an injection of cash.

Most startups fail.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good the idea is, inevitably it all comes down to whether the rest of the world agrees. There’s a lot of clarity in hindsight, but at the point of no return you weigh everything up, decide if you have the ability to turn your idea into a reality, and jump in, head first.?

I launched the GoWash app in March 2020. Now why does that month sound familiar…

One thing no one can predict when launching a new business is the impact of unexpected external factors such a global pandemic.

Covid brought lots of businesses to their knees. As a startup I thought the ramifications to our launch would be catastrophic. I knew I needed momentum, especially when working with the general public, instead the stop-start pattern of opening and closing businesses meant we struggled to get off the ground.?

How could I respond? Would my dream of building a successful business come to a brutal end due to something that was completely out of my control??

The pandemic encouraged us to look at GoWash in a new light, as a “cashless payment”, which although a buzz word for the last decade had now evolved into “socially distanced payments”. Customers and businesses were prioritising ways of paying for things where no contact was needed. Our app achieved that for the general public and this became our silver lining.

Car washes were joining the system quickly, so our network was becoming widespread, but to the average user, the only car wash important to them was the one down the road. So how could we utilise the power of this network to achieve steady growth during a period when the country was going in and out of lockdown??

Take another risk.?

While building momentum in a startup it can be foolish to stop and begin developing another product, however that is exactly what we did. After months of research and development, including an incredibly positive meeting (over zoom of course) with one of the countries biggest fleets we started building the GoWash Fleet Account.

In July 2021, we launched the fleet account, allowing fleets of 2 up to 10,000 to manage their vehicle washing in a centralised and simple format. Utilising our nationwide network of car washes, fleet vehicles can turn up at a car wash and pay through the app with their transactions appearing on one weekly invoice.?

Again, it’s a simple solution to an age old industry problem for fleet managers. We are reducing admin, getting rid of paper receipts and petty cash, and offering greater control over all aspects of fleet cleaning for any size.

There’s a lot of clarity in hindsight and if you asked me whether I’d choose to launch a start-up during a global pandemic again, you’d probably expect me to say “no”. However, on this occasion I feel that it may have actually set GoWash up for success because it forced me and my team to adapt and apply our concept as a solution to another industry problem.?

Don’t get me wrong, navigating the unprecedented events of the last 18 months have been challenging to say the least, but the resulting developments have validated my initial idea and justified the risks I took when launching the business.