Written by: Antony Bream, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As a business advisor and mentor, I am lucky enough to spend time with entrepreneurs who often shun the safety and security of a well-salaried job and to sacrifice their time with family, friends and often neglecting their own health.
I came across one such entrepreneur, Jessica Duff, who founded GoZooma after the recent Covid pandemic turned her and her family’s life upside down.
Being so inspired by Jessica’s fighting spirit, overcoming of adversity and grappling with the highs and lows of starting up a new company amidst challenging times.
This is Jessica’s story I wanted to share – Go Jessica and GoZooma!
For you to understand what I am doing, I need to talk to you about why I’m here. In 2020 the pandemic turned my life and my family’s upside down. It sounds dramatic, but it was one of the most difficult times we have ever had to face as a family unit and fortunately we made it to the other side stronger. On the year I was born, my father founded what turned into a thriving bus company.
Starting as a taxi driver, in 1995 Vin bought his first bus, then another and another, by March 2020 he was running a successful company with 32 buses and coaches alongside a team of fantastic employees. In March 2020 we went from 32 vehicles on the road, to 1 overnight.
A few years prior to this, I left my corporate job to build a company selling sustainable alternatives with my sister, we made a reusable make up remover that worked with just water. After 2 years we were stocked in 7 different countries, had a 100% reorder rate, had been offered investment to scale and had sold over 8,000 products. We made the decision to turn down investment and put every penny we had made into more stock to meet the demand we were struggling to keep up with. The money was gone, the stock was ordered and the promise of new products to our stockists had been made. As we were building more client relationships and having conversations with people we could have only dreamt of, our stock dispatch was delayed, and we heard whispers from China of what was about to hit the UK.
With no more stock to sell and my father’s company in turmoil the focus to recover and save the family business began. Our story may seem unique to you, but for us it was only too similar to other operators in the UK. We had a lack of government support and government pressure to invest in low-emission vehicles meant that many companies had just taken on large amounts of debt, which they were now unable to repay.
It was at this point I started to really understand what went into the running of a transport company. Let me tell you, it is not easy, it is incredibly stressful and there are so many moving factors that are out of your control that crop up every day. I could talk in-depth about a multitude of industry issues, but one thing that really stood out, was the lack of visibility these independent business’ have online and the restriction of tech available. In 2020 we went from all enquiries coming through independent customers, to work only being filtered through websites who had a better SEO than us. When looking into how we stay competitive, it was clear to see that the return on investment to have this visibility would not make financial sense. The tech in industry that can be licenced by operators is uncompetitive to the bigger companies and the bigger companies do not licence the tech to the smaller.
I found ourselves in a situation that I felt unfair. Why does the tech not support small independents on a wider scale, to help nurture and support the smaller businesses grow and work together? Instead, the larger companies have the tech the clients want, and place themselves in the middle minimising operators’ profits and complicating the operational process. When speaking to other operators, whose businesses are founded with the same journey, I understood that the story was the same. They didn’t have the tech to compete, and they didn’t have the budgets to develop it. The agencies have the sales team, the SEO budget, and the tech, but they don’t have the men on the ground, the vehicles, the liabilities, or the stress the operators face every day.
The industry risks being taken over by middlemen who are driving the operators profits down but are increasing the clients’ prices. The biggest problem with this, is that it feels personal. I’ve watched my father sacrifice his life to grow his company. Sleepless nights, vehicles stolen, job cancellations, family time missed, Taxes increased, the list goes on.
I’m not going to stand here and watch this unfold and destroy the hard work so many have put into growing their businesses. Often starting as a driver with one vehicle and growing it slowly but surely through dedication and determination. This is a battle to uproot the industry as is and provide the technology to empower operators, not to destroy them.
As I said, this feels personal, and this is just the start of our journey.
GoZooma – technology, built for operators, by an operator, to empower you to provide the technology your clients want.
Antony Bream, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Antony Bream, is a business advisor and executive coach working closely alongside founders, boards and their teams to help them and their businesses take the leap to their next level. With a passion for understanding the processes and psychology behind how companies sell their products and customers buy them, he formed Ribbit Consulting to bring that experience and knowledge to his customers to empower them to reach their full potential.
