Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
My Business is called “The Shine Mechanic”, and we are a mobile car detailing business that services Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Our business is centered around cleaning and washing cars and providing services to clients on a time that works better for them. The benefit of mobile detailing is that we come to the customer eliminating the customer’s need to drop a vehicle off or schedule a day when the service can be done, rather we come and do it conveniently when the customer sees fit.
Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
My name is Martin and I am the owner of “The Shine Mechanic”. I am a person of Asian background and my family are from India. Upon arriving here, I attended school and soon arrived in college where I am now studying at Bryant University majoring in finance. I have worked my entire life from farms, dishwashing, mechanical work, and I can say that running a business is the most fun!
What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
My family has always had a love for cars and I have been detailing most of my life as well so I decided to utilize my skillset in the area of Rhode Island where I had just moved for college and start a business. I hate working for people and have always taken pride in my work so a business made the most sense for me and my goals.
What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Don’t give up
Believe in yourself and ignore others
Make plans and execute them
What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Having a stoic mindset and remaining calm and collective at all times especially with customers.
The skill to advertise and market the business.
The skill to be a people person and know how to talk.
How many hours do you work a day on average?
8-12 hours 7 days a week
To what do you most attribute your success?
My parents who raised me and taught me the value of money. The various jobs I worked, especially the one where I worked on a farm as that taught me to work hard. And most definitely god and it is because of him that I am successful.
How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of Marketing?
Google ads has attracted a fair amount of customers but I would definitely say word of mouth, referrals, promotions, posters, and SEO are all valid ways of marketing one’s business. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it?
Working and saving money from jobs I worked throughout my life.
How did you obtain investors for your venture?
There are no investors as of right now.
What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Learning how to scale the business and taking on a manager role early and hiring others will result in the business growing a lot faster as you overwatch everything and make plans while the workers do what you used to do.
Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Extremely successful with this business being all over the state in the form of car washes.
Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
I admire my father’s business as he built it from the ground up through many years and turned it into a dealership. All of his customers are strictly word of mouth and SEO Google searches which is what I hope to achieve.
