If anyone wants to start a business they should not procrastinate. Even if you fail, fail moving forward because your day is coming, says LLUU Car Rental founder Mzolisi Damba.
He said he had tried opening businesses with other groups but had not had much success. But he never gave up.
In its five years of operation the car rental company, based in Centurion in Pretoria, has successfully grown from only four cars to a fleet of more than 100 vehicles.
LLUU was named after the founder’s two children, Luphawo and Luthando, who are his motivation to keep the business running.
“We are mainly a car rental business because that is 98% of our offering. However, we have broadened our abilities and offer airport transfers, chauffeur services for both individuals and businesses, and we hire out cars from your small Hyndai i10’s to compact sedans, luxury cars, minibuses, and we also offer luxury buses,” said Damba.
The 41-year-old businessman from Centane in the Eastern Cape said it was most challenging to work with cars because people do not drive a rented car in the same way they would drive their own vehicle.
Some people rent cars to perform illegal acts and by so doing hope they can avoid being traced.
“There are two main challenges with the business, one is, people take the cars and use them to break the law. When they are caught or the vehicles are caught and stored in the pound it is very hard for us to get them out of there. While the vehicles are impounded, we lose revenue.
“The other challenge is people who hire cars with the sole intention of stealing them. We have managed to overcome a lot of these challenges through artificial intelligence and just improving our processes to make sure that the people that we give our cars to are worthy of our services,” said the businessman.
LLUU Car Rental has created jobs for seven people, and prides itself on supporting local mechanics and insurance businesses, and Damba believes he is assisting to keep these businesses going.
“We are a business that supports others. At the same time we have people that have cars they have not been using, so they give them to us for use by the business and we pay them the revenue that the cars generate, and take a certain percentage,” he said.
Damba advised that any aspirant businessperson should push any obstacles out of their way, understanding that starting a business is not a walk in the park but a roller-coaster ride they should hold on to – until they see the results they hoped for.
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