MyCarNeedsA.com

Idea

Introduction

MyCarNeedsA.com is an online comparison site for routine car services, maintenance, and MoTs, giving car owners an easy and convenient way to compare quotes from pre-approved (checked for quality) local garages in terms of price, services offered and customer ratings.

With a management estimate of 100m services, MOT and maintenance jobs in the UK every year, the site helps save time, money and hassle through a simple process…. .
· A car owner posts a job on the site for free.
· Pre-approved garages quote for the work.
· The car owner chooses their preferred quote

We have nationwide coverage which comprises of a mix of independent service providers, franchises and chains, including many well-known names in the market.

The service is free to car owners.
MyCarNeedsA.com revenue comes from garages and service providers, paying monthly fees to be on our network plus commission in order to get new business in their local area they would otherwise be unable to attract.

Intended impact

MyCarNeedsA.com was started to meet the needs of two separate sets of customers:

Car owners: Routine car maintenance is a dull, evil necessity. Our experience suggests that most car owners don’t know the ‘fair’ price of most jobs, awareness of garages in the area is often low, there’s a level of mistrust of the trade, and obtaining quotes to allow for shopping around can be difficult and time-consuming.
With minimum effort, and at no cost, MyCarNeedsA.com saves the car owner time, money, hassle, and worry.

Service providers (independent garages, franchised dealers and chains): Our experience in the market suggests that these businesses find it difficult to recruit new customers. Even those with a sound core of loyal business can often lack marketing resources to expand their base, or to attract the most profitable work in a way that suits their workflow schedules. For a monthly subscription, MyCarNeedsA.com can fulfil that marketing function and delivers quote requests that can be selected by Service Providers to suit their own business needs.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Core KPIs since 2014 operational launch:
Network size:
Target: 2000 Service Providers (SPs) Now 2,800
Quote level.
Target: 80% Now 95.7%.
Average quotes per job.
Target: 3 Now 4.5.
Unique Visits passed 250K in 2015, 550K 2017.
Costs per job acquired: from £11 in 2015 to currently £4.54 in 2018.
Revenue growth: £171k (2015) to £425k (2017)*.

Other key milestones:
2015-2018: Building the brand.
Creating recognised brand crucial to credibility with car owners and trade through campaigns online, radio and TV.
2015-2018: Key service provider relationships.
Contracts with Halfords, VW, Autoglass, Formula1, etc.
2016: Optimising mobile site.
67% of business now comes via our mobile site. A Google powered analysis ranked it higher for mobile optimisation in certain areas than certain brands such as AirBnB.
2016: Autoquote.
Developed capability to provide quotes ourselves when service provider is unable to deliver in time.
2018: “Seeded Database” creation.
With repeat jobs critical to growth and profitability, the creation and development of our database of future repeat jobs is of huge significance. Over 430k potential future jobs, harvested daily at minimal CPA, are now visible and form the basis for increased revenue streams.
2016/17/18 - Finalist UK Blog of the Year.
2016 - free Accident Aftercare through a partnership with Accident Exchange.
2017 - MCNA insurance comparison service through Seopa.
2017 - featured Daily Telegraph Business Club.
2018 - MCNA Used Car Search through CarSnip.
2018 - imminent partnerships with HonestJohn.co.uk and CarExpert.

*Source: Unaudited management accounts

Monetisation strategy

Service is free to car owners.

Service Providers pay a monthly fee to join the network and be able to quote for jobs. License fees range from £10-120 per site, dependent on the volume of work available, plus £2.50 fee for every accepted quote. Our price structure is built around a strategy of lower trial period pricing to encourage quality service provider signup, with subscription rates rising as volume of business to each provider rises.

Customer satisfaction and internal marketing are driving a rapid increase in repeat use from existing car owners, thus:
- stimulating overall volume of business delivered to service providers - thus increasing revenues.
- dramatically reducing acquisition costs, from > £10 per new user initially to less than 10p per repeat job - thus increasing profitability.

As the database grows further, we expect that additional revenue streams will become available through the provision of additional services to car owners such as extended warranties, accident management schemes, insurance and used car search.

Use of proceeds

In securing new investment, the company will accelerate the growth of new customers and the future opportunity provided by repeat jobs in the seeded database.

The new investment will provide marketing budget to acquire new car owners, on a linear basis per month, using historical performance and CPA’s per marketing channel. In doing so, the subsequent increase of the database can be projected and utilised to forecast future jobs and network growth.

As Service Provider revenues are linked to the volume of jobs, revenues should also increase accordingly. Investment will also be used to ensure the company has adequate resource to manage the growing network and maximise revenues accordingly.

With increasing repeat jobs at a significantly lower cost per acquisition, the opportunity for further profitability grows exponentially.

Having grown the active database, revenues and profitability, the company will position itself to develop trade-sale opportunities within the automotive, aggregator and publishing sectors.