Christopher Davies started Ryde UK – Wales’ first and only zero-emission chauffeur service, as a partnership with his father, Stephen, following the successful sale of their previous business operation, which delivered speed awareness and driver improvement courses across the UK.
Since the sale of their former company, Chris and his father decided to set up Ryde, aiming to make a significant change to the way transportation services are viewed across South Wales and beyond. Their vehicles are state of the art, equipped with the latest innovations in driver safety technology, combined with an all-electric zero-emission drive train.
Ryde UK’s drivers are highly trained, thanks to the founders’ many years’ experience working alongside Police Forces across the UK to improve road safety standards. They currently have a 3-car fleet with aspirations to expand this in the near future and introduce a personal Tesla car rental service, operating across the M4 corridor.
The business has featured in the Welsh Fast Growth 50 list 3 years running and has also won the prestigious Innovation Through Technology award.
What they did
Having detected a gap in the market for an executive chauffeur service and with a keen desire to positively contribute towards our growing environmental challenges, Chris and Stephen decided to utilise their experience, knowledge and business acumen, to launch a zero-emission chauffeur service. To date, the business has grown organically, however, they recently approached the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service to aid with further growth and explore marketing opportunities.
What would they do differently?
“There is clearly a growing trend for businesses to deploy a robust digital marketing strategy in order to engage with their audience. It has taken us over 12 months of operating to recognise this and start to draw a marketing strategy, utilising the various social media platforms available to us.” – Christopher Davies, Owner and Co-founder of Ryde UK
Their proudest moment in business
“In a short space of time, the company has been able to secure a number of contracts with large organisations within South Wales, including 5-star hotels such as the Celtic Manor.”
Describe the type of support (financial / non-financial) they’ve received from Business Wales / Welsh Government
Ryde UK have been supported by Business Wales’ Relationship Manager Phil Summers, who provided crucial advice on developing a clear marketing strategy including social media and networking. He also supported Chris with strategic planning for the future growth of the business and introduced him to relevant public sector organisations, such as Welsh Government, NHS, Cardiff and Newport Local Authorities, as well as the Superfast Business Wales service.
Chris has also benefitted from the support of a tendering adviser, Elgan Richards, enabling him to win several high-profile contracts.
Chris said: “I would highly recommend Phil and the team at Business Wales to anyone starting out on their new business journey. They are a team with great experience and take the time to get to know you as an individual and show a tremendous appetite to learn about your business. I will take away a great many things from my dealings with the team. In particular, it has helped me to explore new opportunities for promotion and to gain greater understanding of the support network an organisation like Business Wales can offer SMEs.”
Top Tips
Here are Ryde UK’s top tips for anyone else looking to start or grow their own business:
- there are many avenues of support available to help you on your journey, embrace these, as they can prove invaluable
- marketing has evolved significantly over the last decade and the opportunities to interact with new customers have grown significantly; learn all you can about digital marketing and look to companies who can support you
- if there are any groups/meetings of like-minded entrepreneurs in similar sectors, reaching out to those who have years of experience could prove very useful and most people are more than happy to help out a budding entrepreneur
- plan your business, write it down; a plan doesn’t need to be extensive, just have the core values written down, along with your ideal customer and marketing strategy to gain them, this is a fluid document, so you shouldn’t be afraid to review this on a regular basis and figure out what works and what doesn’t
- be realistic; it takes time to bring your business together and gain momentum, there can be moments where it might seem like it’s not working, however, most businesses take many years to establish themselves and gain a reliable client base