Meet the best friends running a Tipton car dealership and flying the flag for businesswomen

The best friends met while playing football at Stourbridge FC eight years ago and in more recent years have been part of the squad at Darlaston Town FC.

After identifying a nationwide gap in the market for a female-owned dealership, the duo used the Covid-19 pandemic opportunity to start afresh and pooled together savings to get the business off the ground.

Joanna, aged 30, had already built up seven years of experience in the car trade working in family and big commercial dealerships, while Jodie, 25, gained her business insight as a self-employed beauty practitioner.

“We found a niche in the market. Some women don’t feel confident going into a car dealership when it’s all men. They feel more at ease speaking to a woman and are more trusting,” says Joanna.

“For the first 12 months, we traded off the back of an industrial estate, at the back of Jodie’s dad’s business. We moved to our current pitch in August/September last year and it’s grown from there.

"When we started, we were also both working full-time in our original jobs – I was selling forklift trucks and Jodie was running her beauty business, Wink Beauty. As the car business has grown, I’ve gone full-time and Jodie just does her beauty one day a week,” says Joanna.

Joanna discovered her talent for selling cars after returning to the UK following five years travelling which included time spent in Ibiza, Thailand and Australia.

“I had experience meeting different people and talking to people from different countries and I think that gave me confidence and the ability to talk to anyone. I got a job at a car dealership and I really enjoyed it. I’m quite a competitive person and I hadn’t been there long before I was selling 25-30 cars a month, more than people who had been there 20 years,” she tells Weekend.

A typical day at Wink Cars may start with dropping off any cars scheduled for MOTs or services with their local mechanic.

“Back in the office, we search Auto Trader or online for cars to buy and we have customer appointments or walk-ins.

"If we have found a car we want to buy, we might go to view it. We will check the bodywork, the brake discs and the tyres.

"We check for any oil leaks. We will do a test drive and listen for any knocks, bangs and creaks,” explains Joanna. If they are happy, they will either take it back to Tipton the same day or collect it another time.

Wink Cars mostly sells cars for less than £4,000 and their current stock includes a 2010 Mini Clubman, a 2011 BMW 1 Series Coupe and a 2012 Vauxhall Corsa.

“I love the sales side. Every day is different. I love buying a car at the right price and selling it for the right price. I love working with Jodie, we don’t feel we are at work when we’re working together,” says Joanna.

“I enjoy working with my friend every day, being my own boss and working with the public.

“We help people to find a good quality car at a good price,” adds Jodie.

The friends were recently named the winners of a national competition to receive a one-to-one mentoring session with Baroness Karren Brady CBE.

It was part of The Empowering Women in Business initiative launched by Simply Business, one of the UK’s leading small business insurance providers, to help women entrepreneurs overcome the challenges they are facing in business.

“I saw a post on Instragram about the competition. I’ll take any opportunity so I applied for it. I forgot to tell Jodie and then went on holiday.

“I landed in Bali and had a call from Jodie saying Karren Brady’s PR team had called her and told her we had been short-listed for the competition.

“We needed to have a Zoom call with them and explain why we wanted to win. When we spoke to them, they told us we hadn’t been short-listed, we had actually won. It was really a bit of a shock,” explains Joanna.

The mentoring session will take place later this month and the business executive and vice-chairman of West Ham United FC will be offering expert guidance on how they can grow Wink Cars in the future.

“It’s such a good opportunity,” says Joanna. “We relate to her in so many ways because she’s worked in male-dominated industries. Whenever we are making decisions, we always say: what would Karren do?”

“We want to make the most of the session and make sure we are asking the right questions. We’re looking forward to it,” adds Jodie.

Speaking about Wink Cars, Baroness Brady says: “I’ve been inspired by Jo and Jodie’s journey in business so far and look forward to working with them to iron out the challenges they might be currently facing. The economy needs the support of small businesses in the UK and we must inspire women in business, and help abolish the challenges they face daily.”

“We want to keep growing the business,” adds Joanna. “We are selling around 15 cars a month at the moment and we want to be selling at least 30. We want people to buy a car from us and tell their family and friends.”