Today we meet Momentrepreneur Danielle from ChaufHer who had the brilliant idea to create an “Uber” kind of service for women, driven by women, to ensure their safety and to empower them too.
- Tell us about yourself, a bit of background.
I am a mom of three year old twin girls and a five year old boy. I lived in London for 12 years were I worked and travelled as much as I possibly could before coming home to South Africa 8 years ago. I am passionate about helping children and animals and fund raise once or twice a year for various initiatives.
2. What were you doing before you started this business?
I worked in the corporate world for most of my adult life until I came back home to South Africa 8 years ago to start a family and have been a full time mom until we started working on ChaufHer 2 years ago.
3. Is your business full time or part time and why?
It will be full time. The interest we have received has been somewhat overwhelming. ChaufHer aims to be become a household name. We are very passionate about the opportunity to uplift women either as drivers or riders; “by women, for women”.
4. How do you juggle the responsibilities of being a Mom with your work?
All my colleagues are moms and we just work around school pick ups etc. Our kids are all the same age and we have recently secured business premises which will allow for us to bring our kids to work with us. One of the reasons I started this business was because as much as I love being a Mom, I wanted something more.
In many respects this is similar to the opportunity we are creating for other women, by creating an environment where they can work (or ride) with greater freedoms.
5. Do you have a business plan? If so, can you share a bit about your strategy to make it successful?
Yes, we absolutely have a business plan. For instance, aside from our own needs, we have worked with the City of Cape Town, Transport Management to ensure their support with our ideas to improve mobility.
More importantly our vision is for ChaufHer to be a household name in South African ride-hail by enabling women drivers and riders greater access to the sharing economy, greater mobility and economic freedom.
Further we will do this by creating safe, reliable journeys for women and children; and to economically empower women drivers in an uplifting and safe working environment by harnessing the symbiosis between women drivers and women riders. Nothing, of course, can be guaranteed, but we are working the very best partners regarding driver training, and mobile security for instance.
We genuinely believe that the service proposition and culture we will build in our brand will be our differentiating factor.
6. How do you get clients/ market yourself?
We are currently marketing to the driver audience so our marketing efforts are focused and tightly targeted at this audience – through Facebook, PR and on-the-ground activations.
When we launch the ChaufHer app in November we will broaden our reach to female riders. Our marketing mix will include all social media platforms, online advertising, PR efforts and exposure through aligned partnerships.
7. What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Trying to get the right amount of operating licenses for our drivers. Ride hail is still covered under Metered Taxis from a regulatory standpoint. The governmental authorities are trying to manage transport solutions, ChaufHer is not a transport or passenger company, but is responding more to social needs. As a case in point, we expect that many drivers who use ChaufHer will be doing this as a second job, and/or after meeting the many demands that running a household brings, so the hours worked will likely be less. The number of Operating Licences required on this basis would need to increase over and above a ‘full time’ economic model. To be fair however, we have received a very positive and proactive response to our proposal from City of Cape Town thus far.
8. Did you need a lot of money to start off? And how long was it before you made a profit?
It has taken 2 years for us to get this far and we are self funded. Sometimes I have stressed where the next funding will come from, and it has been a sacrifice but we have been fortunate enough to get to a launch in just over a month..
Haha…a we have not made a profit yet, we launch soon, and believe there will be good value for drivers, riders, ourselves and some for charity as well once up and running.
9. What makes your business unique from other brands?
I suppose it is difficult to compare with other companies, but I had a need as a Mom, and the more I talked with other women, the more I realised there was a gap that is now ChaufHer.
ChaufHer is a ride-hail company that is ‘by women, for women’. Not only do we provide a safer, more efficient & more reliable transportation environment, it also provides a platform for women’s empowerment, for both our drivers (through employment and economic inclusion) and for our riders (through freedom of movement in a more trusted environment).
We have listened closely to the feedback we have received and have made it a deliberate strategy to work with the best partners in terms of security, payment services, driver training to improve the service offering for both drivers and riders.
10. Share with us your social media links and website.
https://web.facebook.com/chaufher/
https://www.instagram.com/chaufher.ridehail/
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