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Charlotte Morton, founder and managing director of ‘WhizzGo’, the innovative pay-by-the- hour car club service, is passionate about learning. But she is less accepting of one of the greatest lessons in life – mistakes. As she says: “Mistakes affect the business.”

Forty year old Charlotte has achieved a string of qualifications in politics and law from some of Europe’s best known educational institutes. She also holds an MBA. In addition, Charlotte is an accomplished practising corporate lawyer. Her last four years were with a US Law Firm where she gained insight into the structuring of early stage investments in young companies. But nothing had prepared her for the daily learning that comes with running a young business.

“An MBA is a great way to format your thinking and to teach you the basic principles of managing a business,” she says. “It is mainly just common sense but the challenge comes from applying those principals in the real world. And one of the biggest challenges, as I have found, is recruiting the right people.”

“In a small and growing company, each appointment is an investment, and if you are not what you say you are – or mislead someone on what you can do – then you will be exposed very quickly.”

WhizzGo offers brand new cars parked in designated on-street bays for hire by-the-hour from as little as £4.20 including fuel and VAT. The company was operating debt-free but realised it needed to attract external investment to fund its growth aspirations. In March 2006, WhizzGo secured a quarter of a million pounds from Yorkshire-based seed corn investor, ‘The Viking Fund.’ A substantial part of this would fund the search and appointment of a top class sales and marketing guru. This was a major investment for the company. It had to be the right person.

“We had projected a significant growth in 2006, and a crucial element in achieving this was finding an experienced sales professional who would design the infrastructure and the systems so that we could be poised ready to significantly ramp up the company’s outputs.

With no sales and marketing experience the company Charlotte and the Board initiated a national search. Candidates were put forward for interview and an appointment was made. But the year turned sour as the first (highly paid) sales professional failed to deliver, and then his (lower-paid) replacement was unable to take the pressure. This had a significant impact on turnover.

Charlotte equates her journey, so far, to that of an athlete who competes at the top of his or her game. “The mental and physical ability required to steer a young company, should not be underestimated. I have been pushed to the limits both physically and mentally.”

But she has no regrets. So what made her take on the challenge? “The legal industry was going through a difficult time in 2003. Then a colleague and I were invited into a room for one of those ‘times are hard and one of you has to go’ conversations. Over the past year I had been developing three business ideas and each one was ready to go. So I thought why not do it now.

“People have realised cars are expensive and that global warming is a problem and they want to do something about it. It is really important that companies like us make a mark in helping the environment and stopping the impact of cars on the environment and that helps me get out of bed in the morning”

Charlotte was clear from the start that meticulus planning was essential. “Business Planning – the business plan and its financials – is the most important tool you need to run a good business. If you don’t know where you’re going – and how you are going to get there – plus, more importantly, how much it’s going to cost you to make it happen, then forget it. I learned this when I was moving forward with another business idea. I trusted the financial planning to someone who knew about these things n the first year but he had a laissez-faire attitude to going into detail – I was concerned and but trusted them but this turned out to be another mistake. We didn’t have enough money to do what we needed to do.”

It was a year before Charlotte’s company would secure its first contract in Leeds in 2004, even though she had been involved in developing car clubs from 2000. Despite being given only four days to write the tender, she won the contract. WhizzGo was born.

The company now employs 26 people. It has secured car club contracts in Manchester, York, Liverpool, Southampton, London, and Sheffield. It has also recently opened a Birmingham office. The Board is already working to secure a second round of investment of between £2 million to £5 million so that the company can continue its expansion plans. First round investors and early stage investment fund’ Viking,’ is leading on the second round, which they hope to close by the end of 2007.

“Our bad experience taught us a great deal about what to look for in people. We have now identified a commercial director who signed up with us recently,” adds Charlotte. “I am already very excited because the signs indicate that we have appointed the right person for the job. We finally settled on a young less experienced person to oversee the day-to-day running of our marketing activities. She is also proving to be one of our best finds. Not only does she understand that whatever she does makes a difference, but she also shares my love of learning. 2007 is definitely turning out to be a progressive one for WhizzGo.”

Copyright Young Company Finance 2007