Go Care revs up

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Germaine Rowe observed at first hand job losses and the displacement of workers within the private sector. An idea that he sat on for some time was then morphed into fruition, and now Go Care, a mobile auto-detailing service, has become not only an additional revenue earner for him, but it also provides jobs for inner-city youth.

“I started the business in the middle of the pandemic just to secure an additional income; and when I saw how people were losing their jobs, I wanted something to employ people. It has been going for a year and a half now,” Rowe disclosed.

Go Care is a full interior- and exterior-detailing mobile business which specialises in the cleaning of car seats, roofs, the sanitising of air vents, steam cleaning, polishing and ceramic coating.

Rowe declined to state the investment that went into getting the business up and running, but he said, “It wasn’t a huge budget. It wasn’t that significant, but once we got the vehicle, we got around to ordering the various equipment from overseas.”

The business has three employees, whom Rowe says are paid significantly higher than the minimum wage.

“I have three steady employees that rotate from time to time. I feel proud to have been able to impact their lives, and that’s what pushes me to work harder,” said Rowe.

He continued, “One of my employees is 17 years old and when he gets paid, he helps to send his younger sibling to school. When he shared that with me, it really touched me.”

Rowe says the response to his business has been overwhelming, boasting customers from as far as Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

“The business has been great, I have been getting a lot of support from out-of-town customers. It has been steadily growing. We are a mobile unit and we operate within Kingston and St Andrew. We go to people’s homes and businesses and get the job done.”

He also shared some of the challenges in running a business of this nature.

“Time management. We are an appointment-based business and we have to manage the time properly, while maintaining the equipment and ensuring that they run properly. We have two types of equipment in the business, so when one particular one goes down, we have a backup,” said Rowe.

“We target anyone who wants to take care of their vehicles. Most of our clients are busy people, professionals and young business executives. We target anyone who knows the value of taking care of their properties and want the job to be done properly.”

Rowe is not stopping here, as he spoke about plans to expand the business and its services.

“We plan to expand and grow the business in areas outside of Kingston, because we have been getting the calls from out of town. The main objective for me is to get more customers, because we are already impacting a lot of people. We have already expanded into cleaning rugs, sofas, chairs, [and the] cutting of lawns and hedges. We have contracts with a few corporate entities for those types of services.”