A high school student’s classroom exercise has turned into a small business for three college students.
The business, Mobile Car Tune, performs oil changes, brake pad replacement and other basic automotive maintenance services at the home, business or other location chosen by the customer.
“There’s no waiting,” said Jocelyn Galicia, who handles marketing and business development for Mobile Car Tune. “We can go to their office, we can do it while they’re shopping or even while they’re home relaxing, which makes it way more convenient.”
Galicia said the idea for the business was hatched by her cousin Jose Cisneros, while he was participating in the Youth Entrepreneurs program as a high school student.
“Nothing ever really happened with it until last summer, when he decided to make this an actual business,” Galicia said.
Since then, Mobile Car Tune has serviced about 180 customers.
Cisneros brought Galicia and his brother, Ernie Cisneros, into the business. Jose Cisneros will be a senior at Wichita State University majoring in mechanical engineering next year. Galicia is a WSU senior-to-be majoring in entrepreneurship, while Ernie Cisneros just graduated from the school with an engineering degree. At his commencement ceremony, he opened his robe to reveal a T-shirt with the company logo on it.
“They’ve been working on cars since they were around 10 years old in their father’s garage,” Galicia said of her cousins. “They took it over.”
In addition to the brothers, two other mechanics work for the company on a part-time basis. Replacing spark plugs, shocks and belts is some of the other work they perform.
“We really stick to those few things,” Galicia said.
The business has relied on social media and word-of-mouth marketing to date, she said. One feature they hope to add soon is a scheduling platform on the business’ website that will allow customers to automatically schedule appointments.
“We’ve grown slowly and grown our brand, and it’s really exciting, meeting new people, getting positive feedback,” Galicia said. “We started as students not knowing much about starting a business.”
They don’t lack energy. All three grew up participating in sports and youth entrepreneurship programs, and all three have jobs other than Mobile Car Tune. Someday, that business may end up being more than just a college job, Galicia said.
“I think they’re entrepreneurs at heart,” Galicia said of her cousins. “They want to stick with it and see it grow.”
This article originally appeared on www.kansas.com
