{"id":950,"date":"2022-01-31T05:17:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/?p=950"},"modified":"2022-11-30T17:03:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T06:03:47","slug":"how-it-started-vs-how-its-going-why-i-started-a-sydney-chauffeur-service-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/how-it-started-vs-how-its-going-why-i-started-a-sydney-chauffeur-service-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"How it Started vs. How it\u2019s Going: Why I started A Sydney Chauffeur Service in the Middle of a Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If 2021 taught me anything, it\u2019s that things rarely go according to plan!\u00a0

Starting a Sydney chauffeur service in the middle of a pandemic was not what I initially had in mind. Especially as\u00a020% of small businesses fail<\/a>\u00a0in their first year, and those statistics don\u2019t include having to survive a pandemic or economic uncertainty.\u00a0

It has been a challenge, having to navigate new variants, constantly changing guidelines, and ensuring our clients are safe and comfortable in an uncertain time. And this is on top of all of the usual stress and logistics of starting the business itself.\u00a0

But, despite this, and the still current challenges surrounding Omicron, 2021\u00a0was the year I was able to help more people, start a business I\u2019m incredibly excited about, and do what I love. I definitely didn\u2019t manage to hit all of my goals this year, but I\u2019m proud of what we managed to achieve together.\u00a0

In this post, I wanted to reflect on 2021, the good, the bad, and what\u2019s in store for Friendly Transfers in the future. Because I\u2019ve never been as excited about a new year as this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How it Started…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I started Friendly Transfers at the beginning of 2021, about a year into the pandemic, offering a\u00a0handful of services<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0only myself<\/a>, to begin with.\u00a0

Even though I had 8 years of extensive experience in NDIS, medical transportation, aged care transport, and personalised tours and airport transfers, I had always driven as part of different teams.\u00a0

I realised as people had appointments and wanted a safer way to travel to avoid public transport during lockdowns and get the reliability they needed. This was something I felt was missing in the Sydney community. The current outbreak has had severe consequences for many people, but I knew I had the skills, experience, and passion to help.\u00a0

So, you could say, the pandemic was the push I needed to branch out on my own and establish Friendly Transfers as a business. I wanted to make sure people always have a friendly face, and a safe, comfortable, and trustworthy chauffeur service to get them where they need to be.\u00a0

Knowing it was the right decision, I could not let my business fail, and so I had to find new ways to keep the business going throughout lockdowns and this outbreak. That meant getting creative\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a Community in 2021<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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One of the key things that have helped Friendly Transfers weather the storm of 2021, was community.\u00a0Not just the increasing support on social media, which I\u2019m beyond grateful for, but also other businesses.\u00a0

I\u2019ve managed to collaborate with local hotels and businesses throughout Sydney, Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains, and South Coast. It\u2019s allowed us to establish great opportunities and meet some amazing people along the way. I also like to think we\u2019ve given as much to the business community as we\u2019ve gained.\u00a0

Some businesses like\u00a0Jervis Bay Wild<\/a>\u00a0were kind enough to offer free cruises for Friendly Transfers Christmas giveaway, and local travel company,\u00a0I Do Fiji Holidays<\/a>\u00a0have joined us to offer specialty services and airport transfers. This way we can add value to the day-to-day needs of clients, as well as life\u2019s scariest, and more special moments.\u00a0

We have also collaborated with\u00a0Cruising with Honey<\/a>, earned the loyalty of several new clients, and now we\u2019re part of the local transport team for the Sydney ATP Cup.\u00a0

2021 also saw us expand to a selection of other experienced drivers in Sydney which is one of my long-term goals for the business. So that as a team, we can focus on the driving so you can focus on what is important to you right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking To The Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m really excited to see what 2022 brings. Friendly Transfers will be launching brand new day tours to showcase our local knowledge and expertise, as well as collaborating further with local businesses. I\u2019m also looking forward to expanding the team further and helping as many Sydney people as possible.\u00a0

But, most importantly, I think what I\u2019m most excited about is not only serving the people of Sydney but making their lives a tiny bit easier. Especially after the year we have all had.\u00a0

None of this felt possible when I started the business at the beginning of 2021, but it really shows how ready we are as a community to overcome adversity. And the way I see it is if we can achieve this in one of the worse years in recent history, then I can\u2019t wait to see what happens for 2022.

From myself, and all of us here at Friendly Transfers. Happy New Year!\u00a0

Leiland Friend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If 2021 taught me anything, it\u2019s that things rarely go according to plan!\u00a0 Starting a Sydney chauffeur service in the middle of a pandemic was not what I initially had in mind. Especially as\u00a020% of small businesses fail\u00a0in their first year, and those statistics don\u2019t include having to survive a pandemic or economic uncertainty.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1323,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/1323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlytransfers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}