Dan Mekler
Dan Mekler shares how Redspot Car Rentals has gone from being a small side business to a national network of operations that will soon launch internationally.
"A lot of people fail in business and fail to achieve what they set out to do," Dan Mekler, the Managing Director of Redspot Car Rentals says.
Success is not only about having goals, it’s also about being persistent. There is no secret formula to being successful." Dan has lived by this philosophy for his entire entrepreneurial career, starting Redspot from scratch and growing it into the market leader it is today.
"For me, it is about being the last man standing," he continues. "If you are persistent enough and you are driven enough to get to where you want to be then that will be the key factor to your success. Have persistence and drive, and never give up on your goal or your vision of where you want to get to."
Dan founded Redspot in 1989 after seizing an opportunity to expand his service station business in Waterloo, New South Wales. He purchased two courtesy cars—a Holden Ute and a Ford Laser—and, somewhat by chance, fell into the rental industry. "It was more of a side line to my workshop, which was quite a strong business at the time," he explains. "I started with a couple of cars, and then I went to a government auction thinking I would buy a few newer cars to attract some more customers into my workshop. I went to my local lawyer and put a rental agreement together and then I advertised to all my service station customers. I made it known that not only did I have a great workshop with a team of mechanics ready to service them, but I also had courtesy cars which they could rent at very reasonable rates. That is how the rental business began.