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) DOT.COM DIVAS 1st January 2008This month's Virgin Blue Voyeur magazine features an article on dot.com divas. Flexicar's Co-founder and CEO, Monique Conheady, was one of the women interviewed. To read the full article click here. An excerpt from the article is presented below. Easy Being Green In May 2007, web entrepreneur Monique Conheady spent a week riding her bicycle around Mungo National Park in NSW. In October, she cycled the 210-kilometre Around the Bay in a Day event in Victoria. She also loves to ride her bicycle to work. So it’s pretty obvious what form of transport Conheady’s web business is centred around, right? Wrong! It’s actually all about cars. Conheady was inspired by what she sees as the irrational love affair people have with their cars. As somebody who prefers to get out and about on two wheels, she decided to utilise the web to do something about it. “The possibilities and opportunities of the dot.com boom, crossed with inspiration and foresight from entrepreneurs such as Anita Roddick from The Body Shop, intrigued and excited me,” she says. “The web offers the ability to communicate, interact and organise ourselves in the most efficient way ever seen, and this has enabled new business opportunities. And Flexicar offered me what I was looking for in terms of an entrepreneurial, web-enabled, green business.” Currently operating in Melbourne and Sydney, Flexicar is a car-sharing business. It’s a convenient, flexible and very affordable alternative to car ownership, taxis, public transport and car hire. Using Flexicar is easy – you join online, receive a Flexicard, book a car for as short a period as one hour, then simply unlock the car with your card (vehicles are parked in specific spots across Melbourne and Sydney) and drive away. Media attention, online advertising, word-of-mouth referrals, search engine optimisation and a dynamic website all help keep the business in the public eye, as does regular communication with Flexicar’s members. When she’s not keeping her business healthy, Conheady enjoys boosting her own fitness with regular exercise and leading as balanced a life as possible. “In the office, we have a policy of flexible working hours and, luckily for me, I have some staff who enjoy starting early and finishing early. I get up around 6am to do some exercise, have breakfast over the papers, and don’t start work until nine or 10. Taking regular holidays is also very important to me,” she says. “I love that our business has a real purpose and meaning – it offers our members freedom and flexibility, saves them money and hassles, lightens their footprint on the planet and creates greater quality of life in our inner cities.” |
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