How's things? I know what it takes to build a business and a team from the ground up; I've done it! I didn't go to any college, I didn't cut any corners, and I didn't have any financial help. I just put my head down for a few years and relied on my gut, hired a business coach & worked hard. I've done things the right way and built a team that I trusted to give me my freedom. Those factors are what built Kevin Egan Cars into a Multi-Franchise Operation with 34 staff, a highly profitable workshop and a thriving sales department with over 250 cars on the forecourt that now works without me in it.
It wasn't always like this, It was a long road & I now want to help people on the same path I once was. I want to be the Coach that gives you focus & direction.
The 2009 Leap
I started my business in 2009, straight into a global recession. I survived by sheer luck & the skin of my teeth. I left my role as a Sales executive at a Peugeot Dealership because I had started selling cars from home, the mobile calls were becoming frequent, and I was brave enough to make the leap into self-employment once I saw the cash rolling in. A year after opening, I hired my first employee, Mark Walsh. Today, hiring staff member number 35 is easy, but back then, it was terrifying. Taking Mark on then was the equivalent of hiring 34 more people today. I was doubling my workforce and my wage bill, and I was the one who was gonna be paid last. I was just married, had 2 kids, and I was good at selling cars but terrible at running a business. Thankfully, the best decision I ever made was hiring Mark. Mark is now a shareholder along with his wife Debora and I'm proud to call them my business partners — it's proof that when you build the right culture in a business and hire the right people, they stay to help you grow.
Want the full, gritty story?
Rather than boring you with all the details here, we recorded a raw, 5-part podcast telling the complete history of Kevin Egan Cars.
Managing Growth
We successfully built a business from having 2 vehicles in my front drive to the €4m Multi-franchise facility we have today. To get here, we had to work hard, be lean and not take no for an answer. We had to build a profile & reputation that would give us access to pillar banks and specialised motor industry lenders. We navigated intense meetings with these guys and secured stocking loans and multiple commercial mortgages to help fund and stage our growth; We did it all while backing ourselves and figuring it out as we went along.
Self-Employment is a lonely place, and when hard decisions need to be made, you can't rely on those "you know what you should do" mates to give you advice when things are going well, they hide and say "whatever you think yourself". Having Jeannette, my business coach, to bounce things off and give direction where needed was a turning point for us. While Mark is not one to be coached, I enjoyed it and thrived on it. Mark is the guy who ran the day-to-day while I concentrated on the business growth. It was a partnership that worked, and when Debora joined us and took over the financials & HR, business exploded, we had the team humming, and business was thriving.
Building Systems & Looking at Data
My obsession with data and systems sparked my second business: H2O Dealer Management. Out of sheer stubbornness, I couldn't find a software system that ran a dealership the way I wanted, I built my own! We've used it for 14 years, and today H2O stands on its own, supplying dealerships across the country.
But here is the crucial lesson: because I worked with my own business coach, I realised I wasn't the right person to bring H2O to the mass market. I talked it out with Jeannette, and we felt the best option was to find a go-to-market partner to hand over the day-to-day running of that business. I'm a car dealer deep down with a passion for business and systems. I don't know anything about selling software or taking a product global. We realised our strengths, and she helped me through the process. As I write this, I still need to find that GTM Partner, but we will and I find myself back at the start and not taking no for an answer as we speak to potential partners. Watch this space.
Beyond the Business
When I'm not looking at roadmaps for your business or systems for other car dealerships, I'm at home in Sligo. I'm married to Stacey, and we have three kids who keep us busy: Abigail, Ben, and Cole.
I've been a lifelong Liverpool FC supporter, and to keep the head right and the fitness levels up, I'm a regular at Micky's Gym—a unique spot that hits that perfect balance of professional training and great friendships with loads of self-employed lads that keep my juices flowing on how to improve businesses and pick up pointers for free.
I hung up the astro football boots about eight years ago and traded them for a road bike. These days, I'm obsessed with road cycling—whether it's doing it, watching it, or talking about it. In my spare time, if I'm not out on the road, I'm usually busy working on something new.
Why I Became a Coach
I spent 16 years running and scaling my car dealership, but hiring my own business coach, Jeannette, in 2016 changed our trajectory entirely. We built a roadmap and stuck to it. We secured a franchise, built the showroom, and implemented the robust systems and management team that now allow me to work just under 10 hours a week at the dealership (See below statement on this).
Stepping back from the daily grind gave me a new obsession: the mechanics of business itself. I found myself constantly talking to friends in retail, construction, and fitness, breaking down how they operated and helping them untangle the bottlenecks that were making their daily lives harder. What started as problem-solving over casual coffees turned into a full-time passion.
I stepped into this role because I have the trench-tested experience that textbooks simply can't teach. I genuinely love talking about business, and getting paid to step into another owner's company and help them fix it is an absolute privilege.
Does my business run as perfectly as it would if I were there full time? Absolutely not.
No one will ever run your business the way you do, but having a coach myself taught me that perfection is the enemy of freedom.
If you are constantly working in your business looking to perfect it, then you will always be an employee on your own payroll. Take the time out to work on your business; only then can you see your business truly grow without you in it.