Life’s sunnier for Christchurch car cleaning entrepreneur

A budding entrepreneur who quit university to start his own business now earns $1000 plus a week – even though some trolls think his job is a joke.

And the 20-year-old from Beckenham has even made headlines in the United Kingdom, featuring in The Sun.

Oakley Inkersell dropped his studies earlier this year, took the plunge and launched his mobile car valeting business, Cleaner Cars. He regularly shares videos of his stomach-churning jobs on his TikTok account, wowing his 16,000 followers with transformations.

The Sun recently saw the videos online and pounced.

“I was shocked, it was awesome,” Inkersell told The Star yesterday of the UK newspaper’s interest.

Inkersell plans to take his business nationwide and has employed a long-time school mate from Cashmere High and Beckenham primary, Jack Campbell.

In late 2021, Inkersell was in a Cashmere High team which won a Young Enterprise Scheme 

Canterbury regional award for their business initiative Food Fight, an educational project aimed at tackling obesity issues in youth.

Said Inkersell of his car cleaning business: “Everyone has a car, and it’s always going to keep getting dirty. What that means to me is a huge market size, lots of recurring business and a high customer LTV (long term value).”

While many fans heap praise on Inkersell, others blast him for not charging enough, and say he could earn more elsewhere.

One pointed out: “Dude you’re not charging enough! Do some market research.”

Another said: “That’s so dope brother but you should be cracking more a week if you’re that independent.”

Oakley decided to show the face behind the business in one of his posts, which saw him open up about his switch from education to entrepreneurialism.

He explained: “I just started my own mobile car grooming business in Christchurch. I went to uni and absolutely hated it! So I decided to start a business and be my own boss.

“Working for myself means that I get to be my own boss and I’m bringing in over $1000 for only cleaning one or two cars per day.”

Oakley says Cleaner Cars is now booked up with clients a week in advance, despite only using word of mouth and TikTok to promote it.

“Took a risk and now I’ve never been happier! You should too,” he captioned the video clip.

Social media users were very impressed by the young entrepreneur’s success and flooded the comment section with compliments.

One wrote: “Love people like this! Awesome work.”

Another said: “Keep it going man, being your own boss is where it's at.

A third added: “This is awesome! Hope your business grows and branches out, would love to use your services. Keep grinding, this is epic!”

And a fourth chimed in: “Good for you! I’ll be checking you out next time I’m near.”