Rebecca Bull lived in Bowral as a teenager and visited Wollongong every weekend to engage in her love of sailing with Port Kembla Sailing Club at Lake Illawarra Yacht Club.
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Ms Bull is also a horse enthusiast who studied economics and law at Sydney University before working in property development and asset management for a decade.
But in 2017 she decided she wanted to start a tyre business from scratch and do an apprenticeship to get more hands on as an owner/manager who knows every aspect of the business.
In the process she is showing young women starting out their careers that a woman can own a business and learn a trade in what has in the past been a tradtionally male dominated industry.
But she is not on her own. Among her mentors is Ainslie Weekes at Jax Tyres Fairy Meadow and she has discovered a number of other women are doing the same apprenticeship.
“Ainsly is definitely a huge factor in me doing this. She has been a great sounding board,” she said.
Ms Bull saw drawn to the idea of opening her own tyre business on the top carpark at Warrawong Plaza after being impressed by the philosophy of the Jax Tyres chain.
She was happily working in property development/asset management when she met chief executive Jeff Board through someone she knew and liked the business model and clean business approach.
“They were really interested in promoting what Ainslie Weekes at Fairy Meadow has already been doing for 20 years,” she said.
“At the end of the day it is a business and it is about how you serve the customers.”
“I want to grow Jax Warrawong and the future is about providing a level of service where people have a comfortable secure feeling when they are doing business with us. I want to run a really clean business. We get people out in the workshop and we show them what we are doing. We want people to keep coming back because they feel so comfortable.”
It was also an opportunity for her to move to Wollongong from Sydney with her partner and nine year old daughter in January. They settled in Mount Kembla and her sister Cassie Cruickshank who had already moved to Wollongong has joined her in the brand new business.
Upon starting her apprenticeship she is in the unique position where mechanic Ray Brown is her supervisor and boss when she is in the workshop.
Ms Bull did her research before opening the new venture and chose the location because she thought it would be ideal to have a tyre business located near plenty of parking and the convenience of a shopping centre.
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
