Day in the life: Dubai garage owner a genuine driving force

Nazli Koseoglu speaks about a typical day being the mother of two young boys and running Hammerhead Auto Specialists, which opened in Al Quoz in January 2014.

Nazli Koseoglu owns Hammerhead Auto Specialists at Al Quoz Industrial Area 2 in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

Nazli Koseoglu has always loved cars. When she was a student she drove as an amateur drag driver and changed tyres for dirt rally cars. But she never considered cars as a career option until a few years ago. Ms Koseoglu, 42, who is half-British and half-Turkish, has lived in Dubai since 1998. She worked in sales and as a client relationship manager for companies including Emirates and IBM for years. But after taking a sabbatical when her second child was born, she decided to open a business with her husband. And since they both loved cars, a garage seemed the natural choice. She speaks about a typical day being the mother of two young boys and running Hammerhead Auto Specialists, which opened in Al Quoz in January 2014.

5.15am

I am an early riser. I try to get a walk in or I go to the gym. That’s the only time I can really think, when I have quiet in my head. When I get back I do some stretches with the boys. I have two boys aged 10 and seven who love the workshop, by the way. Then we all get ready and have some breakfast.

7.15am

I take the boys to school and go straight to the garage. My husband and me felt there was a huge gap between your huge UAE service centres and the backstreet garages. We have a small classic collection, so we were getting frustrated at both extremes.

9am

We have something called a walkabout round the shop. We go through tools, the floor, which cars we have. Do we have any challenges? And then we have a kick-off to the morning that we call a huddle meeting. That is done with the whole team talking about actions and assignments.

9.30am

Our first vehicles come in. Depending on the jobs that we do we have inspections, and we just start carrying out the jobs. I do my own oil service and things like that. But I am more on the operational side [of the business]. Last week we ran a workshop for ladies … this has been something we have been trying to launch for a long time. [I got the idea after] a friend of mine, who is a very stand-up intelligent woman, was on the road with two kids in the back on Sheikh Zayed Road at 9am and her car just stopped. She was very fortunate to move to the side and go on to the service road, but her husband was travelling in the UK so he was of no use and she just didn’t know what to do. She felt really silly. I think as women we really depend on our cars. We are drivers for our kids, we work so we are on one side of town and then the other. And we just take it for granted that we can have the car performing well when we want it to. But in the case of an emergency, knowing that little bit of information can take you a long way. I thought she is absolutely right. We have to do something for women.

2pm

I am out to pick up the kids again from school. Then we are off home and have lunch together. Then I have my second huddle there with the kids. It is basically a chit-chat about ups and downs they might have had, what was their favourite part of the day. Then we talk business, what are their homework assignments? [I say] this has got to be done by the time I get back and so on.

3.30pm

I arrive back at the garage and basically do the same things, but customers are coming in now to collect their cars. [I check] who is making sure the billing is done, that all the parts that we have removed from the cars are all cased as we give them back if they want to take them back to see what’s changed [and who is], delivering cars because we do delivery and pickup as well.

6pm

We have a wrap-up session where we revisit the huddle and the walkabout session from the morning, just to make sure we have covered everything for the day.

7pm

I am home and ready for dinner. We try to have dinner altogether. And then it’s pretty much bedtime story time, one of my favourite times of the day.

7.45pm

The kids are in bed. Then it’s negotiation time again – please can you go to sleep? That’s tough at the end of the day, but it’s sweet and I think it does develop the kids’ negotiation skills as well as my patience.

9pm-10pm

I have a green tea session with my husband, which is a good time because that’s really the only time I get to talk to him. Then it’s reading myself to sleep.

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