Nicole Bisconer, Driving 101

Driver’s Training School Takes Off

VANCOUVER - In 2006, Driving 101 did not have success written all over it, at least not on paper. Nicole Fox Bisconer was 26 years old and fresh out of a failed partnership when she decided to open her own business.

She had a two-year associates degree in business management, two years of experience teaching driver’s education, and no family money. What she did have was ambitions to own the best driver’s education program in the state.

Five years and a lot of hard work later, Bisconer’s is well on her way to achieving her ambition. Driving 101 has two satellite classrooms in addition to the main office on 95th Street in Vancouver, five full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, corporate sponsorship of her training vehicles and plenty of buzz.

She's a vice president of the Washington Professional Driving School Association, earned an under-40 business leadership award from the Vancouver Business Journal in 2009 and in 2010 she received a business leadership award from the Clark County Target Zero traffic safety taskforce.

People seek her out for advice, which she’s happy to give, because she’s been on the other side. When Bisconer first entertained the idea of opening her own driver’s training school, she knew she had a lot to learn about being an entrepreneur. She had even researched degree programs to see if she could find one that fit her needs and interests. But she couldn’t.

“I just figured I’d dive in head first,” she said. She secured a $30,000 short-term loan and was able to open her doors for business, but soon realized she wasn’t satisfied with just getting by. “My twoyear associates degree in business management convinced me that systems run everything,” she said, so she went looking for someone who could help her create some.

And that’s when she found Janet Harte, a certified business advisor at the Small Business Development Center in Vancouver. “Really, the entrepreneur course I was looking for was Janet,” she said.

A short list of the topics the two have covered over their five-year relationship includes myriad aspects of business management, financial analysis and marketing. They’ve worked through everything from creating a vision statement to hiring employees, to implementing costcontrol measures.

Being able to bring her ideas to Harte for feedback was a huge benefit, Bisconer said. “You get emotionally attached to an idea,” Bisconer said, “but she is not attached to it, so she gives you unbiased opinions.”

Harte agrees that Bisconer had a lot to learn in those early years. But, she said, right from the start it was clear that Bisconer had the determination, drive and persistence to make it happen. “She has made tremendous progress,” said Harte, who has been with the Vancouver SBDC for 19 years. “It’s a joy to work with her because she has good ideas, seeks advice, and follows through.”

“Whatever Janet wanted me to do, I was going to do,” Bisconer said. And that meant hours and hours of homework. “At home, at night and on weekends, I was always working on the stuff she gave me,” she said.

Her homework included working her way through an online entrepreneur program that required detailed answers to 300 questions, researching her competition, or working through a step-by-step guide to creating her own business plan.

“It’s all real life stuff,” Bisconer said.

Even so, the early years were a struggle, Bisconer said, She was working to create a rigorous, relevant and community-focused program, but she was also working to build her credibility.

As a 20-something woman, Bisconer said, she “did not fit the mold” of what people expected for the owner of a driver’s training center. And so she exceeded expectations by developing a program that used the state requirements as a starting point and then offered more, like accident avoidance training for all students, distracted driving education and a sustained focus on defensive driving tactics.

She didn’t make much of a profit for the first three years, she said, but sales grew continuously, along with her presence in the community and the systems that would sustain her business over the long haul. As a result of her efforts, she is able to draw a salary from the business and still show a profit.

And the systems she created with Harte’s assistance have paid off. She saw the proof of that in 2008 when a difficult pregnancy and recovery forced her to take an extended maternity leave. The business didn’t grow her in absence, but neither did it flounder. “It was a good test of the systems we had in place,” she said.

Bisconer credits Harte with much of her success, but she also credits her husband, Chad Fox, who owns Fox Flooring. They have different philosophies about growing a business, she said, but he’s been incredibly supportive and a wonderful sounding board.

In addition, over the past five years Bisconer has created a network of colleagues and professionals in the drivers education field, including law enforcement officers, state licensing officials, insurance adjustors and other driving school owners.

To find out more about Driving 101, go to www.drvn101.com.