Viltu business? Stories from local entrepreneurs
Michał Mogiła provides ozone sanitizing services for private houses, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, gyms, clubs, hairdressing and dental studios, and vehicles.
Photograph: O3zone O3zone
From alternative courier services to introducing new sanitizing technologies in Iceland – some entrepreneurs can easily identify any gaps in the local market. Michał Mogiła shares the story of the O3zone company that started with renovations at his own house.
ONLINE REGISTRATION
In Iceland, a private limited company can be established online at the electronic company register of the RSK. The registration process is completely electronic and signing is done only with the use of electronic IDs. The registration takes about two days.
“The bactericidal effect of ozone is nearly fifty times more powerful and three thousand times faster than chlorine. The ozone treatment we offer kills all bacteria, mould, fungus spores, and mites that cause asthma attacks, allergies or weakness, and insect proliferation, but also removes unpleasant odours,” explains Michał Mogiła, the owner of O3zone ehf.
Michał learned about ozone disinfection during the COVID pandemic, but he did not pay much attention to it at first. The idea of starting an ozone cleaning company came up when he failed to find such a service while renovating his home. “I have completed four specialistic ozone sanitizing trainings abroad and bought custom-made industrial generators of huge power,” shares Michał. Finally, when the equipment arrived in Iceland, Michał became his own first customer, sanitizing his house after the completion of repair works.
Depending on the size and number of rooms, the average ozonation time of a flat can take up to 2 hours. Before the treatment, all plants and art works should be removed from the space. Photograph: O3zoneO3zone ehf was launched in September 2022. “I have been working on opening the company since March: undergoing training, obtaining research and expertise, choosing equipment, purchasing devices and accessories, and exporting them to Iceland. It all took me half a year,” says Michał. “The registration was easy. I hired an accountant to do it for me.”
It’s not the first company that Michał has founded. Together with his business partner and friend Damian Nakwaski, they run Sendis ehf which offers shipping and courier transport between Poland and Iceland. Sendis ehf has been operating since October 2021.
Michał has the development of O3zone close to heart. In the near future, he plans to invest in new, more powerful sanitizing devices and create a sales department:
“I plan to hire an Icelandic sales manager. Ozone is much more effective than chlorine disinfection, so we offer our services to fish and poultry processing plants and other companies, where hygiene is of great importance.” The list of potential clients of O3zone is long: “We disinfect private houses, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, gyms, clubs, hairdressers, dental studios, and vehicles.”
Michał, owner of two companies, doesn’t consider himself a business person but a service provider: “Ozone disinfection is an innovation in the Icelandic market, so there is a lot of work to do before carrying out the service. Bureaucracy and language barriers do not make it easy. Making the customer aware, of what and how important decontamination and deodorization are, is more than half the battle.”
Entrepreneurship has always been an adventure for Michał: “It can be like a walk in the mountains, in silence among nature, or like a bungee jump or a roller coaster. You have to be prepared for anything. There is also endless learning, sprinkled with failures, that hurt and take away the motivation, but also successes, that drive and build us. It is a challenge.”
Learn more about O3zone.