Moving or shifting to any place has got much easier with moving companies. There are some businesses which have always been in great demand and moving companies are one of them. Whether it’s across the country or town, moving companies help consumers to pack and transport their household items seamlessly.
If you have an entrepreneurial mindset when starting a moving company may work wonders. But starting a business may seem scary economically. Even though there are a lot of risks involved, a proper guideline would be of great help to overcome any hurdle that comes your way. Check out this article to know more about how to start a moving company!
Before getting deep into the business technicalities let’s give you a brief idea of why it’s profitable to start a moving business.
What are the advantages of a moving business?
It’s fair enough to dive into this world if you have an entrepreneurial bone in you. Wondering why moving business? Here are the solid reasons that would persuade you to take up this business for your financial growth:
- Low overhead and minimum requirement to start
- This service is always in demand
- This business stays fairly constant irrespective of the market situation.
- This business offers you the flexibility to maintain the business structure. You can keep it small or even expand it as per your requirement.
- You get the freedom to offer services at your convenience.
- The moving business offers high customer retention rates depending upon your services.
- This career offers immense exposure to multiple different business sectors that boosts your experience level and comes up with unlimited income potential.
If the above reasons are convincing enough to indulge you in this business sector, then take a look at the section below to understand the scope of work.
What does a moving company do?
Moving companies offer transportation services for businesses, individuals, or families. This could transport goods, household items, or other materials. The main motto is to provide safe and fast transportation of goods.
The delivery could be within local range or even international. The more the experience the more specialized they become in handling international shipping.
Check out the below section to know about the types of moving business.
Types of moving business
Here are the types of moving businesses that you can opt for at your convenience.
Local Services:
- Companies providing local services generally serve their consumers within a region or state, or more specifically within a radius of 100miles or less.
- Serves mostly to residential customers to help packing and transporting furniture, fragile items, storage materials, etc.
Long-distance services:
- These services are provided within the same country or work out to serve international shipping.
- These services may involve more complicated logistics, but generally, they deal with shipping dimensions, freight policies, federal transportation, and various other technicalities.
Automotive transportation companies:
- As the name suggests, these provide long-distance transportation of cars and other vehicles.
- Therefore, the prices vary as per the specialty and require trained staff.
Commercial moving companies:
- In this type of business, transportation of other business materials is involved.
- This involved the requirement of more materials and staff than residential transportation.
- Moreover, it involves dealing with other business owners and may need to shift an entire office space.
Let’s finally explore the facts related to starting a moving business!
How to start a moving company?
Let’s finally explore the facts related to a moving company to know how to start one.
1. Decide your niche
Focus on the business type you want to work on. Decide your niche to frame out your business and financial goals. Offering multiple services is surely beneficial, but that proves to be quite difficult to navigate during your initial phase. Hence, start off with anyone service and gradually proceed to keep your business steady.
2. Set your business goals
Setting up business goals keeps you focused and leads your business on the right track.
- Frame up the KPIs to evaluate your business growth and failure.
- Keep your plan of action ready so that you are not delayed when it’s time to take immediate action regarding any specific issue.
- Keep a check on your business expenses to avoid running out of cash.
- Keep your strategies concentrated on business missions, customer acquisition, revenue goals, and business contracts.
3. Form your business structure:
Business planning is incomplete without planning out the business structure. Here is the checklist of four basic business models from where you can choose your desired model that suits your business.
- LLC(Limited Liability Company): This structure provides corporate liability protection but may come up with high startup fees.
- Sole Proprietorship: This is flexible for owners but involves personal responsibility and liabilities.
- Partnership: This comes in two forms- general partnership and limited liability. Depending upon the type it will be decided who is responsible for business debts.
- Corporation: This model separates business assets from personal assets, thereby protecting owners from business loss.
4. Get your legal setup ready:
- Get your business licensed under local or state business.
- Get the EIN from the IRS to ease up your tax filing process.
- Get the legal papers ready before proceeding into long-distance or international shipping services.
5. Get insurance to secure your business:
To protect your business as well as customers’ personal items during a move, get the necessary insurance. Some of the common types are:
- Personal Liability Insurance
- Automotive Insurance
- Commercial Property Insurance
- Worker’s Compensation
6. Make all your business-related purchases:
All business forms involve some of the other essential elements that need to be purchased beforehand. Similarly, initiating a moving business also requires certain essential stuff that needs to be purchased prior to accepting assignments, like Vehicles and gas, basic equipment, packing materials, etc.
7. Research on your target market:
Figure out your target market to find out your potential customer base. Set up your business depending upon the customer’s need to provide the best service. Moreover, researching your target market helps you to scope out your competition level. Track your competitors to learn about their services and rates to remain at par with the market.
8. Market your services:
Figure out your USP and fine-tune your marketing strategy to stand out from others. Take the help of social media platforms to advertise your services for better reach. Creating a well-established and professional website could be of great help from a marketing point of view.
9. Onboard new clients:
Getting new clients would be still smoother than onboarding them. The pain is to make them understand what kind of services they should expect. Share every detail regarding your business requirements, extra fees, insurances, etc., to make onboarding smoother and easier.
Starting a business from scratch would involve some erroneous factors. So let’s figure out those problem mistakes as you learn how to start a moving business!
What are the probable mistakes that to be avoided in a moving business
Mitigating risk can help provide better performance that can keep customers coming back. Here are some of the common mistakes:
Limiting your resources:
Being a business owner, spreading your resources thin would be risky for your business. Do check your inventory before you commit to your customers.
Inadequate training:
Though it sounds straight and simple, it requires training staff on relevant jobs like customer service, safety, maintenance, etc. Inexperienced professionals or lack of training would eventually lead to costly mistakes. Therefore, it is essential to hire experienced or trained professionals and organize periodic training to keep them updated.
Lack of effective policies:
Potentially awkward situations may pop up anytime and hence you need to be ready. Work on your policies so that it helps you during accidents or other service interruptions.
FAQs
The opening cost of transportation business including all the basic requirements is approximately $1000-$2000. The ongoing cost involves:
1. Overhead expenses
2. Payroll and taxes
3. Vehicle maintenance
4. Insurance renewal
5. Fuel cost, etc
Residential customers could be a probable customer band, but most local business owners prove to be more trustworthy, as they provide stability and a constant customer base.
The cost varies depending upon mileage and weight. But most movers charge hourly on a basis that costs around $25-$30 per hour.
No, there is no specific skill set required to start a moving company. But one needs to have interpersonal skills for better communication, capability for delegation of tasks, and personnel management to run the business smoothly.
The scope of work is wide in moving business. You can start with a small business to serve customers for local transportation or can even look for a bigger establishment for international shipping.
Joining a franchise would be better as that does not involve the hassles of starting a business from scratch. But on the other hand, joining a franchise could prove to be expensive but comes with better market assistance if a quality franchise is considered.
Wrapping up!
Hiring moving services is a common practice among residential and commercial customers, as relocating to a different area could be due to any reason. Therefore, moving companies will always sustain no matter what the market status is. It’s high time you decide your niche and dive into the entrepreneurial world. Our guide will help you know how to start a moving company along with other details. Then what are you waiting for? Get started now!
