Last edited 10:30 a.m. Feb. 20, 2013.The owners of My Movers Moving and Storage are itching to move.
After just a year operating in a 6,000-square-foot office/warehouse off of Glenstone Avenue – the moving company’s third site in five years – founders Brad and Trish Pearson are seeking larger space, whether by purchase or new construction.
It must be something about the moving business. Brad Pearson has made his career in the industry, working nearly 30 years on the road for a national van line before fulfilling his dream of starting his own company in 2007.
“People in the moving industry move around a lot,” says Pearson, a Minnesota native still speaking in a northern accent who moved to Missouri from California in 1995 and settled in Springfield in 2002. “We will move this year. We won’t be here next year.”
The 1913 E. Florida St. leased building is tucked behind Ozark Fitness Center amid an industrial section of town. The quaint office space, with its mix-matched desks and bartered second-hand file cabinets, reflects the Pearsons’ no-nonsense approach to My Movers.
“Fancy offices don’t help people move,” says Trish Pearson, the company president, who manages the books. “I’d love to have a fancy office – and a maid – but the money needs to go where it can be used to help make money.”
The couple have run the business on minimal credit since Day 1 – there was no commercial startup loan and a corporate credit card is paid off monthly – and they built up its equipment and truck inventory with cash purchases.
“We grew according to what we could afford,” says Brad Pearson, formally the vice president and head of operations who works in warehousing and sales.
Starting with two semitrailers and adding various box trucks along the way, the Pearsons personally invested roughly $250,000 to get the company moving. My Movers now runs seven trucks, and as an agent for Wheaton Van Lines Inc., can facilitate residential, military and corporate moves across town or cross-country.
Agent on callMy Movers signed on with Indianapolis-based Wheaton Van Lines in July 2011, but only after shopping around such national movers as Stevens Worldwide and Arpin Van Lines.
As a Wheaton agent, My Movers is authorized to move goods across state lines without covering hefty transporting permit and insurance fees in each state. In return, My Movers pays Wheaton a percentage for hauling and booking on its national network. For instance, My Movers would receive roughly 75 percent of the rate to haul a Springfield customer’s goods on a load it booked to New Mexico, and Wheaton would receive the remainder. If another agent in the destination city is involved with unloading, for example, it would receive roughly 4 percent of My Movers’ cut, Brad Pearson says.
“When you go across state lines, you’ve got to have the authority. (Wheaton has) the authority to move people in every state, the authority to move trucks through the states,” he says of the 225 agents in the roughly 2,000-truck network. “We have the state of Missouri authority.”
My Movers currently is the only Wheaton agent in Springfield, and the nearest agent is in Mountain Home, Ark., according to
WheatonWorldwide.com.
In first-quarter 2012, Wheaton purchased Hillside, Ill.-based Bekins Van Lines, adding another 130 agents to the mover’s national network and creating the country’s fourth-largest household goods carrier with some $250 million in annual revenue.
For My Movers, the buyout increases the pool from which it can connect customers nationwide.
Movers and shakersLocally, My Movers handled 640 moves in 2012, which the Pearsons couch as a record year due to baby boomer downsizing, low interest rates and political unrest.
“Election years are always big for moving,” Brad Pearson says. “People were trying to do a lot of things while they knew what the rules were, instead of waiting to find out. People were making their changes now when they knew what they could deduct or couldn’t.”
The couple say sales increased by 60 percent last year, though they declined to disclose revenues. The majority of moves are made between May and September, and My Movers typically doubles employment to meet demand.
Among the company’s recent jobs are relocations by the Greene County Prosecutor’s Child Support Unit, multiple Great American Title Co. branches and the office of hearing instrument specialist Dr. Joe Wilson.
After earning the contract through a formal bidding process a year ago, My Movers consolidated the county’s Child Support Office from two floors on South Avenue downtown to the sixth floor of Cox Medical Tower, 1443 N. Robberson Ave., according to county office clerk Vivian King.
“That was one of the biggest office moves we’ve done,” Trish Pearson says of the two-day job, handling 18 office desks and computers, 17 cubicles and a bank of 30 file cabinets. “I even worked that one. I ran the elevator.”
A challenge is keeping up with the specific demands of clients in an industry where timing is more critical than loyalty.
“The majority of people all move at the same time. It’s always the first or the 15th, either the middle or the end of the month,” Brad Pearson says, due to lease and mortgage arrangements. “You will turn down as many jobs as you move. That’s the bad part.”
My Movers is actively hiring an office assistant, and Trish Pearson says the company is considering adding a salesperson and three laborers this year. Still, with economic and political factors beginning to settle, the Pearsons expect to handle fewer moving calls.
“I believe that this year will be slower than last year, probably 15 percent less,” Brad Pearson says. “I’m hoping I’m wrong.”
