Today Vince is a consultant to the moving industry, helping business owners and leaders in making their companies become more successful, something Vince has been doing for the past 3 years.

Vince has had many challenges within the industry, however, the two discussed are, finding the right talent, and the way Sales Professionals and others are treated once they are a member of the company.

Vince wouldn’t want to change anything from his moving past because he is fearful making a change in one regard would alter everything else.

Vince’s highpoint of being within the industry was his experience during Covid, where even when he had to reduce the size of his team, he still grew the business to be more successful.

The one thing Vince would like to change within the industry is the mindset of individuals, especially company owners and leaders.

The advice Vince would give himself just starting out within the industry again is to spend as much time as possible building the team, and more importantly the culture.

In the next 5 years Vince hopes to continue to carve out a niche for himself within the industry. Industry wise, Vince hopes that the industry continues to evolve in a good way.

Outside of the industry Vince is spending more time on photography and has a huge passion for reading books (physical not digital).

And as always, we end Moving Matters with a funny moving story, in fact three, and are all related to Vince’s son.

Enjoy!

Links to Vince Burruano:

• Website
• Linkedin
• Understanding Millenials

Special Guest: Vince Burruano.

Andy is a former (BAR) Commercial Moving Group chairman, and today is still very much involved within the industry, being a BAR inspector, a QSS auditor, the lead judge in the (BAR) Commercial Mover of the Year competition, and a practicing business coach and consultant, under his company The Moving Shop.

Andy has had several challenges within the industry, a major warehouse fire in 1988 which totally destroyed everything the company had built, clearing the Commercial Union floors of the Baltic Exchange Building shortly after the Saint Mary Axe (London) bombing on April 10th, 1992 (where incidentally Andy and a crew were working an hour before the bomb went off!), and becoming an auditor for QSS.

The one thing Andy would like to change from his moving past is to have not grown by acquisition, which was a recommendation from his bank!

Andy has a couple of highpoints of being within the industry, firstly, winning Commercial Mover of the Year award at the same time as winning East London Growth Business of the Year, and secondly, becoming chairman of the (BAR) Commercial Moving Group, where during his tenure he introduced the quality standard for commercial moving (BS 8522).

The one thing Andy would like to change within the industry is to see it recognised as a profession, as it is in so many other countries.

The advice Andy would give himself just starting out within the industry again is network, by attending BAR area meetings, conferences & seminars, and getting involved.

In the next 5 years Andy hopes his days on the road are over, however he still wants to continue offering his coaching, as this can be provided remotely. Industry wise, Andy wants the solicitors and conveyancers to get their act into gear and sort out the completions (for the domestic market), and for the CMG (Commercial Moving Group, or soon to be WRG - Workplace Relocation Group) to be more recognised by FM’s (Facility Managers).

Outside of the industry Andy is a keen West Ham fan, he used to play golf and would like to take it up again. Andy has a passion for cooking, enjoys country walks and he together with his wife volunteer at the village community shop.

And as always, we end Moving Matters with a funny moving story, in fact three, plus Andy tells a few during this episode too.

Enjoy!

Links to Andy:

• LinkedIn

Special Guest: Andy Carr.

Ed sold Peachtree Movers in 2000, and in that 24-year period Peachtree Movers completed nearly 50,000 local office moves. During Ed’s time at Peachtree Movers, he created several inventions, the Space Gobbler being one, an inflatable device that filled the available space within desk drawers, and the Spider Crane being another, a hoist that allowed wide lateral file cabinets to be moved without the need to remove the contents.

Today Ed teaches (and preaches) his 3-day office moving seminar, which if you don’t catch in person, you can now watch online.

One of Ed’s challenges within the industry is trying to get people to think outside of the box to differentiate themselves from the marketplace.

The one thing Ed would like to change from his moving past is to have taken the kind of training Ed provides the industry today, as he had no industry mentor to learn from so everything was self-taught from the school of hard knocks.

Ed’s highpoint of being within the industry was going out on moves and listening to the customer reactions and seeing the appreciation for making the service more user friendly.

The one thing Ed would like to change within the industry is to ensure that new contractor businesses (those that never render the actual service) are certified.

The advice Ed would give himself just starting out within the industry again is get training, differentiate himself, listen to the customer and focus on one specific sector.

In the next 5 years god willing Ed will not be room temperature, but continues to see himself advising, coaching, consulting and teaching. Industry wise, Ed see’s people returning to the office and therefore a higher demand for commercial moves as current empty buildings begin to fill again.

Outside of the industry Ed spends an hour a day at the gym, but Ed just loves to coach, train, teach and consult as business is his hobby.

And as always, we end Moving Matters with a funny moving story, regarding a trip to the can.

Enjoy!

Links to IOMI:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter

Special Guest: Ed Katz.

We discover that Universal was formed in 1978 by Sarah’s father (William), and is a 2nd generation commercial moving specialist based in Greenford, Greater London, servicing mainly the London area, with a fulltime staff of approximately 25 and running a fleet of 8 vehicles. We also discover that Sarah is Managing Director of ISS (Information Storage Solutions), the document archiving side of the business which was started by Sarah’s mother (Margaret) in 1986.

We discuss that while archive is going more digital Sarah still maintains there is a large requirement for the physical storage side of things.

We discover that Sarah has very much enjoyed working in what is predominantly a male dominated industry and has never found any challenges with that. Sarah has found that there are a lot of women within management roles of organisations but would encourage more to get involved with the BAR initiatives.

We discuss how working from home has and will affect the commercial relocation industry and Sarah highlights that even before the pandemic companies were looking at the office space occupied and how they were using it, from a productivity, wellbeing, and a sustainability point of view, but it was such a huge and risky ask to undertake the stress test. However, the pandemic became that stress test and forced us overnight to work from home and leave the office behind. Sarah believes the future is with companies ultimately having a hybrid solution, shrinking the physical space but keeping separate office space for staff to participate in, but affording staff more flexibility about how to undertake their work.

We discover that Universal have many accreditations which Sarah believes is fundamental to business because office moving is business critical and the accreditations helps the client to manage the risk. We also discover that Universal have won the BAR Commercial Mover of the Year (CMotY) 3 times and is a great pat on the back for the staff that provide a huge contribution to the company.

We discuss that Sarah’s challenges to date are to always move with your client needs and to look ahead at where things are heading. Universal are always trying to add value to their clients to support them. Sarah also believes getting the message across in what they do, how they do it and the value they bring to a service is also often challenging.

We discover that Sarah would not change anything from her past, she enjoyed her time as a lawyer but was happy to move on and is very happy with what she does now and where Universal is.

We discuss Sarah’s highpoint, which was back in 2015 when Universal were awarded CMotY winners for the first time (having been a finalist twice before), and especially so as the awared was presented at conference (BAR) in the city in which her parents were from, Belfast.

We discover that the one change Sarah would make to the industry is to raise our profile, selling our services better and making clients aware how specialist we are and the professionalism we bring, as she believes as an industry, we undersell ourselves and there is often a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.

We discuss the advice Sarah would give to a younger self and it was confidence, get involved in the industry and BAR, go along to conferences/events and take up training and development opportunities offered.

We discover that within the next 5 years Sarah would like to grow the team at Universal, bringing in more junior members to the team and increasing and expanding the scope of what Universal do.

We discuss that outside of the industry Sarah likes to spend time with her family and friends, going out, attending concerts and eating in nice restaurants.

And as always we end Moving Matters with a funny moving story regarding Margaret Thatcher and a union card!

Enjoy!

Links to Universal Commercial Relocation Ltd:

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Special Guest: Sarah Cole.