10 Ways to Grow Your Moving Franchise

  • December 20, 2019
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This article about how to grow your moving franchise is by Matthew Woodley, Founder of MoverFocus.

Matthew Woodley

One of the key reasons a business chooses to franchise is to optimize expansion. A franchise is one of the best ways to disseminate your business and your brand — which in turn can multiply profit. 

If you’ve read our previous articles, you’ll know our tips on how to start up your franchise and whether or not franchising is the ideal option for your company.

So, now you’ve established your franchise, it’s time to start focusing on growing it. The growth of a franchise doesn’t miraculously happen. It will take time, work, and knowledge. Here are 10 ways to grow your moving franchise.

1. Improve Your Business Model

For any business to thrive, a sturdy and precise business model is vital. Your business model is essentially the backbone of your company. Without a clear structure, it’ll be difficult to pinpoint your focus, goals, and routes to achieving those goals. 

A clear business model will also show strength within the business. Your business model must be one that can be taught and followed by others if you are to start a successful franchise. You will have to know whether your moving franchise will work economically, culturally, and socially wherever you plan to take it.

customer service metrics

2. Establish Brand Identity

Brand identity has more weight than most people realize. Your brand identity is the way people are going to recognize and remember your business. Imagine a potential customer that needs the kind of moving services you provide. When thinking of where to go to book a moving job, if your brand is prevalent and memorable, you will be a top option.

Brand identity is also about trust. If you build up a familiar brand identity, people will eventually trust you and your product. Get your logo, color schemes, and slogans dialed. You must stand out in the industry and appeal to clients. Everything down to the font you use is important. The value of your brand identity is often what attracts your franchisees and helps them choose to invest in your franchise.

For a moving franchise, the vans you use will be a very valuable asset. As you drive through the streets and help your clients move, you want a vehicle that will imprint an impressive mark on people’s minds. A good example of this is Asian Express International Movers Ltd, a boutique mover based in Hong Kong with very congruent branding. Their website, their trucks and even their storage containers all convey the same consistent brand and logo.

3. Don’t Rush Into It

Allow the growth of your business to happen naturally. Don’t do too much too soon. As exciting as it can be to start expanding, launching into franchising too early is a bad idea. Until you’re certain that your business model works in more than one location, hold back on expanding your business to new cities.

Let your clientele get to know the company and how your moving business operates. This gives you a chance to get acquainted with your target demographic and how best to serve them. Remember that your target audience might vary from location to location. Needs will also vary, too. Some neighborhoods will require much bigger trucks and assistance than an area consisting of condominiums and smaller apartments.

Essentially, if you rush the growth of your company by expanding too soon, you risk damaging the business’s reputation. People are unlikely to have faith in a newly emerging franchise that swiftly shrinks, as opposed to growing. The more value you create in your first location, the more value you create for your subsequent franchise locations.

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First Due Movers proudly display their firefighter heritage in their embroidered logo

4. Ensure Continuity

Your moving franchise vehicles don’t have to be identical to one another. In fact, it can make it more exciting and memorable if each one has its own flavor or personality. However, there must be a certain degree of continuity throughout your fleet and offices.

Whether it’s customer-facing details like the background music you play at your office or internal procedures like payroll and your moving business software, consistency is key. Whatever procedures your business uses, make them clear, reliable, and streamlined — for both employees and customers.

This will all contribute to strengthening your brand identity as people will know what to expect from your business. It should also reduce ambiguity when it comes to company guidelines. Reliability and consistency are crucial to establishing trust. Read about how First Due Movers uses its firefighter heritage to establish a brand based on trust.

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5. Know Your Locations

When branching out to new locations, make sure you’re choosing appropriate service areas. Get to know your potential locations and have a think about whether the market is ripe for another service provider. Consider where to advertise as well, in order to get the best possible return on your ad investment. Your local advertising practices might not be as effective in new franchise locations.

Once you’ve decided on your franchise locations, prioritize being active in the community. Go to community events, participate in local marketing, and demonstrate a warm and authentic ethos. People want to feel valued, and they will be speculative of any new business that appears in their town. Show them that you’re not another chain company, but that you care about the people whose homes or businesses you will be moving.

6. Never Stop Evolving

This is applicable for any business, franchise or not. Your business model will have to regenerate with the times. The same goes for marketing tactics. Keeping up with the benefits of moving technology may also help your moving franchise greatly, saving administration time and helping you identify growth opportunities.

You can also consider improving your profitability by offering value-added services. For example, if you offer international moving services you can become an affiliate of a reputable online currency transfer service that can save your clients on fees and provide them with access to better exchange rates. 

Your business has to be imaginative and fresh. Abiding by all these things will help your brand to keep growing as well as making you stand out against your competitors. If one of your franchises goes stagnant, this could have a dangerous ripple effect.

7. Prioritize Franchise Relationships

Whether you are pursuing other franchise partners, co-marketing opportunities, or new franchisees, build relationships within the communities in which they gather. This applies to online and offline activities.

Prioritize a way to keep your entire franchise network in contact that goes beyond email.

Maintaining constructive relationships across all of your locations will breed a positive franchisee culture. It’s good to keep on the same page as one another. It also helps to be there for assistance and guidance should someone need it.

8. Your Staff Are Everything

Each moving franchise will have an owner and a manager. These people must be strong-minded and business-focused. You want to ensure the person for the job is good with people, creative, and innovative. Their work reflects on your business. Sub-par owners can negatively affect the success of a franchise.

Make sure you have clear and fair guidelines for the treatment of the team across all of your locations. If you and your franchise owners are good to them, this will boost your brand reputation. Staff who are paid fair wages and feel valued will, in turn, put in the work and serve your customers well.

9. Be Willing and Enthusiastic to Train

With each and every moving franchise that you introduce will come a new set of staff and owners. This means teaching the business model, standard procedures, regulations and so on, repeatedly. As we said before, continuity is key. Through training, you can ensure this is the case. You can continue to establish training methods and materials as you go, adding more sophistication and becoming more effective.

If you want each individual franchise and franchise owner to succeed, it’s beneficial that they feel confident. There’s nothing worse than someone who has no idea what they are doing. It will impress your customers if your franchise maintains your expert and reliable service right from the start.

10. Find Your Moving Franchise Angle and Let it Shine

If you want your franchise to keep growing, you’ve got to provide the kind of service people will want to use again. You might want to try and give your moving franchise a unique edge. Perhaps you want to be the people who are going above and beyond to help. Or you specialize in a specific kind of moving service, like transporting high-value artwork or pianos.

Strive to make your service the best of its kind. Especially so if there are competitors in the area. Even though your customers will have a lot of choices, you want your franchise to be the one they choose. It never hurts to focus on your key advantages and establish a reputation for something that is unique to your business.

Next Steps for Your Moving Franchise

Growth is everything when it comes to owning a moving franchise. Following these tips, your franchise can grow the right way and establish the brand you always dreamed of. Thorough research and knowing what you’re doing goes a very long way. If you’re determined and have a good team behind you, then there is no reason you can’t achieve success with a growing franchise.  

Matthew Woodley is the founder of MoverFocus.com. With a background in moving, removals and relocations, Matthew is well-versed in the niche market of worldwide relocation and moving services.

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