Excerpt from: Fayetteville Observer - FayObserver.com

June 29, 2011

Jana Gibbs joined M.A.D. Moving a little more than a year ago as vice president of marketing. She says building relationships with industry associations and community organizations is an important part of growing the business.

How did the company start? "Marshall is from Fayetteville. He realized with the military, it's a 'moving ' town. He saw potential to start a moving company." Williams previously was a manager of a Fayetteville grocery store.

What has been the company's growth strategy? "Right now, we recently acquired Get Moving Supplies LLC, which is a national company that has moving supply websites throughout the nation. They sell moving supplies online. Our goal with that acquisition is to increase our box division, because we sell moving boxes and supplies locally. We saw opportunity to increase our moving supply sales and operations, and also a great opportunity for a first step in our franchising in the next year. We can advertise our M.A.D. Moving name on all the Get Moving Supplies websites." There are about 125 such websites, according to Gibbs.

What is the plan with franchising? "The goal is to start selling franchises, whether here in North Carolina or (elsewhere). The moving company and box division along with it."

You had a previous acquisition? "That was the local acquisition of what used to be Fayetteville Moving Boxes. That switched over to M.A.D. Moving Boxes. We're just now finishing up with that."

Did the recession and downturn affect your business? "In the moving industry, there is always ups and downs, highs and lows. Overall, the economy really hasn't impacted us too much. It's hard to separate the economic issues from the natural highs and lows from moving season."

Do you do a lot of military business? "We have a good mix of military as well as non-military, and we do a lot of work on Fort Bragg, too. Commercial continues to grow, but residential still has the large piece of the pie. We do a lot of work for the different Realtor offices in town. And some moves for law firms, doctors offices and other offices."

Since you started with the company a year ago, what are the most creative and effective ways you've marketed the business? "The most effective is just building strong relations with different associations. The Realtor association is very supportive of M.A.D. Moving. We always try to get involved with their association, as well as the apartment association. Really, meeting a lot of people and trying to give back to the community. We participate in a lot of local charity events."

Do you use Facebook for marketing? Gibbs said the company has created a Facebook page in the past year.

"We're seeing great results. It's funny because Realtors and different people in Fayetteville who refer clients to us, they'll say, 'We saw you did a great job for so-and-so on Facebook,' and they'll say, 'Will you mention our name on your Facebook page?' They see we get good traffic on Facebook, so it's been very beneficial for us. It definitely has changed the face of marketing, that's for sure."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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