Inc. Magazine - Where Great Ideas for Businesses Come From

Where Great Ideas for New Businesses Come From
From: Inc. Magazine, Sept 1993 From: Inc magazine Sept 1993 By: Inc Staff

Just Say Yes -or- Oops, We Must Be in the Moving Business Siblings Ethan and Abby Margalith just wanted some spending money for the summer of 1973. Abby was 19 and waiting tables. Ethan had just finished high school and couldn't find a summer job, so he borrowed a truck and hauled some odds and ends to the local swap meet. He made a few bucks but earned even more delivering some chairs for a dealer who spotted his truck. When he got the cash, he realized, Hey, this could turn into a summer job! Soon Abby joined in.

Their first moving truck was a 1944 weapons carrier rescued from a mud slide. The owner had told the Margaliths, "If you can dig it out, you can have it." An artist friend painted "Starving Students" and the Margalith home phone number on the side, and the siblings parked the truck in Beverly Hills at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Sunset boulevards.

"This was when movers still wore full uniforms and little hats" and had prices to match, says Abby. "We became the no-frills, low-cost mover." Abby and Ethan's fliers echoed the Age of Aquarius: "To us, you're beautiful people, not chickens ripe for plucking," read one. "Twenty-four-hour service for lease breakers!" read another. The Margaliths billed themselves as "cheap, fast, funny, reliable." They took personal checks. They didn't have a clue what they were doing.
Yet their phone rang off the hook.

College semesters came and went, and neither knew the moving industry was strictly regulated until the day, three years later, the Public Utilities Commission knocked on the door and explained that if Starving Students wanted to keep on trucking, the Margaliths needed a license. So they shut down for six months to get licensed -- and take their finals. By then, the neophyte haulers had six trucks and 15 on-call employees. They also had twice the business they could handle.

The little office survived on sheer willpower. "We didn't know how hard it would be, so we didn't say no," says Ethan. It wasn't until he reached law school that Ethan realized they'd been running a company -- and that he liked it. He graduated in 1984 but blew off the bar, deciding instead to take the moving business seriously.

Since then, Starving Students has opened in 14 locations in five states; Abby runs a separate San Diego office, and Ethan the rest. They've reached combined sales of $15 million. And in a low-margin industry, they've funded growth entirely through cash flow. Abby says, "We stuck with it because it's fun, it's exciting, and it's profitable."
-- Phaedra Hise* * *

Read the entire article at http://www.ssmovers.com/articles/inc.html

Starving Students Moving Company
Corporate Office: 1850 Sawtelle Blvd., Suite 300 Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: (800) 506-0366
http://www.ssmovers.com/