Our purpose is to make your move as affordable and convenient as possible, while minimizing the impact on the environment. Our high quality, deluxe boxes are reusable and as we all know, reusing before recycling is eco-friendly.
Barry Harris, Founder
Having owned a moving company for 35 years, Barry Harris is an expert when it comes to cardboard moving boxes. Simplicity is the foundation of his expertise. What he learned over the years was that no matter how small or large the move, the combination of only three boxes – Large for bulky items, Medium for heavy items and a Wardrobe for hanging clothes – made for an efficient move.
He also learned people need time to pack. Over and over he witnessed people receiving their cardboard moving boxes only after they signed the contract with a moving company, leaving them little time to pack properly. He saw people purchase boxes, then quickly trash or recycle the boxes when they had been used once and had little wear and tear.
He knew people who would dig through trash bins at liquor stores and grocery stores for used boxes, making dozens of trips in between packing because only a certain number of boxes will fit in their car.
Renting and re-using cardboard moving boxes seemed an obvious solution but, when he began researching his idea in 1998, he found that no one was renting cardboard moving boxes anywhere in the world.
“I'd imagined I'd do the typical thing of finding a successful model and improve on it," said Mr Harris. "When I couldn't find anything like it, I thought something must be wrong with my idea.”
Mr Harris’ idea of renting cardboard moving boxes was groundbreaking. To offer his service, Hire A Box, across his native Australia, Barry carefully considered franchising. But first, he had to know first-hand the strength of his concept. He ran a pilot operation for more than six years, handling every delivery and pickup and meeting customers so he could learn how they felt about the service.
“Most people move within five years, and I wanted to know how many would use our service again,” he says. I found that more than 50 percent of our work came from previous customers and word of mouth, which is pretty good. It certainly produced enough work for the pilot operation with very little marketing.”
More groundbreaking than the concept itself is Barry Harris’ franchise model. For example, rather than royalties, the franchisee and franchisor split revenues.
He created a franchisee-friendly business where a franchisee enjoys benefits such as the flexibility of having a home-based business, personal contact with customers little paperwork and no employees to manage.
“More and more moving companies rent moving boxes from us for their customers because it is more convenient for them,” says Mr Harris. “They prefer to focus on their prime business of moving.”
Barry Harris currently operates the first and only cardboard moving box delivery and pick-up rental franchise in the world. Click here to find out more about Rent Your Boxes Franchises