Business Spotlight: On the Move

Springfield’s Two Men and a Truck moving and storage location is owned by two men who never expected to be in the moving business.

Co-owners Grant Hornbuckle and Clint Bergman each had dreams and careers they pursued before cementing their positions in a Two Men and a Truck franchise.

Hornbuckle, whose father Tom Hornbuckle owned the local franchise rights before him, worked for the company when he was young but dreamed of becoming an architect.

However, he says it required a lot of training, and when the younger Hornbuckle became a father at the age of 18 in the early 1990s, he decided to enroll in business courses at Missouri State University.

Bergman was once a seminary professor doing managerial work for Two Men and a Truck before he left teaching to work with the company. He’s had multiple stints, but most recently began full time in November 2017.

Last year, the local franchise performed around 4,000 moves and generated revenue of $3.4 million, Hornbuckle says.

He says the company’s revenue the first year he took over, in 2012, was roughly $1.8 million.

Both owners wish to expand the operation in Springfield through community involvement, storage options and interstate moves, Hornbuckle says.

He says over 80 percent of their customers are moving locally.

The company currently has 14 moving trucks in operation and works out of an approximately 7,600-square-foot facility at 3534 E. Sunshine St., Hornbuckle says.

Down the road
Bergman says they’d like to expand by purchasing additional franchise rights in the Midwest.

According to TwoMenAndATruck.com, startup costs for a franchise run $115,000 to $670,000, depending on market size, and royalties are 6%. Now over 30 years in operation, the franchise has some 380 locations worldwide.

Hornbuckle says locally they’ve been striving to increase their community presence via branching out with a satellite location in Branson with five employees, and by participating in multiple charities.

“Our community involvement for one, has definitely increased, and our diversification of revenue,” he says, pointing to new storage units and a cleaning service he’d like to add as part of the moving package.

Last year, the franchisees invested about $100,000 to add the storage service. Currently with 24 units, Hornbuckle says the 8-by-16-foot portable units can be housed on company property or on-site with customers.

The company already is capable of interstate travel, but Hornbuckle says it and the storage business only are small parts of revenue.

Management style
Bergman worked as a manager for Two Men and a Truck while teaching at Baptist Bible College and working on his doctorate.

He says the previous work prepared him well for the business, as teaching is managerial in nature and crosses over to employee training.

Bergman has a simple philosophy: “Win in everything.” While teaching future employees, he tells them “win” in every action in life. He also stresses the importance of care.

Assistant Operations Manager Andy Hoover says he tries to employ the concept of winning in everything. Hoover started working with Two Men and a Truck five years ago and didn’t have any intention of sticking around but says he “fell in love with the environment.”

Hoover says he and his team enjoy receiving positive reviews online.

But what happens when they receive negative reviews? Bergman says staff members attempt to respond to a negative review within 48 hours of posting. They acknowledge mistakes happen.

“Generally, our philosophy is just to make it right,” Hornbuckle says, noting they budget money for helping customers when mistakes happen – such as damaged property, costs not matching the estimates or general attitude problems with employees.

He says the general customer feedback is positive: “We have a 99 percent referral rating from our customers, which we’re really proud of,” Hornbuckle says of the customer “reply card system” that tracks performance ratings and whether customers would refer others to the service.

Bergman says the Two Men and a Truck home office in Lansing, Michigan, keeps tracks of the figures.

One customer, local banker Aaron Jernigan, says he has used the company’s residential moving services personally on multiple occasions.

“They always show up on time and all the guys that do the move are very professional,” he says.

Hornbuckle and Bergman say they view moving as a stressful time, and they try to alleviate that.

“We have to make sure we are always living up to our slogan as the ‘movers who care,’” Hornbuckle says.