June 2, 2025 • 51 mins
In 1979, Mark Silverman was a student at Northeastern University. Needing tuition money and seeing that students needed help moving, he decided to become a mover - he purchased a small van with a credit card.
Over time, the business became Mark’s sole focus. One Man and a Van became Mark’s Moving & Storage.
Nearly 46 years later Mark is still looking for opportunities to help people. He created Mark’s Northeastern Furniture Foundation, TheStorageCompany.com and Massachusetts Portable Storage.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Winning Business Radio Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/winning-business-radio--3075598/support.
Over time, the business became Mark’s sole focus. One Man and a Van became Mark’s Moving & Storage.
Nearly 46 years later Mark is still looking for opportunities to help people. He created Mark’s Northeastern Furniture Foundation, TheStorageCompany.com and Massachusetts Portable Storage.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Winning Business Radio Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/winning-business-radio--3075598/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I am Kevin Halenan,
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot streaming live on talkfour tv dot com,
and we're on Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio.
We're live there, and we're live on YouTube, and of
course we're on every platform imaginable After the show in podcasts,
(01:13):
that's YouTube iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, etc. Et cetera. The mission
of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular listeners and
viewers know, is to offer insights and advice to help
people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices,
the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos,
to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the
(01:33):
successes of others. Those consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and
owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, as
I say every week, virtually every successful person I've ever
talked to has had some form of failure in their
lives and careers. So while we all have to get
our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to
keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to
(01:54):
learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent
the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow
from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the
way up to the Fortune fifty. I've seen some of
those companies win into varying degrees. I've seen some fail.
I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of
the highest performing people around to hand with some who
probably should have found other professions. And my own businesses.
(02:16):
I've had lots of success, but some failures too, and
I'd like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences.
So yeah, you'll hear a little bit from me, but
mostly you're going to hear from our guests. Those experts, consultants, coaches, advisors, authors,
founders and owners and entrepreneurs. And today my guest is
Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage.
Here's his bio. In nineteen seventy nine, Mark Silverman was
(02:38):
a student at Northeastern University in Boston, and while many
college students were spending money on their social lives, he
needed to spend money on school, but he first had
to earn it. Students needed moving help every semester, so
he decided to become a mover. The problem was he'd
never been a mover, so we just purchased a small van,
believe it or not, with a credit card, hoping to
make a few extra dollars to pay tuition. Eventually, the
(03:01):
business became Mark's sole focus. One man in a van
becames Mark became Marx Moving in Storage. Over the years,
he recognized the need for a steadfast philosophy, so he
built the business around guaranteeing one hundred percent customer satisfaction.
Nearly forty six years later, Mark is still looking for
opportunities to help people. He created Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation
(03:23):
and collects over twelve trailer loads of lightly used and
new goods each year and works with Greater Boston nonprofits
to share those treasures with local families in need. Mark
also founded the storage company dot com, a premier resource
for warehousing and transportation of medical equipment, machinery, fixtures, and
high value products. Additionally, he invested in and manages Massachusetts
(03:45):
Portable Storage, a company that offers convenient and flexible portable
storage options options excuse me for short term and long
term needs. The company has grown from a small local
business to a regional leader, serving residential, commercial, inns, industrial
customers across Massachusetts and beyond. Mark and his companies have
earned the following awards quite the list National Multiple Sclerosis
(04:09):
MS Shining Star Award, Green Initiative Award from the Newton
Needham Chamber of Commerce, Westboro Economic Development Committee, Best Sustainable
Business Award, Northeastern University's Center for Family Business Winner twenty
fourteen for top honors, the Gold Quality Award from arpin
Van Lines and the ARP and Charitable Fund Charity Contest.
(04:30):
And Mark's a past president of the Needham Business Association
for the two thousand and six and seven years and
as a past president of the Massachusetts Movers Association the
two years of one two three. He holds a Bachelor's
a Business in a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern.
He resides in Needham with his wife Lisa. They have
(04:51):
four children and get ready eleven grandchildren, ages one through thirteen. Mark,
Welcome to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
My pleasure. What's the best part of being a granddad?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Ah, that when you're done playing with the kids, you
can give.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Them back same. I've only got two, but wow, eleven
a lot of incredible. Yeah, very blessed for sure. Tell
us a little bit about your wife, Lisa.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
My wife, Lisa I met forty two years ago. Forty
two years ago in Florida. Actually neither one of us
lived in Florida. We happened to be there at the
same time. Funny we met and not too long after
that we get married. Lisa owned a woman's clothing boutique
for a couple of decades right here in need M.
(05:41):
A couple of years ago, after COVID struck, it was
time to give up the store and go have some fun.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So that's what she's doing.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Good for her. So tell us, I want to. I
always like a little bit about a guest's background. So
where did you grow up? Mark? I grew up in Brookline, Okay,
right suburb of Boston, pretty close to Boston. What was
it like to grow up there?
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Well, uh, we lived, Uh, you know, it was an
interesting area. It was a working class area, Brookline, and
you know, everybody around us they were very hard workers.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So you you would you go to school.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
In the morning and you you would get home and
normally you wouldn't see your you know, your parents. Still
in my case, my father till you know, very late
afternoon or early evening. But there was a great work ethic,
both in my home as well as my neighborhood. So
learned very early that if you want to, if you
want to make it in life, get up early and
(06:39):
get something accomplished.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What'd your dad do?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
My my dad worked as a civilian for the Air Force.
He was an electrical engineer at Hanscom, perhaps at Hanscomb.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, okay, yeah, all right, what was what was your
excuse me, what was behind your decision to go to Northeastern.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Well, you know, now, if you want to get into Northeastern,
you really want to be a smart guy, much smorrow
than I am. Back then, it was a long time ago,
and back then it was more of a commuter school.
And quite frankly, I was never a great student. I've
always worked. I was shining shoes when I was nine
or ten years old, streets up and down Cornwolf Avenue.
(07:21):
You're yelling shoe shine, shoe shine, strolling newspapers, you know,
a little older than that, and you know, always work.
Was really never that interested in school.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Almost dropped out of high school.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Actually, and there was a fellow by the name of
Mead Reynolds, still in touch with him today, a teacher
at Brookline High and said, you know, Mark, you know,
don't drop out. Go check out this other place, this
other school. And he knew what he was doing. He
sent me to this school where it looked like pretty
much everybody that was at that school their next stop
(07:55):
was going.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
To be a prison oh man.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, you know, and a bunch of tough guys.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Yes, why do you just stay in school, take a
course or two, don't drop out. And he was a
smart man, because that's exactly what I did, and then
I got into it full scale. However, that doesn't get
you into a lot of good colleges. Again, more interested
in working. So Northeastern was a commuter school at the top,
and you pretty much could get into the Austic. But
(08:21):
it leads into a really good story. So back then,
get into Northeast and no problem. He's there for a
year or two or three and had you this moving
business going. I said, you know, starting a family, and
I need more money, and you know, I'm going to
drop out of Northeast and drop out of college against
(08:41):
everyone's wishes, but I'm going to try and build a business.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
So again I'll.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Often say I'm not the brightest guy or author. Took
me thirty nine years to graduate college. But when all
my kids were done with school, I went right back
to Northeastern because I knew it wasn't going anywhere, and
I enrolled again Northeast, and in twenty fifteen I received
my bachelor's degree in business from the Moora McKim School
(09:07):
of Business there. And the beauty of that was when
I went back the second time, I actually cared about
what the professor had to say. I actually cared about
the lessons to be taught. As a young kid. You're
more interested in working or whatever, not necessarily what the
professor has to say. So that second vote at Northeastern
(09:28):
taught me a lot. And in fact, it was there
that I met Professor Ted Clark. Professor Clark is the
gentleman who sort of took me under his wing and
helped me start Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
So when I was.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Getting ready to graduate, you had to write your final paper,
and I talked all about this furniture foundation I'd like
to start, and I was donating furniture, and Professor Clark said, well,
you know what, you can make something big out of this.
It doesn't have to be just collecting a couple of
pieces of friend You can start a you know, a nonprofit.
(10:03):
You can really make something big out of this. And
today I'm fortunate that Ted is still on my board
of directors of the nonprofit and we collect a whole
bunch of furniture for those in need. But Northeastern all
thirty nine years treated me very well.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, I understand. It's like twelve to trailer loads a year.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
So at first we would we would get a piece
of tool furniture that someone was disposing they had no
need for it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
We would take it to the dump.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And again early on I had a tenant in one
of our warehouses, United Way of tri County, and they
don't throw that stuff away. You can get this recycle
someone needs us. That was sort of the beginning, along
with the help of Ted formalizing everything and so now
with Mark moving and storage. If we're moving somebody and
(10:54):
they have furniture they don't need, and in many cases
they're downsizing or in the case of a.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
You know, a a divorce, some people consider the same.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Thing that this furniture now gets collected while we're moving people.
We put it onto a fifty three foot trailer at
our warehouse, and when the trailer is full, we bring
it to Household Goods and Acting who distributed it piece
by piece to those in need. However, we found that
there were people that wanted to contribute furniture, but we
(11:25):
weren't moving them. Maybe they just were getting a new
bedroom set match, whatever it may be.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And it's very expensive. Labor is very expensive, so to.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Go get a piece of furniture from somebody when you
don't have a truck already there, it's cost prohibitive. So
we sit at another company. It's called Remarkable Donations dot org.
So this is for people we're not moving. They can
go to Remarkable Donations dot Org. They go on the
site and for a very nominal fee, way less than
(11:54):
anybody charges for moving, they can pay to have us
pick up the pieces so that the quantity of goods
were able to keep out of the landfills and get
into the hands of those in need. And then we
top it off just a good measure by raising a
minimum of twenty five thousand dollars each year, and we
go out and we buy a trail load of brand
(12:16):
new mattresses. Yeah, I number that item that they need
and we donate those as well. So we're very fortunate.
I've been very fortunate. But I understand what altruism is
all about. I understand what giving back is all about.
And my team people that work with me, we all
(12:37):
do a very good job at accomplishing that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Well, that seems evident. Why don't we do this? Let
me ask you a couple more questions. Let me go
back to Northeastern to the early days. How did you
find students that needed moving? I mean, were they just
falling in your lap or did you have to hustle
for them or what did that look like?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, so it wasn't just students. Maybe anach update my I.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Oh, but well that was the genesis, right, It wasn't
just students.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
It started, I'm sure with students, but it was really anybody.
And it didn't matter what we were moving, whether it
was a mattress or a coach. And there's another good
lesson with this, by the way, is when I tried
to be a mover in the beginning, there were a
couple of people, a couple of companies in Brookline, as
it turned out, that said, hey, you know, you can't
be a mover and you need a license, you need
(13:26):
to do this, you need to do that. And I'm like,
I'm just trying to earn intuition money. You know, it's spending.
I just need a little money. Well, you can't be
a mover without doing this that and the other thing.
That's the best thing anyone could ever do to you,
tell you that you can't do something.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
What that did was that gave me the incentive to
prove that I could. So I found out what needed
to be done, how you obtained a license, how you
buy insurance, how you prove that you fit everything you
need to do, And I can think them because maybe
what was just going to be called a side hustle
turned into a forty six year run here. So when
(14:03):
you're challenged, it's amazing what you can do.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I love it. You're so right. So you knew you
needed to grow it? When did you know it was
going to take off?
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Well again, you talk about failures and successes and how
you should identify them. So remember I didn't spend a
lot of time at Northeastern. Originally it was more about
just making money at the beginning, and for many many years,
this was really just a lifestyle type business. It was
just to support myself. I didn't understand about scale, and
(14:35):
I didn't understand that you need to grow a business.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
To me, it was just you earn money, you pay.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Your bills, and you do it all over again, and
it all works so the real businessman part of it
probably didn't come till ten or fifteen years ago, when
I believe that the people that you run with, the
people that you have friendships with, the people that you
hang with, the associations that you're involved with, you need
to learn all the time, hang out with people that
(15:01):
are more successful than your people that can teach you things.
So I must say that I always knew growth was good.
I always knew you wanted to have more trucks, more money,
more businesses, But I really never had a plan till
maybe you know, ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years ago, but
late in my career actually, And so I think that's
an important lesson to a lot of entrepreneurs that maybe
(15:22):
don't have a formal education.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Formal training is you.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Know, it's great that everything's working, but you know, get
a plan together and learn how to scale and do
whatever is necessary to keep growing, because if you don't
keep growing, then obviously everyone around you keeps growing and
you lose market share sooner or later.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You know, that's right, that's right. All right, We're going
to pause right there. I'll come back to that plan
question right after this first commercial. We'll be back in
just a minute with Mark Silverman.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
right here on Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well,
now it's your chance. Be a radio show guest on
the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you
and your business for free.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yes you heard.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
It, free business advertising right here on W four cy
dot com. Call five six one five zero six four
zero three one now to get booked on one of
our shows. That's five six one five zero six four
zero three one. Get your free advertising now.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
We're barked back with Mark. Yeah I can talk, I
really can. Mark, Just give me a minute. We're back with
Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage.
So tell us what that plan started to look like, Mark, Well, the.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Plan, as everybody knows, the plans always they change and
again I think that's an important lesson.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You can have a plan.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
It was a fellow that was involved with stables, tom
Stenberg and you rest in peace. But I remember reading
a story once about all these robotics, the system that
he put in, and he spent millions and millions and
millions of dollars on it, and as the story goes,
it's I believe it's true, but it's a good story anyways.
Is that you know it wasn't working out perfectly exactly
how we wanted it. Instead of sticking to it because
(17:49):
he had spent millions of dollars on it, he pivoted.
He changed to do whatever was necessary to make it work.
So one of the big lessons is you keep trying
different things.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
You know, go never quit. Keep trying different.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Things and those things at work, keep repeating those things
that don't work, get rid of them. Don't stick with
them just because you thought it was a good idea
to begin with. But within that plan of what we
did and how we decide to keep or how we
plan to keep scaling, is you know, one you want
to hire winners. You know you want to hire people
that are successful. You want to hire people that you fail.
(18:24):
You can see, uh, are you know, have the right values,
that aren't afraid of hard work and understand that you're
going to miss a dinner with your girlfriend, your wife
or your husband or whatever, that understand that you might
have to work on a Sunday, that you know this
isn't just you know, a convenient job, and that actually
is a I don't only get off track, but that's
(18:45):
actually I find the problem nowadays is that people actually
believe that the such thing as a work balance, a
work home balance, and there isn't that You're always going
to be stronger at one time at home or at work,
and it's very difficult to find that bounce.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You have to be willing to make sacrifices anyway.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
So you find people that are willing to do that,
people that are willing to work out, people that are
nice people and very important, people that want to have fun.
As they say, if you find something that's fun, if
you find something that you're passionate about, then you never
work another day in your life. I don't get up
in the morning and go, oh, I'm going to work.
I might say I'm going to the warehouse, I'm going
(19:24):
to a client, or I'm going to go make a presentation.
But I don't think anyone's heard me ever say I'm
going to work because I don't really consider it work.
I have to keep it fun. And as part of scaling,
I change my role. I've changed my role dramatically at
work to focus on storage because now I find commercial
storage warehousing. I find that fun, so I spend a
(19:47):
lot of my time doing that. And other people that
want to deal with office work or industrial work or
households that find that fun, they do that work.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
So you put people in roles where they enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
If they can't smile and if they can't have a
good loaf, then it's probably not going to work out
that well. And then obviously you know, need to make
sure that you're giving back to the community and also
asking your clients, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
What do you need? What?
Speaker 5 (20:14):
What maybe am I not offering currently that you wish
I did? So then you get we got into things
like long distance moving, international moving, storage. You have seen
your relocations, so we're very good at having a nose
for what people need. And then you know, and I
tell people work for me, Look if people need their
driveway shovel, so you can safely carry up the furniture.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Maybe you didn't. Maybe they didn't hire.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Us to shovel the driveway, but you don't know. Fold
your hands and say I can't do that. You go
find a shovel and you do whatever is necessary to
make sure that that client's one hundred percent satisfying.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Well that I wanted to ask that question too, how
do you and that was a good answer, but I
want you to expand on it. How do you guarantee
or how do you keep that mission of one hundred
percent customer satisfy action going? That's difficult?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Well, it is difficult, but there are several ways.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
First of all, early on, someone wanted to have me
move them, give me business.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I'll take it. Great, what do you want me to do?
And I'd do it. And one of the.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Benefits you have the luxuries you have the long you're
in business, you can start to be a little bit
particular about.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Who you do business with.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
So we develop an ideal client profile. Who do we
want to do business with because it's not always a
good fit. Just because somebody's moving doesn't mean that we're
the best mover for them. Maybe we may not be
depending on what their Needs Act. So what we do
is we make sure that we're doing business also with
nice people. For example, if we're talking to somebody that
they say, I've moved eleven times and every single move
(21:45):
has been a disaster, well, I can guarantee you that
if I move them that twelfth time, it's going to
be a disaster. However, if we're dealing with people that
you say, hey, how are you did a beautiful day out?
It's sunny, and you know, I've moved a bunch of
times and I've always been very for I've had good moves,
chances are pretty good when I move them, they're going
to have a good move. Also, so we have to
(22:05):
actually vet our clients our prospects just like they've vet us. Now,
as far as how do we make sure theyre one
hundred percent satisfied, there's a human element involved.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
We can guarantee them satisfaction.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
What we can guarantee them is that we'll set up
a plan that will increase the probability that they're.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Going to have a perfect move.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And solve problems and fix fix errors or whatever.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Right, Well, we try and anticipate what could possibly happen
and then have a plan to avoid that from happening. However,
what we do, and this is oftentimes what some clients
don't understand. When you purchasing a service like a move,
you're not always hiring a company just to move.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Them from point A to point B.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
You're hiring them to be prepared to accommodate any need
that might be unexpected. Closing gets to laated day too.
Things need to stay on a tree. They thought they'd
get packing done, but they didn't. They thought a piece
fit through a window or went down the stairs, but
now it has to come through a window. Whatever it
may be that you need to be prepared to do
(23:11):
things that maybe the customer doesn't even realize they need.
Going back to how did we make sure they're one
hundred percent satisfied?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
So I was in Florida.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I have a home in Florida that I don't get
to very often, but it's there if I need it,
and we were having furniture deliver it. And before the
driver could leave, and he's making twenty thirty deliveries a day,
he had to make sure that every client spoke to
his management and signed off verbally that they were one
hundred percent satisfied. I came back from that delivery and
(23:45):
I said, hey, team, we have a new policy. Before
the moves leave. I don't care if it's a one
piece delivery. If they've been there for three days, that
client needs to speak to the project manager and we
need to hear from them that they're one hundred percent satisfied.
If they're not, I want to fix it. And most
of the time they are. We're not perfect. We mess
up every now and then, but if we mess.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Up, we want to know about it. We want to
fix it.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
So one, we try and avoid, we try and have
a plan with our on problems. But two is we
want to know about them immediately so that we can
rectify them. Now, I think somewhere along the line I
heard you know, you've talked about successes and failures, and
so I've been lucky.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I've been blessed.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I've had a lot of successes, but I've had some
failures as well, and I actually think that failures are
some of the best things that can happen to people.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
So early on in my career, I just thought it
would all work out, and it wasn't working out, and
I didn't have enough money to pay my bills and
I was getting notices. Then my house was going to
get full closed on, and I'm watching a truck getting
hooked out of the parking lot.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
They're trying to be a truck.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Very early in my career, best thing that ever could
have happened, because then I really learned how to read
a profit lass statement. Then I really learned a little
bit more about money. It wasn't just as simple ast
going out and doing it. So you talk about failures
and what you learn, well, I learned to study my
profit law statement like in my sleep. I learned to
(25:14):
pay attention to numbers to have more controls in place.
Another failure that I have and I haven't cured this
one yet, by the way, is I like to hire
nice people. I like to hire people that are friendly, enjoyable,
have a smile on the face. And I always thought
that you could teach anybody anything, and I still have
(25:36):
trouble today not accepting that you can't teach certain people
certain things. They just don't have the skill set, they
don't have a competency, They just you can't. And that's
something that I think people have to keep in mind.
And it was a good friend of mine Rich Pilch.
Actually that taught me, that one that said, you know,
(25:56):
you can't always teach people to do something it maybe
they don't want to learn, or it may be that
they're not.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Capable of it.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
So I've actually hired some people there were really nice people,
and I'd keep paying and paying and paying, and then
finally I'd have to have a heart to heart and say,
you know, I really like it, but you can't cut it.
So you can't get too emotionally involved. It's another problem
in business. Smaller business is again and I to this
(26:25):
day sometimes struggle with this. Is because you get emotionally
involved with your employees. Smaller businesses, you get to know
their families, their kids, maybe their grandkids, their siblings, and
then you start sometimes to make decisions based on emotions
not business.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And even in a small.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Business, you want to be a nice guy, you want
to be always fair, you want to get people the
benefit of the doubt. But even in small business sometimes
you have to make decisions based on business, not on emotions.
That's a tough one and I don't think there's any
entreprenal oh, any businessman that would challenge me on that.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It's prevalent in every business.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
You're so right, Yeah, I want to ask you about
a couple of the other businesses. Let's see, I'm just
going through my Okay, So in twenty eleven you started
the portable storage or you invested in and now manage that.
Tell us about that business. It's like, if you don't
mind me saying, it's like pods or so.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I'm a real pop I'm a real transparent guy. I
can't stand a portable storage business. I really don't even
like it. We still do it because we love clients
at once. Ye very inexpensive, low end type of service.
And if a bank or a school or somebody needs
these portable storage containers on site, that's all great. We
(27:47):
deliver them, we leave them there, they work out beautifully,
we take them back. But nowadays there's a whole business
of people moving using portable storage in right, and so
so you drop these units off. I don't do this part.
Drop units off, people fill them, they don't use. Yeah,
(28:07):
there's furniture pads. They don't know how to put anything
in there. Truck comes by, POWs it on a trailer,
you know, delivers it in the destination. You know, someone
else unloads it, so you have different people loading, different
people unloaded. It's not really packed. Roughly, it's the way
of the world. There are a lot of very successful
companies out there doing that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
A lot of the.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
Van lines are shipping smaller shipments in a similar fashion
and with proper handling, with proper care, it all works out.
But again we talked about ideal client profile. You have
those portable storage units, we have them, we can get
them to you. I'm not terribly interested in that. I
would rather take someone's goods, pad them beautifully, like like
(28:50):
a birthday present, them all protected, nicely, take them into
a heated, secure warehouse with all kinds of people around
in security, rather.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Than leaving a container in the seat.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Just we have it, and we have it because our
clients demanded sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
All right, last question before the second commercial. Who's on
your team? What kind of what's the size of your team?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
A kind of roles so you know that the team
actually has reduced in size, because what we found is
that there are a lot of good opportunities to have
subs have contractual relationships with others. So as far as
the team, you're the two people that should be mentioned
(29:37):
for sure, as followed by the name of George Jacobs.
George Jacobs as the vice president of the company. George
has been with me almost since day one. I needed
a to rent a U haul truck, and this is
nineteen seventy nine, probably nineteen eighty, and I went to
the U Haul dealership and I said, by the way,
not only do I need a truck, I need somebody
to help me. This is in the days when I
(29:58):
was physically moving the adam myself.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
And UH, a fellow of Johnny Paula Greeney at the
U All dealer said, Hey, call my buddy, George Jacobs.
You know he'll give you. He'll give you some help.
And George helped me. And George has been a part
of the team and a very important part of the team.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Pretty much since day one.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Uh. And then as you know, as time has gone on,
if people have come and gone. Uh, there's a fellow
that has been with me now for five or six
years named Richard Mullen. Richard Mullen is we'll call him
the operations manager. And he's a guy that you know, exemplifies, uh,
you know what it takes to make it. Here's somebody
that he's committed, he has a certain rule, but yet
(30:38):
he's not looking at his job description. It's you know
what needs to be done, and let's get it done.
Let's keep our customers happy, Let's keep our team happy,
which includes some drivers and helpers that have been windy for.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
A long time.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
But we're probably, uh, we're definitely reducing the size of
the workforce. Not the sales volume, uh, but the size
of actual employees. But the vetting process, whether it's your
drug testing, alcohol testing, background checks, you know, prior work experience.
(31:12):
The vetting process is very thorough. And that's actually part
of the reason also that I think my workforce has
decreased a bit, because you know, again things change. Forty
years ago. If somebody was breathing and they were willing
to work, it could work.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, So I like that anymore.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
You know, you you really thoroughly investigate all of the
work is in many different ways. Because you're sending them
into people's homes and businesses, you have to make sure
they're the kind of people you'd want to work in
your own home, and not regard the people that do
work for us.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
They're a great team, they're a great group, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
We're going to take our second break right here. We'll
be back in about another minute with Mark Silverman.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
You're listening Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't
go away. More helpful information is coming right up right
here on Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
The yp dot com website is your local search engine.
If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help
you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews.
Or if your car breaks down, you can use the
YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe
you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night.
While it has great local coupons for all sorts of
things in your area, no matter what, when or where.
(32:36):
If you're looking for something, YP local search can help
you find it. So go to yp dot com or
download the app to search local to find local and
save local.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin helenatt.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We're back with Mark Silverman, and he is the president
and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage. Tell us about
the storage company which you started a few years ago.
More commercial, right.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Yes, So you know we found again I started as
a mover. Then we determine that people needed storage, so
we would rent or lease space and then we would
rent it to our customers, and then as time went on,
I would purchase fill estate, purchase commercial warehouses. So the
storage company is really a marketing tool. It's the it's
(33:39):
the storage division call it of Marx Moving and Storage.
And we really focus we target for commercial storage. We
store tons of hushold goods for people. We're fully equipped
to do it. But what we found is that there
are a lot of businesses in the area that need
commercial storage and whether they needed for a week, a year,
(34:02):
two years, ten years.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Of records right, well, all different things.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
It can be surplus equipment, it can be you know,
it can also be record storage, it can be product
you know, you name it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
We've provided storage space.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
It was to it was to a marketing company at
one time, and what they were doing is they were
building prototypes for lobbies for one of the hotel chains.
They were building prototypes out of styrofoam, and they needed
warehouse space. To build these prototypes. So we were renting space.
It wasn't technically storage, but it was floor space. It
(34:40):
was commercial space. My point being is I consider myself
an entrepreneur more than a mover, more than the storage guy.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
You know, I.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
See opportunity and I try and provide solutions to the
people that have those needs. So the storage company is
just the division of March Moving.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I also believe, by the way, Uh, I don't know
which time we have left, but I believe if I'm standing,
I should always be branded. So as you'll see even
on my tie, I have the marks moving and yeah,
I have a storage company, dot com, remarkable donations. You know,
I have it all. And again, I think part of
this show is trying to share, you know, what works,
(35:22):
and sure I think that, you know, always branding, always
telling people you know what you can do.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
If you're standing, you should be branding. Is that what
you're saying?
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Your branding?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
So another thing that that I think is real important.
And just cut me short. If I'm getting off trash.
You know what what I found over the years is
the more you.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Give, the more you get back. And uh, you know
in in uh in Judaism.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
I'll probably get the word on but uh, you know,
I believe it's called ts dhaka, probably pronouncing it wrong,
but basically it means, you know, charity to give and
and it's I think in the and I send this
message to all entrepreneurs and all business people is make
sure you're giving back. And you may say, well, you know,
(36:09):
I can't really afford to give to charity or I
can't afford to help that person, but I'm very certain
that the more you give, the more you help people,
the more that comes.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Back to you.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
And I really think that that's an important part of business.
And it's a message you say, you know what, what
do you want to be known for. I'll never be
the biggest mover, I'll never be the richest guy, but
I want to try. I try and help as many
people as I can. And I think people in business
have an obligation. Even if you're not in a business,
(36:44):
you have an obligation to help others. And I think
that I think that some people in some businesses actually
fall short in that area. And it doesn't have to
be with just money. You can volunteer, you know, at
a homeless shelter, there's all sorts of things you can do.
They don't all require money. But I think giving back.
To talk about the business plan, make sure there's a
(37:06):
line item for whether it's time or money to give back.
I think it's I think it's our obligation and people
need to do that.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
And you have two foundations. You have the you have
Furniture Foundation, and you have Remarkable Donations. Tell us about
remarkable donations.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So again that it's we have one nonprofit that's called
March Southeastern Furniture Foundation. To help get more donations, we
started Remarkable Donations dot org because there are people that
want to donate things, but it's not it may cost
four hundred dollars to go pick something up.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Okay, yeah, that is only worth.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Four hundred dollars.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
So what we've tried to do is set up a
very economical way for people to donate items. And so
there's either no charge or very little charge when we
have a fuck at someone's house when we're moving, because
we're already there. But if we have to deploy a
truck to go make pickups, then there are too many
(38:10):
expenses involved. It's just and so to avoid those things
going into the dump to be thrown away. We've created
Remarkable Donations dot org, which allows us to basically have
a division that works.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
At call it a break even to go collect.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
So you have a certain criteria of the items that
are donated. You don't want I'll just put it this way.
You don't want junk. You want things that people will
be able to use for a number of years. So
there's some criteria. But even though you want it to
be a certain quality, there's still got a lot of
people are still going to just get rid of them
if they don't don't well.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
You know, one of the organizations Welcome Home in Newton
and Household Goods and Act and those are the two
big ones with the official mover for both of those
organizations as wells the official mover for the West.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Plor Food Pantry.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
But uh, it's you want to you want to sort
of donate with dignity, you know, you you want to
make sure that what you're donating is something that you
would use and and it is most people, most people
are really good. Most people get it. Most people want
to donate things that aren't torn and stained and ruined.
There are some instances where people think, oh I can
(39:28):
get rid of my trash by saying I want to
donate it, and we have to be very careful.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
You're not to accept that.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
We can do disposal missions if we have to, or
fees for that in that service, by the way, is cleanouts.
But the items that get donated, they should be items
that when somebody receives them, they're proud to get them,
they're happy to use them. And and and if they
go to if if someone's interested and they go to
(39:56):
Remarkable Donations dot org, there's actually something that's it's household
goods rules what they accept, but common sense really prevails.
It's we're not pretending to remove things. People shouldn't pretend
that they have donations. If it's strategy, say can you
help me get rid of trash? If they have donations,
(40:17):
then will gladly accept them.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
We need them.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
What's the process for someone to request furniture or home goods.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
That needs the goods?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (40:30):
That so again we know how to collect the goods.
We know how to get them to either Household Goods
and Opting or Welcome Home in Newton. They should contact
those organizations or if they're dealing with a case work,
or if they have somebody helping them, they should do
it that way.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
We don't deal with we don't have the.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Infrastructure to actually distribute each item, so we collected in
bulk and we bring it to the organizations that deal
directly with those in need.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Oh that's great. What are you most proud of at
this point in your career? I know that's a big question.
Take your time.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Yeah, well I know the answer.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
So I think I'm very proud that I've been blessed
to have a wonderful family and have wonderful employees that
have been part of my life for such a long
period of time.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
I'm blessed that.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
I'm in a position where I can give back and
i can help others. And again, I'll never be the
richest man, I'll never be the biggest mover, but hopefully
I've changed people's lives by being.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Able to help in some way with what they needed.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
And so when it was ARP and Van Lines gave
us the Humanitarian Award a few years back, that was
very meaningful to me because it recognized that what we're
doing is good, and not that I needed anyone to
tell me. But it's always nice, you know, when somebody
tells you uh. And more recently when the town of
(42:03):
Westboro you award us the Sustainability Award for saving all
this furniture from from going to the dump and getting
it to those in needs. I'd say that, you know what,
what am I most proud of? I'm proud that I've
been able to change people's lives, both outside of work.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
Within the company.
Speaker 5 (42:26):
And I think at the end of the day, I mean,
isn't that really what it's all about, trying to leave
the world.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
A better place?
Speaker 3 (42:33):
For sure, you.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
Got here, so if I can, if I can do
my small amount of my small share of that, then
I've accomplished a lot.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's great. Hey, summer, I saw the statement Mark Silverman,
practice is enlightened self interest every day. What does that mean?
Speaker 5 (42:51):
That's a good one. Well, I guess what it means
is that that you basically my interpretation is and I
didn't say that, someone else said that.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Someone said it that's correct, but.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
That it's okay if you help a lot of people
and in return people recognize that and you benefit from it.
And some people I think have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
They think that when.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
You help others, you shouldn't have any expectations. I don't
have any expectations except that people recognize that we're trying
to do the right thing and we're trying to do
what's good. And what I find is that people do
recognize that. And I can't tell you the number of
(43:43):
people that have used our service, that have given me
business because they say, you're the kind of person I
want to.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Do business with.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
You're the kind of person that isn't just taking it
off yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
I take something for myself. Absolutely, I take something for myself,
but I don't keep it all on myself. I give
some back. And what I find is the more I give,
the more I get. And it's a damn good way
to live your life. And if you look in my
background here you'll see this. You'll see this Seltue. I
love this sent Yeah you And what it says is
(44:18):
says self made man and shows a guy chiseling himself.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Out of rock cool. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
But the point here is you there's all sorts of opportunity.
Anybody that wants to work real hard, if they have
even a tiny bit of luck, they can make it.
How do you work like you get? That whole thing
comes into play too, right, But getting back to the
end question. Uh, you know, I think I think it's okay. Uh,
(44:44):
give a lot. You'd be very surprised how many people
recognize that, appreciate it, and want to do business with
somebody that tries to help others. And even if we're
only helping in a very small way. We're not giving
millions and millions of dollars, but we are giving something back.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Yeah, that's meaningful.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
That's meaningful. We make a difference.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
All right. The two organizations and roles I want to
ask you about as we wrap up. You were the
past president for two years of the Need and Business
Association Association from six to seven. Tell us about that organization,
give them a little shout out and what was your role.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Yeah, So the Need and Business Association merged with I
think it's called the Charles River Business Association. Been a
lot of mergers in local business groups, but again that
was a small group where the whole purpose at that
time was to help promote business and the top of
need them and just learn from one another, network help people,
(45:44):
make people smarter, wiser, more successful. And we did a
show at the time it was called Meet Your Need
of merchants. And what I did was I went around
to different businesses in need them and with the local
cable channel, I interviewed them. I said pretty much what
you're saying to me, asking you, how did you get
in business? What do you like, what don't you like,
(46:04):
what are the challenges, what are the successes? And so
we we did that for a couple of years and
uh it was it was.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
A great group. Learned a lot, and I think that's important.
Speaker 5 (46:14):
Networking and trying to be around people that are more
successful than you can teach you something.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
And then the other is uh oh Mass Movers Association.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
So the Mass Movers Association that was a long time ago,
but again a really good group of people, uh you
know uh that had for the most part are the
same objectives to learn from others and to also have
different events and different uh to help people in need.
(46:48):
And what I found was and I and I you know,
people I watched TikTok. People say, Mark, you watch TikTok.
That's all garbage. You know, a lot of it is
gob but there's also if you if you listen to
the right people speaking, you can.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Learn a lot.
Speaker 5 (47:05):
And you know what what a big A big message
I hear all the time is never stop learning, never
stop reading, never try and again.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Uh you know I'm not. I'm always trying to be
more intelligent.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
I'm always trying to learn more, be a better businessman,
be more knowledgeable.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
And I think that never ends.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
You always have to do that, agreed.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
And the mass movers the need in business association.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Now we're part of karda of.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
You know nine in.
Speaker 5 (47:37):
The Westborough area some other groups.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
You know.
Speaker 5 (47:40):
Just associate yourself with people that you can help and
they can help you. That you you teach each other,
you learn very important.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
So last two questions both easy ones. Who in the
listening and viewing audiences may want to reach out to you?
And why?
Speaker 5 (47:56):
Well, I think that the people that right now that
we can help them are life science companies, medical manufacturers,
companies that have very large operations and they need to
clean out some space so they can build more labs
or create more manufacturing areas, and they need storage for
(48:18):
their assets. And the reason they should reach out to
us is because we have very flexible terms in both
the amount of time they have to lease from us
an the amount of space they have to take, and
we offer a flexible footprint where we can expand or
contract their space. So it's again, what do you need
(48:38):
and how can I accommodate you. We operate over one
hundred thousand square feet of warehouse between a couple.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Of different locations I have.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
If people need any type of people, many companies, any
type of storage, there's a real good chance that I
can accommodate them.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Beautiful and the best way for them to reach out
is there's more moving dot com and you put yourself.
It's in the crawl. It's been across a couple of times.
I'm Shuret'll cumping again again in a second five oh
eight eight eight nine zero six for zero feel fit.
Speaker 5 (49:13):
I'm very accessible, man. I get up early, I go
to bed early, but I'm very accessible. My cell phone,
you know, for better or worse, is you know, by
my side all the time. And if people you know,
shoot me a text, give me a phone call, uh,
they'll hear back from me very promptly.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
In many cases I'll just pick up.
Speaker 5 (49:32):
So uh, you know, I'm I'm very available to give
information and help people. And I'm also most of the
time able to help people. But if I can't, I
probably know who can.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
That's awesome. Well listen, thank you for taking your time.
I know you're busy, but thanks for being here and
we appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Well, it's been a privilege to be on your show.
Thank you. I hope I've been helpful to.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
The audience you have, Mark, Thank you, and thanks everybody
for listening. And this is a show about business and
business challenges, successes and challenges. Now, if you've got concerns
about the sales effectiveness of your company. Whether your sales
team is you or very small or very large, doesn't matter.
You can reach out to me at Kevin at Winning
Business radio dot com one of my many email addresses.
(50:17):
Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training.
We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders
into true coaches and mentors. Hey, we're not right for everybody,
but maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you once
again to producer and engineer one for another job. Well done.
Thank you one. Be sure to join us next week.
That's Monday, June ninth. We'll do it all again. Until then,
(50:37):
this is Kevin Helenan.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host
Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on top for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at pm Eastern
(51:00):
Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W
four CY Radio W four c Y dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I am Kevin Halenan,
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot streaming live on talkfour tv dot com,
and we're on Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio.
We're live there, and we're live on YouTube, and of
course we're on every platform imaginable After the show in podcasts,
(01:13):
that's YouTube iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, etc. Et cetera. The mission
of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular listeners and
viewers know, is to offer insights and advice to help
people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices,
the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos,
to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the
(01:33):
successes of others. Those consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and
owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, as
I say every week, virtually every successful person I've ever
talked to has had some form of failure in their
lives and careers. So while we all have to get
our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to
keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to
(01:54):
learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent
the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow
from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the
way up to the Fortune fifty. I've seen some of
those companies win into varying degrees. I've seen some fail.
I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of
the highest performing people around to hand with some who
probably should have found other professions. And my own businesses.
(02:16):
I've had lots of success, but some failures too, and
I'd like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences.
So yeah, you'll hear a little bit from me, but
mostly you're going to hear from our guests. Those experts, consultants, coaches, advisors, authors,
founders and owners and entrepreneurs. And today my guest is
Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage.
Here's his bio. In nineteen seventy nine, Mark Silverman was
(02:38):
a student at Northeastern University in Boston, and while many
college students were spending money on their social lives, he
needed to spend money on school, but he first had
to earn it. Students needed moving help every semester, so
he decided to become a mover. The problem was he'd
never been a mover, so we just purchased a small van,
believe it or not, with a credit card, hoping to
make a few extra dollars to pay tuition. Eventually, the
(03:01):
business became Mark's sole focus. One man in a van
becames Mark became Marx Moving in Storage. Over the years,
he recognized the need for a steadfast philosophy, so he
built the business around guaranteeing one hundred percent customer satisfaction.
Nearly forty six years later, Mark is still looking for
opportunities to help people. He created Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation
(03:23):
and collects over twelve trailer loads of lightly used and
new goods each year and works with Greater Boston nonprofits
to share those treasures with local families in need. Mark
also founded the storage company dot com, a premier resource
for warehousing and transportation of medical equipment, machinery, fixtures, and
high value products. Additionally, he invested in and manages Massachusetts
(03:45):
Portable Storage, a company that offers convenient and flexible portable
storage options options excuse me for short term and long
term needs. The company has grown from a small local
business to a regional leader, serving residential, commercial, inns, industrial
customers across Massachusetts and beyond. Mark and his companies have
earned the following awards quite the list National Multiple Sclerosis
(04:09):
MS Shining Star Award, Green Initiative Award from the Newton
Needham Chamber of Commerce, Westboro Economic Development Committee, Best Sustainable
Business Award, Northeastern University's Center for Family Business Winner twenty
fourteen for top honors, the Gold Quality Award from arpin
Van Lines and the ARP and Charitable Fund Charity Contest.
(04:30):
And Mark's a past president of the Needham Business Association
for the two thousand and six and seven years and
as a past president of the Massachusetts Movers Association the
two years of one two three. He holds a Bachelor's
a Business in a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern.
He resides in Needham with his wife Lisa. They have
(04:51):
four children and get ready eleven grandchildren, ages one through thirteen. Mark,
Welcome to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
My pleasure. What's the best part of being a granddad?
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Ah, that when you're done playing with the kids, you
can give.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Them back same. I've only got two, but wow, eleven
a lot of incredible. Yeah, very blessed for sure. Tell
us a little bit about your wife, Lisa.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
My wife, Lisa I met forty two years ago. Forty
two years ago in Florida. Actually neither one of us
lived in Florida. We happened to be there at the
same time. Funny we met and not too long after
that we get married. Lisa owned a woman's clothing boutique
for a couple of decades right here in need M.
(05:41):
A couple of years ago, after COVID struck, it was
time to give up the store and go have some fun.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So that's what she's doing.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Good for her. So tell us, I want to. I
always like a little bit about a guest's background. So
where did you grow up? Mark? I grew up in Brookline, Okay,
right suburb of Boston, pretty close to Boston. What was
it like to grow up there?
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Well, uh, we lived, Uh, you know, it was an
interesting area. It was a working class area, Brookline, and
you know, everybody around us they were very hard workers.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So you you would you go to school.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
In the morning and you you would get home and
normally you wouldn't see your you know, your parents. Still
in my case, my father till you know, very late
afternoon or early evening. But there was a great work ethic,
both in my home as well as my neighborhood. So
learned very early that if you want to, if you
want to make it in life, get up early and
(06:39):
get something accomplished.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What'd your dad do?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
My my dad worked as a civilian for the Air Force.
He was an electrical engineer at Hanscom, perhaps at Hanscomb.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, okay, yeah, all right, what was what was your
excuse me, what was behind your decision to go to Northeastern.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Well, you know, now, if you want to get into Northeastern,
you really want to be a smart guy, much smorrow
than I am. Back then, it was a long time ago,
and back then it was more of a commuter school.
And quite frankly, I was never a great student. I've
always worked. I was shining shoes when I was nine
or ten years old, streets up and down Cornwolf Avenue.
(07:21):
You're yelling shoe shine, shoe shine, strolling newspapers, you know,
a little older than that, and you know, always work.
Was really never that interested in school.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Almost dropped out of high school.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Actually, and there was a fellow by the name of
Mead Reynolds, still in touch with him today, a teacher
at Brookline High and said, you know, Mark, you know,
don't drop out. Go check out this other place, this
other school. And he knew what he was doing. He
sent me to this school where it looked like pretty
much everybody that was at that school their next stop
(07:55):
was going.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
To be a prison oh man.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, you know, and a bunch of tough guys.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Yes, why do you just stay in school, take a
course or two, don't drop out. And he was a
smart man, because that's exactly what I did, and then
I got into it full scale. However, that doesn't get
you into a lot of good colleges. Again, more interested
in working. So Northeastern was a commuter school at the top,
and you pretty much could get into the Austic. But
(08:21):
it leads into a really good story. So back then,
get into Northeast and no problem. He's there for a
year or two or three and had you this moving
business going. I said, you know, starting a family, and
I need more money, and you know, I'm going to
drop out of Northeast and drop out of college against
(08:41):
everyone's wishes, but I'm going to try and build a business.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
So again I'll.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Often say I'm not the brightest guy or author. Took
me thirty nine years to graduate college. But when all
my kids were done with school, I went right back
to Northeastern because I knew it wasn't going anywhere, and
I enrolled again Northeast, and in twenty fifteen I received
my bachelor's degree in business from the Moora McKim School
(09:07):
of Business there. And the beauty of that was when
I went back the second time, I actually cared about
what the professor had to say. I actually cared about
the lessons to be taught. As a young kid. You're
more interested in working or whatever, not necessarily what the
professor has to say. So that second vote at Northeastern
(09:28):
taught me a lot. And in fact, it was there
that I met Professor Ted Clark. Professor Clark is the
gentleman who sort of took me under his wing and
helped me start Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
So when I was.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Getting ready to graduate, you had to write your final paper,
and I talked all about this furniture foundation I'd like
to start, and I was donating furniture, and Professor Clark said, well,
you know what, you can make something big out of this.
It doesn't have to be just collecting a couple of
pieces of friend You can start a you know, a nonprofit.
(10:03):
You can really make something big out of this. And
today I'm fortunate that Ted is still on my board
of directors of the nonprofit and we collect a whole
bunch of furniture for those in need. But Northeastern all
thirty nine years treated me very well.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, I understand. It's like twelve to trailer loads a year.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
So at first we would we would get a piece
of tool furniture that someone was disposing they had no
need for it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
We would take it to the dump.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And again early on I had a tenant in one
of our warehouses, United Way of tri County, and they
don't throw that stuff away. You can get this recycle
someone needs us. That was sort of the beginning, along
with the help of Ted formalizing everything and so now
with Mark moving and storage. If we're moving somebody and
(10:54):
they have furniture they don't need, and in many cases
they're downsizing or in the case of a.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
You know, a a divorce, some people consider the same.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Thing that this furniture now gets collected while we're moving people.
We put it onto a fifty three foot trailer at
our warehouse, and when the trailer is full, we bring
it to Household Goods and Acting who distributed it piece
by piece to those in need. However, we found that
there were people that wanted to contribute furniture, but we
(11:25):
weren't moving them. Maybe they just were getting a new
bedroom set match, whatever it may be.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And it's very expensive. Labor is very expensive, so to.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Go get a piece of furniture from somebody when you
don't have a truck already there, it's cost prohibitive. So
we sit at another company. It's called Remarkable Donations dot org.
So this is for people we're not moving. They can
go to Remarkable Donations dot Org. They go on the
site and for a very nominal fee, way less than
(11:54):
anybody charges for moving, they can pay to have us
pick up the pieces so that the quantity of goods
were able to keep out of the landfills and get
into the hands of those in need. And then we
top it off just a good measure by raising a
minimum of twenty five thousand dollars each year, and we
go out and we buy a trail load of brand
(12:16):
new mattresses. Yeah, I number that item that they need
and we donate those as well. So we're very fortunate.
I've been very fortunate. But I understand what altruism is
all about. I understand what giving back is all about.
And my team people that work with me, we all
(12:37):
do a very good job at accomplishing that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Well, that seems evident. Why don't we do this? Let
me ask you a couple more questions. Let me go
back to Northeastern to the early days. How did you
find students that needed moving? I mean, were they just
falling in your lap or did you have to hustle
for them or what did that look like?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, so it wasn't just students. Maybe anach update my I.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Oh, but well that was the genesis, right, It wasn't
just students.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
It started, I'm sure with students, but it was really anybody.
And it didn't matter what we were moving, whether it
was a mattress or a coach. And there's another good
lesson with this, by the way, is when I tried
to be a mover in the beginning, there were a
couple of people, a couple of companies in Brookline, as
it turned out, that said, hey, you know, you can't
be a mover and you need a license, you need
(13:26):
to do this, you need to do that. And I'm like,
I'm just trying to earn intuition money. You know, it's spending.
I just need a little money. Well, you can't be
a mover without doing this that and the other thing.
That's the best thing anyone could ever do to you,
tell you that you can't do something.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
What that did was that gave me the incentive to
prove that I could. So I found out what needed
to be done, how you obtained a license, how you
buy insurance, how you prove that you fit everything you
need to do, And I can think them because maybe
what was just going to be called a side hustle
turned into a forty six year run here. So when
(14:03):
you're challenged, it's amazing what you can do.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I love it. You're so right. So you knew you
needed to grow it? When did you know it was
going to take off?
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Well again, you talk about failures and successes and how
you should identify them. So remember I didn't spend a
lot of time at Northeastern. Originally it was more about
just making money at the beginning, and for many many years,
this was really just a lifestyle type business. It was
just to support myself. I didn't understand about scale, and
(14:35):
I didn't understand that you need to grow a business.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
To me, it was just you earn money, you pay.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Your bills, and you do it all over again, and
it all works so the real businessman part of it
probably didn't come till ten or fifteen years ago, when
I believe that the people that you run with, the
people that you have friendships with, the people that you
hang with, the associations that you're involved with, you need
to learn all the time, hang out with people that
(15:01):
are more successful than your people that can teach you things.
So I must say that I always knew growth was good.
I always knew you wanted to have more trucks, more money,
more businesses, But I really never had a plan till
maybe you know, ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years ago, but
late in my career actually, And so I think that's
an important lesson to a lot of entrepreneurs that maybe
(15:22):
don't have a formal education.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Formal training is you.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Know, it's great that everything's working, but you know, get
a plan together and learn how to scale and do
whatever is necessary to keep growing, because if you don't
keep growing, then obviously everyone around you keeps growing and
you lose market share sooner or later.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You know, that's right, that's right. All right, We're going
to pause right there. I'll come back to that plan
question right after this first commercial. We'll be back in
just a minute with Mark Silverman.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
right here on Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well,
now it's your chance. Be a radio show guest on
the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you
and your business for free.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yes you heard.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
It, free business advertising right here on W four cy
dot com. Call five six one five zero six four
zero three one now to get booked on one of
our shows. That's five six one five zero six four
zero three one. Get your free advertising now.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
We're barked back with Mark. Yeah I can talk, I
really can. Mark, Just give me a minute. We're back with
Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage.
So tell us what that plan started to look like, Mark, Well, the.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Plan, as everybody knows, the plans always they change and
again I think that's an important lesson.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You can have a plan.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
It was a fellow that was involved with stables, tom
Stenberg and you rest in peace. But I remember reading
a story once about all these robotics, the system that
he put in, and he spent millions and millions and
millions of dollars on it, and as the story goes,
it's I believe it's true, but it's a good story anyways.
Is that you know it wasn't working out perfectly exactly
how we wanted it. Instead of sticking to it because
(17:49):
he had spent millions of dollars on it, he pivoted.
He changed to do whatever was necessary to make it work.
So one of the big lessons is you keep trying
different things.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
You know, go never quit. Keep trying different.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Things and those things at work, keep repeating those things
that don't work, get rid of them. Don't stick with
them just because you thought it was a good idea
to begin with. But within that plan of what we
did and how we decide to keep or how we
plan to keep scaling, is you know, one you want
to hire winners. You know you want to hire people
that are successful. You want to hire people that you fail.
(18:24):
You can see, uh, are you know, have the right values,
that aren't afraid of hard work and understand that you're
going to miss a dinner with your girlfriend, your wife
or your husband or whatever, that understand that you might
have to work on a Sunday, that you know this
isn't just you know, a convenient job, and that actually
is a I don't only get off track, but that's
(18:45):
actually I find the problem nowadays is that people actually
believe that the such thing as a work balance, a
work home balance, and there isn't that You're always going
to be stronger at one time at home or at work,
and it's very difficult to find that bounce.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You have to be willing to make sacrifices anyway.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
So you find people that are willing to do that,
people that are willing to work out, people that are
nice people and very important, people that want to have fun.
As they say, if you find something that's fun, if
you find something that you're passionate about, then you never
work another day in your life. I don't get up
in the morning and go, oh, I'm going to work.
I might say I'm going to the warehouse, I'm going
(19:24):
to a client, or I'm going to go make a presentation.
But I don't think anyone's heard me ever say I'm
going to work because I don't really consider it work.
I have to keep it fun. And as part of scaling,
I change my role. I've changed my role dramatically at
work to focus on storage because now I find commercial
storage warehousing. I find that fun, so I spend a
(19:47):
lot of my time doing that. And other people that
want to deal with office work or industrial work or
households that find that fun, they do that work.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
So you put people in roles where they enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
If they can't smile and if they can't have a
good loaf, then it's probably not going to work out
that well. And then obviously you know, need to make
sure that you're giving back to the community and also
asking your clients, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
What do you need? What?
Speaker 5 (20:14):
What maybe am I not offering currently that you wish
I did? So then you get we got into things
like long distance moving, international moving, storage. You have seen
your relocations, so we're very good at having a nose
for what people need. And then you know, and I
tell people work for me, Look if people need their
driveway shovel, so you can safely carry up the furniture.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Maybe you didn't. Maybe they didn't hire.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Us to shovel the driveway, but you don't know. Fold
your hands and say I can't do that. You go
find a shovel and you do whatever is necessary to
make sure that that client's one hundred percent satisfying.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Well that I wanted to ask that question too, how
do you and that was a good answer, but I
want you to expand on it. How do you guarantee
or how do you keep that mission of one hundred
percent customer satisfy action going? That's difficult?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Well, it is difficult, but there are several ways.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
First of all, early on, someone wanted to have me
move them, give me business.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I'll take it. Great, what do you want me to do?
And I'd do it. And one of the.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Benefits you have the luxuries you have the long you're
in business, you can start to be a little bit
particular about.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Who you do business with.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
So we develop an ideal client profile. Who do we
want to do business with because it's not always a
good fit. Just because somebody's moving doesn't mean that we're
the best mover for them. Maybe we may not be
depending on what their Needs Act. So what we do
is we make sure that we're doing business also with
nice people. For example, if we're talking to somebody that
they say, I've moved eleven times and every single move
(21:45):
has been a disaster, well, I can guarantee you that
if I move them that twelfth time, it's going to
be a disaster. However, if we're dealing with people that
you say, hey, how are you did a beautiful day out?
It's sunny, and you know, I've moved a bunch of
times and I've always been very for I've had good moves,
chances are pretty good when I move them, they're going
to have a good move. Also, so we have to
(22:05):
actually vet our clients our prospects just like they've vet us. Now,
as far as how do we make sure theyre one
hundred percent satisfied, there's a human element involved.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
We can guarantee them satisfaction.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
What we can guarantee them is that we'll set up
a plan that will increase the probability that they're.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Going to have a perfect move.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And solve problems and fix fix errors or whatever.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Right, Well, we try and anticipate what could possibly happen
and then have a plan to avoid that from happening. However,
what we do, and this is oftentimes what some clients
don't understand. When you purchasing a service like a move,
you're not always hiring a company just to move.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Them from point A to point B.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
You're hiring them to be prepared to accommodate any need
that might be unexpected. Closing gets to laated day too.
Things need to stay on a tree. They thought they'd
get packing done, but they didn't. They thought a piece
fit through a window or went down the stairs, but
now it has to come through a window. Whatever it
may be that you need to be prepared to do
(23:11):
things that maybe the customer doesn't even realize they need.
Going back to how did we make sure they're one
hundred percent satisfied?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
So I was in Florida.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I have a home in Florida that I don't get
to very often, but it's there if I need it,
and we were having furniture deliver it. And before the
driver could leave, and he's making twenty thirty deliveries a day,
he had to make sure that every client spoke to
his management and signed off verbally that they were one
hundred percent satisfied. I came back from that delivery and
(23:45):
I said, hey, team, we have a new policy. Before
the moves leave. I don't care if it's a one
piece delivery. If they've been there for three days, that
client needs to speak to the project manager and we
need to hear from them that they're one hundred percent satisfied.
If they're not, I want to fix it. And most
of the time they are. We're not perfect. We mess
up every now and then, but if we mess.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Up, we want to know about it. We want to
fix it.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
So one, we try and avoid, we try and have
a plan with our on problems. But two is we
want to know about them immediately so that we can
rectify them. Now, I think somewhere along the line I
heard you know, you've talked about successes and failures, and
so I've been lucky.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I've been blessed.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I've had a lot of successes, but I've had some
failures as well, and I actually think that failures are
some of the best things that can happen to people.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
So early on in my career, I just thought it
would all work out, and it wasn't working out, and
I didn't have enough money to pay my bills and
I was getting notices. Then my house was going to
get full closed on, and I'm watching a truck getting
hooked out of the parking lot.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
They're trying to be a truck.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Very early in my career, best thing that ever could
have happened, because then I really learned how to read
a profit lass statement. Then I really learned a little
bit more about money. It wasn't just as simple ast
going out and doing it. So you talk about failures
and what you learn, well, I learned to study my
profit law statement like in my sleep. I learned to
(25:14):
pay attention to numbers to have more controls in place.
Another failure that I have and I haven't cured this
one yet, by the way, is I like to hire
nice people. I like to hire people that are friendly, enjoyable,
have a smile on the face. And I always thought
that you could teach anybody anything, and I still have
(25:36):
trouble today not accepting that you can't teach certain people
certain things. They just don't have the skill set, they
don't have a competency, They just you can't. And that's
something that I think people have to keep in mind.
And it was a good friend of mine Rich Pilch.
Actually that taught me, that one that said, you know,
(25:56):
you can't always teach people to do something it maybe
they don't want to learn, or it may be that
they're not.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Capable of it.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
So I've actually hired some people there were really nice people,
and I'd keep paying and paying and paying, and then
finally I'd have to have a heart to heart and say,
you know, I really like it, but you can't cut it.
So you can't get too emotionally involved. It's another problem
in business. Smaller business is again and I to this
(26:25):
day sometimes struggle with this. Is because you get emotionally
involved with your employees. Smaller businesses, you get to know
their families, their kids, maybe their grandkids, their siblings, and
then you start sometimes to make decisions based on emotions
not business.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And even in a small.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Business, you want to be a nice guy, you want
to be always fair, you want to get people the
benefit of the doubt. But even in small business sometimes
you have to make decisions based on business, not on emotions.
That's a tough one and I don't think there's any
entreprenal oh, any businessman that would challenge me on that.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It's prevalent in every business.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
You're so right, Yeah, I want to ask you about
a couple of the other businesses. Let's see, I'm just
going through my Okay, So in twenty eleven you started
the portable storage or you invested in and now manage that.
Tell us about that business. It's like, if you don't
mind me saying, it's like pods or so.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I'm a real pop I'm a real transparent guy. I
can't stand a portable storage business. I really don't even
like it. We still do it because we love clients
at once. Ye very inexpensive, low end type of service.
And if a bank or a school or somebody needs
these portable storage containers on site, that's all great. We
(27:47):
deliver them, we leave them there, they work out beautifully,
we take them back. But nowadays there's a whole business
of people moving using portable storage in right, and so
so you drop these units off. I don't do this part.
Drop units off, people fill them, they don't use. Yeah,
(28:07):
there's furniture pads. They don't know how to put anything
in there. Truck comes by, POWs it on a trailer,
you know, delivers it in the destination. You know, someone
else unloads it, so you have different people loading, different
people unloaded. It's not really packed. Roughly, it's the way
of the world. There are a lot of very successful
companies out there doing that.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
A lot of the.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
Van lines are shipping smaller shipments in a similar fashion
and with proper handling, with proper care, it all works out.
But again we talked about ideal client profile. You have
those portable storage units, we have them, we can get
them to you. I'm not terribly interested in that. I
would rather take someone's goods, pad them beautifully, like like
(28:50):
a birthday present, them all protected, nicely, take them into
a heated, secure warehouse with all kinds of people around
in security, rather.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Than leaving a container in the seat.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Just we have it, and we have it because our
clients demanded sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
All right, last question before the second commercial. Who's on
your team? What kind of what's the size of your team?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
A kind of roles so you know that the team
actually has reduced in size, because what we found is
that there are a lot of good opportunities to have
subs have contractual relationships with others. So as far as
the team, you're the two people that should be mentioned
(29:37):
for sure, as followed by the name of George Jacobs.
George Jacobs as the vice president of the company. George
has been with me almost since day one. I needed
a to rent a U haul truck, and this is
nineteen seventy nine, probably nineteen eighty, and I went to
the U Haul dealership and I said, by the way,
not only do I need a truck, I need somebody
to help me. This is in the days when I
(29:58):
was physically moving the adam myself.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
And UH, a fellow of Johnny Paula Greeney at the
U All dealer said, Hey, call my buddy, George Jacobs.
You know he'll give you. He'll give you some help.
And George helped me. And George has been a part
of the team and a very important part of the team.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Pretty much since day one.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Uh. And then as you know, as time has gone on,
if people have come and gone. Uh, there's a fellow
that has been with me now for five or six
years named Richard Mullen. Richard Mullen is we'll call him
the operations manager. And he's a guy that you know, exemplifies, uh,
you know what it takes to make it. Here's somebody
that he's committed, he has a certain rule, but yet
(30:38):
he's not looking at his job description. It's you know
what needs to be done, and let's get it done.
Let's keep our customers happy, Let's keep our team happy,
which includes some drivers and helpers that have been windy for.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
A long time.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
But we're probably, uh, we're definitely reducing the size of
the workforce. Not the sales volume, uh, but the size
of actual employees. But the vetting process, whether it's your
drug testing, alcohol testing, background checks, you know, prior work experience.
(31:12):
The vetting process is very thorough. And that's actually part
of the reason also that I think my workforce has
decreased a bit, because you know, again things change. Forty
years ago. If somebody was breathing and they were willing
to work, it could work.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, So I like that anymore.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
You know, you you really thoroughly investigate all of the
work is in many different ways. Because you're sending them
into people's homes and businesses, you have to make sure
they're the kind of people you'd want to work in
your own home, and not regard the people that do
work for us.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
They're a great team, they're a great group, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
We're going to take our second break right here. We'll
be back in about another minute with Mark Silverman.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
You're listening Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't
go away. More helpful information is coming right up right
here on Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
The yp dot com website is your local search engine.
If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help
you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews.
Or if your car breaks down, you can use the
YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe
you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night.
While it has great local coupons for all sorts of
things in your area, no matter what, when or where.
(32:36):
If you're looking for something, YP local search can help
you find it. So go to yp dot com or
download the app to search local to find local and
save local.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin helenatt.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We're back with Mark Silverman, and he is the president
and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage. Tell us about
the storage company which you started a few years ago.
More commercial, right.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Yes, So you know we found again I started as
a mover. Then we determine that people needed storage, so
we would rent or lease space and then we would
rent it to our customers, and then as time went on,
I would purchase fill estate, purchase commercial warehouses. So the
storage company is really a marketing tool. It's the it's
(33:39):
the storage division call it of Marx Moving and Storage.
And we really focus we target for commercial storage. We
store tons of hushold goods for people. We're fully equipped
to do it. But what we found is that there
are a lot of businesses in the area that need
commercial storage and whether they needed for a week, a year,
(34:02):
two years, ten years.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Of records right, well, all different things.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
It can be surplus equipment, it can be you know,
it can also be record storage, it can be product
you know, you name it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
We've provided storage space.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
It was to it was to a marketing company at
one time, and what they were doing is they were
building prototypes for lobbies for one of the hotel chains.
They were building prototypes out of styrofoam, and they needed
warehouse space. To build these prototypes. So we were renting space.
It wasn't technically storage, but it was floor space. It
(34:40):
was commercial space. My point being is I consider myself
an entrepreneur more than a mover, more than the storage guy.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
You know, I.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
See opportunity and I try and provide solutions to the
people that have those needs. So the storage company is
just the division of March Moving.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I also believe, by the way, Uh, I don't know
which time we have left, but I believe if I'm standing,
I should always be branded. So as you'll see even
on my tie, I have the marks moving and yeah,
I have a storage company, dot com, remarkable donations. You know,
I have it all. And again, I think part of
this show is trying to share, you know, what works,
(35:22):
and sure I think that, you know, always branding, always
telling people you know what you can do.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
If you're standing, you should be branding. Is that what
you're saying?
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Your branding?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
So another thing that that I think is real important.
And just cut me short. If I'm getting off trash.
You know what what I found over the years is
the more you.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Give, the more you get back. And uh, you know
in in uh in Judaism.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
I'll probably get the word on but uh, you know,
I believe it's called ts dhaka, probably pronouncing it wrong,
but basically it means, you know, charity to give and
and it's I think in the and I send this
message to all entrepreneurs and all business people is make
sure you're giving back. And you may say, well, you know,
(36:09):
I can't really afford to give to charity or I
can't afford to help that person, but I'm very certain
that the more you give, the more you help people,
the more that comes.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Back to you.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
And I really think that that's an important part of business.
And it's a message you say, you know what, what
do you want to be known for. I'll never be
the biggest mover, I'll never be the richest guy, but
I want to try. I try and help as many
people as I can. And I think people in business
have an obligation. Even if you're not in a business,
(36:44):
you have an obligation to help others. And I think
that I think that some people in some businesses actually
fall short in that area. And it doesn't have to
be with just money. You can volunteer, you know, at
a homeless shelter, there's all sorts of things you can do.
They don't all require money. But I think giving back.
To talk about the business plan, make sure there's a
(37:06):
line item for whether it's time or money to give back.
I think it's I think it's our obligation and people
need to do that.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
And you have two foundations. You have the you have
Furniture Foundation, and you have Remarkable Donations. Tell us about
remarkable donations.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So again that it's we have one nonprofit that's called
March Southeastern Furniture Foundation. To help get more donations, we
started Remarkable Donations dot org because there are people that
want to donate things, but it's not it may cost
four hundred dollars to go pick something up.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Okay, yeah, that is only worth.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Four hundred dollars.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
So what we've tried to do is set up a
very economical way for people to donate items. And so
there's either no charge or very little charge when we
have a fuck at someone's house when we're moving, because
we're already there. But if we have to deploy a
truck to go make pickups, then there are too many
(38:10):
expenses involved. It's just and so to avoid those things
going into the dump to be thrown away. We've created
Remarkable Donations dot org, which allows us to basically have
a division that works.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
At call it a break even to go collect.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
So you have a certain criteria of the items that
are donated. You don't want I'll just put it this way.
You don't want junk. You want things that people will
be able to use for a number of years. So
there's some criteria. But even though you want it to
be a certain quality, there's still got a lot of
people are still going to just get rid of them
if they don't don't well.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
You know, one of the organizations Welcome Home in Newton
and Household Goods and Act and those are the two
big ones with the official mover for both of those
organizations as wells the official mover for the West.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Plor Food Pantry.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
But uh, it's you want to you want to sort
of donate with dignity, you know, you you want to
make sure that what you're donating is something that you
would use and and it is most people, most people
are really good. Most people get it. Most people want
to donate things that aren't torn and stained and ruined.
There are some instances where people think, oh I can
(39:28):
get rid of my trash by saying I want to
donate it, and we have to be very careful.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
You're not to accept that.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
We can do disposal missions if we have to, or
fees for that in that service, by the way, is cleanouts.
But the items that get donated, they should be items
that when somebody receives them, they're proud to get them,
they're happy to use them. And and and if they
go to if if someone's interested and they go to
(39:56):
Remarkable Donations dot org, there's actually something that's it's household
goods rules what they accept, but common sense really prevails.
It's we're not pretending to remove things. People shouldn't pretend
that they have donations. If it's strategy, say can you
help me get rid of trash? If they have donations,
(40:17):
then will gladly accept them.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
We need them.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
What's the process for someone to request furniture or home goods.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
That needs the goods?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (40:30):
That so again we know how to collect the goods.
We know how to get them to either Household Goods
and Opting or Welcome Home in Newton. They should contact
those organizations or if they're dealing with a case work,
or if they have somebody helping them, they should do
it that way.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
We don't deal with we don't have the.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Infrastructure to actually distribute each item, so we collected in
bulk and we bring it to the organizations that deal
directly with those in need.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Oh that's great. What are you most proud of at
this point in your career? I know that's a big question.
Take your time.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Yeah, well I know the answer.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
So I think I'm very proud that I've been blessed
to have a wonderful family and have wonderful employees that
have been part of my life for such a long
period of time.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
I'm blessed that.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
I'm in a position where I can give back and
i can help others. And again, I'll never be the
richest man, I'll never be the biggest mover, but hopefully
I've changed people's lives by being.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Able to help in some way with what they needed.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
And so when it was ARP and Van Lines gave
us the Humanitarian Award a few years back, that was
very meaningful to me because it recognized that what we're
doing is good, and not that I needed anyone to
tell me. But it's always nice, you know, when somebody
tells you uh. And more recently when the town of
(42:03):
Westboro you award us the Sustainability Award for saving all
this furniture from from going to the dump and getting
it to those in needs. I'd say that, you know what,
what am I most proud of? I'm proud that I've
been able to change people's lives, both outside of work.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
Within the company.
Speaker 5 (42:26):
And I think at the end of the day, I mean,
isn't that really what it's all about, trying to leave
the world.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
A better place?
Speaker 3 (42:33):
For sure, you.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
Got here, so if I can, if I can do
my small amount of my small share of that, then
I've accomplished a lot.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's great. Hey, summer, I saw the statement Mark Silverman,
practice is enlightened self interest every day. What does that mean?
Speaker 5 (42:51):
That's a good one. Well, I guess what it means
is that that you basically my interpretation is and I
didn't say that, someone else said that.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Someone said it that's correct, but.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
That it's okay if you help a lot of people
and in return people recognize that and you benefit from it.
And some people I think have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
They think that when.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
You help others, you shouldn't have any expectations. I don't
have any expectations except that people recognize that we're trying
to do the right thing and we're trying to do
what's good. And what I find is that people do
recognize that. And I can't tell you the number of
(43:43):
people that have used our service, that have given me
business because they say, you're the kind of person I
want to.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Do business with.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
You're the kind of person that isn't just taking it
off yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
I take something for myself. Absolutely, I take something for myself,
but I don't keep it all on myself. I give
some back. And what I find is the more I give,
the more I get. And it's a damn good way
to live your life. And if you look in my
background here you'll see this. You'll see this Seltue. I
love this sent Yeah you And what it says is
(44:18):
says self made man and shows a guy chiseling himself.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Out of rock cool. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
But the point here is you there's all sorts of opportunity.
Anybody that wants to work real hard, if they have
even a tiny bit of luck, they can make it.
How do you work like you get? That whole thing
comes into play too, right, But getting back to the
end question. Uh, you know, I think I think it's okay. Uh,
(44:44):
give a lot. You'd be very surprised how many people
recognize that, appreciate it, and want to do business with
somebody that tries to help others. And even if we're
only helping in a very small way. We're not giving
millions and millions of dollars, but we are giving something back.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Yeah, that's meaningful.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
That's meaningful. We make a difference.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
All right. The two organizations and roles I want to
ask you about as we wrap up. You were the
past president for two years of the Need and Business
Association Association from six to seven. Tell us about that organization,
give them a little shout out and what was your role.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Yeah, So the Need and Business Association merged with I
think it's called the Charles River Business Association. Been a
lot of mergers in local business groups, but again that
was a small group where the whole purpose at that
time was to help promote business and the top of
need them and just learn from one another, network help people,
(45:44):
make people smarter, wiser, more successful. And we did a
show at the time it was called Meet Your Need
of merchants. And what I did was I went around
to different businesses in need them and with the local
cable channel, I interviewed them. I said pretty much what
you're saying to me, asking you, how did you get
in business? What do you like, what don't you like,
(46:04):
what are the challenges, what are the successes? And so
we we did that for a couple of years and
uh it was it was.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
A great group. Learned a lot, and I think that's important.
Speaker 5 (46:14):
Networking and trying to be around people that are more
successful than you can teach you something.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
And then the other is uh oh Mass Movers Association.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
So the Mass Movers Association that was a long time ago,
but again a really good group of people, uh you
know uh that had for the most part are the
same objectives to learn from others and to also have
different events and different uh to help people in need.
(46:48):
And what I found was and I and I you know,
people I watched TikTok. People say, Mark, you watch TikTok.
That's all garbage. You know, a lot of it is
gob but there's also if you if you listen to
the right people speaking, you can.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Learn a lot.
Speaker 5 (47:05):
And you know what what a big A big message
I hear all the time is never stop learning, never
stop reading, never try and again.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Uh you know I'm not. I'm always trying to be
more intelligent.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
I'm always trying to learn more, be a better businessman,
be more knowledgeable.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
And I think that never ends.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
You always have to do that, agreed.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
And the mass movers the need in business association.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Now we're part of karda of.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
You know nine in.
Speaker 5 (47:37):
The Westborough area some other groups.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
You know.
Speaker 5 (47:40):
Just associate yourself with people that you can help and
they can help you. That you you teach each other,
you learn very important.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
So last two questions both easy ones. Who in the
listening and viewing audiences may want to reach out to you?
And why?
Speaker 5 (47:56):
Well, I think that the people that right now that
we can help them are life science companies, medical manufacturers,
companies that have very large operations and they need to
clean out some space so they can build more labs
or create more manufacturing areas, and they need storage for
(48:18):
their assets. And the reason they should reach out to
us is because we have very flexible terms in both
the amount of time they have to lease from us
an the amount of space they have to take, and
we offer a flexible footprint where we can expand or
contract their space. So it's again, what do you need
(48:38):
and how can I accommodate you. We operate over one
hundred thousand square feet of warehouse between a couple.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Of different locations I have.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
If people need any type of people, many companies, any
type of storage, there's a real good chance that I
can accommodate them.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Beautiful and the best way for them to reach out
is there's more moving dot com and you put yourself.
It's in the crawl. It's been across a couple of times.
I'm Shuret'll cumping again again in a second five oh
eight eight eight nine zero six for zero feel fit.
Speaker 5 (49:13):
I'm very accessible, man. I get up early, I go
to bed early, but I'm very accessible. My cell phone,
you know, for better or worse, is you know, by
my side all the time. And if people you know,
shoot me a text, give me a phone call, uh,
they'll hear back from me very promptly.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
In many cases I'll just pick up.
Speaker 5 (49:32):
So uh, you know, I'm I'm very available to give
information and help people. And I'm also most of the
time able to help people. But if I can't, I
probably know who can.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
That's awesome. Well listen, thank you for taking your time.
I know you're busy, but thanks for being here and
we appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Well, it's been a privilege to be on your show.
Thank you. I hope I've been helpful to.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
The audience you have, Mark, Thank you, and thanks everybody
for listening. And this is a show about business and
business challenges, successes and challenges. Now, if you've got concerns
about the sales effectiveness of your company. Whether your sales
team is you or very small or very large, doesn't matter.
You can reach out to me at Kevin at Winning
Business radio dot com one of my many email addresses.
(50:17):
Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training.
We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders
into true coaches and mentors. Hey, we're not right for everybody,
but maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you once
again to producer and engineer one for another job. Well done.
Thank you one. Be sure to join us next week.
That's Monday, June ninth. We'll do it all again. Until then,
(50:37):
this is Kevin Helenan.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host
Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on top for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at pm Eastern
(51:00):
Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W
four CY Radio W four c Y dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!