Taking (Very Good) Care of Business

He cut his teeth on the moving business up north as a college kid working towards an entrepreneurial management degree.

Between classes and on weekends, he forfeited free time to concentrate not only on the physical aspects of actual hands-on moving, but also to study the organizational mechanics of the business of moving people's possessions from one place to another.

It would prove to be a good grounding, to say the least.

An Honest Approach

Today a family man and active Naples Rotarian, John Smarge can look back at a career that has seen his Naples-based branch of Ray The Mover expand from relatively humble beginnings to an operation that last year commanded an estimated 30 percent of the local market for interstate moves and averages around 60 local moves a week.

Backed by a staff of about 23 and a fleet of eight vehicles, Smarge has a simple but strict business philosophy he believes is vital when it comes to his company being entrusted with items customers may consider priceless and irreplaceable. "I don't hire strong backs," he says, "but strong characters. A good attitude can be taught during on-the-job training. I look for the kind of young man who you would want in your house."

What Smarge is driving at is honesty. "It's a big thing (in this business), and I constantly instill that in my middle managers all the way through the movers themselves," he says.

A concrete -- or more accurately, delicate -- example is when Ray The Mover was commissioned to shift, store and then reinstall all the contents of Palm Cottage, a historical site in Naples undergoing renovations. "You couldn't put a price on some of the stuff in there," says Smarge, originally from Mendham, NJ.

He recalls a similarly challenging responsibility early in his career. "One of my first jobs as a student," he says, "was helping to move the entire Rutgers University law library to a new location within the building. It was a three-week job, working around the clock."

As of mid-June of this year, Smarge acquired a new house and hired his own company to do the job. "It was really interesting looking at it from a customer's point of view," he says. "There's a truck with all your things inside it, and it's driving off down the road."

He was happy to report that the upshot, however, was a successful move, performed entirely to his satisfaction.

The Ray in Ray The Mover

Upon graduating from college, Smarge "ran into" a man called Ray Allard. Significantly, Allard was the man who had about 30 years previously founded Ray The Mover in New Hampshire, and he clearly liked Smarge's style.

The result was a collaboration which brought Smarge to Southwest Florida with the Allard family, the formation of a local branch of Ray The Mover, and an eventual promotion to president, a title he has held since 1984.

The company has been affiliated with North American Van Lines since 1981. Explains Smarge, "We (Ray The Mover) are independent within Florida, but across the border it becomes interstate carriage, at which time we fall under the North American umbrella."

Talking interstate demographics, Smarge has noted with interest that many of the moves his company handles are between Southwest Florida and the Carolinas. He says some are permanent relocations, and some related to trend of seasonal "snowbird" sojourns to where the weather is temperate. "Don't be surprised if Ray The Mover eventually establishes an office in one of the Carolinas," says Smarge, pointing out that the New Hampshire office still exists, but that he has no business ties with it. "It's been passed on to the third generation (of Allards)" he explains.

No license is required to become a mover, but trucks are subject to strict annual inspections, says Smarge, and costs obviously vary according to the size of the move and the distance involved. "You could move for $210 or $21,000," he says, quoting ballpark figures. Company insurance covers any possible mishaps.

Star Gazing

By the law of averages, one would suspect people like Smarge and his team occasionally encounter people of means in the form of sports or entertainment celebrities, top-of-the-line business CEOs and the like.

Yes indeed, says Smarge. But he stops short of any names whatsoever, citing an unwritten law of confidentiality. Besides, he says, many people, such as sports stars making second homes in Naples prefer to remain anonymous when they're in town.

That said, he does go as far as revealing that some of his recent clients have included famous golf, tennis and football professionals. So if you're combing Naples' Coastland Mall one day and are convinced that big, muscular guy is so-and-so, you may just be right.