Everybody knows the hassles of moving but one Florida online entrepreneur is making a business out of it.
Two years ago, Ruben Pinchanski, a former vice president at Digitas in Boston, got the idea for his current company uboxes.com when he wanted to move to Florida
Noting that the moving market “is very difficult to tap into,” Pinchanski says he realized that “boxes are the currency of the moving industry” and set out to begin soliciting companies that would run ads on boxes themselves.
“Each box has four flaps on which advertises can have their coupons printed,” he says.
He soon got together with Steve Aspsaty, a former executive with FedEx who was well-schooled in logistics. Pinchanski hopes to bring in $15 million in revenue by next year.
Uboxes offers a variety of boxes bubble wrap, peanuts, tape and other moving supplies, as well as build-your-own moving kits. So far, the company has signed Storage USA, a storage company as an advertiser and is looking for more.
One way Uboxes finds customers is through sponsored links on search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN. The Miami-based company also recently contracted to become the exclusive moving box and supply vendor for three of the largest real estate firms in United States, Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA Real Estate. Those alliances will give Uboxes information on 30% to 40% of house closings in the country says Pinchanski. Plus, the firm has signed contracts to become the supplies vendor for Moving.com.
Uboxes has also teamed up with International Direct Response Inc. to publish and distribute a 24-page booklet and CD with information about moving. The firm is offering a limit of six advertising insert opportunities on the booklet, which more than 220,000 real estate brokers and sales associates will hand deliver the to their customers. Uboxes expects they will hand out a million of these guides between April 15 and June 30.
Network
