In this episode David Burgess, Owner of We Move You Edinburgh discusses how he began loosely in the industry, by mistake, in 2000, doing removals while studying for a post graduate degree in physiotherapy.
David’s old company was rebranded We Move You Edinburgh a couple of years ago, and provide the usual domestic moving services, house clearances, shipping container storage, and a weekly run to and from London, running 4 vehicles with a crew of 4.
We Move You Edinburgh is massively into recycling and therefore tries to reduce landfill as much as possible, collecting 100 tonne of furniture every year. With house clearances David tries to sell, give away or even upcycle the items, rather than letting them go to landfill.
One of the challenges David had to overcome was Covid, where David found himself being too busy and practically burned himself out having to deal with staff getting Covid, staff on furlough and not wanting to return to work, and therefore having to do their job, as well as his own.
The one thing David would change from his moving past is maybe taking a step back and taking time out during Covid. Also, learning and knowing your numbers is critical, something that was detrimental to David over previous years.
David’s highpoint of being within the industry, apart from being a guest on the podcast, is obtaining his Operators Licence.
The one thing David would like to change within the industry is the no parking on pavements ruling, which in David’s situation is specific to Edinburgh as many of the roads are simply not wide enough to have vehicles parked either side of the road and leave a large enough gap for vehicles to pass, especially emergency service vehicles.
The advice David would give himself just starting out within the industry again is to charge more.
In the next 5 years David would like more vehicles, more storage (a warehouse or more shipping containers), and even his own land. Regarding recycling, David would like to open up a shop (with or without a partner) to sell items from house clearances, auctioning off anything that doesn’t sell, and any items that remain unsold can then be used to smash up inside a Rage Room! Industry wise David sees the recycling side increasing but changes outside of the industry still need to be made to make the green removal service achievable.
Much to David’s downfall he did very little outside of the industry in the past, however, he is switching off more and more these days, and is very active in OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) and supporting his daughter in her field of vaulting (acrobatics performed on the back of a cantering horse), where she is a British Champion.
And as always, we end Moving Matters with a funny moving story regarding a helping hand from the afterlife.
Enjoy!
Links to We Move You Edinburgh:
Special Guest: David Burgess.