Ventura County Star: ‘Meatheads’ are Moving in a Profitable New Direction

Ventura County Star – By Jim Woodard, Storyjim@aol.com
February 25, 2007

Meathead Movers Inc. is the unlikely name of a unique and rapidly growing moving firm. It hires only qualified college students to handle the heavy work.

The company was launched by Aaron and Evan Steed, in San Luis Obispo 10 years ago, when the brothers were still in high school. They opened a second office in Camarillo last month. Aaron Steed, president, has relocated to Camarillo to head the Ventura County operation.

“We gave a lot of thought and research to the location of our second office,” Aaron Steed said. “We were attracted to Camarillo because of the demographics and growth in this area, and the number of colleges and universities where we can recruit workers. Also, it’s just a great place to live and work. We expect our business volume out of our Camarillo office to grow rapidly and be about four times the volume in San Luis Obispo.”

The company does indeed have a unique concept — hiring athletes from local colleges and rewarding them for preventing damage to furniture and for receiving high customer service ratings on the post-job survey reports. The firm has a strict four-point process in qualifying and hiring capable and reliable personnel, Steed noted.

The company has a total of 80 employees (mostly part-time students), with 14 working from the new Camarillo office. All workers are insured and bonded. The firm now has 24 trucks — four in Camarillo. The firm has eight times lower damage claim volume than the national average, as reported by the American Moving and Storage Association, Steed pointed out.

“Despite the public perception of Meathead Movers being a rapidly growing company, I think we have been very conservative with our first expansion,” Steed said. “We will open other offices in similar demographic areas once our revenue goals are met and we have the proper management in place.”

The company is solely owned by the Steed brothers — Aaron, 26, and Evan, 24. Because of their school and athletic commitments, they had difficulty finding part-time work that fit their schedules. They enjoyed those early moving jobs, particularly expressions of gratitude from customers.

Aaron is a two-time California finalist wrestler, and Evan is an accomplished football player.

“I didn’t even have a driver’s license when we got our first moving jobs,” Aaron said. “We had to beg friends for rides to our first jobs. We got paid whatever our customers thought we were worth. We tried to earn tips by being extra polite, careful and helpful.”

The brothers enlisted fellow students and athletic friends to help with jobs, and Meathead Movers started to build a reputation. That name originally began as a joke, based on the nickname bestowed on athletes working out in the high school weight room.

“We wanted to defy the stereotype of the dumb jock moving furniture and show that we could establish a high-quality business,” Evan Steed explained.

The company is active in community service areas. For example, it provides free service in moving items to women shelters in Ventura County.

The firm’s new 5,700-square-foot facility in Camarillo is at 412 Calle San Pablo, Suite 200. For more information call 805-544-6328 or visit: MeatheadMovers.com.