Hauppauge moving-and-storage firm added restoration cleanout services after Sandy

In the early 2000s, Robert Esposito did more than juggle classes with two part-time gigs, cleaning out homes for his mother’s estate sales business and waiting tables at Vincent’s Clam Bar  in Carle Place. He learned about prioritizing customer service and seizing diverse business opportunities.

As the founder of Relocator Service Inc., which does business under the name Relocators, those lessons have informed his leadership from the get-go and served the 15-year-old company well.

Esposito’s Hauppauge-headquartered operation projects more than $7 million in gross revenue this year, thanks to many referrals and a growing menu of services, including local and long-distance moving, packing, restoration cleanouts, junk removal, long- and short-term storage, estate sales and online auctions.

And after moving people to Florida throughout the years, as well as volunteering to help Hurricane Ian’s victims, Relocators ramped up in the Sunshine State last year with a manager, rented warehouse and two trucks in Fort Myers.

“We were looking for an expansion and Ian was the catalyst,” said Esposito, 38.

According to Esposito, who is married and has three kids, Relocators’ roots were planted when he was cleaning out homes for his mother’s business. Directors of assisted living facilities would stop by the properties and tap him to move their clients’ belongings to their new living quarters. And when deceased individuals’ homes were for sale, their families —upon his mother’s recommendation — hired Esposito for the cleanout.

“In the first six to nine months, I would work weekends in the restaurant and do one to two jobs a week cleaning out houses to make a total of $1,000,” said Esposito, who earned his undergraduate degree in human relations from St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue. But as his fledgling operation’s viability became more apparent, he stopped renting trucks and bought one.

“I realized I could buy a box truck and get more business,” Esposito said, noting that back in 2008, he still needed to augment his small ’98 box truck with rented dumpsters and U-Hauls. Today, Relocators owns an 18-truck fleet and three sales cars.

Esposito recently spoke to Newsday about his company.

At the start, how did you finance the business?

My dad lent me $2,000, and I used $2,000 of my own to buy the very, very used box truck for $4,000. And if I needed to pay other vendors or employees to help with a job, he would finance the jobs, and I’d pay him back. 

Do you have partners?

I’m the 100% owner of all of Relocators’ services, and I have a partner for all of Relocators’ four buildings, which are in Suffolk. We’re looking to purchase next in Nassau-Queens.

What’s the best business advice you’ve received?

At Vincent’s Clam Bar, it was about watching how they greeted their customers as a guest at their dinner tables. And the best advice came from Bobby and Tony Marisi, the two brothers who own Vincent’s and started there as busboys and built it up. Bobby said that business is like a boulder that’s impossible to move, but once you get it going, you have to keep the pressure on and just keep going, and Tony said to always be looking at the horizon for new opportunities. There may be no correlation between where you start with a box truck and end up, but you’ll never be at Z if you didn’t start at A.

What’s your approach to hiring?

I don’t look for people already in the industry, but people from the hospitality industry that I can train, because I want them to primarily have the customer service mentality.

How do you get customers?

A lot of referrals from past clients and ads in small papers. In 2012, I also got big into networking, becoming director and then president, from 2016 to 2018 , of the local Business Network International (BNI) organization.

At BNI, Marc Fein and Victor Cusano of Four Seasons Restoration in New Hyde Park were in my networking group for a year, and [because of Superstorm]  Sandy, they needed professional movers to pack valuables for storage [while clients had their houses repaired following flooding or other damage]. They took me under their wing and taught me about pack-outs for restoration companies.

And when Sandy happened, we were able to survive because the cleanout business got really busy and the moving died.

How did COVID affect Relocators?

All our businesses hit the bottom, but the online auctions [which opened in 2016] became better because people weren’t going into houses but showing up online and then at a predetermined appointment to pick up their winning items.

What’s been one of your biggest business mistakes?

When my gut told me something wasn’t good for the company, and I held on too long anyway. We used to give credit cards to the foremen to fuel the trucks, and I knew it’d be more cost-effective if I hired a third-party fuel company that fills our trucks at night, which we finally did. Now we save [time and money], including on office labor tracking receipts.

What’s your biggest challenge now?

Trying to operate on a corporate level and trusting my crew leaders  to do their responsibilities and come to me if there’s a problem.

What’s the best thing about owning a business?

Unequivocally being able to have a vision and work on different things are the most exciting parts. And being able to pass on the mentoring I received to help someone else is so rewarding.