What Is This Article About?
This article is a deep-dive conversation with Sean Stein, founder of A Mother's Touch Moving in Melbourne, Florida. Sean has 46 years of hands-on moving industry experience and built a $4M+ company with nothing but five-star reviews before beginning to franchise the model. You'll learn how he finds and keeps great movers, the grassroots marketing strategies that still drive his business today, and why he believes six great trucks will always outperform ten average ones.
Sean Stein started with a bread truck, 15 pads, and no shrink wrap in Atlanta in the early 1980s. Today he runs A Mother's Touch Moving in Melbourne, Florida, a $4M+ operation with an all-5-star review record, and he's franchising the model across the Southeast.
From a Bread Truck in Atlanta to $4M in Melbourne
In the early 1980s, Sean Stein was a high school kid in Atlanta loading furniture into a bread truck with a makeshift ramp and 15 moving pads. No shrink wrap. No rubber bands. One seat up front, and the engine to sit on if you needed a second.
From there he spent a decade with Bulldog Movers, worked his way through every department, and eventually launched his own company. He ran it for 10 years before selling during a divorce, relocated to Melbourne, and spent time in operations at both Mayflower and Two Men and a Truck before asking himself the obvious question: why am I doing this for someone else?
He started A Mother's Touch Moving. He bought back his Atlanta operation long enough to recoup his investment, had his daughter run it, then shut it down and moved her to Melbourne to work in the office. Everything was intentional. Everything pointed toward what he's building now: a franchise.
People First. Then Trucks. Then Customers.
Ask Sean what the most important part of running a moving company is and he doesn't hesitate.
"Your number one concern should always be your employees. Put them in a position where they can't go anywhere else."
He pays his crews well. One of his drivers pulled in $600 in tips alone in a single week, cash, on top of a $1,500 paycheck. That driver isn't going to go landscape. He's going to show up Monday.
But it goes beyond pay. Sean tells every single one of his guys the same thing: "I was once you, and you can be me." His operations manager started as a driver. He actively wants his crew to think about owning their own business one day, and if they want to do it through him, he's built the franchise for that too.
The result: six trucks running every single day in Melbourne, Florida. No slowdown. No weather excuse. Just consistent, quality work from people who have a reason to show up.
Why Six Great Trucks Beat Ten Average Ones
Sean could fill 10 trucks tomorrow. He chooses not to.
When you scale faster than your ability to staff correctly, quality drops. Damages go up. Reviews suffer. And in a business driven by referrals and reputation, one bad month of reviews can undo years of work.
A Mother's Touch has nothing but five-star reviews, not because nothing ever goes wrong, but because of what happens when it does. When a mover accidentally kicked a customer's TV during a move, Sean's salesman was there the next day with a brand-new replacement still in the box. That story gets told. The original incident is forgotten.
The trucks stay clean too. Every morning his crew wipes the love bugs off the front and brushes down the back panels. Most of the time those trucks are sitting at red lights. That's advertising.
The Marketing Playbook: Billboards, Roses, and Gift Cards
Sean has been marketing his moving company since before the internet existed. His playbook is part old-school, part timeless.
Billboards. He's been on the same billboards in Melbourne for years. The key, he says, is longevity. People drive past them every day. When they need a mover, A Mother's Touch is already in their head.
Direct mail + MLS triggers. When a home hits the MLS, Sean's team sends a mailer to that address. The homeowner is about to move. They haven't booked a mover yet. Timing is everything.
Storage unit visits. He goes in person to storage facilities and leaves gift cards with property managers. Those managers talk to people who are moving in and out every week. It's a direct line to motivated customers.
Real estate relationships. Sean paid his dues at the local real estate board, meetings, events, face time. Real estate agents refer movers constantly. Getting in front of them once is enough. Staying in front of them is the work.
The rose. At the end of every single move, A Mother's Touch hands the customer a rose. It costs almost nothing. It is remembered forever. Sean says it's the thing people talk about most when they refer him to someone else.
Giving Back as a Growth Strategy
Community is not a side project for Sean. It's baked into how the business runs.
Every Thanksgiving, A Mother's Touch feeds 60 families through Boxes of Love, an initiative Sean co-founded in Melbourne. Every Christmas, his team takes kids from Palm Bay Elementary shopping for gifts. He also sponsors Serene Harbor, a local women's shelter, with moving services and supplies.
None of this is done for the press. But the press finds it anyway. And when your company is known as the one that does that, the billboards don't have to work as hard.
Franchising the Blueprint
The next chapter for Sean is franchising A Mother's Touch Moving across the Southeast. The model is $40,000 upfront with 7% royalties, 2% of which goes back into technology. He already has one franchise operating in Orlando, with West Palm Beach and Ocala in the pipeline.
His goal is 15 to 20 locations. But he's not interested in selling to anyone. He wants operators who will follow the blueprint, the same grassroots approach to storage units, real estate relationships, clean trucks, and great people that got A Mother's Touch to where it is.
"If you stray away from it," he says, "you'll be in a franchise doing your own thing, and it won't work. Use my knowledge. It will work."
What Brian Saw Running Moulton Brothers Movers in Miami
When my brother Vincent and I ran Moulton Brothers Movers in Miami from 2021 to 2024, we saw the same thing Sean is describing play out in a bigger market. The operators who scaled smart kept their people first, protected their review record no matter the cost, and treated every customer's belongings the way a mother would. The ones who added trucks faster than they added culture were the ones calling us for help two years later wondering why the numbers weren't working.
At Heavy Lifting Marketing, we work exclusively with moving companies across the US, and what Sean has built in Melbourne, 46 years of compounding reputation into a company he's now franchising, is one of the clearest examples of doing it right that we've seen.
Ready to Grow Your Own Moving Company?
There's a system behind 46 years of five-star reviews, and it starts long before the marketing. It starts with employees who can't go anywhere else and a quality standard that never bends.
Book a free strategy call and we'll show you exactly what that system looks like for your market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Sean Stein get started in the moving industry?
Sean started in high school in Atlanta in the early 1980s, working out of a bread truck with 15 pads and no shrink wrap. After a decade with Bulldog Movers and time at Mayflower and Two Men and a Truck, he launched A Mother's Touch Moving in Melbourne, Florida, which now does over $4 million per year.
What is Sean Stein's number one tip for running a successful moving company?
Employees first. Sean says if you don't put your team in a position where they can't go anywhere else, through pay, opportunity, and culture, you won't be able to grow. Everything else, including customer experience and reviews, flows from having the right people.
How does A Mother's Touch Moving handle damages and complaints?
Fast and fully. When a mover accidentally damaged a customer's TV, Sean's team showed up the next day with a brand-new replacement in the box. That speed of resolution is what turns incidents into referrals. A Mother's Touch has maintained an all-5-star review record by making damage response non-negotiable.
What marketing strategies does Sean Stein use for A Mother's Touch Moving?
A combination of long-term brand advertising (billboards, yard signs) and grassroots outreach (storage unit gift cards, real estate agent relationships, direct mail triggered by MLS listings, retirement community visits). He also ends every move by giving the customer a rose, a personal touch that generates more word-of-mouth than most paid campaigns.
Why is the company called A Mother's Touch Moving?
The name represents the care and personal attention Sean wants every customer to feel. It sets a standard for his team: treat every customer's belongings the way a mother would. It also differentiates the brand instantly in a category full of generic names.
Is A Mother's Touch Moving available as a franchise?
Yes. The franchise fee is $40,000 with 7% royalties (2% back into technology). Sean has one franchise operating in Orlando and is expanding to West Palm Beach and Ocala, with a goal of 15 to 20 total locations. He provides full onboarding support including SBA loan guidance.
Why doesn't Sean Stein run more than six trucks?
Because bigger is not better when quality goes down. Sean can book 10 trucks but deliberately stays at six to maintain the crew quality that drives his five-star record. A smaller fleet with the right people produces a better ROI than a larger fleet with the wrong ones.
How does A Mother's Touch Moving give back to the community?
Sean co-founded Boxes of Love, feeding 60 families every Thanksgiving and taking kids from Palm Bay Elementary Christmas shopping. His company also sponsors Serene Harbor women's shelter. He sees community involvement as both a moral responsibility and one of the most effective grassroots marketing strategies available to a local business.