Cleverbox launched in Auckland in 2017 as Leasebox Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Cleverbox launched in Auckland in 2017 as Leasebox Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Jill Wong-Stratford, director or Cleverbox, explains her career move from commercial property and desire to start up a sustainable business, and why lack of market awareness is the biggest issue she is facing.
What does your business do?
Cleverbox is a sustainable moving box company that rents out plastic movingboxes, so instead of using cardboard we deliver and drop off plastic reusable boxes that make it a lot easier for everybody to move home and businesses. We are based in Henderson, Auckland, and launched in 2017. We started as LeaseBox Auckland but changed the name.
What was the motivation for starting it?
I was in the property industry, working in property management and development for the past 10 years, and I was on the lookout for a business idea. I'd seen, through my experience, heaps of people in Auckland moving all the time and I thought, actually there should be a better way - I was after a sustainable business idea, and thought about cardboard boxes and how they are crushed down after usage so I thought plastic boxes would be a smarter and more sustainable way to help people move.
This is my first personal business, but working in property management and development I have managed lots of building renovations, dealing with buyers and lots of vendors, so I've seen a lot of people moving over that time.
There's not a lot of competition. There are a couple of companies doing similar, but not a lot. We sanitise our boxes - we did even before Covid, so that is one of our points of difference, and that's why we are a little bit more expensive as it takes time to sanitise each box. I think nowadays it is even more important for customers to know they are getting a good, clean box each time.
Our business depends on the season. When it's quite rainy then it is a bit quiet for a couple of weeks, but it will pick up soon again when it is spring and summer and the weather is a lot nicer. We've done quite a few big jobs recently, we helped a North Shore school recently that wanted 100 boxes.
How big is your team?
We have two part-time employees and me. We have two drivers on the road, who pick up and drop off to the customers' desired location.
What's your focus at present?
We are focused on expanding and growing. Long term we would like to grow into other regions - at the moment we're just focused on Auckland - and we'd like to expand to take our service throughout the North Island. Every now and again we get customers asking if we are in Wellington and Christchurch. We're not at that stage yet but we would like to get there in the next few years. The Bay of Plenty and Waikato would be our next locations to expand. We need drivers, so finding reliable staff in those areas is not the easiest, and we'd have to set up a storage system in those places too.
What's the biggest issue your industry is facing?
The lack of awareness of alternatives. People are not educated about this service. We're constantly working on ways people can find us; We advertise on Google and rely a lot on word of mouth as well. We get a lot of feedback from people saying they were not aware of this service before. It is a little bit like plastic bags at the supermarket. It took a while for us to adapt to not bringing and using plastic bags and to using a sustainable option instead, but when we got into it and the Government made the rule, we are now used to bringing our own reusable shopping bags. People don't know products and services like ours are available, so we are getting out there trying to educate consumers as this is the easier and more sustainable and convenient option.
What advice do you give to others thinking about starting their own business?
Look into the current market to see if there is a need for it. If you think there is a benefit for consumers then there is definitely room for growth. Try to fill a gap.
