Spero Georgedakis, founder and CEO of Good Greek Moving & Storage, is nothing short of courageous – a great quality for an entrepreneur. After graduating from Buffalo State University, he went into law enforcement and became a police officer in Miami. He even served on the SWAT team and, after six years on the force, intended to make the jump to fighting crime on the federal level, either with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Instead, Georgedakis turned to entrepreneurship, entering into a partnership with All My Sons Moving & Storage. In the middle of the last decade, Georgedakis struck out on his own, founding Good Greek Moving & Storage, headquartered in Jupiter but with a strong presence in Tampa, where Georgedakis has a home.
“If you enter into a partnership, the mission must be clearly defined and everyone must be involved. » Spero Georgedakis, founder and CEO of Good Greek Moving & Storage
Five years later, while the moving sector constitutes an essential cog in the real estate boom, the company has embarked on a very ambitious expansion plan. It adds complementary services such as a real estate brokerage, self-storage facilities, trash and debris removal, auto transportation and a marketing and advertising company called Spero Advertising Group. It also sells Good Greek franchises.
For a relatively young company on track to end the year with $30 million in gross revenue, such rapid diversification, while admirable, presents a risk of brand dilution. Georgedakis doesn’t see it that way.
“It’s all up to me,” he said. “It’s all part of the relocation transaction. This will keep us agile and give us the ability to change gears.
In early September, Good Greek entered into an agreement to become the official moving and storage company of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the second year in a row. For Georgedakis, though, a partnership with the Bucs (and yes, he met Tom Brady) is about much more than growing the Good Greek brand. The company has a long history of working with sports teams, starting with the Miami Dolphins.
“The very first team I contacted was created in the wake of the 2008 housing crash,” he says. “I was afraid (our clientele was) too residential; I was worried about a housing crash, and sure enough, it happened.
Courtesy. Good Greek Moving & Storage is the official moving company of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and several other top sports teams.
Georgedakis had a hunch that winning the business of a single large corporate client, such as a sports team, would help him “transition” from residential moving and storage to commercial moving if the economy were to slow down again. real estate.
“So I cold-called the Miami Dolphins to introduce myself and see what they thought of their existing service provider,” he says. “Of course, they weren’t as happy as they could have been, and they liked my experience in law enforcement, the fact that I did background checks on employees, drug testing employees drugs…they loved it all. And now we have the business of more than 20 sports teams.
In addition to the Bucs, Good Greek’s clientele includes the NBA’s Miami Heat, the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF and the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. It also has contracts with the athletic departments of the University of Florida, the University of Miami and Florida International University.
“We are busy all year round with sports,” says Georgedakis, “transporting their equipment to and from games, but we also manage personnel movements, whenever there are changes in coaches or management within the organization. It’s not limited to helmets, shoulder pads and baseball bats.
Tackling large commercial accounts and expanding into complementary services has paid off big for Good Greek: the company is on track to exceed $30 million in revenue by the end of the year. year and saw 50% year-over-year growth, according to Georgedakis. . Georgedakis, of course, wouldn’t be where he is today without challenges, including the All My Sons partnership that didn’t work out. But that doesn’t mean he’s bitter about partnerships, far from it. He learned to do them better.
“Divorces can get a little messy sometimes, of course, but ultimately we worked out our differences and now we’re friendly competition,” Georgedakis says. “I learned that the fundamental vision must be shared by the partners from the start. And there needs to be transparency. If you enter into a partnership, the mission must be clearly defined and everyone must be involved.
(This story has been updated to reflect conflicting information about the number of locations Georgedakis opened in partnership with All My Sons. This story has also been updated to reflect conflicting information during the year Georgedakis and All My Sons went into business together and why the partnership ended. Additionally, an All My Sons attorney claims All My Sons Moving & Storage was established before Georgedakis joined the firm.)
