A Neighborhood Shipping Service With a Big Heart, Part 1
By Melissa LaScaleia
Frank Espinal had vacationed in Myrtle Beach for 30 years before he moved here in 2006. He worked as a corporate director for a Fortune 500 company for many years before he retired and went into business for himself in 2007.
“When I decided to open my own business, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” Frank tells me. “But I wound up meeting someone who had bought a ShipOnSite, and after talking to him, I decided to open my own store.”
ShipOnSite is a licensed turnkey business model, which is different from a franchise in that you exist independently and don’t pay any royalties to the original creator. So when you purchase a store, you buy the licensing. The person selling you the store does all the footwork to help you open, sets everything up, trains you, and then you’re on your own.
“We like to say, ‘we build it, you own it,’” Frank tells me with a chuckle.
By 2010, Frank had become a partner with the original licensing own-er. The original ShipOnSite is located in Wakeforest, North Carolina. There’s around 14 of them in existence; since Frank has become partner, he’s been involved with selling and opening 6. Most recently, he has sold a store in Hawaii.
There are advantages to using ShipOnSite that extend beyond sup-porting local business. Because ShipOnSite has relationships with all the shipping carriers, like UPS, Fedex, DHL, and more, they are able to compare prices and shipping times between them and process your shipment based on what you select.
“We highly specialize in freight, and offer a lot in that capacity that other shipping stores don’t do,” Frank says.
Freight is identified as anything that weighs more than 150lb. Fedex, UPS and DHL Ground and Express services will only ship up to 150lb— a standard limit across the country.
“I served in the army for 20 years, and that’s where I learned a lot about logistics and moving big stuff. There are about 400 different companies I’m brokered with so that I can move freight around the world. I’m the only certified freight agent on the Grand Strand.”
Frank then introduced FreightOn-Site, followed by CrateOnSite, in which he’s able to put a wooden crate around large items to ship. He’s adept in handling anything that is very delicate or has a high dollar value, and in the past has moved $100,000 art work.
(Stay tuned for more about ShipOn-Site in the December 2017 edition.)
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