Moving to London

London is a great place to live and work, with a lot of cultural diversity and a huge range of attractions, making it an exciting and fun place to live.

If you're planning on moving house to London, then you'll find that property prices vary significantly from one part of London to another and you if you're moving to London for work, you may consider instead buying or renting somewhere in one of the surrounding counties - Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey or Kent (starting to the North East of London and finishing South East of London).

Here, property prices will be significantly cheaper and you'll be able to commute to work for £1,000 - £2,500 or so a year, depending on your location.

For removals to London, parking is often an issue, so we recommend obtaining a parking permit for your removal van and perhaps planning your house or office move for a relatively quiet time of day. If you're moving to London from elsewhere, it may be best to use a London van man or removal company who knows their way around London, or if not choose a van man who has a satellite navigation system, to ensure you don't spend hours drive round London trying to locate your new house.

Choosing which area of London to move to

Many people say that when you relocate to London, you will always be a 'Northerner' or a 'Southerner', depending on which side of the Thames you are on.

North London has more tube stations and public transport and has always been considered more up-market. The majority of London's business and corporate world is based North of the river, so when you're in North London, there is a feeling of industry.

North London includes Archway, Hampstead and Highgate, which have more of a small town atmosphere, with several large parks and a good selection of pubs and restaurants.

North West London includes Camden, Kilburn, Notting Hill, Willesden Green and Wembley, where there is an active night life with busy markets and up market restaurants and bars. The most popular markets include Camden and Portobello Road.

West London (but still North of the river) includes Acton, Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush, where a large number of Aussies and Kiwis have relocated. The houses in West London are more affordable than the rest of North London.

The history of South London is that it used to be outside of the city walls, so it was once a rural location. As a result of this, South London has more parks and greenery. You're also closer to Brighton and the seaside.

In South London you find Battersea, Brixton, Clapham and Wandsworth, where many old factories have been replaced by modern apartments. Battersea is home to the Dog's and Cats home, the New Covent Garden Market and Battersea park, containing 83 hectares of greenery. While the whole of the London underground is crowded and busy, Clapham Junction is the busiest station in the whole of Europe, with trains transporting people to a wide range of destinations.

South West London is the location of Earl's Court, Fulham, Putney, Wimbledon and Southfields. Earls Court in Kensington and Chelsea has a thriving social atmosphere and is home to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, one of the country's largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue.

The area of London best known for its industry is perhaps the South East, with Canary Wharf, the Docklands being home to numerous businesses and huge office blocks for banks and other major industries. The relatively new Docklands Light Rail is fairly prices and offers a quick route to the center of London from the South East. Canary Wharf and the Docklands are comprised primarily of commercial enterprises, so for more of a social and historical atmosphere, we'd recommend Greenwich instead.

How Can the Small Removal and Man and Van Businesses Compete With Large Removal Companies?

There are two main business orientations: the cost and/or quality orientation. The traditionalists argue that the companies can either become cost or quality efficient but not both. In modern times however, all businesses; removal services in particular, work to balance between the cost and quality of services they offer. The key to the competitive advantage in the domestic and commercial removal market is the management of cost and quality.

The small removal service firms or man and van businesses can compete with their larger equivalents on both; the service quality and price. This is due to the fact that the small removal firms involve small number of people engaged in the delivery of service. An average man and van business for example consists of a single tradesman. He or she does everything what the business needs starting from marketing through accounting to service delivery. As far as the small removal firm is concerned the operational workload is normally equally spread between all members of the team. A typical employee of a small removal company is multi-skilled and capable of doing wide variety of jobs in the organisation. The management of a small removal company is less concerned about strict operational policies typical to large companies. In a man and van type of organisation the employer expects from the employee to apply common sense at work rather then obeying a set of complicated policies.

Conversely, a typical large removal company involves large number of people. This kind of business organisation is normally managed from a single office where all employees are based. In the large removal firm the employees are less multi-skilled. They are expected to perform only relevant to their expertise repetitive tasks. The customer service co-workers deal only with customer enquiries, the sales person's responsibility is to sell as many as possible removal and other related to it services; the accountant should run company's books. All these make running a large removal business an expensive one. Larger removal firms find it hard to compete on price with small removal companies. This is because their running costs are significantly larger then the cost of running a small business.

The workers employed in a small removal or a man and van company lack specialisation. As a result man and van enterprises are going to find it hard to compete with large removal companies on service quality. The key players on the removal service and man and van market spend significant amount of their profits on staff training, policy development and brand management. It allows them to deliver high quality removal services in a consistent manner. Nevertheless, the high consistency of service delivery and service specialisation can only be delivered at the cost of inflexibility. The number of policies and procedures in large removal companies make them less responsive to spontaneous service requests. It is not unusual for the domestic removal service user to find that due to the health and safety or insurance schedule their order cannot be completed according to their expectations. In contrast, the smaller often family run removal service companies are more responsive at short notice and more flexible on the range of services possible to deliver.

Man and Van and Removal Companies, Entrepreneurship adn the Recession

The recession and increasing unemployment rates in the UK, forces people to make money from alternative to employment sources. Not too many would disagree that running a business requires risk taking. Our ability to take risks however is tend to change in the harsh economic environment.

According to the statistics published in 2009 by the Companies House; at the time of recession the number of new business entities raise steeply. This new wave of entrepreneurs most often choose to offer a man and van or/and removal services. This kind of business doesn't require a large investment or highly skilled personnel. The man and van and the removal services delivered by a sole trader (a man with a van) can be characterised not only by the low running costs of such a business entity but a manageable by a single person business structure.

The man and van and small removal businesses are normally managed by one person. The skills required to run the man and van business or a small removal company are:

- Driving skills and a knowledge of the local street map.
- Good communication and persuasive skills.
- A trustworthy and friendly personality.
- Diplomacy - man and van must be able to peacefully resolve disputes which may arise while delivering the service.
- Have clear understanding of the relationship marketing and its meaning to the businesses.
- Must be capable to keep the private and business finances separately.

The assets of a man and van business or a small removal company are normally limited to a vehicle (van), trolleys and blankets. On the other hand, the experienced removal firm owners argue that the most valuable and important to the successful removal business is a well established brand and a strong on-line presence.

The biggest challenge to all kind of businesses is the market entry. Where the newly established removal companies or man and van organisations do get their business from? According to the research we conducted in London, most of the low budget man and van businesses advertise their services in Gumtree.com and other ethnic websites targeting London community. The removal companies, normally organisations run by more then one individual, utilise in addition to Gumtree.com local press and Google AdWords and other pay per click systems.