Imagine plugging away at the same dull job, day in and day out, making money that you will never see for a company that you have no real stake in.
For many unfortunate souls, this is their reality.
But, not for Braden Tokoly. Upon graduation from SMUin 2001 with an economics degree, Tokoly decided he was not cut out for the corporate world. His belief that hard work should elicit equivalent gain did not seem to him to coincide with the politics and practices of big business.
So he did the only thing he could. He started his own business, UniversityBoxes, Inc., a storage company that caters to the erratic moving schedules of college students.
His reason for starting a storage company ? provide a service where he saw a need and had experience.
“We were inspired by our years at SMU moving in and out of dorms and apartments each semester and watching others do the same,” Tokoly said.
With the pressures of finals and end-of-semester deadlines, it is often difficult for students to find the time to make moving arrangements.
“We wanted to provide a simple solution in complex times,” Tokoly said.
But he knew the key to being successful, was to distinguish his company from that of his competitors. So Tokoly put a new spin on an old concept. UniversityBoxes would not just provide storage services, they would “do the work for you.”
Led by Tokoly and his brother Stephen, an SMU senior, the men of UniversityBoxes work hard to make moving easier for college students.
When a student hires UniversityBoxes, he signs up for a date and time that he would like his things to be picked up. The UniversityBoxes team drives to the address the student provides, loads whatever he needs stored into their truck, and transports it all to its climate-controlled storage facility.
The student’s items are stored at a flat rate per piece for whatever length of time he specifies. And as soon as he comes back to town, the team delivers his things to his new address.
But, saving students time, energy, and money is not an easy task Tokoly says.
“For any business to succeed, every element, from man to machine, must be fully operational,” Tokoly said.
And because it is a new business, the Tokolys find themselves constantly needing to assume different roles. Although they say this role-shifting demands a lot of their time, both agree it’s taught them to be effective at multi-tasking.
When UniversityBoxes got its official start in May of 2001 with a fully operational Web site, it headed out to Texas Women’s University and University of North Texas to advertise and promote its service. After a successful summer at TWU and UNT, the Tokolys were ready to take their business home to SMU.
They set up a booth at AARO, and went straight to the source ? the parents of incoming first-years. They advertised a program through which students could have their belongings shipped directly to UniversityBoxes to be delivered to their dorms when they arrived for the fall semester.
The service, Tokoly says, was very well received, and provided the team a great start to their fall season.
This week, the brothers Tokoly will be back on campus advertising their newest concept, winter car storage, which allows students the option of storing their cars for the length of the break in UniversityBoxes’ secure, enclosed storage facility.
“We feel that this new service comes at just the right time with the recent onslaught of break-ins in the Park Cities area,” Tokoly said.
With its innovative concepts and dedicated management team, UniversityBoxes promises to make a name for itself on the SMU campus. But they do not want to stop here.
“We hope to take our service to Austin and Waco as soon as possible,” Tokoly said. They are even considering going out of state in the future.
Although the brothers find themselves heavily laden with a variety of responsibilities, for them, the satisfaction of self-employment is well worth their efforts.
