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A veteran move

Fort Worth-Dallas is among the fastest growing areas of the country. Zach Freeman ’13 is tapping ex-military servicemen to grow a moving business.

Zach Freeman ’13 started Veterans Moving America as he was leaving TCU and this year is expanding to moves anywhere in Texas.

A veteran move

Fort Worth-Dallas is among the fastest growing areas of the country. Zach Freeman ’13 is tapping ex-military servicemen to grow a moving business.

When the economy crashed in 2008, Zach Freeman ’13 was in high school and watched his dad mentor a former Marine named Jason.

Jason had lost his job, gotten divorced and lost custody of his children. His life became so rocky that the Freemans opened their San Diego home to him.

An invitation to stay with them for a few months turned into three years, and Freeman saw first-hand Jason’s struggle to get and keep a job. The veteran had a superior work ethic and plenty of skills, especially logistics, but he grappled with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.

“It left a soft spot in my heart for people like Jason,” Freeman remembered. “They fight for our country, make sacrifices and then face troubles back home. I knew I wanted to help them.”

By the time Freeman got to his senior year at TCU, the entrepreneurial management and supply chain management major wanted to start a business. But he wanted to do more than make money. He wanted to help those vets.

After reading about how Fort Worth-Dallas was among the fastest growing areas of the country, Freeman settled on a moving company and wrote a business plan. He even turned down supply chain jobs to see the idea through.

Impressed, investors got on board, and in June 2013, Veterans Moving America was available for hire. He started with local-only moves.

Along the way, he faced setbacks. On the very first job, moving a TCU professor, one of his employees had an anxiety attack and walked off after 30 minutes.

Freeman pressed on, and with strong word-of-mouth, slowly built VMA to include packing services. Now, with 500 moves under its belt and six employees, the company is expanding to moves anywhere in Texas this summer.

“We’ll go where the opportunity is, nationwide, or maybe freight trucking,” he said. “But the goal is to create the largest collection of veterans working for the same company.”

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