Client Spotlight on Naglee Moving & Storage

Client Spotlight on Naglee Moving & Storage

114 Years of Knowledge Worth Protecting: How Naglee Moving & Storage Built a Stronger Company Playbook

What does it take to build a successful business that lasts for 114 years? And more importantly, how do you make sure the knowledge that built that business doesn't disappear when your most experienced employees retire or move on? These are questions I regularly discuss with skilled trades business owners. During the summer of 2026, I had the privilege of working with Naglee Moving & Storage in Elmira, New York, through my three-month Systems Success, process documentation training program.

What began as an effort to reorganize an existing training manual became something much more meaningful: an investment in employee development, stronger leadership, and preserving generations of valuable business knowledge. I'm proud of what this team accomplished, and their story offers important lessons for other skilled trades companies.

A Century of Experience Doesn't Happen by Accident

Founded in 1912, Naglee Moving & Storage has evolved from a small carting business into a highly respected relocation and logistics company. As an agent for United Van Lines, Naglee handles everything from residential and corporate relocations to fine art transportation, museum collections, library moves, and climate-controlled storage. Think about the expertise required to transport valuable artwork, properly crate antiques, or coordinate the relocation of an entire institutional collection. This isn't work that employees learn overnight. The Naglee team is just as equipped to move the contents of a home as they are to be trusted with priceless artwork.

The moving industry also involves complex Department Of Transportation regulations, insurance requirements, safety procedures, and demanding customer expectations. For Naglee, delivering exceptional service requires knowledgeable employees who understand how to perform their responsibilities safely and consistently. The ongoing target is making sure 114 years of accumulated knowledge can be efficiently passed from one generation of employees to the next.

The Challenge: Great Information Without a Great System

My relationship with Naglee began after I spoke at the New York State Movers Association's annual conference. President, Beau Roskow, who brings extensive experience working with Fortune 500 companies and leading the Naglee team, understood the importance of creating repeatable systems that support employees and reduce operational dependence on individual people. Naglee had already invested in Trainual, a digital platform designed to organize company procedures and employee training. They also had plenty of valuable content, however, the information had accumulated without the consistent structure and oversight needed to turn it into an efficient company playbook.

Before our program began, I conducted a comprehensive Trainual SOP assessment which I provide to any business for free. The results were typical for many of the companies I work with because when the team is busy working and they don’t have a system for writing systems, things can go sideways. Here are a few findings:

• 128 individual Subjects had been created, making the system unnecessarily complicated. Simplicity is key when delivering training.
• Only 42 Subjects were published, leaving roughly two-thirds of the content in draft form and not visible to other teammates.
• 30 Subjects had no designated Owner responsible for maintaining the information. Having one person in charge of each group of content is critical.
• Very few instructional videos were available, even for physical tasks like crating that benefit tremendously from visual demonstrations.

The assessment also revealed inconsistent formatting, duplicated assignments, and unnecessary separation of related information. Fortunately, Naglee had already completed some excellent foundational work, including its organizational chart, role chart, and delegation planner. The problem wasn't a lack of knowledge or effort. They needed training on a better way to organize what they knew and teach employees how to maintain it.

A Three-Month Investment in Their People

Naglee enrolled in my Systems Success Process Documentation Program through a SUNY Corning Community College's Workforce Education program. A New York State Workforce Development training grant covered 60% of their investment and the structure of my engagement meant they could take it on during their busiest period. The three-month curriculum, representing over 100 hours of training and practical application, included weekly virtual instruction, individual coaching, and hands-on documentation exercises. But this wasn't simply a project where an outside consultant came in and cleaned up their software with them. Our curriculum’s goal was to teach Naglee's own employees how to organize, document, and share their business knowledge.

We worked through key leaders such as Brenda Ostrander, to develop fundamental expertise in writing effective Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), structuring training materials, assigning responsibilities, and identifying what employees actually need to know. The team learned how to make documentation easier to navigate, understand, and maintain. And the improvements were substantial. Now Brenda and others are able to coach the rest of their team across several divisions on the importance of this work.  Remember, it’s not just about the work of physical documentation, it’s also about developing a culture where everyone is ready to share their knowledge and work together to help each other grow.

From 128 Subjects to Just 40

One of the most significant accomplishments was the transformation of Naglee's Trainual library. We worked together to reduce the original 128 Subjects to 40 efficiently organized Subjects, eliminating wasteful and duplicated content. That's nearly a 70% reduction in the number of Subjects employees and managers need to navigate! We never want to delete valuable company knowledge but its critical to organize related information more logically, eliminating redundancy, and creating a structure that made sense for the employees using it. Think about a new warehouse employee trying to find a procedure. Instead of navigating an overwhelming collection of loosely organized topics, they benefit from a more focused and understandable training system.

For business owners, there's an important lesson here: More documentation doesn't automatically mean better training. The value comes from having the right information, organized correctly, and available to the right employees.

Another important part of our program focused on capturing knowledge directly from employees performing the work. One of my favorite methods involves recording experienced employees explaining or demonstrating a process. For a moving company, imagine the training value of watching an experienced employee demonstrate proper crating techniques instead of relying entirely on written instructions. We taught Naglee's team how to record simple training videos, organize their recordings, and convert the information into structured training documents. This approach is especially effective in skilled trades businesses because employees don't necessarily need to be great writers to share their expertise.

They can start by showing someone how the work gets done. From there, that knowledge can become repeatable educational content. The team also learned why consistent formatting, meaningful visuals, and clear explanations are essential to making training effective.

Preparing Employees to Delegate and Lead

As the program progressed, we surveyed employees to better understand their learning preferences and identify potential knowledge gaps. We also explored an important question I frequently ask business owners: What happens when one of your most experienced employees is unavailable for two weeks? Can someone else confidently handle their responsibilities? Or does that employee spend half their vacation answering phone calls?

A well-developed company playbook makes it easier to delegate responsibilities and prepare employees for expanded roles. We also introduced quizzes and interactive training methods while developing Naglee's leadership team's ability to train others. This train-the-trainer approach helps ensure that knowledge continues to circulate throughout the organization long after our program ends. After all, the goal isn't to have one person who knows everything. It's to develop an entire team that works in sync and knows where to find the SOPs to perform their job correctly. Case in point... you can't move a large art installation by yourself!

The Results: 20 Employees Trained and a Stronger Organization

In October 2026, Naglee formally confirmed the successful completion of its workforce development training program in a letter to SUNY Corning Community College. Twenty employees participated, including leaders, supervisors, drivers, and warehouse staff. Naglee reported improvements in employees' ability to document procedures, communicate expectations, and deliver consistent instruction. The company also recognized stronger foundations for onboarding, clearer accountability, greater operational consistency, and expanded leadership opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, employees developed skills to coach coworkers and prepare additional team members to teach established procedures. This means the value of the training extends beyond the original 20 participants. Naglee now has a more efficiently structured company playbook and employees better equipped to maintain and expand its training program. That's a meaningful return on their commitment.

What Other Skilled Trades Owners Can Learn

Whether you own a plumbing company, HVAC business, electrical contracting firm, construction operation, or moving company, Naglee's experience demonstrates something important. Your employees hold an enormous amount of valuable operational knowledge. But if that information exists only in their heads, your company becomes vulnerable whenever someone leaves. You don't necessarily need more software or hundreds of new SOPs. You need an organized system, clear ownership, effective training methods, and employees who understand how to keep everything current.

These capabilities also become valuable when preparing your business for succession or an eventual sale. A business that can demonstrate how it operates without depending on its owner for every decision is better prepared for the future. So, I want to personally thank Beau Roskow and the entire Naglee Moving & Storage team for their dedication throughout our three months together. Building an effective company playbook requires hard work, especially while continuing to manage the daily demands of a busy skilled trades operation.

What impressed me most was their willingness to invest in developing their people, not just improving their software. After 114 years, Naglee has an extraordinary amount of knowledge worth preserving. I'm proud to have helped their team strengthen the systems needed to protect it.

Testimonial from Naglee Moving & Storage

“Working with Henderberg Business Solutions through the Systems Success program was a valuable investment in our people and the future of Naglee Moving & Storage. With more than a century of experience behind us, we needed a practical way to preserve that knowledge and make it easier to share across our team.

The lasting value is our team’s ability to carry this work forward. The hands-on coaching and train-the-trainer approach equipped employees to share their expertise, support their coworkers, and maintain our company playbook. I would recommend Henderberg Business Solutions to business owners looking to strengthen their systems and develop the people who make those systems work.”

Beau Roskow, CEO & President

If you're an owner or manager of a growing business, here's my question for you:

Could your company operate effectively if your three most experienced employees left tomorrow? At Henderberg Business Solutions, my Systems Success training programs help business owners document their knowledge, develop stronger employees, improve delegation, and build a company that operates more consistently without their constant involvement.

Because building a successful business is one accomplishment. Building a business that can continue succeeding without you is something even more valuable. Visit Henderberg Business Solutions to learn more about our Systems Success training programs.