Moving house is one of life’s big, messy, exhausting experiences. But what if someone could take care of all that for you? Bring calm to every detail - from getting your home ready for sale, to unpacking everything in the new place?

For the last six years that’s what Kath Woods and Zoë Miller have been doing. Like fairy godmothers of house-moving, the founders and co-owners of Glasgow-based “bespoke move management company” All About The Move (opens in new window) bring calm professionalism, order and peace to the chaos.

“People don’t move home for simple reasons, there’s always a major life transition - a new phase, a new job, downsizing, or they might be wrapping up an estate. These are emotional, difficult transitions,” explains Kath.

“The media has fed people that it’s the most stressful thing you can do,” adds Zoë. “But we can change that narrative.”

They have a huge impact for the people they help - which is why All About The Move is the latest business to step into the spotlight for our Making It Count series. With these stories, we celebrate the FreeAgent customers who make a difference in communities up and down the UK and find out what we can learn from their successes and challenges.

Business inspiration? That’s child’s play

Kath and Zoë first bonded in the school playground as busy mums. When their daughters’ school raised funds to transform its outside space, they saw the potential. Together they led an amazing refurbishment, introducing an outdoor classroom and creative, healthy play spaces.

The inspiration to set up in business together arrived after each of them, separately, had been asked to help rescue people they knew who had run into problems with a house move. Realising they had a knack, a lightbulb moment hit. Over a dog-walk one morning, each of them brought the same idea: why don’t we see if we can do this professionally?

Zoë already had a successful interior design enterprise. But Kath had no previous business experience. “I had never even opened a laptop before I started this business!” she says. What she did have was incisive organisational skills and a love of practicality, process and number crunching.

Both already familiar with Royal Bank of Scotland, they set up All About The Move’s business account with them, which turned out to be a great decision - particularly as FreeAgent came with it for free. Zoë had used spreadsheets for her own business, but neither had used accountancy software before. It was a revelation.

Kath quickly became a fan of handling the business’s invoicing and accounts. “For me who had no experience before, everything is so simple. FreeAgent just works, and for a logical mind like mine - what a joy!” Zoë meanwhile got hooked on dipping into reports, analysing performance and planning ahead.

In their early years, they also got expert support from the RBS Accelerator entrepreneur community. “It was a massive boost for us,” Kath notes, “it gave us credibility, authority, and it gave us accountability, having to go to our adviser and give him our figures every month and explain them. It was pivotal.”

Treating clients with care and compassion

They launched All About the Move in 2020 and since then it has blossomed. “Our very first clients are now on their third move with us,” Kath says. That couple have now had a baby, but Kath still recognised the new mum’s vintage china tea sets moving from one kitchen to the next.

Naturally friendly and empathetic, Zoë and Kath start each move with the client’s individual story. More than just packing and unpacking boxes, their role is almost as much therapeutic as practical. “We look at why they’re moving, rather than simply the logistics of moving from A to B,” says Zoë.

That balance of compassion and practicality is particularly important when working with bereaved families. Clearing a house for sale after a parent has died or moving home after losing a partner is an extraordinarily difficult time. But Kath and Zoë help people identify what really matters - and why.

“To make decisions is exhausting emotionally,” says Kath.

“It’s not about the object, it’s about what the object triggers, a memory,” adds Zoë. “But sometimes you don’t need to actually have the ‘thing’. You could take a photograph of it, and sometimes a digital library is enough, you don’t need the physical object. It’s so personal to the individual.”

Smoothing the journey at every step

After decluttering and repairs, Kath and Zoë stage the property to make sure it’s ready to get the best possible sale price. Once that’s achieved, they nail down all the logistics around removals of every size - “from a man with a van to very large removal firms”.

One of their early business lessons was finding out which sub-contractors they did and didn’t want to work with. They now have a trusted network. And there’s a very good reason they know they can rely on them. Thanks to All About The Move’s organised accounts, electricians, builders, glaziers and removal teams know they’ll get paid promptly.

“We pay everyone on the day of the job and that means they will always come and do our jobs, even if they’re really busy or it’s short notice, because they know we’re very organised,” explains Zoë.

“And we are quite fun to work with,” Kath adds. “The atmosphere on move day is good!”

Things have to be agile on-site, and unexpected problems can occur out of the blue with even the best-organised move. Once they had to find a joiner at the 11th hour to remove a window frame, in order to get a sofa into the house that was too big to fit through the door.

When the pressure’s on at times like that, Kath is thankful for FreeAgent’s mobile app, which helps her to keep everything running smoothly. It means she can easily update invoices on the go and track costs in real time. “As soon as a proposal is agreed, I’ll create a draft invoice. Because it’s quite complex with various contractors coming in, I’ll add them as I go along. Being able to adapt the invoice is super-easy and simple,” she says.

Delivering the ‘wow’ factor

At the other end of a move, Zoë and Kath unpack and arrange everything in clients’ new properties, ensuring it is a true dream home in walk-in condition, with every treasured possession in just the right place.

“We want to leave and the family to arrive and go ‘wow’ - and they do go ‘wow’. I don’t think we’ve ever not had that,” says Kath. “It’s when the kids get to their new bedroom, all of their belongings, all of their toys are there, it gives them familiarity from day one. It’s so important for children when they’re moving. And the parents are more relaxed.”

That’s the moment Kath and Zoë enjoy most about their job. “There’s a great level of satisfaction leaving a family and knowing that they are ready to live in that house and that everything is where they can find it,” Zoë says.

“If it was in the top left drawer in their bedroom in their old house, it’s back in the top left drawer in their new house. It’s going to be beautifully arranged, not just shoved in. You’re starting organised from day one.”

Photography: Luigi Di Pasquale (opens in new window)