ABOUT SHLEPPERS
Lois Benjamin-Bohm is a native New Yorker who made good. President and CEO of the well-known New York City residential moving company SHLEPPERS, long-distance division LBB Van Lines, Inc. and with a New York Storage facility. Ms. Benjamin-Bohm grew up in New York where she developed the drive and confidence to be a major force in a business long considered a "man's domain."
A graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Ms. Benjamin-Bohm was the Public Information Director for the New York City Consumer Affairs Department under Commissioner Bess Myerson Grant, and Aide to Mayor John V. Lindsay at City Hall, and finally an Assistant to Governor Hugh Carey.
Seeking a respite from politics, Ms. Benjamin-Bohm moved to Israel to work as the Public Relations Director for the Tel Aviv Hilton. Upon returning to the U.S., she met and married Shlomo Benjamin, an Israeli government worker. Looking for a way to support themselves and their infant son, the couple decided on the moving business as it required little start-up capital. Ms. Benjamin-Bohm hit on the name Shleppers (meaning "to lug or carry") because it was a quintessential New York word, one that all New Yorkers knew and understood. With a used van, a bank loan, and $12.00 in business cards, they began driving up and down Manhattan's streets offering moving services to antique and furniture shop owners. Before long, Shleppers became a household name for relocating families and businesses to their new locations.
In 1988, ten years after founding Shleppers, Lois Benjamin-Bohm's life was shattered by a horrifying car crash that killed her husband and three children. The business they had built together from the ground up, was the only thing that remained and the only thing that kept her alive. She poured her heart and soul into Shleppers, and it flourished.
In 1998, Shleppers celebrated its 20th anniversary and became a multi-million dollar enterprise with 45 employees and locations in Manhattan and the Bronx. Celebrities like Richard Gere, Marlo Thomas, John Lennon, Peter Allen, Jerzy Kosinski, Debra Gibson, John McEnroe, and Alan Alda have moved with Shleppers, while we relocated some of New York's most prestigious businesses and organizations. Of course the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who recognized those "orange" trucks with the "quirky" name, and became happy clients, who recommended the city-friendly company over and over again, are the mainstays of her successful organization.
Lois Benjamin-Bohm has been honored at the 1998 Avon Women of Enterprise Awards along with Katie Couric and four other women entrepreneurs; won a Working Woman Magazine Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for Customer and Client Service; received a Signature Honor from NAWBO-The National Association of Women Business Owners-NY, and serves on the Advisory Board of Dress For Success-NY. All of these organizations celebrate and support the achievements of women who triumph over diversity.
2002 finds Shleppers once again rising to meet the challenge of a reeling economy in a beloved city still recovering from its tragic disaster on September 11th. Lois Benjamin-Bohm is now reorganizing her operation to meet the specific needs required to calm and assist clients who are already under stress. The adversity that the world is experiencing need not be carried over into the daily lives of all that must function in a meaningful, positive manner. Our company's support at Chelsea Piers during the rescue efforts, as well as contributions consisting of manpower, trucks and storage space during the initial months following the crisis, focused us on an even kinder more compassionate view of our surroundings than we already had. Shleppers and New York are true partners.
Lois Benjamin-Bohm is a sought after speaker and has been a guest on radio and television shows, such as The Joan Rivers Show and Fox 5 Morning News Show. An active participant in charities, her company collects donated clothing and delivers it at no-charge to Dress For Success-NY, a non-profit group that provides work-related clothing to low-income women seeking employment. As this organization has successfully grown, so has her involvement in supporting its ongoing success. Additionally, Shleppers works with Habitat for Humanity, moving selected families into their new homes.
Ms. Benjamin-Bohm, now remarried with a new family, divides her time between running Shleppers, and raising her four children. She is confirmation that the phrases, "You need to keep moving forward here because a New York Minute is faster than any thought you had yesterday." "Obstacles and hardship can either defeat you or force you to grow in directions you once thought impossible," are ways of life she embodies and shares.
