At a glance
A one-truck New Hampshire mover can open near $94,400
Configuration fingerprint
The strongest state-specific constraint is regulatory rather than tax-related. New Hampshire requires a certificate for intrastate household-goods operations under RSA 359-T:2; the administrative rules require a compliant insurance certificate before the household-goods certificate is issued, and a cargo policy or indemnity bond providing at least $0.60 per pound of the registered load-carrying capacity. The carrier must also use written estimates and stay within the statutory 10% over-estimate rule unless the customer consents in writing.
New Hampshire has no general sales tax, but labor and fuel are meaningful. CareerOneStop reports a 2025 statewide median of $20.25/hour for hand laborers and material movers versus $19.35 nationally; the model pays $22/hour. AAA reported New Hampshire diesel at $5.5786/gallon on August 29, 2026.
Most important caveat: insurance and final parking/site approvals require address- and operator-specific quotes. The model uses a transparent planning allowance rather than presenting a vendor quote as a statewide average. Interstate moving is excluded from the Base case; adding interstate work introduces FMCSA registration and federal household-goods rules.
Startup scope
Where the opening cash goes in the statewide model
The truck dominates startup cost. A current in-state Penske listing showed a 2019 Hino 268, 26-foot box truck, 25,950-lb GVW at $52,000 on the research date. The Typical model uses $50,000; Lean and Premium vary truck age/condition without changing one-truck capacity.
The $14,200 Typical operating-cash reserve is separate from net working capital: roughly $2,200 covers the modeled peak owner-operated ramp deficit and $12,000 is the minimum closing-cash floor. Opening packing stock is shown separately, so it is excluded from the $2,000 initial net working capital line.
| Use of funds | Lean | Typical | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truck and launch assets | |||
| Truck purchase and pre-buy | $32,000 | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| Moving equipment and vehicle upfit | $5,000 | $7,500 | $11,000 |
| Entity, carrier and professional setup | $800 | $1,200 | $2,000 |
| Insurance deposits and first premiums | $3,500 | $5,000 | $7,000 |
| Pre-opening and liquidity | |||
| Parking / refundable deposits | $800 | $1,500 | $2,500 |
| Pre-opening payroll and training | $1,500 | $2,500 | $4,000 |
| Brand, website and launch marketing | $2,000 | $4,000 | $7,000 |
| Opening supplies and packing stock | $1,500 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Initial NWC, excluding opening stock | $1,500 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Opening operating-cash reserve | $9,000 | $14,200 | $20,200 |
| Contingency | $3,000 | $4,500 | $7,500 |
| Total project cost | $60,600 | $94,400 | $142,200 |
Startup cash by scope – New Hampshire statewide model, 2026 USD
Critical path
The certificate and insurance sequence controls opening
A fast launch is possible because this configuration avoids a customer-facing retail build-out and a storage warehouse. The realistic critical path is entity formation, insurance underwriting, truck acquisition, the state household-goods carrier filing, vehicle registration, equipment installation, and crew readiness. New Hampshire's rules make the insurance certificate a prerequisite to the household-goods carrier certificate, so buying a truck before testing insurability can strand capital.
The 8 – 14 week planning range below is modeled, not an agency service-level agreement. The state rules publish filing requirements and annual reporting duties, but not a universal certificate-processing SLA. Several steps can overlap, which is why the overall range should not be calculated by simply adding every row.
Lock legal form and operating plan
Single-member LLC, intrastate only, one truck, no warehouse. Obtain EIN and line up banking/bookkeeping.
Quote truck and insurance together
Underwriter needs vehicle, driver and operating details; do not close the truck until coverage is economically workable.
File the carrier package
Submit the household-goods carrier application, $50 fee, Secretary of State registration and compliant insurance certificate.
Register and mark the truck
Complete state/municipal vehicle registration, annual household-goods vehicle registration, lettering and equipment setup.
Train documents and crew
Use compliant written estimates, approval controls, bills, claims workflow, job checklists and safe material-handling practice.
| Deliverable | Prerequisite / owner | Planning duration | Can overlap? | Critical-path issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLC, EIN, bank setup | Business plan; founder / filing service | 1 – 2 weeks modeled | Yes, with truck search | Use exact legal/trade names consistently |
| Truck selection / inspection | Budget and lender terms; founder / mechanic | 1 – 4 weeks modeled | Yes | Availability, pre-buy findings and insurability |
| Insurance binder / certificate | Vehicle and drivers; broker / insurer | 1 – 3 weeks modeled | Partly | Required before state carrier certificate |
| Household-goods carrier certificate | SOS registration + insurance; NH DMV | Not published; 2 – 6 weeks modeled | Equipment prep can | Do not take regulated jobs before authority |
| Registrations, marking and equipment | Truck; town/city + DMV + founder | 1 – 2 weeks modeled | Yes | Municipal fee depends on vehicle/address |
| Crew, documents and soft launch | Authority, insured truck, hire; founder | 1 – 2 weeks modeled | Recruiting can start earlier | Estimate/billing discipline and trained second mover |
Authority to operate
New Hampshire regulates the move, not just the entity
Forming an LLC does not authorize household-goods transportation. The business must separately satisfy the state carrier regime. Under RSA Chapter 359-T, an intrastate household-goods carrier needs state operating authority; under Saf-C 4600, the application uses Form DSAD 5-H, includes a $50 fee, and must be accompanied by business registration and the required insurance certificate. If a trade name is used, Saf-C 4602.01 requires it to be filed with the bureau before use.
The customer-document rules are financially material. RSA 359-T:9 requires a written estimate when requested before service and limits the final charge to no more than 10% above the estimate unless the customer gives written consent. Saf-C 4603 also specifies estimate and bill content. That makes estimating accuracy, change-order documentation and accessorial pricing operating controls – not clerical details.
| Requirement | Level | Fee / financial basis | Timing / renewal | Dependency and official basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic LLC | State | $100 formation; electronic handling may add $2 | $100 annual report; due April 1 after registration year | NH Secretary of State LLC forms and fees |
| EIN and employer setup | Federal / state | IRS EIN has no filing fee | Before payroll and tax accounts | IRS EIN guidance; workers' compensation generally required when employing workers under the NH Department of Labor employer guide |
| Household-goods carrier certificate | State | $50 application | Annual carrier report due July 1; certificate rules apply continuously | SOS registration + insurance are filing prerequisites under Saf-C 4605 |
| Cargo insurance / indemnity bond | State | Local quote required; coverage not less than $0.60/lb of registered load capacity | Evidence required before certificate; maintain in force | RSA 359-T:8 and Saf-C 4602.02 |
| Household-goods vehicle registration | State | $10 per vehicle annually | Annual while active | RSA 359-T:18; carrier marking applies, and the vehicle is subject to authorized examination under RSA 359-T:16 |
| Ordinary truck registration | State + local | State gross-weight fee + municipal permit; exact total varies | At registration and renewal | For 2026, the state fee for 8,001 – 73,280 lb is $1.06 per 100 lb under RSA 261:141; municipal permit basis is in RSA 261:153 |
| Written estimate and billing controls | State | No separate filing fee identified | Per regulated move | Estimate when requested; customer written consent needed to exceed estimate by more than 10% under RSA 359-T:9 |
| Zoning / truck parking / home occupation | City / town | Varies by city/town; local quote or fee schedule required | Confirm before signing parking or office commitments | Final operating and parking addresses determine land-use restrictions |
| Interstate authority | Federal | Excluded from Base case; federal registration/insurance costs apply if added | Before interstate household-goods operations | FMCSA interstate mover rules |
For the model truck at 25,950 lb gross weight, the 2026 state weight fee is derived at about $275 before the municipal permit and other registration items: 25,950 ÷ 100 × $1.06. That is a calculation from the statutory schedule, not a DMV quote. The municipal portion uses maker's list price and vehicle age, so the final amount cannot responsibly be modeled without the actual truck and registration municipality.
New Hampshire's Department of Revenue Administration publishes a 7.5% Business Profits Tax rate for periods ending on or after December 31, 2023, with a $109,000 gross-business-income filing threshold for periods beginning January 1, 2025. The Business Enterprise Tax rate is 0.55%, with a $298,000 gross-receipts or enterprise-value threshold; BET can credit against BPT. This model remains pre-income-tax.
Local variation and address checks
Portsmouth
The official inspection department publishes Home Occupation 1 and 2 permit applications. That demonstrates why a home-office assumption still needs address review. Official permit applications.
Manchester
The zoning ordinance places conditions on home occupations, including limits on premises use. A moving truck may create a different land-use issue than desk-only administration. Official zoning ordinance.
Concord
The city publishes a Minor Home Occupation form, reinforcing that local home-business treatment is an address-level question rather than a statewide permit. Official home-occupation form.
Revenue engine
Billed crew hours – not truck ownership – drive revenue
The natural revenue unit is one billed truck-crew hour. That keeps the model tied to the actual constraint: one truck, one owner-driver/mover and one employee mover cannot sell unlimited hours because loading, driving, estimates, staging, refueling, cleaning, maintenance and schedule gaps consume the calendar. The planning ceiling is about 120 billed hours per month, not 160 – 200 nominal labor hours.
A current New Hampshire moving-cost benchmark publishes $178/hour statewide for two movers and a truck. Because that is commercial rather than official data, the Base model rounds to $180 of effective net revenue per billed hour. Moving labor, packing/accessorial labor and separately sold packing materials are modeled with $0 general sales tax collected because New Hampshire has no general sales tax. Card fees remain a variable expense.
| Metric | Downside | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand and pricing | |||
| Billed truck-crew hours / month | 55 | 85 | 110 |
| Capacity utilization | 45.8% | 70.8% | 91.7% |
| Effective net revenue / billed hour | $165 | $180 | $195 |
| Net operating revenue / month | $9,075 | $15,300 | $21,450 |
| Passive-basis operating economics | |||
| Passive/economic contribution | $4,924 | $8,927 | $13,224 |
| Normalized cash operating profit before D&A | – $476 | $3,527 | $7,824 |
| Passive-basis cash margin | – 5.2% | 23.1% | 36.5% |
| Working-owner pre-tax business cash benefit | $2,352 | $7,162 | $12,130 |
Monthly revenue by operating case – New Hampshire statewide model, Typical scope, 2026 USD
At the Base assumption of 4.5 billed hours per average move, 85 monthly billed hours imply roughly 19 jobs and an average modeled invoice of about $810. That is a planning translation, not a separate revenue driver. If jobs become longer or include more packing labor, job count can fall while billed hours and revenue remain stable.
The cash ramp starts at 25 billed hours in month 1, then 45, 60, 72 and 80 before reaching 85 in month 6. No fictitious statewide seasonality curve is imposed; winter disruption and peak-season capacity should be validated locally. Customer prepayments affect cash timing but are not revenue until earned.
Monthly cost base
Labor and insurance decide whether the owner has a job or an asset
The Base P&L separates variable fulfillment cost, fixed cash overhead and owner-replacement labor. The employee mover earns $22/hour plus a 12% employer payroll burden, or $24.64 per billed hour, deliberately above the 2025 statewide occupational median. Workers' compensation sits in the fixed insurance allowance, not in that 12% factor.
The working owner is the second mover/driver. Economic comparison assigns that field work $24/hour plus 12% burden, or $26.88 per billed hour, while $1,350/month represents fixed dispatch, estimating and administration replacement. The working-owner view adds these replacement costs back; the passive-owner view keeps them as costs. Owner draws are not expenses.
$24.64 employee labor
$22 wage × 1.12 payroll burden. Base monthly cost at 85 billed hours: $2,094.
$26.88 owner replacement
Economic cost of field labor. Base monthly imputed cost at 85 billed hours: $2,285.
$18.60 operations
Base fuel $8.60, maintenance $6.00 and supplies/claims consumables $4.00 per billed hour, plus 2.7% card fees.
Fixed non-owner cash costs – New Hampshire statewide Base model, 2026 USD per month
The $1,850 insurance line is a planning allowance, not a New Hampshire quote. Insureon reports U.S. mover medians of $876/month for commercial auto, $120 for general liability and $755 for workers' compensation, with cargo coverage also relevant. Quote the actual truck, drivers, payroll, limits and cargo basis before committing capital.
Fuel is modeled directly. AAA showed statewide diesel at $5.5786/gallon on August 29, 2026. The $8.60 Base allowance per billed hour is consistent with roughly 1,050 monthly miles at 8 mpg. A $1/gallon increase costs about $131/month at that mileage.
Unit economics
One Base billed hour contributes about $105 on a passive basis
The passive unit view charges each $180 billed hour for $24.64 employee labor, $26.88 owner field replacement, $8.60 fuel, $6 maintenance, $4 supplies/claims consumables and $4.86 card fees. Contribution is $105.02 per billed hour, or 58.34%.
The working-owner view adds back only the $26.88 variable owner replacement already deducted, producing $131.90 of cash contribution per billed hour, or 73.28%. Fixed owner administration replacement stays in the break-even numerator; fixed overhead is not allocated to unit contribution.
$180.00 billed hour
Base effective net revenue after discounts/credits and excluding pass-through taxes; payment processing is a cost below revenue.
$105.02 / 58.34%
Includes market-rate replacement labor for the owner's direct moving work plus all other variable fulfillment costs.
$131.90 / 73.28%
Adds back only the variable owner-replacement labor already charged to the passive unit.
Translated to a 4.5-hour planning job, the modeled invoice is about $810 and passive/economic contribution is about $473. At 85 billed hours, that equates to roughly 19 average jobs per month. The decision implication is straightforward: discounting one full moving hour is expensive because most direct costs still occur. A $10 reduction in realized hourly price cuts Base monthly profit by roughly $827 after the 2.7% processing effect.
Marketing should be measured against contribution, not revenue. The model carries $900/month rather than inventing a public-data CAC. Track cost per qualified lead, booking conversion, acquisition cost per completed move, contribution per acquired customer and referral share from the first month.
Break-even and capital recovery
Base volume clears the sustainable break-even thresholds
Break-even changes depending on whether the owner is merely trying to keep the truck running, earn a target return for working in the business, or replace their labor entirely. The calculations below keep the numerator and contribution margin on the same ownership basis. They also remain inside the one-truck capacity band, so no second-truck or second-crew step cost is triggered.
Break-even capacity use – New Hampshire statewide Base model, 2026, 120 billed-hour capacity
30.7 billed hours / $5,527 revenue
Numerator: $4,050 fixed non-owner cash costs. Matching working-owner cash contribution margin: 73.28%. This says only when the operation stops burning cash before owner compensation.
51.4 billed hours / $9,255 revenue
Numerator: $4,050 fixed non-owner costs + $1,350 fixed owner-management replacement. Matching passive contribution margin: 58.34%.
68.6 billed hours / $12,350 revenue
Numerator: $4,050 fixed non-owner costs + $5,000 target monthly owner compensation. Matching cash contribution margin: 73.28%.
76.4 billed hours / $13,751 revenue
Working-owner target numerator plus the illustrative $727 debt payment and $300 monthly maintenance-capex reserve.
Payback uses monthly cumulative cash. The owner-operated ramp moves from 25 billed hours in month 1 to 85 by month 6. The opening reserve is contributed at month 0, so ramp losses paid from that reserve are not counted again as new capital; distributions wait until the minimum cash floor is restored.
With the illustrative $35,000 truck loan funded at purchase, founder equity is $59,400 and levered working-owner pre-tax payback occurs in month 13 after debt service and $300/month maintenance capex. Unlevered project payback on the full $94,400, with no debt service, occurs in month 17.
A passive-from-day-one case needs about $18,800 of opening reserve to protect the same $12,000 floor; with the same debt assumption, founder equity is roughly $64,000. Modeled levered pre-tax passive payback is around month 33. Delayed authority, repairs or a slower ramp extend these results.
State market and sensitivity
Demand is broad; realized hours and price remain the real test
A reliable New Hampshire household-goods moving market-revenue amount is not publicly determinable without mixing adjacent categories or inventing annual spend. Census QuickFacts reports 1,415,342 residents as of July 1, 2025 and 662,160 housing units; its 2020 – 2024 mobility measure says 89.3% of people age one and older lived in the same house one year earlier. These are demand proxies, not market revenue.
The statewide model therefore does not manufacture TAM. It asks whether one truck can win 55, 85 or 110 billed hours monthly. That is a far more decision-useful hurdle than a large top-down market number.
±10 billed hours ≈ ±$1,319
Base working-owner cash benefit changes by about $131.90 per billed hour. Track booked hours, completion rate and schedule gaps weekly.
±$10/hour ≈ ±$827
At 85 hours, after the 2.7% processing effect. Track realized revenue per billed hour, discounts, claims credits and estimate variance.
+25% allowance = – $463/mo.
Quote before truck commitment. Monitor renewal pricing, driver changes, payroll exposure, claims and required cargo limits.
+$2 wage = – $190/mo.
At 85 billed hours and 12% payroll burden. Track overtime, no-shows, turnover and labor hours per billed truck-crew hour.
+$1/gal. ≈ – $131/mo.
At roughly 1,050 monthly miles and 8 mpg. Route density and deadhead miles are the leading operational indicators.
Sources and method
What is official, observed, derived and still quote-dependent
Research was reviewed August 29, 2026 on a 2026 USD planning basis. Official fees/rules use published values; wages and demand use the latest cited periods; truck, price, fuel and insurance inputs are dated observations or benchmarks. Insurance and local approvals remain quote/address specific. The largest uncertainty is realized billed hours at the chosen price.
| Source / publisher | Geography / period | Evidence type | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| NH RSA 359-T + Saf-C 4600 | New Hampshire; current | Official fee / rule | Carrier authority, fees, insurance, estimates, filings and annual duties |
| NH Secretary of State + NH DRA | New Hampshire; current / 2025+ | Official fee / rule | LLC formation, annual report, BPT/BET rates and thresholds |
| U.S. DOL CareerOneStop wage data | New Hampshire; 2025 | Reported government data | Employee wage anchor |
| AAA fuel prices | New Hampshire; Aug. 29, 2026 | Published benchmark | Diesel cost anchor |
| U.S. Census QuickFacts | New Hampshire; 2020 – 2025 fields | Reported government data | Population, housing and mobility proxies |
| Penske Used Trucks listing | New Hampshire; observed 2026 | Observed market quote | Typical truck-cost cross-check |
| moveBuddha moving-cost benchmark | New Hampshire; observed 2026 | Published benchmark | $178/hour statewide price anchor |
| Insureon mover insurance benchmark | U.S.; updated June 2025 | Published benchmark | Insurance allowance cross-check; quote required |
| FMCSA Protect Your Move | United States; current | Official fee / rule | Interstate expansion boundary |
| Local samples: Portsmouth, Manchester, Concord | Multiple NH jurisdictions; current pages | Official fee / rule | Proves local address checks vary; not averaged |