To attract more customers to his fledgling moving company, 15-year-old Jon Sorber placed an ad in the Okemos Towne Courier, and his mother even drew the logo — two smiling stick figures sitting inside a moving truck.

In the advertisement placed in 1981, Sorber and his brother, Brig, identified themselves as "two men and a truck."

The company's future name was born, and the logo stuck.

Two Men and a Truck has emerged as a multi-million dollar franchise business in the last 25 years.

In 2005, the company brought in $181 million, a result of the entire family's entrepreneurship.

Sorber said he liked working for his own company at a young age.

"It got a fever going inside of us," he said. "We were going to let it fizzle out because we were going to college."

But when the two brothers left for Northern Michigan University, phone calls kept coming, looking for the movers.

In 1984, their mother decided to keep Two Men and a Truck alive, so her sons could have a job to come back to during the holidays.

Mary Ellen Sheets, who was a 46-year-old divorcee, was not experienced in the moving business or the necessary bookkeeping. Still, she found personal satisfaction in being an entrepreneur, Sheets said.

"I loved having a business from the time we had the first truck," she said.

Although Sheets calls Two Men and a Truck "an American success story," the company initially struggled because it didn't have the proper equipment.

"It was a pretty shaky operation back then," Sheets said.

To replace her college-bound sons, she hired two workers. There were no moving ramps, so the men lifted refrigerators and stoves directly up into the trucks. Sheets told the men that "ramps are for wimps."

"I had to pay them every day in cash or they wouldn't work for me," Sheets said.

Two Men and a Truck grew more successful over the years, and in 1988 a friend suggested going to a franchising attorney to expand the business.

"The funny thing is I didn't know what franchising was," Sheets said.

Sheets said she remained optimistic and followed the attorney's instructions.

Far from the company's modest start-up in 1981, Two Men and a Truck has expanded to 180 different franchises and now has a goal of becoming more international.

Last year, the moving company crossed the border to franchise in Canada.

"It just got bigger and bigger," Sheets said. "I want to see my trucks all over the world."

Sheets said the company also signed an agreement for future locations in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

She has even spoken to franchising associations in Thailand, Singapore and Mexico.

Today, Sheets and her children are still intimately involved in the company.

Sheets is the chief executive officer and founder of Two Men and a Truck. Her daughter Melanie Bergeron, who ran the very first franchise, has been the president of the company for 12 years. Jon Sorber, one of the original "two men," is president of the business in Lansing.

Sorber said everyone has heard about the horror stories of families working together. Despite a few setbacks, Two Men and a Truck has been a positive experience for him.

"We all get excited about different parts of the business," he said. "I couldn't imagine doing it any other way."

Part of the company's success came from developing a good business model which focuses on the customers and then receiving royalties from the franchises, he said.

"We're customer driven," Sorber said. "We moved 300,000 customers last year."

Lansing resident Arthur Jones, a repeat customer, hired Two Men and a Truck to move his possessions out of his pole barn to his new house in Eaton Rapids.

On Tuesday morning, the 26-foot-long white moving truck appeared in his driveway, and movers began carrying Jones' things — a refrigerator, bureaus, chairs, even a 12-foot-long aluminum boat.

Garret Peterman, who has been a mover for the company for more than two years, said people keep getting referred to the company because of their quality service.

"That's how business picks up," Peterman said. "It's word of mouth."