Relocating Your Business: Things to Think About

Relocation of a business can, and almost always is, a very stressful venture which is not always guaranteed to yield the results business owners expect. The most common reasons why companies decide to relocate their premises to another street, town, state or country, are:

• a wish to reach a different market which may suit the company better
• a need to expand, both in the sense of room expansion and business expansion (think small town companies who wish to move to an industry center
• problems with workforce such as the lack of workforce qualified for a certain business niche in a given region
• expensive environment and unfavorable economic conditions in the original area.

Any of these reasons and myriad of others which are probably more specific but nevertheless equally compelling can result in an executive decision of managers to change the environment and attempt to get back on feet as soon as possible. The aim of this article is to provide a surface analysis of the problem in question and try to point out the most important things to bear in mind.

The first thing to do is to think about all the drawbacks and make sure you can resolve all the problems they can cause. Here are just some of the things that can go wrong when you start relocating your business:

1) While the transition is in process, both locations need to be operating, otherwise you might lose the momentum  - It cannot be overstated how important continuous operation is for any business. You cannot afford to temporarily close your company while you are waiting for another office to open. Firstly, this will more than likely cause you to lose the rhythm necessary for smooth functioning. Secondly, you will need to figure out what to do with your workforce during the hiatus and this is by no means a simple question. And lastly, the thing is - you can never know how long the hiatus will last: some unforeseeable circumstances might arise, preventing you from resuming your business when you planned to and indefinitely postponing the new beginning.

In any case, this may seem like a lose-lose situation, because it is. You will either lose money on keeping two facilities operational, or you will risk to lose everything by starting a hiatus.

2) Depending on the type of business, you might lose your customers. If you are in the service industry, for example, you probably spent years trying to convince locals you are their best choice for a night out or lunch with friends. Once you move, you’ll have some new locals to convince. If you are producing goods for other industries, the local companies you used to sell to won’t be around anymore to provide you with secure income.

3) The price of the relocation is bound to surprise you, but not in a positive way. Instead, count on a lot of items which cost money and you haven’t previously thought of, ever. A case study conducted in Sydney recently, proved, as an example, that people often don’t think about cleaning up behind them. When it comes to junk, rubbish removal Sydney is a pretty good choice. However, many companies who relocate their businesses leave a lot of rubbish behind them left for the new owners to remove it. This is partially due to the fact that companies rarely include rubbish removal costs in their action plans.

 

4) Not all of your employees may be able to follow you, and some of those who don’t may be your best ones. A thorough human resources campaign needs to be conducted to find out what is the opinion of the employees on the impending move. In case many of your key employees find it to be a bad move, or even consider leaving the company in case a move like that is made, it is probably wise to have the replacements ready before you even start with relocation process.

From what was said in the previous couple of paragraphs, you can see that relocation of premises needs to be taken very seriously if you want it to be done properly. The key is in creating a good plan of action which will cover all eventualities and, which is probably more important, all the expenses and risks which such action carries with it. With a rock solid plan, the relocation will be as painless as possible.