Changing Locations – Advice on how to Relocate Your Business

Moving your family is enough of a hassle, but moving your business can be like pulling a ship up the mountain slope. Reasons can range from economic to practical, but no matter the circumstances, just remember that there are lot of people going through that process and there are many business venues moving in the process of moving at this very moment.

In order to make this entire ordeal as painless as possible, here is some advice on how to approach business relocation.

Make plans first, ask questions later

Before you even embark on the journey of moving your company, you have to learn how to strategize. There are numerous things to consider before you break it to your employees, but some of the basics are equipment moving logistics, proximity to clients (if it’s a factor), workforce location and relocation, and cost. The last one is a crucial factor that deserves a heading of its own.

Prepare yourself to lose money

Even if the reason to change location is a financial one in the first place (e. g. bills are unreasonable) you have to be prepared to lose money. The costs of moving can skyrocket in the blink of an eye but, thankfully, there’s enough experience to go around by now, and finding a solid advice is not hard.

However, this is not the only thing you could lose. There’s a great possibility some of your workers won’t be able to stay with you because of the relocation. They either can’t move their family, or they have to stay because of a sick parent, but the flipside is the same – you will lose some good workers that have contributed to your company, and it will take a lot of time and money to train the new recruits.

This one catches many entrepreneurs off guard, so consider yourself warned.

Don’t refrain from using services

Of course, if it’s a small (enough) business, you and can do most of the moving yourself, with help from your own operations department. However, even in this situation, and not to mention in the case when the company is big enough to fill up an entire building, you should consider hiring a moving company.

Preferably, you should make sure you’ve picked the best truck hire and stick with it, because god only knows you will need it again at some point. Modern entrepreneurs are known to move a company once every three to five years, and sometimes even in half of that time.

Keep it running

It really depends on the length of the relocation process, but it’s very advisable to keep the company running as it’s happening. You don’t want you or the employees to lose any steam or precious time because time equals money in everyone’s pocket.

When the time comes, move your company in one go. Try to refrain from moving it department by department because, as you may well know, there are countless factors that can break a workflow and only a few that can keep it together.

Changes are inescapable

Psychological preparation is just as important as any other, and this one comes after the fact. Humans are strange and complicated animals and there are many unforeseeable environmental factors that can influence their behavior.

As a boss and/or a CEO, you should be prepared for this, some of the employees could end up crossing some social lines or you might see a dip in company’s performance, but this is all normal and it will blow over in a month or two.

Now that you’ve pulled that ship on the top of the mountain you have to make sure it’ll stay balanced on the peak. Otherwise, sliding back down can happen before you know it, and it isn’t unheard of that the relocation tipped it over. In order to avoid this, as an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared for anything.