Everything You Need to Know about Relocating Your Business

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, 5S for the Office (190-slide PowerPoint presentation). The office, by any name, is a paperwork factory. To become a Lean enterprise, office activities must fully support shop-floor manufacturing operations to eliminate waste. The adoption of 5S throughout all office functions is the first step to increase efficiency. 5S principles are dedicated to [read more]

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Relocating a business is a crucial and complex task. It requires excellent analysis of everything involved and consideration of all the essentials. As a business owner or leader, you should ensure that the process ends successfully with no damages or losses.

Relocating your business may refer to various instances, such as moving your office from downtown to the suburbs. It may also entail moving your firm from one city to another or a section while retaining the previous location. Business relocation is a stressful task but once it is over, you should be ready to start fresh in a better work environment. It is a critical decision that requires you to understand everything involved, as discussed below.

Cost

Cost is a vital aspect to put in mind during business relocation. There are many other hidden costs and expenses that you may incur besides the car shipping quote and other company assets. The distance is one of the most significant determinants of the quotes among most movers. Moving your office across town is less costly than relocating the same business from one city to another. The business size also determines the moving costs considering that relocating a 2000 staff firm is more expensive than the small 20 staff firm.  Therefore, it’s very important to select a professional moving company that will suit your needs.

Moreover, the overhead costs of the new location also have a significant impact on your moving budget. Factors such as wages, utilities, shipping and leasing/mortgage payments affect your daily business operations. If they are higher, it means your business relocation costs will be higher as well. Moving to a bigger city and into leased or rented offices means that you should be ready to incur more charges to keep your business running. Besides, moving to a new business location requires you to move your employees and train them (if necessary). It would help if you were sure of affording all the costs involved before moving your business to a new location.

Employee and Stakeholder Perspective

Employees deliver better when they work for a business located in easily accessible places. Such companies make it easier and cheaper for the employees to reach their workplace and deliver as required. It is the small things such as accessible parking that matter and motivates your employees.

Before moving your business, you should ensure that the employees and other stakeholders will enjoy great convenience at the new location. Besides parking, the new location should also be easily accessible, especially for commuting employees. If most of your clients often fly into your company, going for a location easily accessible to a decent airport is essential.

Tax Regulations

Paying taxes is a great responsibility for any business operating in the modern business world. Moving your business to a new state, county, or country means operating under new tax laws and regulations. It would help if you researched adequately to familiarize yourself with the new laws and regulations awaiting your firm.

Depending on your current and previous location, taxes may significantly impact your company’s profitability. Your new location may also allow you access to tax credits if you have offices in multiple locations. Before making a move, you should take time to think through the tax impact on the business relocation underway.

Customers

Customers are the heart of your organization and its financial health. Before relocating your office, you should sincerely think through about its impact on the current customers. Moving further from the customers or increasing the overhead costs in reaching you makes you vulnerable before your competitors. You can quickly lose your customers to the latter, which translates to lower sales and profits.

It would help if you understood the effects associated with losing your existing customer base. Besides destroying the business, the loss may also result in negative attributes from the affected client towards your firm.

Growth Opportunities and Capabilities

It is the dream of every business to grow and surpass its goals. As you plan your big move, you should think about the impact of your new location on your business growth. Besides offering enormous opportunities for growth, the location should also offer both long-term and short-term capabilities for business success. If your business is likely to double in size in the next three years, your new location should have the ability to support immense growth. The support may be in the form of resources, talent pool, infrastructure and shipping services.

Relocating your business is not an easy decision. It is a communal decision that affects not only the leadership and management but also the customers, employees, community and government. Before making the big move, you should consider its impact on everyone involved for the future and survival of your business.

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