For many business owners, a change in location can open up a lot of new opportunities for them, especially if those opportunities don’t exist in their current location.
Sourcing a better pool of employees
You may have heard the term ‘A business is only as strong as its weakest employee’. For a lot of business types, this can be absolutely true! A lot of businesses actually struggle to find the most qualified or experienced staff in their area. This is especially true for specialised companies that need employees with a certain skill set or training. It can be difficult for a company to attract the right staff if the employees face a long daily commute to work. As an employer you have to take into consideration the level of commuting time and travel expenses that your staff would be happy to tolerate. Sometimes even the offer of a very generous salary isn’t enough of a temptation to bring in the skilled personnel that you need to help your business to grow. Should your business have grown to a level where your current location lacks a pool of suitably trained or qualified workforce, then it has become time to consider the benefits of relocating your operation to somewhere better with a larger local workforce or better travel infrastructure.
Your local community is on the decline
With lots of regions across the country suffering from severe austerity cuts, many once-thriving towns, cities and communities are now struggling. When a town or city’s local economy is on the decline, it can it more difficult for businesses to grow and prosper. A good reason to relocate your business to a more thriving area is that you can actually lower your operational costs. While you may think it would be cheaper to rent offices, warehouses and workshops in declining areas, the opposite can be true. Many commercial property owners will put the rent up for existing businesses to help make up for the losses of income and rental charges from vacant properties. One of the most expensive overheads for most business operations is the cost of leasing their operational facilities. Any extra increases in rent can often determine whether that business remains profitable or not, especially in an economically depressed area where there may be a lack of local resources to help keep the business ticking over.
You need to expand and upgrade your facilities
Any kind of business success is great for your bottom line, but it also means that if you want to continue to be successful and take on larger projects, you will need to move to larger premises with better equipment to make your growth and expansion plans possible. Many new small business set-ups don’t have the upfront capital available for their own purpose-built facilities. So the only option is to rent offices and workplace facilities until the company outgrows their current location. It can actually be more cost-effective for a company to rent and relocate like this for the first few years of their operation that put down permanent roots in purpose-built facilities. For a lot of growing business owners it can be a relief to plan a company relocation. They will already be well aware of what business shortcomings are currently stifling their growth. By looking at relocating to another area with much better opportunities, the business stands to gain the resources it needs to support and improve their operations further. As a business owner you will need to clearly define what you need to see your business continue to grow and prosper. You then need to do your research to look at all viable options available to you and ensure that by relocating your risks are lower than your rewards.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Business Relocation
If your businesses isn’t doing as well as expected and you can attribute this poor performance to its physical location, then you don’t need to put up with it.
Why should you let the current confinement of your business location hold your company back? Planning a company relocation could be the answer to solve all of your business worries. However, you need to weigh up all aspects of your relocation carefully.
When you are frustrated by how your current business premises are holding you back, it can be easy to see why the grass always looks greener on the other side. However, physically moving your business to a brand new location is not an easy job. Before you jump in you should make a comprehensive list of the positive and negative points for your relocation plan.
Here are some positive and negative points for you to consider:
Possible advantages
Moving to a new location that can provide you with a more specialised pool of potential employees can be a bonus. Sometimes it pays you to go to where your talent is rather than trying to get them to come to you.
Relocating your business to be closer to your customer base makes a lot of sense, especially if you started your business in some far-flung location that’s miles away from civilisation. Not only are you making your business more accessible for your customers, but your staff will also benefit with shorter and cheaper commuting costs.
You can increase your company visibility and become a recognised member of a strong local business community.
By moving to a new area with a thriving socio-economic climate, you can continue to build your reputation within your industry while benefiting from new marketplace opportunities.
Relocating your business operation may help to improve efficiency and productivity because you can provide your staff with much improved and larger working facilities where they have upgraded tools and equipment to work with.
Any short-term relocation cost losses can be quickly recovered through higher productivity levels, higher sales and increases in your cash flow. Your move may open your business up to a new or larger marketplace and this can mean more cash generation for your company.
Relocating to a thriving area with a rich local community can provide your staff with good access to leisure, sports, arts and entertainment that can give a real boost to their mental health and quality of life.
Possible Disadvantages
If you are planning a major relocation to a different part of the country, then it will be highly unlikely that many of your current staff will be willing to relocate with you to keep their job. While you may gain new employees with the skills you need, you will have to face losing some long-standing members of staff along with their deep knowledge of your company.
Depending on the type of business you run, you may have to face losing your regular customers (if they are locally based physical customers).
Obviously, relocating your business isn’t going to be cheap or risk free. To minimise your moving costs and reduce the risks of damage to your business and IT assets, you should place your business relocation into the hands of trained professional business relocation specialists and a very well trusted IT relocation company, such as Restore Technology.
Developing your Business Relocation Plan
Relocating your company can be a very time-consuming task that can often be very frustrating for those key members of staff that are involved with all of the planning and actioning of the move. Before you start you should draw up a relocation checklist and make sure that you include everything on your list so that everyone concerned with the move is on the same page. Never simply commit something to memory because in the chaos of moving you can easily forget small, yet very important things.
Further insights
