Moving your business costs money…and time. There is simply no getting around that.  But is that a reason not to relocate your business?  Well, that depends.

I was working with a regional vice president of an international light manufacturing company who set me on a search for a packaging and distribution facility to replace the space they had been in for the past 15 years.  The old space was tight and the new CEO of the company had given them the green light to find another space.

The Los Angeles industrial market was still tight but we found a few spaces that fit the bill with respect to location, layout, and truck access.  After touring the local facility manager, the regional vice president came out from Dallas to see the three best spaces.  Over lunch after the tour he said that the CEO was coming out the next day and they would be running the options by him.  Uh oh…another decision maker that I didn’t know about.

Whaddya know – after about a week, the vice president got back to me and said that the CEO balked at the relocation saying that it would be too expensive to move.  Theirs was a light manufacturing space with just a couple of pieces of equipment to move so I knew the cost to move would not be prohibitive.

My message to him was simple and to the point: the CEO had not been convinced that the benefits of a larger, more modern facility – additional  revenue potential from larger orders, uncluttered, streamlined operations, etc. – would outweigh the one time cost of moving.  The facility manager and the regional vice president were clearly in favor of a new, larger space.  The final decision was a combination of the vice president’s lack of courage and the CEO’s lack of vision but the truth remains. 

Figure out the cost-benefit analysis first and then act.  The growth of your business depends on it.