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Are you one of the fortunate ones that have seen a boom in business in 2020? Maybe the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t affected your business in any negative way. Maybe you have been one of the businesses that have been able to – or has had no choice – adapt by switching up their manufacturing process and producing something new to help with the fight against the virus. This is how many manufacturing businesses stayed afloat during the height of the pandemic, buy turning their hand to making PPE or ventilators.

Whatever the reason for your growth, if you are have outgrown your existing business premises, here are some things that you need to take into consideration.

Are there any production processes that can be done off-site?

Have a look at your production process and see if any of it can be outsourced to a third party and done off-site. While having something such as Plasma Spraying done elsewhere will obviously cost you, it will be a lot less expensive than moving premises or extending. It also gives you the chance to focus on other aspects of your process. 

Sometimes moving to a whole new site is necessary or can be the cheapest option, but it can also be a huge upheaval. You have to look for somewhere new that is big enough, that is suitable and in the right location, and finding something that does all of those and is within your budget can be a challenge. If this is the case, why not look at expanding your existing premises? Of course, there are other things that need to be thought about – can your business cope with the disruption that an extension and building work can bring? Is the cost of the work going to weigh up positively in the long term against the cost of moving?

Is the location suitable?

For this point, we are going to assume that you have made the decision to move rather than outsource or expand. One of the most important things to think about when moving is the location. 

Location is important for many businesses. It may be that you need to be highly visible., so need to be right next to a busy highway or in the center of a major city. Maybe you don’t, and you can take advantage of more space and lower rates on an out of town space. However, consider whether potential customers, vendors, and deliveries/pickups can get to you easily – access via major transport routes is a necessity. Also, consider your existing staff. If you are thinking of moving, you need to think about whether it is still in reasonable traveling distance for them and if they can access the site easily via public transport if necessary. If you don’t think about this, you could find yourself hit with the additional costs of hiring a new workforce and training them all up.

Making the decision to expand or move can be an exciting one –  it usually means business is going well and that’s a great thing. However, weigh up the pros and cons of all options before settling on something.