Are You Ready for a New Business Facility?

There comes a time in every company’s lifespan when the owners and leaders need to make hard decisions. It happens all over the country everyday, and it even happened to us a few years ago. As our company started to grow and our workforce expanded, it was apparent a new setting was needed to help us move to the next level. Armstrong Steel needed a new facility, one with more offices for project managers, more space for our growing in-house engineering team, and more room for our employees. It was extremely apparent everyone needed to collaborate without literally sitting on top of each other.

Does this sound like your situation? Are you running out of workspace for your employees? Are you in the process of building your fleet of trucks and don’t have a place for them? Maybe you are operating a successful home-based business and you think it’s time to move to a new location. Perhaps you should look into the cost of a metal building.

This isn’t a project you need to rush into quickly. Grow too fast, and your business might not be able to control all the increased costs. But if you grow too slowly, you might miss out of some valuable openings in the marketplace.

First, determine all the reasons why you think a move to a new facility would be beneficial. Accurately assess your facility needs and what you need to do to maximize your effectiveness. Will there be cost advantages to moving to a new facility beyond the money you’ll save by erecting a metal building? What additional costs will you incur? Think about extra equipment costs or financing. How do you plan to pay for your metal building?

How much does the change cost? – Look into getting multiple estimates of how much a move would cost you. If you ditch the rent for building ownership, you won’t have to worry about playing a lease every month. Instead, you gain equity as your own landlord.

Does this mean there are no additional costs other than the building? No. Sadly, change can have costs associated which a new location can’t constrain – collateral changes, for instance – new business cards, letterhead, and signage; advertising, and even the cost of the move, itself. You’re going to need trucks, man hours to move, and set-up time, which could mean lost business. But if you’re smart and plan ahead of time, the losses or expenses you experience will be more than made up for with a renewed vigor, a new energy, and a boost to your momentum.

You’re likely thinking about expansion so you can serve more people. Will this expansion into a metal building expose you to a new customer base, while allowing you to keep your old clientele at the same time? Will you still be able to offer the same quality of service? You’ve built or are still in the progression of building a brand, and you need to be able to provide the same superiority to which your customers are familiar. Here’s a small business story I like to tell about customers. After a consumer leaves your store, hangs up the phone after they speak with you, or closes their web browser after visiting your website, would you say they’re done with you?

Absolutely not!

Your business, or any business for that matter, isn’t an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ operation. The way you interact with consumers, whether it is directly or indirectly, affects how they think of you. An expansion should foster and strengthen the relationships your company has already made and make your business more visible and appear like it’s growing. People tend to buy from businesses they think other people are also buying from.

Some of the previous decisions can be made based on the location of your expansion site. Think about the new community. Is it located in a big city, or a small town? Can people get to the new location easily? Are there plenty of able-bodied people willing to join your workforce, and can they travel easily to and from the expansion site? Your new location must be at a strategic location that makes your business profitable, as well as rewarding to your employees.

A new business facility comes with a lot of work but has its fair share of rewards, like the ability to control your costs, expand and serve more customers while increasing your profitability and visibility.

Don’t let the process of expansion scare you! You can complete a successful expansion into a metal building if you allow yourself to make a game plan and analyze all the risks first!

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