Having to relocate a business isn’t perhaps as complicated or stressful as starting the business to start with. However, it’s still quite an ordeal. You have to wind up all your operations at one location while getting everything moved over to your new place and then starting up again. When it’s a car business you need to relocate, the moment will come that you have to move all your vehicles for sale.
How To Relocate a Car Business
Two big questions will drive your relocation. Where will you go? When do you need to be there?
If your move is of your own choosing, you might have time to find the right place and then terminate your lease at your current location or sell the property you own. However, you might also have a deadline to get out of there that you have to honor.
You might have to face the possibility of actually not being in business for a while. If your new location isn’t ready before you have to leave your previous one, then you might need to move everything to a temporary warehouse in the meanwhile.
Let your current customers know where you are going, when, and why. Send out emails, run a marketing campaign, call them, and email them. This is especially crucial for anyone that might make regular payments at your dealership or use you for maintenance calls. Put up a huge banner outside your car lot.
Decide if you’re going to take all your inventory with you or firesale it and start from scratch.
Have Your Vehicles Shipped
When the day comes that you do your physical relocation, you’ll have two choices about moving your vehicle inventory. You can have your own team do it, or you can use car transport services in Alaska, Canada, and other US states.
Having your own team do it will burn a lot of your payroll. Every vehicle will need its own driver, plus you might need one more driving a van to ferry all the staff back to get the next round of vehicles.
Using transport services means a truck can pull up and possibly load a dozen vehicles at once. Then, it can carry them all in one trip to your new location before heading back to get more. It might only take a handful of trips for a small lot, and it certainly makes it much faster to move the inventory of bigger car businesses.
Why Relocate Your Car Business?
Entrepreneur reports that most businesses relocate for one of five different reasons.
- Labor/Work Force Issues: If you’re having trouble hiring, then you might be in the wrong part of town.
- Reaching New Markets: Many cities tend to expand in size, and a few contract. Always be ready to move to the same neighborhoods where people with money are. Sometimes, you might need to move out of an area that is urbanizing fast and relies more on mass transit or walking than passenger vehicles more likely to be sought after in the suburbs.
- Upgrading Facilities: An upgraded facility might just make your staff more comfortable. However, if you can do anything that makes it easier for customers, that can only help your business. An indoor showroom helps during inclement weather, and you might be able to afford your own service center or bigger garage to take care of your vehicles.
- Looking to Lower Costs: Sometimes, just getting up and moving will mean finding someplace cheaper to operate your car business. A cheaper lease or lower property taxes can help your bottom line.
- Quality of Life Considerations: Moving to a new location might make life a lot easier for your team members. That can actually make it easier to hire new staff if that’s an issue.
There are many potential reasons you are relocating your car business. However, in every situation, you’ll need to move your inventory from your old lot to your new one. Using a car transport service makes that whole process move a lot faster instead of doing it with your own team.
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