11/ 21/ 2006
by Nancy Mann Jackson
When they couldn't take the traffic any longer, Rod Pera and his wife decided to relocate from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., in 1993. To get the lifestyle change they wanted, Pera knew he'd have to start all over again with his 5-year-old business, a home theater and audio design and installation company with L.A. clients such as Sharon Stone and Ben Stiller. What made him take the leap?
"Honestly, it was just confidence in my services, knowing that they would be needed in the new location just as much as they had been in the first one," Pera says. Plus, lessons learned in starting his business the first time made him feel that he could do it faster and more effectively the second time around. And it didn't hurt to have a list of satisfied celebrities as references.
While relocating may seem out of the question for many business owners, Pera's experience went so smoothly that he and his wife relocated again in 2002 to Ventura, Calif. Two years later, they moved again, this time to Austin, Texas, where his company, Get It Wired, is thriving in its fourth location. For Pera, location choice was a key factor in his successful moves.
"People get home theaters and multi-zone audio systems designed and installed when they have the disposable income to do so; it's not a necessity like plumbing," Pera says. "So there had to be a large upper middle-class and affluent community base in the new city we chose."
While Pera makes it look easy, uprooting a business is never a simple decision. "It takes years to build a solid business with a reliable customer base," says Frances McGuckin, CEO of SmallBizPro.com and author of Taking Your Business to the Next Level (Sphinx, 2005). "With an established business comes a reliable income, relationships with suppliers and bonds with customers; it's like putting on an old but comfortable shoe every day."
Though moving presents exciting new opportunities, don't start packing boxes just yet. "Don't move if you feel you have lost your passion for the business, and you're hopeful a new city will regenerate that passion," McGuckin says. "If the business has become a chore and a bore, a new location won't change that feeling; in fact, the stress levels will be higher."
From Here to There
To make a move successful, author Frances McGuckin suggests these tips:
- Research the new city exhaustively and know its economic strengths and weaknesses.
- Secure resources for financing the move and make sure it's within your budget. Pera recommends having at least a six-month financial buffer while you get your business up and running in its new home.
- Know your competition and be sure that your business will still fulfill the need and niche that it filled in the old location.
- Once in your new city, join community, networking and social groups to make business contacts.
