Oh Crap, Our Home Business Has to Move!
Image courtesy of SHVETS production on Pexels.
Moving is difficult enough, but when you also have to move your home business, it’s a whole lot more complicated.
We have been renting for a while and now we have been told that the owner wants to sell the home. Since this address is also our home business, this presents quite a few challenges. If you find yourself in the same situation, here are some things we are finding out as we prepare. Fortunately, this isn’t our first (moving) rodeo.
First of all, you need to consider where you can move. That may sound simple enough, but not all neighborhoods are ideal for a home business. As they say in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Well, this is true for a home business too.
Location and Local Zoning
While I could move further away, that is just not realistic. So I am making every efforts to stay in the same county and state. This makes everything a whole lot easier. Because I am fairly familiar with my state and county’s rules, I am expecting zoning laws, city requirements, HOA rules, etc. to be reasonably similar.
This doesn’t mean you should read over everything. You never know, some cities and neighborhoods have very strict rules. For example, what is their policy on regular deliveries/shipping? So just because you stay nearby, does not mean you can ignore these rules. Read over everything, and ask lots of questions… and not just to your real estate agent.
Location and Clients
My first real concern was about who I do business with. Since I do a lot of in-person meetings and deliveries, I needed to think about where my clients were and if this would add to the commutes.
So, I took my CRM client list, and mapped out where everyone was. It turns out that I was ideally situated for my business; I was smack dab in the center of where they were… or maybe that is how the business grew around me. In any case, moving would mean rethinking this. If I moved my “center” what would that mean for my business?
It’s not strictly about geographic location, either. It’s also about quick access to roads/freeways and the traffic I would encounter. That took a bit more thinking. I am frequently on the road by mid-morning, but I can usually get by using surface streets. Moving further out, might mean using freeways and toll roads, which when busy would lengthen commutes and costs. So consider this if/when you need to move your business.
Consequently, I also do a lot of shipping, so this is the second concern. I can’t move into a mansion in the hills if the UPS truck can’t make it up the hill – honestly they are pretty amazing drivers. But still, I can’t take the change of a bitter driver tossing a sensitive electronic device onto my porch from the road like a quarterback throws a hail marry in the final seconds of the game.
Location on the Street… and Your Neighbors
This takes some finesse too. If you will be increasing traffic on your street, you don’t want to move into a neighborhood with lots of your families with children playing ball in the street. Likewise, you don’t want to risk hitting an elderly neighbor trying to get out of her car. So get to know your neighbors before you move in.
Knock on a few doors nearby, introduce yourself politely, and ask what the neighborhood is like. The number one answer I hear is some version of: “…this is a very quite neighborhood…” Granted, I would say that if someone planning to move in nearby knocked on my door, but it’s important to keep that in mind.
One house we were considering had a neighbor with a huge American flag, and a bright red Make America Great Again sign on the porch. Now this article isn’t about politics, but that also suggests a neighbor who likes to tell the world how he feels and isn’t shy about confrontation. This was during a well-attended open-house, and the real estate agent didn’t (or couldn’t) do anything about it. That neighbor was sending a message, and I was hearing it loud and clear. Next.
If you are ready to buy, this might also be a good time to send a polite email to the president of the HOA and ask them what the neighborhood is like. You don’t need to be specific about the fact that you will be running a business from home, but you might ask in a general way if other residents run home businesses. The tone of the response should tell you a bit about what you can expect, if you do move into that neighborhood.
Notifications
This turned out to be a whole lot more work than we thought. Of course, you need to notify the USPS that you have moved, but there will still be mail that sneaks through. So, you want to start a list of all the people that need to be notified. It’s a chore, but here are some people/entities on our list you may have missed:
You need to change your business address with the IRS.
You will also need to notify the county and city where your business is registered.
As you go through the list of contacts in your CRM, don’t forget to update the CRM software itself.
Speaking of software, you will also want to notify every software company you depend on for your business. Don’t forget:
Gusto, NetChex, Rippling and other HR software
Quickbooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and other financial apps
Microsoft, RedHat, Oracle or Google, if you use their business services
Adobe, Sembrush, Canva, Buffer and other graphics & marketing apps
MailChimp, Brevo, Kit, and other Email campaign software
ChatGPT, MidJourney, Gemini, Capcut, Claude, and other AI/LLM apps
VPN, firewall, home camera, and security software companies
Also, update your address on social media platforms that you use for your business.
Also update any websites and selling platforms like eBay, Etsy, Shopify, etc. that you use for your business.
Speaking of tech: don’t forget phone and internet providers.
Notify banks and credit card companies.
Notify your insurance company(ies).
Notify your bookkeeper or accountant.
Notify your attorney.
Update delivery companies.
Notify networking groups, business associations, and professional associations you belong to.
Notify business partners and contractors you work with or have worked with in the past.
That last one may surprise some of you, but I’ve heard stories. Unless you are trying to ditch a business partner (which is a topic for a whole different discussion), your partners will likely know, but don’t forget current and past contractors.
This is a growing list but suffice it to say that notifications are key. You don’t want to find out after the move that you just lost your biggest contract because they lost touch with you. So, make a list, and have someone else familiar with your business read it over… twice
One More Point: Timing
Moving is going to be tough. I have no idea how we will do the actual physical move of our inventory, equipment, packing materials, and office supplies without interrupting our business too much. But this brings up one more important point: timing the move.
Most people move in the Spring or Summer time. Winter is discouraged because of weather, end of year sales, holiday absences, taxes, etc. However, I’m not so sure the Winter is so bad. The more I think about it, that may be the best time to move for us. Here’s why:
Lower cost for real estate – since most people move in the Spring/Summer, winter offers less costly options for actually finding a new place to run a business from.
People you will typically need to prepare for the move like appraisers, painters, movers, landscapers, bank lenders, plumbers, etc. might tend to be less busy during the winter. This could also lower costs if they are willing to deal – it never hurts to ask for a Christmas discount.
Weather for moving in SoCal is more brutal in the Summer, IMO. Since we typically have cold but dry winters, this may work out better for us. Hmmm, this does happen to be an El Niño year, so who knows what this winter will bring… fingers crossed.
End of year sales typically end abruptly in January for us, so moving after the holidays might actually work out as far as being busy. Tax season doesn’t get busy until later, so while everyone is watching the Superbowl, this might be the perfect time for us to make that move.
If your savings for this move are in the stock market, you don’t really want to miss out on the holiday bump, so selling in January is preferred. Also, the tax consequences of selling those securities won’t hit you until the following year.
Friends and family are typically available to help pack during the holidays. While you might not move until after the new year, at least your stuff will all be packed.
While this may not apply to everyone, but if you also need to prep and sell your old home, then you might be able to stretch that part out into early Spring. This would allow you to benefit from the renewed interest in buyers that starts around February/March and could bring a bump in pricing for selling the home. This timing is tricky, of course, but that would be the perfect situation if you can make it work for you.
So all-in-all, I’m not so sure that timing the move during the winter is such a bad idea. I would of course have preferred to stay put, but the more I plan this out, the more I think this could work out OK for us.
My friends might sneer a bit, but I’m an eternal optimist. Of course, not everything bad that happens in life needs to be a lesson, but if you change your mind set about things that are not catastrophic, you can usually find something good in them. When you run a business, you will always have setbacks, that’s just a fact; but how you react to these is directly correlated to your success. I’m not saying this will be easy, but I think it might just work out.
…but I’ll let you know after we have actually moved!
Image courtesy of Vic Removals on Pixabay.
