Moving a business to a new location is always a big decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Relocating can come with some unexpected surprises if you don’t take the time to learn more about the new area.

There are a three of things to consider before relocating your business to California. Before making the final decision, give careful thought to the cost of moving, your employee base, the local economy of the new destination, the demographics of the new area, the cost of living, and the company visibility.

Get the Full Financial Picture

Depending on the type of business you operate, you may have a lot of equipment and merchandise that’ll need to be transported in addition to your own personal belongings. If you’re moving from the east coast to California, the trucking transportation costs can quickly add up to a large sum. Be sure to get a written quote from a reliable trucking company, so you know the full amount in hard dollars. If you’re on a budget, you may even want to consider driving the truck yourself.

Even if you have company funds to offer relocation bonuses and expenses, it’s likely that you’re going to lose a few valuable team players. Some of your employees may just not be willing to leave behind family and friends for a new place. How long will it take you to find and train new employees? What if you need instant skilled employees to run your business? Don’t underestimate the amount of time it may take find new employees.

It’s a savvy move to contact an employment agency to get a good idea what the job pool looks like in the new area. If your business is dependent on employees, having employees in place before the move will keep your business in operation with the least amount of downtime.

Investigate Operating Costs and Demographics

Add investigating operating costs and the demographics of the new location to the three things to consider before relocating your business to California. Commercial leases may be higher along with tax disadvantages compared to your present location. Some states have a seven percent tax on commercial leases, and the sales tax for customers may be higher. As a business owner, you need to know your bottom line.

Once you’ve determined your operating expenses, the next step is to ensure that the demographics of the location can support your service or product niche. For example, if you’re in the skin care industry, you’ll want to make sure the local and nearby areas are populated with women who are 30 years old or older. There needs to be a stable demand for your service or product.

Find a New Place to Call Home

Along with finding a new brick-and-mortar location for your business operation, you’ll need a place to live. Real estate in California tends to be pricey, so you’ll need to determine if you can afford to live in a neighborhood that’s to your liking. If you expect the new location to draw in more business, the higher price of real estate may just be worth it. However, if the higher cost of investing in a home will reduce business profits, it may not be a smart business decision. Without a doubt, knowing the real estate market should be one of the three of things to consider before relocating your business to California.

Before investing in a new home, it may be wise to consider a rental home or apartment.  A one-year lease will give you plenty of time to learn about the area. You can take your time to learn about the school districts, nearby attractions, traffic conditions, shopping venues, and the general community vibe. At the same time, you can explore new homes in California for possible investment without any pressure to purchase.

After you’ve taken all the steps to evaluate the key factors of moving that’ll make or break your business, you’ll be in a better position to make the right decision. Take a business approach to your decision and you’ll be in the black.

It’s a matter of opinion in most cases when you are considering whether insurance is worth spending money on. Sometimes it’s mandatory to buy insurance. In Canada, you cannot legally drive or operate a motor vehicle that does not have insurance on it. This is for good reason, too. Motor vehicle accidents are very common anywhere that vehicles exist, and if you are injured in a car accident or injure somebody else, you’ll have to pay the piper yourself if you don’t have insurance.

Can you imagine having to somehow dish out a million dollars because you carelessly drove without insurance?

There are many other types of insurance that are completely optional and it is up to the individual to decide whether they will be buying it. These include home, pet, tenants, and life insurance.

Further to that, there is a slew of options when you buy insurance which you can choose to alter how much coverage you have and for what instances.

There are many people who are completely over insured as well. While insurance is certainly important in many different circumstances, having too much of it can be harmful to your bottom line.

Home Insurance

I got into a discussion about insurance one time with a coworker who had a tenant in his basement suite. He bought the house as an investment and was able to make a pretty penny off of the rent while reducing the mortgage payments for his self. Because it was an investment, he was quite nervous.  He had home insurance on the house (as he also lived in it, on the top floor), landlord’s insurance like that offered by CIA Landlords, and he told me that he put on his rental agreement with his tenant that tenant’s insurance is required.

They had three different types of insurance policies on one house (or, at the very least the contents).

Now that is what I call over-insured.

Of course, it is pertinent that he had one of the insurance policies on his place. However, If he had put away the amount of money he was spending on one of the policies and kept his main policy, he’d be able to cover any small incidentals that come up himself.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is another area that many people become over insured in. A family member not only paid into her own life insurance policy but also got one through her work benefits. She didn’t know that her work benefits provided life insurance, otherwise she wouldn’t have taken out her own policy.

Many people also insure members of their family who aren’t earners or wouldn’t have a huge financial impact on their finances if something did happen to them. The purpose of insurance is not to clean up if a loved one dies, but rather to make it easier on a family if a breadwinner passes away.

Mortgage Insurance

Some companies call this mortgage protection insurance, some mortgage life insurance, but generally across the industry it’s called mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance differs from life insurance, in that you don’t get a cash payout if somebody passes away; it just pays down your mortgage.

This is generally not the best bet, because in the unlikely case that a breadwinner passes away, you won’t have any way to cover other bills; sure, the mortgage will be paid off but what about all of the other expenses?

It’s good to be careful and get insurance on some things but it’s easy to become overinsured.