Making Your Move

What happens when a deadline-dependent business such as a newspaper relocates 600 miles away, but its darkroom equipment takes a detour and doesn't arrive in time for production? Either the newspaper misses its deadline, or it goes to Plan B.

Fortunately for the 250,000 readers of National Speed Sport News, publisher and co-owner Corinne Economaki was wise enough to devise a Plan B--several, in fact--when she moved her 11-employee business from New Jersey to Charlotte, North Carolina. Thanks to her backup plan, Speed Sport News is still one of the oldest, continuously published motorsports publications in the country.

Failure to create a backup plan is the second most common mistake made by entrepreneurs moving their companies, according to Steve Mumma, senior vice president of marketing and public relations for Evansville, Indiana-based Atlas Van Lines Inc. Incredibly, failure to create a plan at all is the most common pitfall. "Without a comprehensive relocation plan, your move is doomed," Mumma warns. "And the earlier you start planning, the better."

James C. Sheil is a freelance journalist and law student who has survived three office relocations with varying degrees of success.

This article was originally published in the April 1998 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Making Your Move.