Relocating Your Business? Consider These 3 Factors First.Stop packing for a moment, and ask yourself: Do you really need to move your business?

Stop packing for a moment, and ask yourself: Do you really need to move your business? Relocations are expensive, disruptive and risky. If they're done poorly, your business can fail -- and that new location may turn out to have just as many problems as your current one.

But, OK; let's say moving is the only option. Now start with a systematic look at where to move. Analyze regulatory differences, access to your market, workforce availability and cost, utility and transportation infrastructure and costs and, of course, real estate. A good commercial real estate broker can help gather most, if not all, of this information on your behalf, over and above just locating properties for you to consider.

Once you zero in on a potential location, run a cost/benefit analysis with a budget for the actual move. The basics are easy: You know what it'll take to pack, transport and unpack the business. But now come the Big Three: