One of the more daunting tasks when you are a business owner is the office move. While it is always exciting to grow bigger and move to better premises the actual logistics of an office move can be overwhelming if they are not approached with a strategy and careful planning.
It helps to delegate a person or team to be in charge of the office move depending on the size of your company who have the time and the resources to plan the move properly so that there is little or no down time and no loss in income for the business.
This of course is easier said than done and we have listed our top 5 tips to help you get started on your planning for moving your business:
1. Your new location
One of the things that will reduce time when you relocate is to plan out the new office that includes:
- Where everyone will be seated/working including furniture that will be needed;
- Recreational areas;
- Technology and connections like data and telephone points;
- Equipment that will be used – are there new requirements that will entail the purchase of new equipment;
- Measure the spaces and decide whether the current furniture and fixtures will fit or whether you will need to cull and get rid of old or outdated equipment.
Plan your new location in as much detail as possible this will help you to have data points and other required services installed prior to moving day.
2. Communication
Communicating with all stakeholders is essential to ensuring a seamless move. Create a moving guide for staff that includes a timeline of when important things will either happen or need to be completed by them and consult with them regarding any issues that they may foresee about their particular area.
Communication with suppliers and clients is equally important to minimise the disruption to the business. Create a staggered notification plan especially for clients so they can easily contact you or find you at your new address.
3. Out with the old
When you move office take the opportunity to have a good clean out. Offices often accumulate junk over a number of years and instead of taking it all with you to the new premises get rid of it by either donating if there is anything of use or turf it out with the rubbish.
4. Brief the removalists
Delays often happen during an office move because the removalists haven’t received a full briefing. The things that your removalist will need to know include:
- Whether either premise is above ground floor and if yeas what type of access is there;
- Do permits need to be obtained to park outside or does a loading bay or freight elevator need to booked;
- The best/preferred time for moving;
- Whether a packing service is required;
- What needs to be moved so that the right vehicle and number of helpers can be used;
- The time frame that the office move needs to be completed in for seamless business operation.
The more information that you give to the removalists the better the job they will do.
5. Labelling is your friend
You need to label everything I can’t stress this too much. You want your staff to be able to find and unpack things easily and if you label every box this will be effortless – well almost. It also helps if you paste a list of everything in the box on the outside and use a colour code for the different areas of the business.
If you follow these five tips for your office move it will be much easier. Always use an experienced removalist to do all of the heavy lifting and carrying and make sure that they are insured to cover any damage to your valuable business belongings.
