While relocating your business may bring numerous difficulties, in some scenarios you won’t be able to pass out on such an opportunity. The target location you are considering may have a more potent business hub, greater access to talent, lower cost of real estate and of course a greater opportunity for future growth. However, you need to keep in mind that handling this process inadequately may cost you dearly. In order to avoid this, here are five simple tips for a smooth office relocation.
Make a to-do list
Before you even start planning, you need to keep in mind that there are numerous specific tasks that need to be done in chronological order. The only way to handle these tasks properly is to adhere to a premade to-do list. Packing, label printing, changing your address on promotional merchandise and email, as well as notifying your clients, all need to be done in a proper order.
Let everyone know
In the previous section, we mentioned that notifying your clients and updating your contact info needs to have a prominent spot on your to-do list. Well, clients aren’t the only ones who need to be informed of this. First, you need to talk to your partners and investors. Here, you also need to justify the move, not just inform them once all the preparations have already been made. Second, you should notify your employees. This can be particularly troublesome, seeing as how some of them won’t be ready or willing to relocate. Unfortunately, this means parting ways with some of the people you’ve spent years successfully collaborating with.
Keep your downtime as low as possible
Probably the greatest trouble regarding the move is the downtime. While your equipment is on the move, your employees still aren’t at their posts and your supplies have not yet arrived, you won’t be able to do business. This may cause not only a financial difficulty but also a potential hazard of losing some of your most important clients.
One of the ways to handle this would be to keep your old location running until the one is ready for business, however, this would mean running two offices for a prolonged period of time when you can barely afford to have one. As an alternative, you could use this downtime to innovate some aspects of your business and therefore get the most out of this situation.
Handle all leftover payments
Even though you are leaving your former office behind any mess you’ve made there might follow along as a permanent stain on your reputation. Make sure to pay the lease for the last month and don’t leave any of your previous bills unpaid. Cancel all the subscriptions arriving at that address, in order not to cause a trouble for your landlord or future tenants.
Clean up before you go
Finally, make sure to leave the place as neat as when you first walked in. For this, you might have to hire some help. Keep in mind, however, that you are looking for cleaners at your current and not target destination. For instance, if you are moving from NSW to Victoria, you should look for a company dealing with commercial rubbish removal in Sydney instead of looking for a Melbourne-based one.
These five principles alone can ensure that your transition to a new workplace and a new business environment is much smoother. Seeing as how this move also represents a new start for your company, they might also help ease out your first few months of doing business. Additionally, with the advantage of experience you’ve got from your work history in the previous office, you will be much more probable to make all the right calls.
