In the world of business, changing the location of an office is a fairly common thing. If done right, moving the office can help a company kick-start its operations, expand to new territory, and boost the employees’ productivity and motivation. The keyword being “if.” The process of moving requires a lot of planning and careful preparations. If those conditions aren’t met, the entire business can be brought to a halt for an indefinite period of time. Let us take a look at this short checklist that should help you to avoid this pitfall.
Initial Moves (4-6 Months Prior to Moving)
Moving is not something you can accomplish on-the-go. The foundations have to be laid at least 4-6 months ahead. Here are some of the moves that should make that foundation as solid as possible.
- Determine a budget – The budget will guide virtually all of your later decisions. Don’t forget to count in the costs of insurance, utilities, cleaning services and some other, less obvious expenses.
- Make a short list of requirements the new office has to meet – We are talking about the square footage, location, floor plan and other, similar things.
- Hire a real estate broker – Now that you have a clear picture what you expect from your new office, and know how much money you have at your disposal, presenting your case to a real estate broker, and, eventually, finding a new site will be much easier job. A wide range of online office space brokerages can also help you find the ideal workspace for your business needs, whether that’s an executive office in Chicago or coworking space in Brooklyn.
- Acquire necessary permits – Paperwork knows to be quite tedious. The sooner you address this issue, the better.
- Set up the foothold – Even when all things fall apart, your customer service and IT department must keep going. That is why as soon as you find a new site for your business, you should take care of utilities, new phone number and internet access.
Preparations for Moving (1-3 Months Prior to Moving)
Now that you’ve found a moving location and laid the necessary groundwork, it is time to actually put things in motion.
- Hire a professional moving company – Moving companies sometimes tend to have a very tight schedule. Early booking means an access to better service, so start looking for contractors as soon as possible.
- Hire a cleaning company – The chances are that your new office will need a lot of cleaning. Fortunately, for example, finding a reliable company dealing with rubbish removal in a large city(in this case in Sydney) is not that hard. As long as you make early booking, of course.
- Assess the existing equipment and furniture – New space will probably require new acquisitions. But, see if there are any things you can make use of, before you spend any money.
- Start advertising your new location – By the time you move to the new location, your customer base should be well aware of the transition.
- Make sure someone’s there – Ideally, as soon as you publish your new phone number, someone should be there to pick up the headphone.
Final Stages
- Do the moving in several stages – If you first move the staff and the equipment necessary for your operations, you won’t stay idle for long.
- Set a very specific moving schedule – Setting up a specific time frame for every single activity will make sure that everyone involved complies to their obligations.
- Delegate the most reliable employees to guide the contractors – Trying to be everywhere at once will spread you too thin.
- Go through all the procedures with employees – This way, you will minimize the chances of something going wrong.
- Put all the meetings on hold – Meeting important clients while moving can never leave a good impression. Postpone all the meetings until your new office is fully operational.
These few tips should help you cover some of the most dangerous pitfalls associated with moving into a new office. Of course, you will have to learn some things on-the-go, but, at least, you will address all the major issues.
