How to Successfully Relocate to a New Office
When your business starts to grow to a good size, it may well be the case that you would like to move to a new office. Whether you are moving out of your bedroom or simply to new premises, it makes sense that you do everything that you can to ensure that the move goes smoothly. Here, we will be looking at some of the key ways that you can complete this goal successfully.
Start the Planning Stages Early On
The more time that you give yourself to plan the office move, the more likely it is that you are going to make a success of it. This gives you the maximum amount of time to find the right office location, as well as get all of the logistical headaches out of the way. You can also think about some of the smaller details, such as how to pack a portable storage container. The other main part of the planning stages is letting all of your employees know about the move. They may all have personal changes that they need to make – particularly if you are moving over a significant distance.
Appoint a Person to Oversee the Move
When you are entirely involved in running the business yourself, it can be a massive challenge to try and manage the whole move by yourself. Therefore, it is certainly worth appointing the right person to oversee the move right from the start.
This should be a person who possesses all of the right qualities to make a success of it. To begin with, this means having great organizational abilities. As well as this, they should be able to communicate well too. Ideally, the person that you choose to entrust will have had experience in dealing with other major projects in the past. This way, you have a much clearer idea of whether or not they are up to the task.
Conduct Your Research in Finding a Moving Company
When you are engaged in a professional office move, it is often the case that you are going to need to find a moving company to help out with the job. There are a number of different factors to take into account. Obviously, the bottom-line price is one of them. Not only this, but you also need to know what sort of reputation they possess. If you are able to get a personalized recommendation from a company that you have worked with closely in the past, this can help out significantly, as you know that you can trust the moving firm.
Get Your Staff to Help Out
You should entrust your staff members to help out with the individual aspects of the move, such as clearing out their own desks. After all, you do not want to be put in charge of all their possessions. Make sure that you give everybody enough time to take care of their own packing. This way, stuff is less likely to get lost or damaged along the way.
Make Sure That Your IT Systems and Utilities Are Set Up
When you arrive at your new office, you want to get up and running as quickly as possible. In the modern world, this means getting the IT systems working. Again, you should make sure that you give yourself enough time to get them working.
Otherwise, there can be a significant business interruption that you have to deal with. This can be potentially harmful to any future profit margins that you would have otherwise been able to achieve. Not only should you get the IT facilities and Wi-Fi sorted, but you also need to think about establishing the utilities. These include all of the electricity and gas suppliers. This presents you with a good opportunity to switch suppliers if this is something that you need to do, and you may even be able to get a better deal somewhere down the line.
Ensure You Let Your Customers Know
As well as all of the logistical challenges that you have to deal with along the way, it may also be worth letting your customers know that you are moving to a new location. This is particularly the case if you run a customer-facing company that relies on people coming into the business directly. However, even if you run a B2B business, it is still worth informing them. Not only does this help to prevent any logistical challenges along the way, but it also shows that your business is on the rise, which may help to retain their custom for an extended period of time.
Make Sure You Have Done All the Measurements Accurately
There is nothing more frustrating than arriving at your new office building, only to find that you cannot even fit the sofa through the front door. Therefore, it is certainly worth measuring everything up properly and working out where it is all going to be put. You should also think about this from the position of expansion. If you only get an office space that is just big enough, you will not have anything that you are able to grow into. If you think through the small details now, you will save yourself plenty of headaches in the future.
Celebrate Your Office Opening
When you have been through the whole process of moving to a new office, it is worth taking the time to celebrate everything that you have accomplished. It may even be the case that you would like to have a launch party and invite some of your clients along to the event. This is particularly important if you are trying to establish yourself in a new neighborhood, which can be tough when you are a new business.
Relocating to a new office has more than its fair share of challenges. However, if you are properly prepared and follow the advice listed in this blog post, it is much more likely that you will be able to do it successfully.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!