Important Things to Consider Before Relocating Your Office to a New Location
Categories :
Relocating your office may be the right choice for your company for a few reasons. You may need to switch locations to be closer to clients or suppliers, find a better deal on rent, or need more space for your office.
A relocation may be the right thing for your company, but make no mistake—the process will involve a lot of logistical wrangling. With the right preparation, you can minimize the disruption that relocation will have on your office.
Here are a few important things to consider before moving your office.
Finding the Right Moving Service
When relocating your office, you will need to move all of your possessions to the new location. Even if you aren’t planning on holding on to your old furniture and technical equipment, you will still need to remove them from your old office space to make way for the new tenants.
The right moving company can make this process go smoothly. A moving service such as twosmallmen.com/ can take care of packing, moving, and setting up on your behalf. Two Small Men is a Canadian moving company that offers a range of moving services, including packing and storage for residential and commercial moves.
When looking for a moving service to help you relocate your office, make sure that they specialize in commercial moves. Moving offices and business spaces is more complex than residential moving, so opt for a moving company with that experience.
To save maximum time for your team and minimize disruption, look for a moving service that also provides packing services. That way, you don’t have to box up all of your things in preparation for the move.
Deciding What to Take With You
While a good moving service will take care of the packing and transportation for you, your team still needs to do some of the work to prepare. You don’t want the moving company to transport stray papers and an old paper clip to the new office (and charge you for it).
A few months before the move, start cleaning the office and get rid of any items that you don’t need to transport with you to the new office. That way, you can get off to a fresh start when you move to your new space.
While your movers can pack up the biggest pieces for you, your team should spend time preparing your items. Designate people to handle the move on behalf of your office. They should label items clearly and organize them. If they get stuck, look up corporate moving tips online.
With the items that you decide to keep, make sure that you create a thorough inventory. Record the office furniture, pieces of technology, supplies, and any other items that you will be taking with you, as well as their condition. That way, you will know what to expect when you get to the new office space. If anything is missing or damaged, you will have records on hand to dispute with the moving company.
Managing the Original Office Space
When you are relocating your office to a new location, it’s not enough to just focus on your new space. You also need to think about what will happen with your old office space. Unless your company owns your old building, you will have some obligations to the landlord before you go.
Make sure to look carefully over the terms of your lease when you first begin planning your move. Look at the lease terms to figure out how far ahead you need to notify your landlord that you are moving.
Also, look over the lease terms to find out if they set the conditions for the return of your office space. You may need to remove signage, spackle over nail or screw holes, or make small repairs to your office. That way, your company will not be charged any fees for damaging the space or damaging your relationship with the landlord.
Managing Your Team During the Move
One under-explored factor of preparing for a relocation involves managing your human resources, not just your office materials. A relocation is a disruption to your team, even if it can be a new opportunity.
Help your team adjust to the move with detailed organization. Ask people within your team to take on a leadership role in preparation for the move. These point persons will ensure that tasks get completed instead of floating by the wayside of collective responsibility. Having people who are willing to take on more responsibilities regarding the move will prevent extra tasks from falling on unwilling team members, which would build resentment.
To make your team feel enthusiastic about your move, make sure that the new space will accommodate their needs. Maybe the new office will provide them with more space, or be more conducive to a hybrid work regime. Make sure that you communicate these benefits to your employees so that they see the positive side of your move instead of just the disruption.
Transferring Your Utilities
One final thing that you need to consider before relocating your office is creating a plan for your utilities and connections. These need to be planned in advance. If you wait until the last minute, you will experience a period of disruption that could cost you revenue.
A few months in advance, schedule services that will set up phone and Internet connections in your new office space and disconnect your old office to avoid paying double bills. If your new office is not connected to municipal services such as water or garbage disposal, make sure that you connect them.
Optimizing Your Office Relocation
The best way to make your office relocation go smoothly is to plan your move carefully ahead of time. Make sure that you start planning several months ahead of time, as you have many things to consider. Think about how you will transfer your possessions, layout, utilities, and workflows to your new space.
One of the most important things to think about is finding the right moving company. A moving company that provides packing and shipping services and has experience working with commercial clients can make your move go smoothly.
Citiesabc was created by a team of global industry leaders, academics and experts to create new solutions, resources, rankings and connections for the world’s top cities and populations.
