Whether you’re a bachelor or part of a large family, managing to move a household of any size or scope serves as one of the most arduous challenges you will often face. However, what about moves that revolve around the business side of things? Moving a business comes with a wide variety of challenges and factors to coordinate, meaning that, whether you’re a small startup, or coordinating the transition of a large corporate branch, you’ll need to assess a number of options before you’ll be able to properly get started.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of some important key factors to keep in mind when preparing for and kicking off your business’s moving process. It’s worth noting that corporate relocations tend to take a considerable amount of time than what you would come to expect from a personal or family move. In ideal cases, you’ll want to ensure that your company sets aside at least a couple of months leading up to your new lease in order to put together a plan of action for your transition. Read ahead to begin formulating ideas on what needs to be coordinated in order to have a successful business move.
Six Weeks before Moving:
- Asses the size and scope of your move: Businesses vary just as much as households do, and you won’t be able to get started on the planning phase of your business move until you have a substantial scope of the resources and features your transition will be needing. Depending on the nature and stock of your company, your move may require anything from dedicated packing/loading teams, to special means of transport for your equipment or goods.
- Confirm your new location: If you haven’t already, deciding on a new location that is as beneficial as possible to your business is arguably going to be the most effective decision you make throughout your entire transition process. Keep in mind that the point of relocating is to move into a more strategic location that is more advantageous to your business.
- Give proper (and inclusive) notice: Ideally, you will want the entirety of your staff to be aware of the upcoming move as soon as possible. Once you’ve confirmed the fact that your business center will be changing locations, you should give any and all relevant individuals in-house notice of the upcoming changes so that they’ll be able begin preparing themselves for the move.
- Keep proper records of everything: Physically moving your entire business certainly is not something that you should plan on taking lightly or phoning in at the last minute. Keeping track of everything during the transition will require a consistent and well validated inventory to ensure that nothing gets lost or damaged along the way. In the event that it does, you’ll have a paper trail backing up the events leading up to it to fall back on.
- Decide on a moving solution: Whether you ultimately choose to go with a professional mover that is geared specifically toward moving businesses, or are able to find a service that suits your needs within the means of your budget, you’ll want to decide on (and confirm reservations with) a mover before you get into the more complicated steps of your process.
Four Weeks before Moving:
- Assess your budget: Have all the required expenses for your move been accounted for or approved? You will want to make final decisions on any and all features/packages for your move as early as possible, in order to ensure that any costs that you’ll incur are accounted for as soon as possible.
- Begin making plans for your new location: When moving a business, you generally won’t be able to simply show up at your new office without a clear plan in mind in regards to where everything (and everyone) will go. It can help greatly to begin devising a “floor plan of action” relatively early on, in order to ensure that you and your entire staff are able to hit the ground running.
- Shop around for furniture and other upgrades: Unless your existing office setup will make for a perfect 1:1 loadout for your new location, there is a good chance that you’ll need to invest in some inner workings for the new place. Getting a jump start on your plans for your new setup will make room for many other, more time sensitive aspects of the move once things get down to the wire.
- Make any temporary reservations: In the event that you’ll need anything in the way of temporary workstations or supplies to keep things up and running during the move, you should invest in these now. Based on the nature of your company, potentially losing a few days of business due to the transition can be enough to significantly affect you.
- Begin planning for internet/phone: Setting up communications technologies in an office or corporate environment can take a considerable amount of time, and you won’t want to be left waiting around for a week (or more!) after you’ve moved into your new HQ. Begin reaching out and collecting quotes on business class internet and phone services once you’ve confirmed the initial details of your itinerary.
Three Weeks before Moving:
- Inform clients of the change in address: Whether you opt for an email blast, cold calls, or a similar method, you’ll want to find a successful way to advise your clients of the change in your location. The earlier you’re able to confirm your new address and advise your clients, the better.
- Begin preparing your inventory: Whether the bulk of your move happens to be comprised of office furniture, computers, or your product itself, you will want to come up with a plan of action for the disassembly, storage, packing, etc. of everything that you intend to take with you.
- Start doing away with clutter: Any office space used for a significant period of time will likely accumulate a great deal of unneeded waste—be it unneeded paperwork, defunct supplies and electronics, or personal effects left behind over time. Start getting rid of items like these, and even consider encouraging members of your staff to start doing away with their (or their department’s) own junk in preparation for the move.
- Tackle unmanned areas: Have any desks or offices that aren’t currently occupied? Now is the time to begin packing and disassembling in these areas.
One to Two Weeks before Moving:
- Begin packing up: From desks to paperwork, it’s time to start packing and getting things ready to head out. For major furniture, it’s best to do one swift sweep of the office that you can knock out in one session, so as to avoid dragging things out and wasting extra time.
- Shut things down: Depending on your previous lease, you may have to personally deactivate certain utilities, etc. before you’re cleared to head out. If so, make sure you cover these bases before hitting the road.
Moving Day:
- Do a final walkthrough: It’s always surprising to find out just how many problems are able to be avoided simply by double-checking. Try to err on the side of caution as you make your way out of your old space and into your new place.