There comes a time in many businesses ’ existence where you need to move out of your spare room or pokey co-working office and find somewhere to accommodate your growing company. Or, if the recent pandemic has impacted your business, you may have decided to downsize. If you’ve ever moved house before, you know how stressful a personal relocation can be, so it’s no surprise that it can be just as – if not more – stressful when moving your business to a new office. Failing to prepare for your move can severely hinder productivity and cause numerous problems for your company. To make sure this doesn’t happen, here are five ways you can oversee a successful office relocation.
Develop a Team
While you might feel you and only you can organize the move, trying to do too much will only fill you with too much stress. By developing a team, you can delegate everything you need to do before making the big move. This should be a group of people you trust and understand how the company works. Someone from each department would be ideal, but this is not always possible. You can also minimize the stress for everybody else by creating this team as soon as you decide to move. This will make everything much more comfortable.
Know What to Do With Your Stuff
You may not be able to take everything at once. Rather than leave some items at the old office, consider finding somewhere to store them in the meantime if this is even possible. This will vary depending on your business and the amount of size of the items you need to store. You can also take the opportunity to get rid of anything you don’t need. Consider recycling or even donating items that could benefit others.
Find a Reliable Moving Company
A reliable moving company is crucial whenever you make a move. So many companies are available; it can be challenging to identify which is right for you. Use social media and search engines to get recommendations with excellent reviews and use your network to get ideas from fellow business owners who have moved previously. This will help narrow down your options to help you find a moving company within your budget.
Fuel for the road
You may decide to make the move yourself instead of hiring a moving company. If you are going to rent moving vans your team will drive, or if they will be using their own vehicles, do not forget to consider the fuel requirements. You do not want to have staff members paying for gas for an office directed move. Consider giving them gas cards or have fuel on hand for filling the vehicles. In today’s world, depending on where you live, companies can actually send fuel to you. This can definitely come in handy if you have a lot of company vehicles to move. If you live in the U.K., FuelBox offers a bag-in-the-box fueling system. It comes pre-filled with 20 liters of Gas oil and ready to use.
Inform Your Clients
One thing you must not forget when moving offices is to inform your clients. The last thing you want is to have a meeting scheduled and they show up at the old office. Your clients could be traveling from a long distance, and this would not go over well. Sending out an email informing people of this can solve this problem. Still, as people don’t always read emails, you can also include a banner on your website and even add information about the relocation to your answering machine message.
Making Moves
Moving can be stressful. Everybody knows that, especially when it comes to office relocation. However, having a robust plan will make the whole process run much more smoothly as with anything in life. You can enjoy your new office and start focusing on your next opportunity to further boost your business. Here’s to YOUR success!
Carolyn R. Owens has over 25 years of proven experience and serves as a Career Strategist, Executive, and Leadership Coach. She is the President of Infinity Coaching, Inc., where she can help you up-level your skills so that you can up-level your income, career, business, or life. Infinity Coaching, Inc. provides organizational training and one-on-one and group coaching. She is also the host of “Let’s Coach with Carolyn.” You can listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you enjoy listening to podcasts.
