A Guide through a Stress-Free Business Relocation

Apart from improvements and business opportunities that a relocation brings, there are certain shortcomings and negative sides to it. With a good strategy and a carefully selected team in charge, these setbacks can be avoided or at least minimized. This guide explains how to execute moving the office in a hassle-free and orderly manner, step by step.

Determine the Moving Budget

Before you start anything, you need to come up with a realistic and manageable relocation budget. It will lead you through all investing episodes and enable you to track the expenditures from packing up to turning your new office key.

Start Planning Early on

The earlier you start with the planning, you will have more time to include and work out every aspect of the transition. Let us say that a sound and error-proof plan starts a year or a year and a half before the movers start loading your stuff. In this phase, you should elect the project manager, team coordinator and the team who will carry out the move. Decide how much space you will need in your new office, with the room for expansion. This includes the planned personnel growth and equipment replacement. Locate the new space and estimate the costs to modify it to your needs.

What are your Needs?

This phase should make clear what the purpose of your company relocation is. Your current requirements combined with long-term goals will determine the best method and approach for executing the move. Make an analysis of individual office requirements, including size, equipment, the clerical space, special purpose rooms, like a conference room, cafeteria, archives, etc. include the analysis of all office systems for file keeping, billing, accounting and financial recording, telephone, etc. with plans for future changes or reorganization. Make a list of your inventory to separate usable items from those to be discarded.

Hire Professional Removalists

The odds are that you will be moving your business for the first time. If this is the case, you want everything to fall in line after the dust settles, in other words you do not want to take chances. Outsource the aspect of your move like function, space and aesthetics a to professional office move agency. Office removalists located in Sydney say: “As a team of office removalists in Sydney who have dealt with hundreds of businesses on the move, we have learnt a thing or two about how to ensure everything goes smoothly.” On the other hand, if you are making the move for the second or third time, well, you already recognize the value of professional relocation consultants.

Expand your Office Plan

Consulting an interior designer and space planner, develop schematics layout for each office separately. This will help you review the projected budget for the transition and eventually exclude items and furnishings needed to meet the projected costs. The modifications should address your existing problems that are one of reasons for the move. Reviews the final layout of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as well as the number and position of electrical and telephone outlets. This phase should also tackle furniture requirements and locations, including special needs for kitchen facilities.

Plan Improvements of the Current Organization

This phase is the perfect opportunity to reorganize your work, by discarding the obsolete or ineffective office hardware, dispose of the old files and clear out unnecessary items from cabinets or storage areas. Such improvements would normally interfere with your employees’ daily work routine, so it is best to make them in the transition phase. Send furniture orders to vendors, making sure they arrive on time, including carpets and window covers. The furniture and office hardware that cannot be reused should be disposed in a safe manner or auctioned off. Hire security guards to watch your furniture as it waits to be moved in.

Final Countdown

Besides you and the moving team, much of a transition load will fall upon your staff. Print and hand out “move guidelines”, briefing them on decisions regarding the relocation. You also need to ensure that everything goes smoothly and stress-free for your employees, offering them any support you can provide. The final stage includes preparations for address change in official documents and possible telephone number changes, including their announcements to your clients and business partners.

No matter if you are operating a big company or a small office, moving your business is never an easy task. Months of planning and meticulous organization of every aspect guarantee that everything falls in place in the end.