Commercial Moving: A Guide To Relocating Your Office Space
Relocating your office space is a very challenging business decision. Moving out to a new working space takes careful planning to make sure that the transfer won’t disrupt your commercial operations.
As a major business activity that requires meticulous planning, smoothly relocating takes months to accomplish. From selecting the new office location to designing the layout of the new workspace, you wouldn’t want anything to go wrong. And for that to happen, here are a few tips on how to relocate your office space without major snags.
Keep in mind that things can go wrong long before you pack the van or step into the new space. A huge mistake that might come back to cause you more than a couple of issues is not having your new property professionally checked out by a commercial real estate appraiser. You can use an appraisal in sale price negotiations, which can be a big win for businesses on a budget. So let’s get into how to plan the perfect fuss-free relocation.
1. Review Your Current Contract
Before you even find a new place, you should review the terms of your current lease. There are three things that you should check:
The time you have before you notify the property owner about your move.
The costs that you’re obligated to settle before you can leave. For example, the physical damages to the commercial rental property.
The fees or penalties you need to pay if you decide to move out earlier than the set date.
2. Set A Realistic Budget
Relocating your office includes multiple fees and costs. A few of them are truck rental fees, the cost of modifying and redecorating your new space, and the cost associated with creating new utility connections. Additionally, to explore cost-saving options, try to find a used office furniture store to furnish your new workspace efficiently. If you are thinking to yourself when is the ASC 842 deadline? it can be worth budgeting for and investing in software to ensure you achieve and maintain compliance. To have an idea of how much you’re going to spend during your relocation, you can click here and ask for an estimate.
3. Come Up With A Timeline
List down all the tasks you need to do before, during, and after the transfer. Check the lease agreement to find out how long it’ll take before you’re supposed to move out from your current location. This can be a determining factor in coming up with a timeline for the transfer. A good rule of thumb is to give at least three months for the entire process. Of course, the amount of time you need depends on the size of your business and office space.
Once you’re able to set a realistic and workable timeline, assess everything in your checklist and set probable dates for completion for each task. Include buffer times for all the activities on the list to prepare for some surprises or delays beyond your control.
Remember that the goal here is to minimize the disruption that the relocation can cause to your business operations. Each time the tasks related to the relocation disturb your commercial activities, the more expensive your relocation becomes.
4. Create A Preparation Team And Delegate Tasks Properly
Form a team that will lead the relocation. While you might want to assign this responsibility to an existing team, it’s better to create a separate committee composed of members from different departments. Aside from allowing you to pick the ones that can be truly helpful, this move also prevents a single department to take the brunt.
5. Inform Your Contacts About The Transfer
Once you’ve settled your obligations with your current lease agreement and decided on a definite moving date, inform all your business contacts in regards to your future office address. Therefore, be sure to do the following:
Make a list of persons and organizations to whom you’re sending out the official transfer. Prioritize informing your business partners and other stakeholders. Also, make sure to contact companies and organizations tied or associated with your business.
Write an official notice to the property manager of your current office premises.
Send an official communication to all your office staff, including the ones who are working in other branches or office locations.
Check your customer list and service providers and don’t forget to send them the official notice, as well.
6. Determine Which Items Stay And Which Ones Should Go
As mentioned, moving entails costs, and your business doesn’t want to spend more than it should. To help you achieve this, ask your staff to streamline the things they require to seamlessly transition to working in the new office space.
On the other hand, consider getting rid of unserviceable office items and supplies. If you have functional electronic devices in your storage room but your company doesn’t need them anymore, consider donating or selling them to anyone who might need them.
If you don’t have the time to manage the disposal of those items, you can let your employees have them or decide on what to do with them. Of course, you have the option to keep them instead and decide what to do with them once your schedule clears up.
7. Establish Your Office Space Plan
Planning your new workspace is an important step in your office relocation. An office that’s well laid out can help increase productivity and enhance employees’ well-being. If the majority of your staff are millennials, you might want to research what millennials want to be present in an office to keep them motivated and efficient.
Inversely, a poorly planned workspace can impact your operations by reducing employee productivity. An improperly and crudely designed workspace may even increase the risk of occupational-related health problems.
Prevent these issues from interfering with your new office duties by creating smart workspaces. Consider the following tips.
Ask for a detailed floor plan of your new rental space.
Contact an architect or engineer to help you with the layout.
Assign each department with colors and each of the staff a number or their names to account for everyone in the new address.
You can let the employees try to design their space. However, you should leave the design of communal and function areas to the experts. For instance, you may want to let professionals handle the design of your lounge and meeting rooms.
Consult with your other teams, as well. For instance, the IT team may need to have a server and storage room separately.
In some cases, you may need to rent out a new storage space outside of the office, instead of allocating one room for it in the new office building.
If you’re a small business with few people, you can rent out a studio-type space.
Furniture and fixtures are important in every office. Make sure your team has a complete set of furnishings even before the transfer. Aside from that, you should also do the following:
Make an inventory of your current office fixture.
Decide whether you need to buy more or not.
Make requests for new purchases at least for a month or a few weeks before the transfer.
Install or construct in-office facilities needed in your new office. For instance, cubicles, kitchen or pantry counters, or a reception desk.
In addition to these, make your new workspace more welcoming by performing the following tasks:
Comply with all the necessary permits and documents needed for the transfer and the slight remodeling as needed.
Facilitate the cleaning services a day before the actual office transfer, both in your existing and new offices.
Conduct a test run for the actual occupation of the premises.
If you have a lot of staff, it may be better to schedule different teams per day rather than letting everyone move on the same day.
Make a detailed plan about the unpacking protocols.
8. Hiring A Moving Company
Office transfers typically involve fixtures such as cabinets, tables, chairs, and alongside computer equipment, among other bulky things. For this reason, it’s best to seek the help of professionals like the Suddath office movers to transport these business assets safely and on time.
When hiring a moving company, it’s best to ask for referrals from other businesses to get the services of a reputable contractor. You may also check online resources to locate and review firms within your locality.
Apart from customer reviews, find out how the company carries out its business. Ask for the contact number of one of its former clients and get in touch with the said person to ask for a general impression of the company based on how their transaction with the business went through.
When you’re done choosing, contact the company so they can send a representative to show up in your office and conduct an assessment on estimated costs.
9. Preparing For The Big Move
One or two days before the big move, you may need to impose the following on all the employees involved.
Prepare each room by placing the assigned color to each department and placing the names of members supposed to occupy the area.
Check whether all the equipment, furniture, and fixtures are secured and locked.
Remind the staff to take only the items needed in the new office. For instance, they should be taking home some of the personal stuff they’ve accumulated over the years.
Assign one person to oversee the whole department’s transfer and unpacking process.
Decide who needs to accompany the truck, who stays until the moving process has finished, and who gets to unpack their items first.
Make the move more organized by assigning numbers to each department in order of packing and unpacking priorities.
Orient your staff as to the actual transfer procedures to avoid confusion and unnecessary delays.
Make sure each staff knows their responsibilities before, during, and after the move to allow for a smoother relocation process.
10. Making The Big Move
With adequate time for preparation and with the cooperation of all of those involved in the relocation, expect to have a smooth relocation process. And with these additional tips, you can help the team to have a smooth transition process as the transfer date arrives.
Have the telecommunications equipment such as telephone lines and computers, installed first.
Review the correct placement of color assigned unpacking schedules and information for each team.
Designate one or two persons to answer all questions and concerns about the office move.
Have a printed copy of emergency numbers and hotlines posted on conspicuous areas in your office premises in case anyone needs it.
Keep the employees comfortable by turning on the basic utilities such as electricity for the air conditioning units.
If you can, allocate a small budget for staff’s lunch or snacks. Include the moving company employees in the allocation.
Additionally, you can ask your communication team to announce the move in your social media accounts and through a press release aimed at targeting newspaper readers. Make sure to get the word out to the greatest number of people.
11. A Day After The Relocation
You can now feel relieved as your office move is now finished. However, the work is just getting started and you need to return your business operations to normalcy. Having these things done in your new address can help your business move at full pace once again.
Set up all communication equipment such as computers and telephones so that everyone can start with their work.
Ensure that all employees have access codes or security tags to access the office premises without any hitch.
Update the list of emergency contacts.
Inform the staff of any changes in the telephone numbers and make sure they know the new office’s complete address.
Check whether all items are in tiptop shape and that there were no damages incurred during the transfer.
In case of physical damage, report to the moving company right away along with the evidence.
Update your website and other online accounts regarding the transfer.
Make sure all the letters, bills, and documents are forwarded to your new business address.
As an option, arrange a housewarming party in your new office.
Final Thoughts
As a well-thought-out undertaking, preparation is key to a successful office transfer. It takes months to prepare to move to a new office space. And it’s not just selecting the most ideal commercial location, closing your current rental agreements, reviewing the new ones, and organizing the actual transfer itself. There’s a lot to do, and you shouldn’t hesitate getting professional help.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean that this is all impossible to do on your own. If you follow this simple guide, you can make your office relocation faster, smoother, and even less expensive. If given enough time to prepare and with the proper support from all the teams, you don’t need to fear having trouble transferring to your new office.
