Tips for Moving Into a New Office Space
Moving can be a very exciting time, but it can also be extremely stressful. This is true whether you’re moving into a new house or a new office. When businesses move into new offices, they’re often moving into a newly renovated space that’s been designed to better meet their needs than their old office. But even when you know a move is needed and that good things will come of it in the long run, it takes a lot of work to plan the move to ensure it is as seamless as possible so that you can get up and running with minimal disruption to your operations.
If you’re getting ready to move into a new space, here are a few tips to help you along the way.
Start Planning Early
The sooner you’re able to start preparing for your move, the better. If a space needs to be renovated before moving in, that’s a process that needs to begin several months before moving in. Once you have a set move-in date, don’t think it’s too early to start doing things like hiring a moving company or making arrangements for setting up phone and IT systems in your new location. The last thing you want is to have a hard time getting the help you need when you need it.
A key part of an efficient office move is having your new layout mapped out in advance so that you’ll know exactly where things need to be set up as they’re brought in. When you renovate a space before moving in, one benefit is that this will be planned out nice and early as part of the process. But going through this step also gives you an opportunity to think about what exactly you’ll need in your new space and what you won’t need. Do you have things like old furniture or unused equipment that you could get rid of before the move? Or if you’re planning to purchase new furniture or equipment for the new location, you’ll want to find out if there are any lead times to plan around. If you are looking to personalize furniture, there is often a 6-8 week lead time on these products.
Managing the Move
It’s important to have someone within the company to lead the move. They should be involved in all aspects, including the construction efforts, so they know the dates they need to meet. This job can be very time consuming depending on the scale of the move. There are people that specialize in Move Management and they would be your liaison for everything move related, including getting quotes, scheduling, and being there for the actual move days to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Finding a Moving Company
While looking for a moving company to work with, be sure to find out what, exactly, they will be handling. For example, some moving companies will not move plants, so if you were planning on taking plants with you to your new location, you may need to make other arrangements for those. Or if you have equipment that will need special care during transport, see if that’s something movers are capable of doing. Also, do you want to work with movers who can help you pack or will people at your company be handling the packing? If you want help with packing, make sure you look for a full-service moving company.
Review Your Insurance Coverage
Insurance might not be the first thing you think of when planning a move, but it’s a very important part of moving commercial offices. When researching moving companies, be sure to find out if they are insured and have them provide you with proof of insurance. It’s also important to review your existing business insurance policies before the move. Those insurance policies might not necessarily be transferable to your new location so there’s a chance you could need to look into new policies ahead of time.
Review the Rules
Don’t forget to carefully review building rules for both the building you’re moving out of and the building you’re moving into. Office buildings often have rules that apply to moves and the rules at one building might be different from the rules at another. For example, many buildings have rules about the times when moving can be done. Or there might be requirements about protecting floors while things are being moved or have limitations on time spent in loading areas.
Prioritizing Your Move
As you deal with a move, sometimes it can be hard to know exactly where to begin. When it comes to packing and unpacking, think about how essential things are to your operations. Anything non-essential can be packed up first with the most important things saved until the very end. For example, if you’ll be moving in the summer, go ahead and start packing up the holiday decorations or archived storage files early on. When the time comes to unpacking, go in the opposite order, making sure essential things like desks, phones, and computers are set up and ready for people to use when they arrive in the new space.
Don’t Forget to Update Your Contact Information
Whether you’re moving homes or offices, changing your address is a big part of the moving process. Think about all the things that will need to have corrected contact information, including your website, marketing materials, business cards, social media profiles, company letterhead, and email signatures, just to name a few.
Tying Up the Loose Ends
Nobody wants to pay for services they’re not actually using. Be sure to review all of the utilities and other services your company uses, such as landscaping and cleaning services, and make sure those services discontinue at the appropriate date.
If employees need things like key cards or permits to access the building or parking lot of your current or new location, be sure those are either collected at the end of the last day in your old location or distributed ahead of the first day in the new office.
If your new office needs to be renovated ahead of moving in, Premier Construction & Design can help. Take a look at our portfolio and case studies to see examples of some of the spaces we’ve worked on and contact us to tell us more about your project.
Image: iStock / onurdongel
