Chess Blog

Moving Office – A Step by Step Guide

Moving office is not an easy task and one that should not be undertaken lightly. If you are a business owner and you know that you have a move coming up, then we urge you to think seriously about this move! It is often the case that people think this is no big deal, it won’t take a lot of time, and therefore, it doesn’t require a lot of preparation. These assumptions are wrong, so you should just forget about that right now. It is hard work, and there are a lot of things that you need to do in order to make sure moving day goes as smoothly as possible when it comes around. In this article, we are going to be giving you a step by step guide on the things that you need to do when moving office. Keep reading to find out more.

People packing moving boxes in an office

 

Out With The Old 

One of the things that we are going to look at first is getting rid of all the stuff you no longer need. Not only will this help reduce clutter in your new space but by getting rid of unwanted items now you will save on moving cost. We are not suggesting that you throw away all of your office furniture and everything that was in your old office, only the things that no longer have a use. It is pointless to carry them into your new office with you as they are only going to take up space and make the place look crowded or messy. As such, you need to think about culling your existing stuff so that you only end up with only the necessary items moving into the new space. 

You need to go through everything that you own and decide whether it has a purpose or if it is still relevant to your business. This is the perfect time to upgrade things if required. Been thinking about some new office furniture? Cut down on moving cost by getting rid of the ols stuff now and having the new items delivered directly to the new office.

Make Use Of Your Staff

It doesn’t sound like it will help save you time, but trust us, if you are making use of your staff, you are going to notice a difference. While you should hire removalists to sort out all of the big stuff (we are going to be looking at this a little further down), getting your employees to pack up their own desk can be a real time saver. If everyone is taking their own belongings to the new office, this puts less pressure on the removal team, and ensures that everyone has all the stuff they need for the new space!

Hire A Removalist

You are likely not going to be able to make this move alone, so the next thing that you need to do is hire a removalist. Hiring a professional removal team is going to be extremely helpful to you as they know what they are doing, they can perform the tasks in a timely manner, and you aren’t going to have people bailing on you at the last moment. Chess Moving specialises in office moves, and they are going to be able to help you with all your removal needs. 

Getting heavy items out of one place and into another is no easy task, so for your office, this would include all of the desks, chairs, any big equipment that you have but this is not going to be a problem for Chess Moving. The staff are friendly and reliable, providing you with the removal services that you need, in the timeframe that you need them.  

Keep Your Clients In The Loop 

Something vital is that you make sure your clients know when and where you are moving and how they can contact you if they need to. If you forget to give out your new contact information to clients before you move you are going to lose a lot of them. Everyone that you currently provide a service to needs to know where you are located so that if for any reason, they need to come down to your business address, they can. If they are constantly ringing a number that no longer belongs to you, this is going to be a big problem. 

When moving office, if your clients aren’t being kept in the loop, they are going to feel as though they are not important to your business, and this is the quickest way to lose customers. Keeping your customers well informed is going to be good for your business, so make sure that when you’re moving office, you ensure this is done. 

Design The New Office

A man sitting in a brand new office building

This is quite a fun step because you get to go through the process of designing the new office space! Before you move office, you need to ensure that you know what the space looks like and the exact measurements so that you can start planning out where things are going to go. For example, you need to have thought about where your desks are going to go, which items are going to be located in which part of the office and so on. 

By doing this, you are making the whole process of moving office easier as the movers will know where to put things. If you don’t have a plan in place for the design of the new office, you are going to end up with all of your office furniture just sitting in a big mess in the new space. This means that you will have to spend longer sorting this out, and your business won’t be able to get back up and running until this is all sorted. 

Like we said, you want to make sure that this is done before the actual moving day and not when you get there. Some business owners wait until the day of the move, then go in and decide to do a spontaneous design. While this might work for some people, generally it won’t work out so well! 

Label All Of Your Boxes

One of the biggest nightmares that you can experience when moving office is having boxes and not knowing what’s in them. It wastes so much time if you have to open every individual box, move it to where it needs to be and then unpack it. To save yourself a lot of time, you need to be labelling them while they are being packed up.

But, further than this, if you are not labelling your boxes correctly, you risk them not being sent to the right address. If your boxes are incorrectly labelled, then they could end up in a different location from your new business office, which leaves you with a bit of a situation on your hands. Without this, you are not going to be able to get your business back up and running, meaning you are going to have to halt operations until you get this sorted. To avoid all of this trouble, just make sure that your boxes have been correctly labelled before they are picked up for delivery. 

Set A Timeline

What we mean by this is that when you are moving office, you need to make sure that you have some kind of timeline in mind so that everyone knows what kind of time they are working towards. You need to know when you are going to move, how long it is going to take roughly to move everything essential from A to B, and then how long it will take to sort it all out so that you can start providing services again. 

Make sure that everyone is aware of this timeline, including your employees and the people that you have hired to help you move. Everyone needs to be on the same page and working towards the same timeframe so that it is all sorted and in the correct order when you want it to be.  

Appoint A Move Manager

Everyone is going to be involved in the move, and when this happens, things can get messy. For this reason, you should nominate one person to be the move manager, and they then are in charge of everything to do with the move. Everything goes through them, if someone needs some information regarding moving office, they are the go-to person, and if something needs coordinating, then they should be the one who deals with the issue. By doing this, there is a set person to contact, meaning that everyone will be on the same page throughout the move. Make sure that this is someone good at planning and organising, an office manager or executive assistance is generally a good choice.  

A Detailed Moving Day Plan

As well as a timeline, you are going to need to have a detailed moving day plan if you want everything to follow a set schedule. This plan needs to involve when things need to be done which will have already been decided in the timeline, who needs to be where as well as when, and everything else that you can think of that has to be done. In order for moving the office to go smoothly, there needs to be a plan of action that everyone can follow to the letter. Write it down, make a checklist, email it to everyone and get everyone on the same page.

Tick things off as you get them done so you know what still needs to happen and what you have already covered, and get others to send you messages or let you know when they have completed the task that has been assigned to them.

Get The New Office Cleaned

It is vital that the new office has been cleaned and is ready for your business to move in. You can hire a professional cleaning company to ensure that this is done to the highest possible standard. There is nothing worse than heading down to the new location and finding that it is in no fit state for you to move any of your stuff in, meaning that you have to postpone moving day, which might be difficult for you!

So, to avoid this issue, you should make sure that the cleaners have been in at maximum a week before you are due to start your business up in the new space. Once this has been completed, go to your new office and check that you are satisfied with the work that has been done. Then you will know for sure that everything is ready to go on the date of the move.

Have An Emergency Number

Finally, we highly recommend that you have an emergency number that everyone can call if something goes wrong. Every single person that is involved in the move should have the emergency number either on a piece of paper that they have with them or already in their phone for if they need it. Everything should have already been well prepared in order to minimise the risk of something going wrong, but there are always unforeseen circumstances that can crop up at any given time, so the emergency number needs to be available.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now know what to do when you are moving office. If you follow this step by step guide, then when it comes time for you to move offices, you are going to have minimised the chances of anything going wrong! There is nothing better than being well prepared for a move!

If you’re looking for a stress free, quick and easy office move then give Chess Moving a call. We have been in the moving business for over 100 years so we have seen it all and done it all. Get the ball rolling with an obligation free online quote today.

 

 

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