Management

The Golden Rules to Planning a Successful Office Move

Moving officeIf you are running your own company then you will be used to making plenty of key decisions. Hopefully you will be well used to getting more of these decisions right than wrong. One of the biggest decisions that you will face could concern the location of your business, disaster isn't too far around the corner if you mess this one up.

Hopefully your business will flourish and you can grow and develop along the lines that you have been hoping for. If this is the case then there could easily become a time when you need to think about alternative office space or a full re-location.

If the above is something that is currently on your agenda, then this blog post is definitely for you. Here we will be taking a look at 3 golden rules when it comes to avoiding disaster when moving offices.

1. Plan Early

Believe it or not the main issue with moving offices is that businesses simply don't plan things early enough. It almost as if they like the last minute rush that leaving things late will inevitably bring.

A great place to start is with the calendar. You will find that once a moving date is selected then things tend to happen very quickly. With this in mind it is good practice to pick a date at least 3 months ahead, longer if you can.

Give some thought to staff coverage. If you expect your office move to happen over a period of a few days then it makes sense to block out any holiday request from this date range. This is especially important when dealing with the likes of IT personnel as they tend to be key employees at this delicate time.

2. Budget Properly

There are many financial aspects that need to be considered when planning an office move. Naturally you will need to pay special attention to the physical costs of moving your office desks and other items.

To be able to do this you will need to contact a removal firm. The best ones are probably those that specialise in the removal of offices as opposed to home removal services. These tend to have a clearer understanding on exactly what is required.

If you don't know who to contact then a quick web-search will probably point you in a suitable direction. A couple of examples of this for a London based office could be something as simple as "London office removals" or "office removals in London", either one should provide decent results.

It is vital that you also take the time to consider other cost elements as the physical removal won't be the end of your commitment here. Stationary will need to be re-printed with the correct address details. Websites will need to be updated to allow visitors to know exactly where you are based. Additionally if there is an element of time when you have to stop your operation due to the move then this should be factored in as well.

3. Move IT First

It is probably safe to assume that you would like to get back up and running as soon as possible once your move has been completed. Done right this can help you to start re-paying some of the costs that originated from your office more.

A great way to help this is to make sure that you move your IT first. This will allow your technical staff to make all of the necessary connections in time for when other team members arrive. The last thing that any good business would want is to find they have the manpower but haven't yet got around to sorting out the information technology side of things. If nothing else this creates a poor atmosphere amongst staff members, especially the ones that aren't as adept to change as others.

By now you will probably be quite glad that you took the time to schedule the move well in advance, especially if you picked a time when your IT team were all available.

If you have any questions, please ask below!