Management

Tips and Tricks for Moving Your Business

moving-businessFinding a new house for your family is hard enough. Finding a new home for your business is even harder and more complicated. Even so, it is obviously not impossible. Here are some tips and tricks that you can use to smooth out the process when you decide to move your company from one location to another.

Plan Now

There is no such thing as too much planning when it comes to moving your office from one location to another. To that end, there is no such thing as "too early" when it comes to formulating that plan. As soon as you get even an inkling that it might be time to look for a different office space, start piecing together a plan. Remember: you're not just coordinating your move. You're also coordinating the moves of any employees you might have, all of your office equipment and the computer network stuff you require. The earlier you start to plan the better able you will be to work around those bumps that inevitably appear anytime big projects like this are involved.

Upgrade

If you're going to be moving anyway, hopefully it is because you're doing well. Use the move as an excuse to upgrade your space and especially to upgrade your computer equipment. You can donate your old servers, etc. to charities in your city for a great tax write off and then upgrade to the newest models and rebuild your system.

A Quick Note: open office plans are all the rage right now, design-wise. In terms of employee productivity and morale, however, they are a bad idea. It's better to invest in a beautiful cubicle situation or even a space that allows everybody to have their own offices.

Secure the Space First

You're going to be tempted to tell everybody that you're moving before you actually move. Don't. Don't start filling out your change of address forms or business registration until you actually have a space secured. Why? Because deals fall through all the time. The last thing you need is to have to send out several different change of address notifications to clients or pay registration fees more than absolutely necessary. That will just make you look disorganized.

To that end, make sure that your telecommunications needs are wired properly before you move into the space.

Pare Down and Organize

Like with a personal move, a business move is a great time to go through your office space and clear out all of the things you don't need any more and to reorganize the supplies and files you do plan to take with you to your new space.

PRO TIP: Hire a temp or a shredding service to get rid of old records that no longer need to be saved (the rules for how long you have to keep records on site and in storage vary, make sure you check your local regulations).

Hire Professionals

Never try to move your own office unless your office is just you moving from a spare bedroom and into a coworking space. Moving from one office space to another requires moving companies that specialize in corporate moving practices and have the skills and setup to move sensitive equipment like computer network servers, etc.

Move During the Off Time

Nobody likes moving in the evenings or during the weekend—especially in the world of business moving—but moving after hours and on the weekend minimizes the disturbance for your clients. Move on a Friday evening so you can spend the weekend setting up and be ready to go (at least at a basic level) on Monday morning.

Mind Your Paperwork

When you move for you, you tell the post office. When you move a business, the post office is just where it starts. You also have to notify your Secretary of State, your county offices, city offices, creditors, bank, and clients. Then you have to update all of your stationery, your marketing materials, etc.

Have you moved a business recently? What tips do you have for people who are facing that obstacle?

If you have any questions, please ask below!