Moving office?
There’s a lot to be done (trust us, we know). You need to make sure that your new space works for your business operation, and that all your loose ends are tied up at the old office.
Here are our top 10 tips for relocating your business from one space to another.
1.Declutter
Before you move, any time that you spend getting rid of stuff you don’t need is time well spent. That old filing cabinet full of physical records? Now is the time to digitise. Things are about to get busy, but we promise that putting the man-hours in now will save you work during and after the transition.
2. Planning
What are you going to bring with you? What are you going to get rid of? How are you going to get rid of it? Do you really want to take along that old printer? Can you leave behind that awkward Jim guy?
3. Budget
Once you know exactly what you’re going to move and when you can then call around for quotes. Check out some websites online and make sure you can get a removalist that is reliable and suits your business ethos, such as Holloway Removals. Can you afford to get the removalist to do the packaging for you? Get quotes on that, too. Your team have enough to do without worrying about bubble wrap and labelling their staplers.
4. Team prep
Before you move in, make sure that your team know what they’re about to walk into. If you’ve suddenly gone from an old style office environment with doors that close to a new, open plan office with elbow-touching proximity to the next person, you might find your plans met with some reluctance. Make the move easy for your team. Communicate what they will find, and enlist their help to make space their own.
5. Upsizing or downsizing?
Downsizing is always cheaper, right? Wrong. Consider the opportunity cost. Will all your stuff fit in the new office? Will people be happy with less space? What if your business grows? And what about the time it takes to sell all your extra things? As long as you consider these things in advance, there’s a lot you can do to take the hassle out of downsizing, such as getting a charity to come and pick up your stuff.
Upsizing is the opposite. Consider what you will need for your office to not feel like a giant expanse of nothing.
6. Update location details
Where is that client anyway? Two blocks down at your old office, because you didn’t tell them that you moved? You need to think about this for a while in advance. Changing your address on Google is a great start, but it might not work if someone is showing up for a second time and believes that they definitely know how to find you. Put signs around your office if you’re a client-facing team. Update your social media pages, and make sure that no trace of your old address remains online.
7. Execute
It’s time to move. You’ve got a whole team of staff on your hands, so you can just use them, right? Wrong. We’ve written before about why you should use always use a removals company. Unless you are a removals company (we do speak from experience), then your team are probably better skilled at their day job. Plus, you’ve got to pay them somehow for helping you out. Don’t expect a great deal of enthusiasm or care, either, as they have their day job for a good reason.
8. Communicate
If you’ve completed step 5 well, then making sure that everybody knows you’ve moved should be no problem. But this is the time to check on that. There’s only one thing worse than a customer not knowing that you’ve moved, and that’s thinking you’ve gone bust. Don’t let that happen. Check regularly that no one has been forgotten along the way. Not even awkward Jim.
9. Review
What worked well and what didn’t? We hope you’ve found a space that is great for you and you won’t have to move again. All businesses fluctuate and change, so if you do need to move again, you need to make sure that you know what worked and what didn’t.
10. Provide feedback
This is a great opportunity to give others feedback on their processes. A professional removalist, for example, will always be extremely grateful for any feedback that a client is willing to give.
At Holloway Removals, we take pride in our attitude and expertise. We are friendly and fun, and the experts in office relocations. Moving offices in Sydney? Call us for a free quote today on (02) 8503 4444.
Looking for a local removalists in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane?
We do it all!
