Commercial Moving: How to Prepare for a Relocation

If you are the head of a company and are facing the prospect of an office move, you might find the whole idea terrifying. As understandable as this is, you shouldn’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by it. If you go about the process systematically and allow for sufficient time, you should be just fine.

And fortunately, there are some great professionals out there that can help you get the job done. At Elatemoving.com, seasoned professionals can handle commercial moves of all sizes and distances.

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Things to consider when moving offices

Although moving offices can seem like a nearly impossible undertaking, it is by no means rare. Statistics indicate that every year, 9% of public companies and almost 100 major corporations move offices. In other words, you are not alone.

Nonetheless, you do need to be organized, so here is a little checklist of things to go through as you plan your move:

1. Depending on the size of your company and extent of your move, experts suggest beginning the planning process between 9-18 months in advance. This will give you enough time to break down the process into the right time components and plan a budget that will work for you.
2. Compose a team to take care of different parts. This should include several essential people:
   1. Representatives from different departments to help manage their individual teams;
   2. Representatives from HR to help ensure proper communication;
   3. Representatives from the finance department to make sure all the numbers are in place;
   4. A solid group from the movers you choose;
   5. IT professionals to make sure that your systems are taken down and put back in place correctly. These problems are very common! In a recent study, 90% of CIOs experienced cloud disruptions during office moves. Plan early to make sure this doesn’t happen.
3. Before you plan the actual move, it is essential to conduct a proper inventory of everything that you have and size down to whatever extent possible. Get rid of any unnecessary items that will simply make you feel cluttered and bogged down in your new location. Remember, this is the time to start fresh! So consult with department heads, but be prepared to purge things that have simply been with you for too long.
4. Plan your new space. It is easy to assume that your furniture will all fit nicely into your new office space because of overall measurements or similarly-shaped rooms. But have you actually measured the distances between desks, or how filing cabinets will fit in the new spaces? Will the right departments be near each other, and have easy access to commonly-used equipment? Figuring this out in advance will save you a lot of headaches once you get to the other side.
5. Take care of your systems. As mentioned above, relocating an entire office worth of technology can be mind-bogglingly complicated, so you will need to ensure that every aspect of it is in place:
   1. Make sure that your data migration is fully planned;
   2. Make plans for your new Internet/phone provider to start service the moment you open in your new office;
   3. Make sure that your servers will be backed up in the event of an outage. Remember that outages are more likely during moves as it takes time for people to get used to how things work.
6. Make sure logistical details are fully taken care of. This includes making sure the moving company is on the same page as you in terms of what needs to arrive when, making sure your employees have access to the new building, making sure everything works in the new location before you get there, etc.
7. Keep everyone in the loop! Your employees will be overwhelmed enough by the prospect of moving in general. Make sure they are up-to-date on all the important details of the move as you go along. This will not only prevent specific problems, but also give staff members the confidence to know that you are on the ball. If your new space is going to be physically complicated, consider creating a video for your staff to remind them how to get around, how to get into restricted areas, etc.

It is all perfectly doable

Moving offices is a major life event. And it should be treated as such. But rather than allowing it to overwhelm you, you should take it as a cause for positive change and think about how you can revitalize your company in a new space. By moving locations, you may be breathing some much-needed new life into your business. The next move may be an even bigger one!