Moving office is a major undertaking that can be expensive and time-consuming. I’ve written a guide that may help to reduce these costs, time, and the overall impact on your business.
Plan the Move
This is arguably the most important stage of any move and reduces potential issues on the day. Here’s what you need to do:
- Choose a relocation date that least interrupts your business. We know this is a difficult decision and losing a workday for the moving office isn’t ideal but try to offset that work onto another day.
- If moving office in a single day will have too much impact on your business, maybe consider moving over a series of days. We’ve used this method a few times starting with non-essential items on the first day followed by essential items such as computers and desks on the second day.
- Figure out what transport you need. If you only have a few computers and boxes, a car should be fine but with anything more, it’s worth renting a van for the job. Doing multiple trips in a car is not something you want to do, especially in a busy city like Bristol.
- If you’re considering using a removals company for your office relocation, contact us to arrange a date and one our team will conduct an office visit or a video call survey. An experienced member of our team will visit your office to gauge your move and offer a free no-obligation quote. See our Office Removals page for more information.
Relocation Preparation
Inform staff, suppliers, clients, and anyone else who will need to know about the relocation. Keeping everyone in the loop will reduce disruption to your business and you can also use this opportunity to contact potential clients about the move and maybe this will open lines of communication.
- Declutter and decide what you need to take. Any excess items can be sold to help raise money for moving costs and it can cut down the number of items to be moved and therefore reduce the whole cost. Post for sale items on Gumtree, Bristol social media groups or talk to other businesses within your building.
- Design a floor plan for the new office. This is definitely one of the best pieces of advice we can offer you. By creating a floorplan of your new office, your staff or the removal team knows exactly where to place the desks, computers, filing cabinets and everything else and this will speed up the workflow and reduces disruption to your business.
- Order and update the address on marketing materials. This is an absolute given and it’s essential to update your website, online directories, business cards, letterheads and anything else that has the business address. Also, remember to do this for business bills such as phone providers and don’t forget HMRC.
- We all know the parking situation in Bristol is terrible at the best of times so contact the building managers and try to reserve a space outside the property. This will significantly shorten the time needed to complete the move.
Packing
It’s very important that packing isn’t left to the last moment. Buy the required packing materials well in advance and start packing non-essential items straight away if you’re unsure of which packing materials you might need. Also, make an inventory of every item and label each box with a short description such as files, computer etc…and use a location indicator to display where they need to be placed in the new office.
- Buy high-quality packing materials. You should aim to buy double-walled boxes, thick bubble wrap and strong adhesive tape to ensure everything is properly packaged.
- Think of the environmental impact. Try sourcing recycled packing materials to reduce the carbon footprint of the relocation and there are many online shops that can provide these materials.
- We’ve mentioned labelling your boxes before so don’t forget to buy a marker pen.
- Dismantle the larger items of furniture in preparation for the move.
If buying packing materials and packing yourself seems too disruptive to the business, we offer a packing service that includes all packing materials.
Moving Day
Have at least one member of staff at both locations to direct your staff or the removal company (hopefully us!). Here are some more general tips:
- Similar to moving home, check the inventory of the old and new office and take notes of any damages, including photos. This will save a lot of hassle in the future and remove any potential confrontations with the landlords.
- Test electrical equipment such as phone lines and broadband. Although your new office landlord should take care of this, we’ve relocated enough business to realise this sometimes isn’t the case and it can cause a lot of headaches.
- If you do decide on moving office yourself or if you’ve hired a man and van who’s expecting you to help, remember this is hard physical work so have plenty of refreshments ready for your staff. Also, ask each member of your staff if they’re willing to help because it might not be in the job description. One more thing, make sure you hire stack trucks and dollies for the move. This equipment can dramatically lessen the effort involved.
After Moving
Compare the inventory with everything in the new office, recycle or arrange collection of the packing materials and although this has been mentioned before, I feel it’s very important to mention it again – update the business address with everyone it may concern. The last thing you want it to lose business because of the move or risk a fine for not paying a bill. We know this is obvious but these things can get easily overlooked.
Most of all, after moving office, enjoy your new premises!
Disclaimer – This blog should only be viewed as a guide and Macro Removals will not accept liability for any injury, damage to possessions, loss of earnings, or death.
