The Ultimate Guide to Moving Your Business to A New Premises

Your business is growing. Hiring spree has grown your employee number by threefold or more. Your first office has shrunk in space. There is hardly space to walk around.

Naturally, before employees start throwing tantrums, you decide to move to a bigger and spacious space. That is where the buck stops.

Moving into a new office is easier said than done. It is nothing like moving your home. There are confidential files that need safe transit, equipment that needs to be protected and employee files and personal belongings that cannot be lost at all.

In case you find yourself in a need to move out of your present office, here is a guide to help you do it, without any mishaps.

Relocating to a new office can make your employees react in two ways. Some are going to like out, others are not going to like it. Either way, you have to communicate of the relocation and give them down to the last minute details to avoid any complications.

How to communicate to your staff members that are relocating?

Here are some effective ways to communicate:

Drop a mail. Create a common email thread that relays information about the packing and moving. Don’t mark separate emails for different departments. A single set of communication should reach all to avoid confusion.

Announce in a meeting. Gather all the staff together and announce the relocating along with the tasks and duties that each one has to do. Also, let know of people who can be reached for more assistance during the moving out.

Notice Board. The big notice board that hands near your entrance or in the cafeteria can help here. Paste a detailed instruction manual about the relocation, when it could take place and how it would take place.

Avoid using social media or the press to inform your employees. They are better reserved for clients, vendors, suppliers and others.

The following questions are bound to arise in the minds of an employee when they are informed of an office moving.

• When is the relocation going to happen?
• Will it happen all at once or in a phase by phase manner?
• How will personal belongings be packed and moved? Along with the entire office or one’s own responsibility?
• Parking and access control permissions in the new premises
• New office planogram showing staff, manager, cafeteria and other pivot locations

Make sure you give instructions that deal with these questions directly.

In addition to your staff and internal members, external parties associated with your business also have the right to know about your business relocation. Here is how to inform them about business relocation.

Inform with clarity the new billing address. Mention specifically if there is any change in the product return process and if so, where it has to directed to. Thanks to Google maps and other GPS navigation systems, you should also be able to include a map link that will help them identify your new business location easily.

Your bank accounts, insurance policies, and other contracts will need an amendment to include the business relocation. Usually, an addendum to these official papers signed and attested by a public notary will serve the purpose. However, it is recommended that you publish a press release in local dailies to spread the word to all. Banks and insurers may also require you to send an official request to make the changes printed on your new office letterhead.

If you plan to get your business up and running from day one at the new office, inform your telecom and ISPs at least 2 weeks ahead of the relocation. It gives both the parties enough time and room to plan the new infrastructure and settings to be configured so that business can move on without any disruption. You can use the same letters or communication used for informing customers and banks/insurers to inform telecom operators and ISPs.

If your business is reliant on social media for branding and marketing, your new relocation can actually be an opportunity for celebration. You can invite your social fan following to the welcoming of the new office to strengthen engagement and loyalty. Google +, Facebook events, Twitter contests, LinkedIn groups – the options are endless. Also, don’t forget to update your About section in social media accounts once the relocation is complete.

When you are moving, you will not have easy access to your computer. By all probability, it would have been dismantled and packed in boxes for quick moving. That would leave you helpless if you are trying to look up a contact and their details. Your smartphone can only help to an extent. Hence, the better way to stay organized is to make a list of all contacts whom you might need to get in touch during the moving out and while setting up shop at the new location.

Here are some people whose contacts you can make a list of:

• Employees
• Movers & Packers dealing with the moving
• Insurers indemnifying the equipment being moved
• Landlord(s) of the new premises
• Utility/Service providers at the new location

Moving your business to a new location can be quite a rough ride. To make things smooth, set a realistic timeline web before the moving date. Intimate the same to employees and assign individual roles and responsibilities that they have to play to facilitate the moving out.

Inform all stakeholders, clients, vendors and service providers of the change in address. Most importantly, have a list ready for everything that you will need during the moving. Work out the cost beforehand with a moving calculator (most packers & movers offer it online) and allocate budget to avoid last minute bottlenecks.

Planning to move your office to new premises. Hope this guide helps you do that without any hassles. Feel free to ask if you have any queries.