The Ultimate Guide to Preparing for Your Office Move

Did you just purchase a new business space and need help preparing for your office move? Check out this ultimate guide to get started.

Planning to relocate your business?

An office move is a big endeavor which requires a lot of planning. Whether you run a small business or a larger company, there are several things to consider and the logistics of a move can be overwhelming.

Not to worry, we’ve laid out a guide to help make your office move as painless and efficient as possible. In any case, you should get in touch with professional movers to make your move easier.

Learn the Space

When planning to relocate to a new space, it’s important to learn more about it. Get your hands on a blueprint of the new office. It should include square footage and a layout as well as where data and phone outlets exist.

This blueprint will be one of the most important tools to help you plan for the relocation. It is also something you can share with other staff or any outside help you’ve hired to assist in the move like an IT company, an interior design firm or furniture manufacturer.

Create a Timeline

A successful office move is all about planning ahead. The best way to do this is to work backward. By now, you’ve likely decided on the date you’d like to (or need to) be in your new space.

Once you’ve determined your date, you can start gathering information about the new space and figuring out what adjustments or changes will need to be made in preparation for the move.

This will also help inform the type of lead time you’ll need. A small office move typically takes about 3 months of prep time whereas a larger office move can take 6-9 months of preparation.

Find out the lead time for big items like furniture delivery and phone and computer set-up. When you know how long certain items will take to be arranged in the new office, you can plan accordingly and avoid scrambling at the last minute to rush orders.

Assign Tasks

No one person can handle an office move alone so it’s important to involve your employees in logistics and ask for their help in planning.

The first step is to assign a project manager within the office. For small businesses, it could be an executive assistant, office manager or even the owner themselves.

The person spearheading the process should be very organized and task oriented. This project manager will be tasked with overseeing the big picture.

They will be the ones to create a timeline and ensure that things remain on schedule. All other employees should report to this person with news and information regarding the move.

Having one person in charge and managing the project as a whole helps to prevent miscommunication and oversight when other tasks are divided out.

The project manager can also assign tasks to other employees or ask for volunteers. There are plenty of jobs to go around when preparing for a move so some tasks could be to research and hire movers, pack and label common areas of the office, vet potential IT companies and more.

Set a Budget

Moving costs can add up quickly and unforeseen expenses are sure to arise. Before you go ahead with a plan, be sure to determine a budget.

Distribute the budget to any other staff working on the move logistics. This will help when hiring a moving company, purchasing new furniture or making changes or upgrades to any tech components you’ll want in the new space.

You’ll also want to factor in any downtime the company will be closed while the move occurs and how that will translate into lost income.

To help you create the budget, you can get quotes from various companies to make sure you understand a general monetary range you’ll be dealing with. It’s typically best to relocate during downtime, off hours or a weekend.

But we realize this isn’t always achievable so it’s safe to factor in these costs just in case.

Have a Weekly Check-In

Gather your team and any staff working on the move for a weekly check-in meeting. Create an agenda that is distributed beforehand so each employee knows what updates they’ll be responsible for giving to the rest of the group.

The timeline you created will help guide your weekly meetings since due dates and deadlines will be approaching.

You’ll be able to confirm that everyone is on the same page as the move progresses and this gives the staff an opportunity to mention any issues or changes that have occurred during the week which might affect the move.

These meetings will also give the project manager the opportunity to let the staff know how and when their workspace should be packed up.

Each employee should be responsible for packing up their own desk. It’s helpful to number the desks and distribute boxes with the corresponding number so items are tracked and nothing goes missing or ends up at the wrong desk.

Do a Spring Clean

A move is a perfect time to consider what you have in the office and what is, in fact, going with you to the new space.

Depending on how long you’ve worked out of your current space, it’s very likely items have piled up over time.

Take an inventory of what you have and determine if there are items that can be tossed or donated. If they aren’t being used now, it’s likely they will not be needed in the new space.

Many electronics can be recycled and there are companies that will come pick up your items and take them to be donated or trashed. Purging unwanted or unused items will also help lower your moving costs since you’ll be packing fewer boxes.

Get the IT Done

If you have access to the new space ahead of your move, have your IT company set up data, phones, server or any other electronics you’ll need. This way, you can be up and running the day of the move by simply plugging in your computers and having your IT company put the final touches to make sure everything is working well.

Having the IT handled ahead of time also leaves room to fix any problems that may arise in the transition.

You’re All Set for the Office Move!

These steps above will help prepare you for your office move and make your relocation streamlined and stress-free.

The most important things to remember are to stay organized and give yourself plenty of time so you can enjoy your new office space!