Moving Offices Smoothly – AEC Business

As your business grows, it is important to upgrade your office. You need your office location to be a good one and for your offices to reflect the quality of the service that your firm offers.

After all, potential customers are unlikely to hire an architect or construction firm that is itself based in a crumbling, dingy old building. Investing in good quality business premises is an important part of growing your brand, so as your business grows you are likely to find yourself moving offices several times.

This article is all about the moving process. Specifically we explain how to make that move as smooth as possible, so that the service you provide your customers remains flawless throughout the move.

Plan ahead

As with all things, planning is crucial. Moving offices is a complex process, so you need to be prepared. As soon as you decide to move, you should sit down and start to make plans.

Appoint an experienced co-ordinator

Right from the start, you need someone to oversee the moving process. If possible, appoint someone who has prior experience of managing a move. They, in turn, should appoint a moving co-ordinator for each department.

Reduce the amount you move

Where possible you want to minimise the amount of equipment you move. Doing so makes the job easier. If your budget allows consider buying new furniture and equipment. A move is a good time to upgrade.

A few weeks prior to the move have a throw out. Anything your firm no longer uses can be sold or skipped. You can find a good skip hire deal at www.skipandbin.com, where you can compare the cost of the office waste skips in your area.

At this point, make a note of any old equipment that you are still using, but will not be moving to your new premises. Label that equipment, so that on the day of the move it can all immediately be skipped and will not be taken to the new premises by mistake.

At this point, it also makes sense to run down supplies. The last thing you want is for people to be loading up a hundred boxes of copy paper on moving day. Just be careful not to cut things too fine and be sure to order new backup supplies to be delivered to your new location.

Pre pack into labelled boxes

Where possible pre-pack materials and equipment this will save a lot of time on the day of the move. Ask members of staff to take home any personal items in advance of the move and to box up any equipment they are not using. The evening before the move all staff should pack up their own desk, keyboard etc into pre-labelled boxes. Everything should be well packed and clearly labelled.

Manage workflow

No matter what you do the move will take time and things will never go 100% smoothly. Therefore, it is important to manage workflow, so that your staff are not too stressed work wise just before and just after the move. That way you will build in some leeway to allow everyone to get settled andworking at full speed again. Taking this approach reduces the chances of your letting customers down.

Following these guidelines will help your move to go smoothly and give your firm a great start in your new location.