Whether you’re moving to a new premises to accommodate a greater workforce, relocate to a superior site, take advantage of a lower rent or for any other reason, the whole process can be extremely stressful. Every business wants to ensure that the transition causes as little disruption as possible, is on time and on budget, and is properly communicated to all appropriate parties – but this can be easier said than done. Follow the tips below for a hassle-free move.
Notifying appropriate parties
There are a number of organisations and people you will need to notify of your change of address. This includes utility companies, such as your gas, electricity and water suppliers; your broadband provider; financial parties like your bank, the HMRC and insurance companies; and any suppliers or partners. Let them all know well in advance so everything is organised on time.
It’s a good idea to set up mail redirection with the Post Office, so that anything delivered to your old address arrives at your new premises instead. Organise the changeover for the first day you have access to the new office, so that you can quickly determine which organisations have not been notified of your move – and so nothing important gets left behind.
You might also need to let your customers or clients know about the change of address. Again, do this well in advance so that they have plenty of time to adjust – and let the information sink in. For any important clients, it might be worth telephoning them with the news for a more personal approach.
Transportation
It is important that you properly plan the transportation of your equipment, furniture and so on. You can of course employ a removal company, but some organisations find it a more cost-effective approach to purchase vans – especially if these could be useful in other business activities. Van Monster stocks a huge range of spacious second-hand vans that could be ideal.
You should also schedule and thoroughly organise the order in which items will be transported. Smaller companies may be able to move everything in a day, so the best moving tactic will be transferring the largest items first and the smaller pieces of equipment later. Larger businesses spanning transit across a few days need to think about the approach that will cause minimal disruption: while moving meeting-room furniture and archive boxes on day one should not affect productivity, relocating computers probably will.