It is never easy to move office. Ultimately, you want to make sure the move goes as smoothly as possible, so that your business can resume quickly. Whether you have relocated your office in the past or are moving for the first time, the following steps will help you ensure a successful office move, including how to choose removal companies.

Plan the office move

You do not want to find yourself scrabbling to come up with a plan hours before the removals men arrive. It is there essential that you come up with a checklist and stick to it methodically. You can create a timeline of what you want done by what date and present this to your staff. They will give you the best judgements on what is do-able and what isn’t. It takes up to three months to move a small office whilst a larger office may take between six to eight months. You should ask your employees what issues they have with the current office. The suggestions they make will ensure you get the most out of your new space.

It is advised to make sure you have some room of time between the day the new office lease contract starts and the day the current office lease contract ends in case of emergencies. You would’t want to have to move your four floor office within one weekend!

Informing about your move

It is very important to inform your staff about the move date. If there are any significant changes you should also let your staff know. Delegate responsibility amongst your staff to make the move is as efficient as possible and more importantly, fun. At the end of the day, moving to a bigger office means you are growing quickly! It is important to have an open dialogue about the move with your staff because if you’re moving more than a few streets away it may affect how they go to work every day.

Keep clients and business partners informed about your move. they should know when you’re moving, where the new office is located as well as the day your business resumes. Your customers of course need to know where and when you are moving. no customer should be lost due to your office move.

Services, contracts and policies

Transferring the phone line and internet is the first thing to do when moving your office if you have been happy with their service. If not, it is perfect time to find somebody new. Business linceses, insurance policy and equipment leases might also need to be reviewed and updated appropriately. The prospect of a move can often result in favourable terms when renewing or updating such policies and contracts.

Utility companies need to be contacted to sort out the offices water and electricity supplies. Speak to the site owner for details about existing utility contracts in the building.

Relocation preparation

Getting the new office building access are the first thing you need to do, not only for yourself every time you visit the premises but also for anyone you may hire externally, such as designers, contractors or consultants.

Not only do you need to maintain contact with the new office landlord, you should also try and get a hold of the floor blueprints. This will allow you to work out how much space you have to work with as well as where the electrical sockets are located.

You should know where your office equipment is going to in the new office. You wouldn’t want to move in and start thinking about what goes where. Hiring a space planner or designer might be worthy when you have a lot of equipment.

Only when all construction to the premises has been finalised and completed will you be ready to move. You wouldn’t want to move in, start working and still see builders hanging around.

Get rid of unused stuff

It is likely that your business and your employees will have amassed a large amount of material that can be thrown away. Make a detailed list of important items to be taken to the new office. The rest can either be thrown away, recycled or if they have some money, auctioned to raise some cash.

It is important to make sure your staff is responsible for their personal belongings and if there are several departments within your company each department manager needs to delegate responsibilities to their staff. If the business is small it could well be the case of all hands to deck!

Budget

Come up with a budget and stick to it as best you can. You should consider all dimensions such as decorators, consultants and of course the removal costs. Even when your new office is few blocks away it will still be important to hire professional removal couriers to move larger office equipment such as printers or desks.

Removal company selection

When the removal company come, your staff should be present at the pickup and delivery points, as they will want to move the office items as quickly as possible, especially if you’re on a busy street.

When moving a rather large office, a full service option should be chosen so you will have an office to office move. It is essential to thoroughly interview any potential companies. The removal company should know everything about the move in advance and if possible you should have a meeting with them in your new office so that they’re aware of what the basic layout will be. Give them the blueprints to the building so they can assess whether moving some of the larger items will be feasible.

Make sure whichever removal couriers you choose, they are fully insured. It would be best to hire removal company with a proven history of successful office moves and if possible a company which deals exclusively with house and office moves. If you are hiring a man and van operator, do pay extra attention to their insurance details.

It is likely that you will need to do the packaging for at least some of the items yourself, so get the whole office to help out!.

Isabel Frank is a freelance writer who creates quality content for websites in various sectors. She specialises in articles giving advice related to moving home/offic, removal companies,