Welcome back! If you read Part I of our Tips For A Successful Office Relocation, you’re likely back to ensure that you have some additional advice for better organizing a stress-free move that runs smoothly and results in little confusion or lost productivity.
In Part I, we provided four key tips for a smooth office relocation – proper planning, creating a clearly labeled floor plan, hiring reliable and experienced professionals, and communicating, communicating, communicating. Now read on for four more useful tips to help your relocation stay on track…
- Review, clear out and upgrade – When relocating an office, it’s the perfect time to go through files, equipment, furniture and other items to determine what’s staying, what’s going and what needs to be replaced. You know how things tend to pile up in a forgotten storage closet or a drawer of the credenza or even an empty office? Don’t waste time and money moving things you no longer want or need. Donate, trash or otherwise get rid of what is not necessary. And if you’ve been thinking about upgrading or replacing equipment, hardware or furniture, now’s as good a time as any to pull the trigger. Think of the relocation as a fresh start and take advantage of moving forward on a new foot.
- Prepare for the unexpected – Even the most well-planned office relocations never go quite as smoothly as you’d like, so it’s important to prepare for the unexpected. For example, what happens if you plan a weekend move but your new space is not ready to be fully operational by Monday morning? What if items are lost in the move? Do you have a contingency plan in place if equipment is not up and running or back-ups fail to back up? Of course, you can’t plan for every possible scenario, but its best to talk to the office relocation experts you hire and ask them to discuss what types of issues they sometimes see arise and how they may be avoided during your move.
- Anticipate down time – Although you may be able to start your next work day as scheduled and on time despite an office move, you should still anticipate that things will not always run as smoothly as if you had never moved at all. It’s best to anticipate some level of down time in case systems are not integrated, files are not easily found or the new phone system is not working quite as planned. With this in mind, you should try to plan your relocation at a time when a bit of a setback won’t negatively affect your business dramatically. Aim for a quieter-than-usual time of year or a long weekend or other event that will go easier on your bottom line if your business is down or simply not running at peak efficiency during the transition.
- When it’s all done, celebrate – An office relocation is stressful on everyone, not only the business owner or the person or team planning the move. So, once it’s all over and things seem to be a bit more settled, try to plan some type of celebration to commemorate the accomplishment. What you do is less important than the fact that you do something at all to show your appreciation for your staff’s effort, patience and resilience during what was likely a trying time.
For more information about planning an office relocation or to discuss the office relocation services in NYC offered by GFD Courier, call 212-349-3644 or 718-222-7444.
