Nothing lasts forever. Your company’s first office space may have been great for the early stages of your operations, but at some point, you’ll likely find that it’s time to step things up and move to another office, one that’s more aligned with your current objectives.
While making this move can be exciting, it also requires a fair amount of work to ensure that it’s a success. You can think of moving to a new office much in the same way you think of moving properties; unless you take proper precautions, you might end up in a stressful situation.
In this post, we’ll run through some handy tips that help to minimize the stress and ensure your move is as smooth as can be.
Consult Your Employees
It’s important to think about how the move will impact your current employees. They may have an easy commute as it stands, but a less-than-easy commute once you’ve moved to your new location. Letting them know early will give them time to process the news. You can involve your employees even further by consulting them about some of the decisions you’ll have to make. For example, you can get input about the layout of the floor plan and the amenities they want to see.
Give Yourself Plenty of Time
Moving to an office should be a medium-term project, not a short-term project (unless for whatever reason you have to move immediately). In an ideal world, you’d have plenty of time to plan everything. While moving to an office can seem like a simple project, it involves more tasks than you might imagine, and you’ll only end up stressed if you’re working with a limited timeframe. In the best-case scenario, there’d be an overlap between the two leases, so you can slowly transition to the new space.
Build a Team
It makes no sense to move homes all by yourself, and neither does it make sense to move offices all on your own. You’ll have a lot of bulky and fragile possessions to move from one office to the next, so it’s imperative that you work with a moving company to ensure everything makes it to the new space in one piece. It’s also recommended to work with a legal expert to handle all the paperwork relating to your rental contract, especially if it’s a long-term, cash-intensive rental.
Move During a Low Period
It’s important to think about how your move will impact your capacity to work. Try as you might, it’s inevitable that’ll impact your productivity to some extent. You can help yourself by moving offices during a historically low period for your company. If you’re not sure when that is, then pour over your financial records and see if you identify when you typically have less work to do — the numbers will tell you. It’s also advisable to tell your customers that you’ll be moving offices and there may be some unexpected delays until you have everything in place and you’re fully up and running.
