Few things strike dread into the hearts of office managers like the thought of moving offices.
But, while it’s not easy to up sticks and move your entire workspace, it is possible to relocate smoothly and with a minimum of stress.
All it takes is some careful forethought, planning and preparation.
Here at Design Tonic, swift and painless move management is a crucial part of our end-to-end service so we’re well versed in how to handle a move without the hassle!
Here are our top tips to help you effortlessly manage your office move:
Forethought
There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to planning your office move.
So let’s begin at the beginning. First, you need to know exactly what you’re dealing with - and how much it’s likely to cost.
- What does your existing lease say about leaving? If you’re leaving early, you might lose your deposit - now’s the time to find out and try and negotiate a deal if you need to. Are you responsible for making good any damages or redecorating the space you’re in? You’ll need quotes for this work if so.
- How long will it take you to get your facilities - especially phone lines and IT services - up and running at the new space? Will you need to install any additional infrastructure?
- Get quotes from removals companies, arranging site visits if needed to avoid any last-minute moans about access issues.
- Do you need moving insurance, and/or specialist movers for any equipment? Start getting your quotes now if you do.
- Will you be using commercial interiors specialists (hello :) to help design and fit-out your new premises, or will you be doing it yourselves? Get quotes from office interior design companies and/or decorators.
Planning
Set a Budget
Now you’ve got your quotes in, set an overall budget to stop costs getting out of hand.
Agree your Moving Date
Pin down an official moving date.
Make sure it gives you enough wiggle room to have any interiors work done, and to give enough time to set up and test your tech and infrastructure - you don’t want to lose connectivity as you move.
Choose Your Moving Team
Put together a team to handle the move, assign an overall leader and work together to delegate responsibilities.
Your team might include your office manager/s, HR, IT and account handlers.
Let’s tell people…
It’s time to let everyone know that you’re moving and where you’re moving to. First, you’ll need to tell your:
- Current landlord/ property manager
- Your team members (if they don’t already know)
Then you’ll need to tell everyone else. Assign someone in your team to create a master list of everyone you need to send a change of address to. This might include:
- Clients
- Partners
- Suppliers
- Service Providers
- Bankers
- Insurers
Get your list in place and prepare a change of address notification ready to send pre-move.
Planning your new office space
Our favourite bit, obviously :)
There are two ways you can do this - the easy way or the DIY way.
The easy way?
Get in touch with our talented team and we’ll bring your new office to life, like we did with these amazing spaces…
The DIY way?
- Get hold of floor plans for your new office (or go measure them out yourself).
- Make sure you know where all the electrics, facilities and storage space are.
- Plan your space. You’ll need places to work, meet and hang out, as well as sufficient storage and space for all your tech bits and bats.
- You might want to consider how your office will work for post-pandemic times, including ways to bring wellbeing into your workspace, using “resimercial” design ideas to create a better work/ life balance for your team and how to break up your space safely but stylishly.
- Make sure everything fits!
- Order new furniture and equipment.
- Book any decorators.
Don’t forget to take pictures of the empty space to prove the condition it was in when you took over occupancy - they can come in handy later on!
Preparation
Now we’re into the final straight, it’s time to get ready for move day:
Office Move Preparation Checklist
- Move your utilities accounts (or review and set up with new suppliers) to make sure everything’s up and running in plenty of time.
- Send out your change of address notifications.
- Get your insurances and any licences in place.
- Order your new business stationery.
- Arrange any phone redirects.
- Arrange any mail redirects.
- Sort out access for moving day at both offices and liaise with your removals people and team.
- Issue security passes for the new site to your team.
- Familiarise your team with the new office - parking spaces, layout maps of the space and contact details for the moving team are all a good idea.
Packing your Office
- Make a list of what you’re keeping and what you’re ditching - and have a good clear-out before you pack.
- Order boxes and labels - it’s a good idea to colour-code boxes so your removals people know where things are going in the new space.
- Give your removals people a colour-coded floor plan for the new office to show where everything is going.
- Work with your IT team to back everything up and get your fragile (and expensive!) equipment packed up safely.
On Office Move Day
It’s finally moving day!
- Are all the desks and walls cleared?
- Is everything out of communal areas, like the kitchen?
- Is everything labelled?
To avoid any unwanted landlord arguments, assign someone to take pictures of your old, empty office.
Aaand…. you’re in *high five*
Time for a well-deserved office warming party!
Phew. That’s still too much for me.
No problem - if it all seems like too much, we’re here to help!
Your dedicated DesignTonic move manager and team will take away all the inconvenience and make moving into your new space something to celebrate.
If you’d like to discover how we can plan every aspect, pack every item and do all the heavy lifting for you, get in touch today.
