For a fast-growing home business, expanding to an office is likely essential to your continued business growth. While working from home can be fantastic, it can be rife with distractions and interruptions. A home office may not make the right impression on clients, and if you need to hire employees to help your business flourish, it might not be feasible to have them working from your home.
When you’re making the move out of your home into a dedicated office space you want to avoid disruption to your daily business practice, which means making the transition as smooth as possible. Here are four tips for a smooth office move into commercial premises.
Plan your office move well in advance
It’s recommended you begin the moving process no less than six weeks before your relocation date. Once your new office premises is secured and the contracts are signed, you can only set your moving date in stone by contacting a removals company for your office clearance.
If you’re coming from a home business you might not have much furniture or equipment to move, or may not wish to move everything in one go. In such conditions, you can save money through comparing quotes from commercial removal companies who specialise in part-loads. Operating across Europe, London-based AnyVan provide an office removal service that saves users 75% when it comes to moving furniture and bulkier items, making it perfect for smaller businesses; if their team of man and van drivers have empty space in their vehicles as they go about existing routes, they offer customers the option to add their item to their part-delivery.
However you plan to make your move, create a detailed checklist of what needs to be moved and when; certain things, depending on what your business does, will be more of a priority than others.
Add structure to the move with a timeline and plot key stages of the process you can share with any other business employees to keep everyone in the know.
Tell everyone about your office move
An office move can do wonders for morale and a new office location can open up a world of fresh opportunities, such as enhancing your business image and professionalism. But a move is no good unless you tell everyone about it.
When you begin your move, you will need to determine the best time to inform clients and customers. You might publish a press release to your social media channels, send out an email campaign, or simply update your stationary and online business address. Each of these options is more suited to one type of business than others, so think about what will work best for you.
You’ll also need to tell any employees, of course, with at least a month’s notice for them to make arrangements, but it’s most vital you inform your suppliers in order to keep your business running. Arrange for any deliveries to be redirected to your new address by contacting companies directly to offer your new contact details in time enough to come into effect. Otherwise, you’ll end up needing to courier supplies from your home address/
Once you’re all settled in, you might even consider grand opening celebrations as a useful way to raise your business profile and attract new customers. It’s particularly valuable if you run a business your customers regularly visit in person.
Prepare for the disruption and plan according to your new office space
Like any move, office relocation causes interruption to your regular activities. In many cases, work must be suspended to allow for the move to take place. Create a Business Continuity Plan to help your business achieve be productive right up to your move deadline.
To minimise stress and disruption once you move into your new office, make sure you’re fully prepared in terms of furnishings and plan your new layout. That means scoping out the utilities and connectivity resources available in your new office, and check with your landlord whether there are any restrictions when it comes to branding your new space.
The biggest thing to remember is to budget your move to cover any additional costs that may arise. There is a massive financial change to take into account when transitioning from home business to an office because you will now be paying out additional expenses for rent, utilities and new office furniture.
Organise your technology and communications infrastructure for your office move
Moving your businesses technology can be the most complex and riskiest part of any office move, especially when you’re transitioning from the familiarity of your home office set up to a more industrial space. For example, if you’re moving devices or documents which contain confidential information but not others, you must be aware of the importance of data destruction. Ultimately, the earlier you start planning your business technology relocation, the better your chances of having a well-planned and smoothly executed move.
Making an office move from your home to a commercial premises will probably mean you’ll be investing in telecommunications infrastructure for the first time. Setting up a business phone and internet system can be complex, and there are plenty of companies likely to charge you over the odds. Be clear about your business telecoms requirements to make sure you get the best service and deal for your small business.
Devise a comprehensive test plan for once you’re settled in to identify if everything is working as you are used to in order to quickly recover your usual service. Transitioning out of a home office, you want to make a clean break and a fresh start—getting back on your feet as quickly as possible away from your home avoids doing damage to your work-life balance.
