When you are relocating a commercial business, there are numerous factors that you must take into consideration. Moving commercial premises is not an easy undertaking. You must let your staff know of the move, ensure they are able to get to the new location, inform your customers, and take care of your precious valuables. Hiring commercial office movers can save you a lot of time and reduce your stress levels for the impending move.
1. Failure to Plan for Growth
When choosing your new premises, there is one crucial factor that you must consider – what if your company grows? Many companies choose a new building to move to based on their current sales or staff levels. However, you don’t want to go through the hassle of moving if you’ll just have to do it all over again in a year because you’ve become more successful. So, plan for the future by getting a new location that’s larger than what you currently need.
2. Not Telling Your Staff in Advance
As a business owner, it is your responsibility to give your workers plenty of notice that your business is moving. These people will need to figure out whether they can get to the new place and how they will get there. It can change things for a lot of people, especially if you’re moving a long distance. You can expect to lose some staff who prefer to work closer to home.
So, tell your employees as soon as you know that you plan to relocate your business. This allows them the time to prepare themselves for the move and decide whether they will stay on. If you spring it on them at the last minute, you’re more likely to have more people resign. To keep your staff, let them know as soon as possible.
3. Not Notifying Customers
Those who own a retail store can get so focused on the moving process that they forget one crucial detail – telling their customers they are moving. If you don’t let your loyal customers know that they will need to come to a new store, you may never see them again. One day they will arrive at your store, and you will have disappeared into thin air.
Make it easy for your customers to visit your new premises by putting up signs well in advance and letting your mailing list know. This ensures that your new location will start off on the right foot by retaining your previous customers.
4. Forgetting to Update Location Details
If you have a website, directory listings, or printed materials, don’t forget to update all of these with your new address. You need to do a stocktake of everywhere your company’s address is mentioned both online and in print so that you can update it in each of these places. That way, you won’t have customers arriving at your old store and feeling disappointed to find it empty.
5. Moving on the Final Day of Your Lease
Many businesses want to make the most of every day they have already paid rent for, so they move out on the final day of their lease. However, this doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. If the move takes longer than expected, or you need more time to thoroughly clean the place, you won’t have extra time up your sleeve.
If you have a large business with many possessions that need to be moved, leave a week of cushion between your moving date and the date your lease ends. That way, you will have plenty of time to go back and clean out the place and have some leeway for removing everything.
6. Lacking a Detailed Relocation Plan
Any business that moves must have a detailed relocation plan, as the key to moving without any issues is having a solid plan in place. This ensures that you have considered all of the factors that have the potential to disrupt your move.
This should include back up plans in case things go wrong, such as what will happen if a key person is away sick right before the move. You should also assign the tasks that need to be completed to your staff. Denote who will pack up which sections of the office, whether staff are responsible for boxing up their own desk items, and how things will be protected in transit. These are all extremely crucial things to decide ahead of time to avoid any miscommunication or mishaps on the road.
7. Expecting Your Staff to do All of the Packing
While it may be normal to expect your staff to pack up their desks into moving boxes in an office environment, it’s another thing entirely to expect them to pack up a whole shop. Your employees have work to do and won’t know how to safely and efficiently pack these items. Book office movers instead who will do all of the packing for you. This allows your employees to continue focusing on their jobs and not stress about the move.
8. Not Booking Movers for Relocating a Commercial Business
If you have a large company and think that you and your staff can do all of the moving yourselves, think again. Having manpower does not always equal a smooth move. For one thing, your team are unlikely to be happy to participate in all of the heavy lifting required. This will also open them up to the risk of injuries that you will end up paying for.
Secondly, experienced movers know the best ways to safely lift, cushion, and pack heavy and fragile items. When you’re moving, your belongings will jolt around in the van, often causing damage and breakage. EasyMove’s experienced team of office movers know the best ways to safely pack items to prevent this from occurring. We come equipped with moving blankets and other packing materials to ensure that we move all of your possessions safely.
If you are relocating a commercial business, you need experienced movers who know what they are doing. Don’t try to do it the cheap way, as this is likely to cost you more in the long run due to damage, lost employee time, and moving takes longer than necessary. Contact us today – we are happy to offer our professional moving services to your business.
