BusinessOrganizing Tips After Relocating Your Business
Moving your business to a new location opens up new opportunities to grow and reach new clients. As you make this big transition, how do you stay productive and facilitate a smooth changeover? With strategic planning, your company can make this move with far less stressful than it could be. This guide will show you how to prioritize your moving sequence and protect all your vital equipment in the process. By taking timely initiatives, you can relocate for a lower cost and keep your operations running smoothly.
The good news? Moving your business is much like switching apartments. You're not in unfamiliar territory: you're just doing the same process on a larger scale. Overall, you don't just start the day the moving truck arrives. Instead, you take the time to pack seasonal items and other equipment that isn't immediately necessary. Then, as the day gets closer, you start packing things that you can do without with until you unpack them again. The larger your business is, the further in advance you should prepare. Here are 6 things to consider when relocating your business.
1. Know Your New Floor Plan
It's crucial to know the lay of the land in your new office. This will help you plan what equipment to take with you, what to sell, and how to arrange these items once they arrive. By visiting the place in person, you can take measurements, photos, and make a list of what items should go where. If you can, bring some employees with you to take notes and be on the same page with you. Having multiple people available to direct the movers on the big day can save time and reduce the stress of having the movers answer to one person.
2. Declutter & Donate
While decluttering is an excellent way to maintain a clean and organized office all the time, kick this process into high gear a few months before your relocation. After you know your floor plan, you have a good understanding of how much furniture and equipment your new location can handle. Your current office may have extra equipment and furniture that doesn't work with your new office. Facilitate the moving process by donating or selling anything you don't need. The sooner you start, it can be done more at your leisure. Donations of functional furniture and office equipment can also be turned into tax breaks that benefit your business.
3. Do Proactive Packing
If you start packing items you know you won't need now, such as mounds of copy paper and promotional items, you can have these boxed up and ready to go far in advance. This reduces the amount of time it takes to move when it's time to officially leave. To keep your office running, only pack the equipment and supplies that you won't need for the rest of your stay, but be careful to not pack something too soon, such as a printer or all your toiletries.
Instead, leave out just what you need to get through the final days at that location, such as a few stacks of copy paper and a week's worth of paper towels and toilet paper. There are some items, like computers and desks, that must be used down to the very last day. These should be packed last after everyone has gone home for the weekend. However, if you don't wait to box up all your office's items at once, the final day of packing won't be as arduous.
4. Label Everything Correctly to Reduce Downtime
When you pack equipment at different stages, you can easily forget what's inside each box. To stay on top of where your items are and where they go in your new office or storage, use a permanent marker to label all your boxes. This small step only takes seconds but can save you hours of opening boxes to find the power cords or copy ink you need during your first day at the new location. Any boxes going into a storage unit should be labeled according to their contents and destination. You may need to hire a smaller moving truck to handle this task instead of waiting to use one truck to make two trips. Having a mover handle this task simultaneously can make short work of the relocation.
5. Prepare Your New Location's Utilities
When your desks, sofas, and computers arrive at your new place, don't flip the switch to find that you forgot to connect the electricity. All utilities should be activated at your new office before you get there. Sign up for vital services like phone lines and an internet connection and test them to make sure they are working well. Nothing's worse than having bad internet in a digital economy, and waiting to get online can cost you. If you need to install security systems and card scanners for access, these should also be set up as soon as possible.
6. Carefully Pack Electronics
In a technologically-driven world, your computers, tablets, and other devices are vital to keeping your operations running strong. Take the time to pack your devices carefully in their original boxes or with bubble wrap and clear labels. Pack computers separately and keep all their associated cables in the same box. Large items like printers should be carefully wrapped and transported with the help of multiple people and a hand truck. Also, since there is a chance computers can get damaged in transit, make sure that you back up all your important information in a data cloud.
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Storage Rentals of America is your convenient self-storage solution. So come into our office or give our storage experts a call at 1-800-457-5678. Our call center is available 7 days a week and can help determine which storage unit size best fits your storage needs.
