How to Prepare For an Office Move?

Relocating your business is a very important step for your career, no matter what the reasons are. You want to make the whole process smooth and stress-free, especially if you have a lot of employees. Regardless of the size of your business, we would always advise hiring office movers in order to have a seamless relocation. On the other hand, running your business from a new location is exciting! It will be a great opportunity for your business to grow and employees will love changing the location. But before celebrations, you should prepare everything for your office movers in order to ensure a safe and seamless move, and we are here to help you out with that! 

The most important step and the most important part of every office move are preparing your employees. Yes, it is important to find suitable office movers, but this step is crucial. Your employees are a huge part of your business, so it is important to ask yourself if you know what is important to them. Creating a communication plan is a great way to ensure you are in touch with their needs. As a business owner, you will need their help when it comes to relocation and they will need yours, this is the reason why this step is more important than finding quality office movers. Moving a company requires a lot of work, and there is nothing better than working together to meet your goals. Management always has hands full, even when office movers are hired. The best way to start your communication plan is to have a meeting with all of your staff members and inform them of what is going on. The sooner you do this, the better because everyone will have plenty of time to prepare for the arrival of professional movers. You should also define how the move is going to affect them, and the company in the long run. This way, they will feel that this is something valuable for all of you. You need to see who is with you, and who is not. 

Inform your employees about their roles in the moving process. Let them know should they pack up their personal belongings, or office movers will do that for them. Make a plan of action together with the timeline, so everyone can respect the deadlines they have. You can even help the employees by allowing them a little leniency in their work to decrease the stress of the move and give them ample time to adjust.

Let the employees know where their new workstations will be, and mark the tables with their name, so the office movers can put boxes labeled with their name on the table. You can organize a small meeting and clearly define the goals of the move and what objectives or role the employees have to perform or have been given.

As the business owner, you should show plenty of excitement about the move. Whether you’re moving into a larger space or a better location, it should be a positive, exciting thing. This will go a long way to set the mood with your employees. When you show excitement, they are more likely to get on board and become excited, too.

Before calling professional movers and planning everything, make sure to check your commercial moving lease. If you are planning to leave early, it may cost you your deposit. You may also be responsible for any breakages or damage to the space that might occur during the move. Make sure you’re in the know. This way you will be able to coordinate and plan the relocation in the most effective way, budget-wise and time-wise. 

One thing that is definitely not a good idea when finding office movers is to type local movers near me and rely on the first company that pops out on the list. The first thing you need to think of is how valuable your belongings are, and that some of those things might be even irreplaceable. You want your move to be handled by experienced and trustworthy local movers, not some random company that advertises as office movers. In order to find one, prepare to call a few places and to hear a lot of moving quotes. Unless you have someone you can trust who relocated its business recently and can recommend office movers for you, you will have to do research on your own. Typing on your internet search local movers near me is definitely a good start, but after you see some list, you should read their reviews, visit the website, and get the general idea of the quality of the service they offer. Of course, every office movers will have some bad reviews, so don’t let that disappoint you. Moving is a sort of business when accidents can happen, but the more important is how your office movers will handle any crisis situation like that. That is why you need to be cautious and hire licensed and insured local movers who will make sure to offer you support even if something is damaged, lost, or scratched. On the other hand, commercial moving is a complex task, so you want office movers who will know how to help you plan it and execute it in the smooth way. Just imagine the scene where you have to disassemble or reassemble back your furniture on your own, instead of having office movers doing it for you. So make sure to find local movers who will bring all the equipment needed to perform your office move in a certain way. You want someone who will make sure your items are protected during the whole process, so always ask what is included in the price, if your sales representatives are not mentioning that. 

Another important thing is to ask your local movers if they can send you a moving quote via email as well, in case you are calling on behalf of your director or CEO, you want to have it in writing to present it to the board. Also, if you are calling dozens of office movers, it is easy to lose a track of who said what and what are the rates in which moving company. 

Since commercial moving is way different than residential moving and the square footage doesn’t have a big role here, be prepared for calling local movers, and create an inventory list. This is not useful only for purposes of getting a quote, but for making sure that everything arrived at your new office space as well. However, most of the office movers are providing the quote based on the list of items or the inventory list, so make sure to gather one in order to save your time when calling local movers.

Another important decision to make when hiring office movers is whether you would like to pack on your own (and with the help of your employees) or if you would like to ask your office movers for help. This might be useful in the case of big offices and commercial buildings when you want to avoid having a bunch of people packing up their belongings in a rush. On the other hand, if your office space is on the smaller side, you can make a good team bonding with your employees instead of having office movers help. Order some food for everyone, have some sodas, and enjoy some time together. Show your employees that moving can be fun and that you are more than excited for a fresh start and a new location for your business. 

When it comes to an office move, this step is extremely important, because you need to prepare for the payment. Residential moves are quite simpler when it comes to payment. On the other hand, your business might have some specific requirements, such as paying with a check, or with the company’s credit card, so you have to check with your office movers what options do you have when it comes to payment. Most of the local movers don’t accept checks, so you should confirm with them even before scheduling the move, in case this is the only option for you. Also, if you are paying with the company’s credit card or if the holder of the card is not going to be present, you should provide your local movers with the credit card authorization form signed. Think of all the options and be prepared for them before you schedule your upcoming move. The last thing you want is to pay the office movers for the time they are spending doing nothing, but waiting for you to gather the paperwork needed for completing the payment.  

Anyone who runs a business knows how important it is to keep things smooth and to have your business up and running even during the most complex times, such as local moving. That is why you should try to find flexible office movers who can help you do it in a seamless way. Flexibility when looking for local movers is usually related to the date and time for the move. It is always best to find office movers who can relocate you on Saturday or Sunday so you can all be ready to work on Monday. Most local movers can help you with this, you should just plan ahead and schedule your spot in the time since these are the most wanted days of the week. On the other hand, some office movers can go the extra mile and have flexibility with the working hours as well. For example, they can help you move after hours or even super early in the morning. All you have to do is ask, but this is something that not a lot of local movers will be able to do due to their schedule. 

When it comes to commercial moving, there are usually some big printers and copy machines involved. In order to ensure whether your office movers can help you with moving those or not, don’t forget to add them to your inventory list. If you have that industrial printer and copy machines, it is always best if you have the company that is renting them to help you move them due to safety and insurance reasons. Don’t forget to notify your local movers if there are some huge conference tables that cannot be disassembled, and similar. In order to have a smooth and seamless relocation, your office movers should be aware of everything they are facing, and this is usually a part of the service where you won’t be charged additionally, so you don’t have to worry about that either. 

Commercial moving comes with some additional paperwork that you might need, so make sure to think of everything that you will need from your local movers, such as a certificate of insurance for any office building, or W-9. Anything of that sort can usually be provided by your office movers in no time, and it will save you from losing your mind when you realized that you cannot be moved in or moved out without. 

It is important to allow your office staff to take their time for the move. Unless you are hiring office movers for packing as well, they will need some time to do so, and not to mention that you will need some time to prepare for the arrival of professional movers. So, our advice would be to start planning in time and make sure to notify everyone in advance, so all of you can start preparing for office movers. It’s very stressful to move from one office location to another. Some stresses cannot be avoided, but they can be minimized if you are planning on time.

And last, but not least is to notify your customers or clients. No matter if they are coming to your location or not, it is a nice gesture to conduct a nice email where you will let everyone know that their favorite business has a new address. 

And if you are looking for office movers, don’t hesitate to reach out to Greenwood Village Movers in order to get the help that you deserve. Getting a quote is free, so no reason to hesitate. We are looking forward to working with you!