8 Office Moving Mistakes to Avoid
As your North Miami business grows and thrives, you may find yourself considering a change of location. When you’re moving into a brand new space, a smooth, error-free office moving experience is absolutely essential. Mistakes during the moving process could lead to operational downtime, additional expenses, and other things that can eat into your bottom line.
These eight common office moving mistakes are things you’ll want to avoid as you relocate your equipment and staff to a new location.
1) Poor planning.
You need to plan ahead, well before the actual expected date of your move. It’s a good idea to assemble a manager or a group of employees into a relocation team, whose job is to coordinate the move. You’ll also need organized task lists that are communicated effectively to relevant staff, along with a transfer strategy that lets you minimize downtime during the moving process. Also, you’ll need to budget for the relocation.
2) Disrupting your business operations.
If you’ve never been through the office moving process before, you probably won’t be able to predict everything that could be done to minimize downtime, or every mistake or accident that could happen along the way. To keep your move from becoming too chaotic, and to avoid the cost of excessive downtime, checklists with tasks and subtasks can be quite helpful.
3) Forgetting to back up your data.
The last thing you want is to lose mission-critical data during the moving process because hardware was damaged during the move. Before relocating, you should create an offsite or cloud-based backup, if you don’t already have one.
4) Fumbling your technology transfer.
Moving furniture and file cabinets is straightforward enough, but what about your computer equipment? Computers are essential for any modern business, but office moving for tech equipment isn’t as simple as loading furniture in a truck. You need a realistic, well organized transfer plan. If possible, this should be delegated to your IT staff. If you don’t have an IT department, you can hire outside contractors to help you move everything and set it up in your new location.
5) Furniture errors
Not only do you need to move your existing furniture, but you also need to buy new furniture if your new office space is larger. Buying office furniture in bulk takes time, so you want to give yourself enough time to make the purchase. You also need to make sure your existing furniture fits into your new office’s layout.
Transferring things like cubicles can be complex and time-consuming. You may need to install customized wiring and power in your new office, or order new parts to accommodate the new space.
6) Poor communication
If you’re assigning relocation tasks to employees, good communication is essential. Everyone needs to be on the same page about what tasks need to be completed, what timetable you’re working with, and to what extent, productive work will continue during the move.
7) Assuming you can move everything on your own.
Even if you’re a small operation with just a few employees in a small space, moving everything on your own is much more complicated than it sounds. Boxes and furniture can get quite heavy, and sensitive electronic equipment can easily get damaged during transport. You need to arrange ahead of time with the right vendors to help with your office moving process. You need a general commercial moving company, and you may also need extra assistance from specialists to relocate electronics.
8) Not hiring a reputable office moving company.
It’s also important to hire a reputable company for your move. When you hire professional office movers, you should research the company before hiring them. It’s also a good idea to compare quotes from more than one vendor before you make a decision. While you shouldn’t necessarily go with the lowest bidder, and estimates that are too low can mean trouble, it’s still wise to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
Office Movers in North Miami
At Orange Movers, we help businesses in North Miami successfully move into brand new office spaces. To find out more, call us any time, or fill out our online contact form.
