There comes a time in the life cycle of your business when your current office space is simply unable to meet your plans for growth and the time comes to consider moving to larger, more suitable place of work.
Moving office is a substantial task that requires thorough planning in order to be carried out smoothly. Ensure that you start planning early – it’s a good idea to start planning at least a year before you actually plan to relocate. With so many stakeholders involved including staff and clients it’s vital to ensure you choose the right property, with the right facilities in the right location and of course, at the right price!
Plan ahead from the start
From the outset it is useful to consider a feasibility study. Such studies can enable you to save money by helping you plan for future growth. Normally conducted by design consultancies, they include measures such as working out the growth rate within each department of your company, calculating space needs by breaking these down into types (for example meeting rooms or staff room areas).
Deciding on the best date to move is also a crucial factor so that your business incurs the minimum amount of disruption possible. It’s a good idea to review last year’s workload patterns so that you can see where dips have occurred. Public holidays are popular times for office moves due to the low levels of client interaction typically experienced during these periods.
Work out budgets
Define your moving budget and remember that an office move entails a variety of costs including IT and infrastructure, insurance, removal fees, disposal costs and new equipment costs to name a few. It’s crucial to develop a detailed budget with at least an additional 20% of budget put aside for unforeseen costs.
A successful office move requires a lot of work and therefore it’s important to define who in your team is going to be responsible for what. While this will help to ensure that all tasks get completed, it will also serve as a good opportunity to get other members of staff involved in the move. Realising at the last minute that you have forgotten something like getting the utilities connected is going to be an extremely disruptive start to life in your new workplace.
Keeping Clients & Staff in the loop
Communication is another important consideration as you will need to make sure that all stakeholders are kept up to date with the office move. This includes keeping your clients informed and ensuring that they have the correct contact details for the business at each stage of the move. Further to this, you will also need to keep staff up to date so as to ensure a smooth transition of your operations.
Employing the help of experts
Hiring a specialist relocation company is also advisable. Not only will you have lots of heavy equipment to move but there will also be security requirements to consider which a specialist in this area will be able to accommodate. It’s advisable to speak to several relocation companies and ask for testimonials and evidence of their experience.
This article has been created by Claire Maude MRICS, Senior Surveyor, of CBRE Ltd. CBRE’s portfolio of commercial properties includes business centre, Imperial Place provider of Borehamwood Office Space. Imperial Place consists of four commercial properties, perfect for growing businesses across a range of industries looking for a North London location.
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