Tips to Help You Develop a Plan for Your Office Move

For any business, making the decision to relocate your office or retail space comes with a variety of associated tasks. From planning and preparing for moving day, to developing a plan to manage operations or temporarily close during your relocation, there are a lot of parts and pieces that need to come together simultaneously to make your office move a success. 

We’ve pooled together our 50+ years of commercial relocation experience to develop a timeline and collection of resources to help you conquer your upcoming office move. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get moving!

Office Move Planning: First Steps

As with any move, you’ll want to know where you’re going before you start working on how you will get there. Finding a commercial property to fit the specific needs of your existing business can be a timeconsuming task, so make sure to allow plenty of time for your search, as well as any upfits that will need to be completed in the space before you are able to start operating your business from the new location. 

Finding the location and establishing the timeline for availability and move-in is a crucial first step. Once this piece of the puzzle is in place, you are able to back into your timeline and begin taking specific steps toward preparing for a seamless relocation. 

Establishing your Office Move Budget

Establishing a comprehensive budget up front is crucial to the success of your move.  We always recommend that our clients explore the various costs that can be associated with commercial moves including 

• Relocation of specialty equipment
• Purchases of new furniture or equipment
• Service and setup fees for various pieces of office equipment
• IT infrastructure setup or upgrades
• Moving supply cost
• Moving support or labor cost 
• Setup of security or access systems
• Temporary storage needs for new furniture and equipment prior to move-in
• Destruction purging of old records or computer hard drives
• And more

Selecting A Commercial Move Provider

In addition to taking time to find the ideal location for your business, you’ll also want to spend time finding the perfect partner to help you manage and execute your office move. If you aren’t sure where to start, consider these questions. 

It’s important to select a company that can facilitate the various aspects of your office move, as well as one that comes with a track record of success when managing large-scale projects, like a commercial relocation. 

Preparing Your Employees for A Relocation

In the early months of planning for your office move, it’s a great time to establish a point team for the project. Start thinking about the logistics and planning with your employees so that they can be prepared for the upcoming relocation, and they know what is expected of them. 

We recommend taking the time to establish a clear plan and set expectations for anyone who will be involved or affected by your upcoming move. Click here for a few tips on developing a communications plan to educate and inform your employees about the impact the office move will have on them. 

As moving day gets closer, start working through your checklist of items to make sure you and your team are clear on everything that needs to be accomplished prior to moving day. 

Preparing Your Belongings for an Office Move

Preparing your team is just one part of the work that goes into planning for your office move. Once you have organized your people, it’s time to think about organizing your belongings. 

We always recommend taking time to do walkthroughs and space planning far ahead of moving day. This allows you to accomplish a variety of tasks including

• Employee census and occupancy reviews
• Floor plans for new offices and workspaces
• Identification of new furniture, fixtures, and equipment for purchase
• Identification of items NOT being relocated
• Relocation plans for files, records and other sensitive documents
• Relocation plans for IT and telecom systems
• Identification of equipment and machinery that requires servicing or special handling for relocation

As you’re doing these initial walkthroughs and plans, take time to consider the items that can be packed and prepared in advance and which items should be kept for day-to-day use until the day of your office move. The goal is to do as much work ahead without compromising the functionality and efficiency of your operation. 

Next, think about how you’re going to organize the items by space or office and put a plan in place. As a part of our move planning process, we work to provide our commercial relocation clients with color-coded labels so boxes and items for each room or office can easily be identified and sorted on moving day. 

IT Preparations for Your Office Move

The last thing you want is to show up at your new office without a plan in place to get up and running as soon as possible. We always recommend that our clients take time to plan ahead for installation and setup of IT and Telecom systems ahead of moving day. This ensures a few things. 

First, that there are no delays after your staff and employees make the transition to the new space. If you schedule these items to be installed, setup and tested before moving day then as soon as the boxes are unpacked and the spaces are set up your team can get back to work serving your customers. 

Second, it helps keep the process organized and ensures that your various service providers are not creating distractions and roadblocks for one another. 

Finally, if the phone lines and IT systems are in place, your commercial moving team can help get everything hooked up and set up on moving day so that you’re up and running with the flip of a switch as soon as the move is over! 

We recommend working with your internal IT team or a third-party provider to make sure you have all your bases covered in advance of moving day and that you allow ample time for setup and testing before moving into your new office. 

Final Preparations for Your Office Move

As the day of your office move gets closer, take time to make the appropriate arrangements for relocating your items out of your existing building and into the new one. This might include things such as

• Obtaining required moving and parking permits
• Identifying building restrictions for move hours
• Scheduling elevator and lift access at the old and new office buildings
• Prepping and specialty items for transport
• Ensuring all boxes, furniture, and equipment are labeled according to the labeling system you established in the planning phase of your move
• Coordinating surface prep and protection with your mover
• Establishing an internal and external communication plan for moving day

What to Expect on Moving Day

It’s moving day, time to see all that hard work and planning pay off. If you’ve done your homework, things should operate pretty smoothly and you should be up and running in no time. Expect it to be a full day, or maybe more, depending on the size of your organization, of relocation-focused activities. If you are planning to run a skeleton operation during your move, make sure you have a plan in place to do so, and a backup plan just in case!

Once you get to the new office space, your commercial move provider is there to help you get unloaded and setup. This includes things like furniture builds and placement, setup of workstations, and cleanup of debris and packing materials at the completion of your move. 

Things to do After Your Office Move

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of settling into your new office space. Just as a reminder, don’t forget to make these quick address and service updates as soon as you’re able.

• Complete change of address process through the post office and set up mail forwarding
• Update address online and in other marketing and informational materials
• Update building signage
• Update any registrations and billing information
• Notify any regular vendors or suppliers of your location change

ADSI Moving Systems is your trusted, local commercial move provider

Still not sure what to expect as you prepare for your office move? ADSI Moving Systems is here to help. Our team has over 50 years of experience planning and executing office and industrial relocations across the CSRA and beyond. 

We recognize that each of our customers is different and so are their relocation needs, which is why we work with you to develop a moving plan timeline that best fits your needs. At ADSI Moving Systems, we are focused on providing a quality experience that keeps our customers at the forefront of everything we do. Contact us today and let’s get moving, together.