Tips For Moving An Office

Are you planning an office move? It is okay if you don’t know where to start with planning, no one does when it comes to such a complex moving job. The difference between the residential move and office move is the number of people involved in it, and it might get chaotic very quickly. But if you follow a few simple rules, your office move will be simple and smooth. Our goal today is to help you with some tips that will be useful for finding office movers, but for preparing for it too. Let’s start with a couple of basic steps, and let us know if you found them useful! 

Plan early

The most important part about commercial moving is to plan early. Since you will have much more things to plan, it is not enough just to call office movers and think that is done. Make sure to start the whole process at least a month before the move, so you can have a timeline that will help you not stress out about everything. The good timeline that you will follow will make the whole experience simple. 

Assign a project manager

Since you will have to prepare such a detailed plan with a timeline, and you will have to find someone who will call office movers to learn more about the services they are offering. You will also want that person to be in charge of a moving budget. You will have to set it and someone should be in charge not to go over the budget. But we will talk more about the budget shortly. Your project manager should be the one researching local movers and be the main point of contact for them. That is why that person should have as much information as possible. 

Set the date

Considering that you are moving your business, not only do you want to have efficient local movers who will help you out, but you will have to think of a moving date. Depending on the size of your office and your business, you might be able to move in one day. But if you are moving huge corporation space, you will need more than one day. Take all of that into consideration, and take a piece of advice from your office movers when it comes to the number of movers and the number of days. It is important to know the moving day in advance, so you can let your clients know early since that will affect your business too. Professional movers will always try their best to finish your relocation in the shortest period, but you need to be realistic about this. Once you have a moving date set, you might want to put the information on your website or your social media pages at least a couple of weeks in advance. Also, you will want to plan the other business-related tasks accordingly. No matter what type of business you are running, this is a very important step! 

Budget

Whoever is in charge of setting a budget for your upcoming move, should do it early. You need to have a range that you are ready to spend for your office movers and the rest of the moving expenses. Now, you should know that local movers are not the only expense that you will have for your office move, so write it all down. Some of the expenses you will have: professional movers, packing boxes, transferring utilities, finishing some special paperwork that has some cost, anything else that you might need to do for new office space, repairs in your current office, and so on. Try to think of everything and write it down. One thing you should always do is setting some money on the side for rainy days because moving comes with many surprises, so you should be prepared. When it comes to finding office movers, there are many different companies. No matter how much money you are willing to spend, many budget movers will fit your needs. 

Inform your employees

Your employees shouldn’t find out that your business place is moving to another location once your office movers arrive. Moving is a stressful process for everyone, no matter how involved they are, so make sure to have an all-staff meeting where you will let your employees know that you are moving. Inform them about the new space and reasons for moving out. Also, make sure to provide them with instructions on what they need to do before the arrival of the office movers. In many cases, employees will be in charge of packing their personal belongings into the boxes. Also, you should inform them on how to label the boxes so your local movers can know how to handle them, and also where to place them once they get to your new office space. 

Prepare information for office movers

Before you start calling office movers, you should know that there is some information that you will have to provide your local movers with. Make sure you have that information before you give them a call. What do you need to prepare? Firstly, office moving is different than residential moving. When calling professional movers to help you with your home move, you just need to know the size of your home, square footage, and the number of bedrooms. But with the commercial moving, things are a bit more different. Your office movers will need you to provide them with an inventory list. This will help them how many professional movers can handle your move safely because usually office spaces have the bigger square footage while having less furniture. Depending on the type of your business, you will have to let your local movers know if there are some excessively heavy items, such as a safe, a copy machine, big printers, and so on. Usually, big printers and copy machines will be moved by the company who sold you those. You might also want to find out more information about the weight of some items because office movers always have weight limits. And in case you have some medical, dental equipment – professional movers won’t be able to help you out with that, you will have to find specialized local movers for those. 

Find decent local movers

Now, probably the most important question, and the one you are most looking forward to learning the answer to. How to find office movers? Start with getting recommendations. If you know any business around you that had a great experience with their professional movers, get their contact information. This way you will be sure you are getting someone already checked. If this is not possible, don’t worry, the online world will be your best friend. Type office movers near me, and start reading more about the companies on the list. Besides using just Yelp or just Google, you might want to find around three companies on both websites. If some office movers have bad reviews, don’t worry, because it is a type of job where damages and accidents might happen. But pay attention to how your local movers are treating bad reviews, that can tell you a lot about the company you might want to hire. After you read everything you can about your local movers, you will have to call them to learn more. Before calling make sure you know what are you looking for and be prepared with the information that we mentioned above. Besides the price, you want to learn more about the services they are offering. You want to know if they are going to disassemble, reassemble, and protect your furniture. If you have anything heavy, ask them to bring moving dollies, and so on. Once you decide on the local movers that you want to schedule, make sure to do it as soon as possible, so you don’t lose the availability. 

Paperwork 

Sometimes moving an office might require additional paperwork, since you are moving from one commercial building to another one. Sometimes even the apartment buildings might require you to provide them with a certificate of insurance, so are the commercial building. This is something that your office movers can provide you with, but you will have to provide them with your building requirements. Once you send those over, your local movers will send you your certificate of insurance. Besides that, your building might have some other rules, such as a certain time for moving in and out so it doesn’t bother the rest of the businesses. You will have to know about this, so you can check with your office movers if they can move you after hours. Usually in buildings like these, you need to reserve the elevator so your professional movers can use them without any hustle. Make sure to check all of that and prepare for the arrival of your professional movers. Different buildings might have different rules, and you want to know all about it. Don’t forget to read anything that your office movers send out, such as the confirmation email to find out what is allowed to be moved and whatnot. Pay extra attention to the date, time, and price – if something is wrong, you want to let them know in advance. Since you are moving an office, you might want to pay with the company’s credit card. In that case, you will have to send out a credit card authorization form filled out to your local movers, so they can charge you. Being prepared for the moving day will make your relocation stress-free, trust us! 

Prepare your new office space for moving in

Your new office space might need some refreshment before your arrive. Besides transferring your utilities and creating a layout, you will have to think if you need to purchase some additional items since you decluttered something old. Also, think about professional cleaning before your local movers bring in the furniture, especially if some carpets are sitting there for a long time. The painting should be done before your office movers bring in the office furniture, so make sure to hire a painter in advance if needed. Check if some repairs should be done before your local movers are there. Think of anything that needs to be done and organize it in a way where professional movers are not affected by the rest of the tasks that you will have. 

Update your address everywhere

Don’t forget to update your business address everywhere – on the business cards for everyone who has those, on the website, social media pages, etc. You will also want to forward your mail in time, so you don’t have to think about the mail getting to your old office space. You want your customers to know where your business is. After all, the new office address should bring some new energy and a fresh start. 

Unpack early

Since you need your business to be ready for doing the actual work, you will have to unpack early. This is a task where office movers cannot help you out with, so you will have to do it on your own. Professional movers will assemble back your furniture and place it where it should be, but small items will need to be unpacked by you. You might want your local movers to put the labeled boxes on your employee’s tables, and they can unpack them once they are at the office. 

Moving Company Dallas is the best option for you if you are moving an office. Once you give us a call, we will provide you with a moving quote within a couple of minutes. Our team of customer support agents is available for you every day of the week and ready to answer any question you might have along the way. Our office movers are well-trained and experienced to handle any type of office move that you are planning. And considering that we are running the business ourselves, we know how important it is for you to put everything into someone’s safe hands. And that is our company for sure! Don’t hesitate anymore, but give us a call and let us help you with your relocation. We are looking forward to working with you!