By Ian Pearson

Moving your small business, whether you are moving just across the street or to another part of the country, is a challenging, stressful undertaking. Two aspects are essential to relocating your business – proper planning and not rushing through it. It’s a process that is bound to scare you if you are inexperienced with it, but you can make it through without extensive damage if you make a detailed plan. In this article we discuss the ways you can make the best out of your relocation process.

Make a detailed plan

Winging the entire process and hoping that it all goes well is not going to work. You need to plan every step ahead, and make sure that every detail is covered, even before you fill the first moving box. The person responsible for managing the move should be fully briefed on your plans in order to do it right.

Don’t ignore anything, and make sure that you make your plan as detailed as possible, as that will make sure that it’s easier to manage. Everyone should know their part in the job. Having one person manage your move makes it easier to coordinate everything.

Hire someone to spearhead the move

Your company most probably doesn’t have enough experience when it comes to relocating a whole business. This is why you should hire an individual or a company that is more experienced in this than you to help with the whole process. Outsource your detailed plan and make moving a much easier task.

An alternative to outsourcing this position is the previously mentioned assignment of a move manager. Your move manager needs to be properly equipped and given the authority to make the necessary decisions for relocation. When just one person is responsible and concentrated on the move, everyone else will easily be able to know all about the time and place for the tasks that are at hand.

Don’t rush, but also don’t take too long

You need to find the right balance between not rushing with your relocation, because that is bound to cause problems, and not taking forever, as the more time that you take, the more money you are going to lose. The gap between the moment when you’re packing your things onto moving tracks and the time when your business is running again needs to be minimized, as that is when your bottom line can suffer, as everyone is busy with the relocation instead of their jobs.

On the other hand, being inefficient with moving due to rushing can hurt you as well. Servers that aren’t ready for your new network, misplaced files and items, and other things could all be a result of you not taking enough time to do the job right beforehand. So, as previously mentioned, it’s important not to take too long, but it is also essential that you are efficient and accurate. The right mix of the two is the perfect solution.

Consider offsite storage solutions

Making use of an offsite storage is a great idea if you know, according to your plan, which files and equipment are less important to you at the moment, so they can be stored there until you properly set up your new offices. Next to storing these kinds of files and equipment, you can also use the offsite storage as a staging area. A lot of moving companies provide offsite storage during and after relocation, because integrating your new space can be made a lot easier this way. After the most important business assets have been installed, you can easily bring in the rest. To easily carry the equipment from one place to another, you can make use of AOT skip bins.

Be honest with your customers about how long it will take

It is essential to be honest with your customers and prospects about why your business is on delay, and approximately how long your relocation is going to take. The truth is that once you begin your move, even with all the preparations you have made for possible problems, accidents and slowdowns, the whole process is going to take time, quite possibly more than you originally planned on.

Your customers will certainly want to know about what’s going on, and failing to inform them will leave a bad impression. So take your time to write an email to your customer base, as well as your suppliers, so they are in the loop.

The fact is that you need to make sure that things are under control. A detailed plan will work well, but you also might consider hiring a company that will help you with relocation. Put all your efforts into the process, so the situation doesn’t get out of hand, and makes things hard both for you and your customers.

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