Whether you are expanding your company and need to move to larger business premises or switching to a lean structure and downsizing to a smaller property to help save you money, you need to avoid many office relocation mistakes.

No matter the reasons for your office move, you will want to avoid unnecessary downtime for your business. This could be the first time you have ever moved offices, so we wanted to highlight some widespread mistakes to help you ensure smooth sailing with your move.

Not hiring the right office relocation company

You need to get help from a company that specialises in office moving and business relocations. Moving your office is in no way the same as moving home. There may be many local moving companies, but they most probably will specialise in domestic house moving and not commercial business offices and business relocations.

It may be tempting to think about trying to make a move yourself, but believe us when we tell you that taking a DIY approach isn’t the safest route. Even small start-ups that are rapidly expanding will need specialist moving help.

Relocating your business is time-consuming and problematic, especially if you have limited time on your hands and you want to keep your business running with a skeleton staff during your office relocation.

The risks of attempting a DIY move or hiring a standard removals company to move your office can be detrimental to your productivity, and you risk suffering extended downtime from any accidents or issues from improper handling of your sensitive electronic assets.

It is far better to leave your move in the capable hands of an experienced company such as Restore Harrow Green, who are office relocation specialists. This will enable you to keep your focus on what you do best – running your business.

Your staff feel uninformed

Relocating your business is a huge undertaking that is life-changing for your company and the people you employ. One of the biggest mistakes business owners often make when relocating is not keeping their employees entirely in the loop.

It can be easy to get excited about moving to fresh new premises and all the opportunities this will bring your company. Still, any office move can leave staff feeling uninformed, disrespected and disempowered.

It can be easy to overlook your staff in your desire for an office relocation. But remember that your move will involve removing the physical assets they use every day right from under their fingertips.

This is why it is essential to give yourself plenty of time to map out your move and prepare your staff with a plan of internal communications to help keep them informed and engaged on the run-up to your move.

By working with our team at Restore Harrow Green, you can appoint a member of your staff to act as a liaison officer or move team leader to work alongside us as we plan your move. This will enable them to keep your staff up to speed with the move and avoid feeling like they have no idea what is going on with your company or their job.

Failing to plan is planning for failure

Your office relocation will mean a lot of changes for your staff and your business processes, as well as creating a new home for your physical business assets.

Your office relocation needs a plan covering every aspect of your move, including a detailed inventory of your assets and the individual labelling of every device, piece of cabling and peripherals.

Never underestimate the complexity of your IT assets. Your electronic assets, and all the data they store, will be vulnerable during your office move.

With so much critical business data stored on your electronic devices, you cannot risk making mistakes with a sloppy approach to your data security and protection measures. The importance of planning ahead for your office and IT relocation cannot be overstated.

Back up your critical data before your office move. A full backup of your system can take time to run, so try to give yourself enough time to do this in the weeks approaching your move to ensure it goes well. Ensuring that you have the proper infrastructure in place in your new premises will also make your move smoother and cause less disruption and downtime for your business.

Consolidate and de-clutter

Even before you start packing for your move, you must understand that you won’t want to take absolutely everything with you.

When you move home, you may want to take every stick of furniture with you, but this isn’t always the case with an office relocation. Do you really want to take that broken office desk with you? Or how about the stack of broken laptops sitting in the storage cupboard for the past five years? No. Probably not!

An office relocation will give you an excellent opportunity for a clear out. Regardless of how long you have been operating from your current premises, you may have storage cabinets and storerooms stacked full of unwanted office clutter.

Paying to have all this rubbish moved to your new office makes no sense. But you have a responsibility not to abandon it and leave it behind for the next tenant to clear up for you.

With our expert help at Restore Harrow Green, you can avoid the headache of dealing with your unwanted office clutter. It is part of our Environmental Policy to minimise the waste produced from our services and promote recycling in all parts of our business.

This means that when you hire us for your office relocation, all of your unwanted office waste can be reused and recycled through our downstream partner network.

For example, if you have workable IT assets that you no longer need, we can have them refurbished and sold on to help new start-up businesses with a limited IT budget get off the ground.

Choose Restore Harrow Green, the office and business relocation specialists

At Restore Harrow Green we can take proper care of every aspect of your move. From the initial move planning and secure moving vehicles to the packing containers and protective materials needed to keep your sensitive electronic assets safe, you will be taking the risk out of moving your valuable business equipment and sensitive data.

Contact our professional team at Restore Harrow Green today for more help or information about our office moving and business relocations services. Please call us on 0345 603 8774 or complete our contact form.