How To Move Your Business Without Losing Productivity
Helpful tips on how to efficiently relocate your business office.
Nowadays, it's not uncommon for businesses to change their physical location. You either saved enough resources to purchase your own office building or your lease has expired and you found a new office for your business. Either way, moving from one place to another can be quite challenging, especially since you don't want to lose any productivity during the process. You still have to ensure customer satisfaction and maintain a competitive edge, regardless of the fact that your business may not be operational for a little while until you relocate successfully. If you don't prepare well, this task can easily become quite daunting.
However, with the right strategy in place, you can ensure that moving your business to another location is actually quite seamless. That's why it's important not to rush the move if possible. This depends on the size of your business and how much stuff you'll need to move. With that in mind, here are a few ways to relocate your business to a new location without losing any productivity.
Develop a plan
If you wish to avoid losing productivity while you relocate your business, you'll have to plan well for it in advance. The main reason you have to start planning as early as possible is that you want to come up with a way to minimize disturbing or disrupting your business operations as much as possible. This isn't easy but it's manageable and achievable if you start planning on time. As an example, your plan should encompass the new location, meaning that you have already found one and negotiated a deal.
The next step is to assess your inventory and determine what needs to be moved, what needs to be replaced and what needs to be discarded. After that, you need to consider a transportation method so that everything goes as smoothly as it should. Last but not least, you have to get employees informed and involved so that they're not caught off guard. After you've developed a solid plan, you can put it in motion and start relocating your business one step at a time.
Secure the means for transportation
Another important factor you should focus on is moving business inventory from one place to the new location. This can get tricky as you don't want to damage any goods, especially not the IT equipment and devices. That's why you must consider your transportation methods well. For instance, if you have a lot of inventory to move around, you should consider a reliable shipping container transport.
That way, you can pack, label and organize any equipment to be transported in large containers via road or rail, depending on how far your new business location actually is. After all, you want the relocation process to go as smoothly and as fast as possible so that you avoid losing any productivity along the way. Having a transport that you can rely on is very important and it will also help you save a lot of time as well.
Coordinate with your employees
Employees are the ones who do most of the work. Therefore, if you disturb them too much, your business will definitely lose productivity during the relocation. That's why you should inform employees about your plan and get them involved in the moving process. Allow them to voice their opinions and help you create a moving schedule.
You can relocate your business one department at a time and prevent or at least minimize the loss of productivity. In addition, allow employees to pack their things themselves, as well as organize and label them properly so that they can easily find their stuff once they relocate. If you coordinate with your employees and rely on their feedback, the entire moving process will be much more seamless.
Inform your customers and associates about the move
When you decide to relocate your business to a new location, it's also important to focus on external factors and not just internal ones. In other words, you must also notify your customers and your business associates, such as manufacturers or suppliers, vendors, business partners and so on. The main reason is that it's possible to lose some of the productivity while relocating. If there's a possibility of that happening due to unforeseen circumstances, your customers and associates bust be aware of it.
That way, you can all avoid any inconveniences. Alert everyone on time and make sure they can see your message. For example, display a moving date and a new location on your website. Also, send a follow-up email to customers to alert them that they may be small delays in deliveries or customer service channels due to the relocation process. This will show that you're well organized and that you have everyone's best interest in mind, which will make everyone appreciate your business more.
Relocating a business to a new location may prove to be quite challenging and, at times, even daunting. The process itself is difficult and you don't want to lose your momentum while doing the relocation. That's why it's important to plan everything accordingly and ensure you are moving your business without losing any productivity along the way.