Managing Your Commercial Move: A Timeline to Ensure a Smooth Transition

Commercial relocations can be overwhelming.  As a manager of your business you have a lot of responsibilities and perhaps very little time to make the move happen.  Even when you try to plan everything, it is easy to overlook key aspects to your move.  Here is a timeline to help!

1. Choose a moving day and get quotes

Select a moving day that is suitable to building managers at the two sites and will not be too disruptive to business, ie. quiet periods, off peak seasons.  Once you have the day set contact removalists to get quotes.  Look for a commercial relocation specialist, movers who are experienced in business and office moves.  Get at least 3 fixed quotes including all the services you need: insurance, box hire, packing.  To help you decide which business relocation services you might need read more on our article: Office relocations and moves

2. Booking a mover and staging your move

Review all the quotes and services offered by the removalists and choose the one that suits you best.  Make sure you have read reviews and asked the movers which businesses they have relocated.  With your removalist, stage your move carefully.  If there are fit outs and renovations required at the new place, ensure you have left enough of a gap so you don’t need to reschedule many times.  Timeline the packing (will employees or professional packers be used?), loading and unloading.  Plan office closures, the move day, two sites running at one during the move with a skeleton staff possibly at the old site.

3. Make arrangements with the building managers

Now that you have dates and stages set, ensure you have booked the lifts and loading zones with the building managers.  Ensure there is a correct procedure for key handover, and that removalists have the easiest access possible.

4. Notification of change of address to stakeholders and organisations

Send a mailout to suppliers, customers and other stakeholders of the business notifying them of your change of address via email, newsletter, post, social media and your website.  Order letterheads and business cards with your new address.  Make sure all employees are aware of the move dates and stages and new addresses too.

Register your change of address with all relevant government bodies: your ABN registration, the Australian Taxation Office and ASIC.  Utilities providers often need a month’s notice to transfer your accounts to a new site.

Here is a friendly checklist to help you:  change of address notification list

5.  Asset inventory

Prepare an inventory of all assets, their locations and value.  Arrange the insurance if not done previously with the removalist.  Use the inventory as a checklist to make any insurance claims and to check all items have been moved.

6. Storage and packing

Prepare items to go into storage and documents to go to archiving.  Ensure you have kept a record of where all stored items and archived documents are going.

Before employees or the movers pack ensure you have planned a system.  Label boxes using a number system assigned to room numbers.  Prepare a master list with detailed contents for each numbered box and ensure the movers or employees complete the contents list for each box.  Label furniture and goods according to an office map. This way it will not only be quicker to allocate boxes and furniture to rooms but to find specific items in boxes.

7. Moving day

Provide removalists with the marked map, keys or any access codes that they require.  Consider operating in two sites simultaneously with skeleton staff in the old site or putting up signs to give directions to the relocated premises.  When unpacking check your inventory and make sure everything is as it should be before dismissing the removalists.