How to Relocate Your Business to New Premises without Losing Productivity

Relocating your business often happens out of necessity rather than planning, learn how to relocate your business and stay productive.

How to Relocate Your Business

Once upon a time, you started your business, and one thing you never envisioned was having to move your company to a different location.

Be it for the sake of growth and success, or for the sake of downsizing. In either scenario, relocating can be stressful, complex, and a burden on your teams, since they will likely be disrupted by the move, which will in turn affect their productivity.

This is even more so in the case that you’re moving your operations abroad.

Some companies have the luxury of being able to move their entire business over a single weekend, while others need to change venues for truly massive customer service departments. 

Even though moving can be tricky, there are a few ways to simplify the procedure, not just for yourself, but for all of your employees. You’ll be able to stay productive, take care of your clients’ needs, cover the needed workload, and still have time to adapt to your new business environment.

Here are a few tips to help you relocate your business and keep you sane in the process!

Segments and stages are crucial

Much like with so many other things in life, timing is essential for your move to go smoothly and without any hiccups.

For example, your most relevant business sectors that are the backbone of your business should be moved during the non-working days such as the weekends, so that you can avoid interruptions and delays. Use your off days to prepare the new premises according to your needs and then greet your staff with everything ready for their jobs to continue as usual.

As for the non-essential work sectors and physical items you’re not using every single day, you can leave those for the very last stage or even move them in increments when you have the time in your busy schedule. Just make sure that these occasional small-scale moves don’t affect the settling process on the premises, or that they don’t cause issues for your remaining departments at your old site. 

Turn the move into a team-building opportunity

Relocating your business can be so much more than packing up boxes and clearing out old desks to arrange the new ones for the following week.

In fact, for smaller businesses, this is a brilliant opportunity to help your employees bond and add a personal touch to the new space you’ll occupy in the months, and possibly years to come. Since there are certain segments of the business you can move yourself easily and with the help of your team, you can turn it into a team-building event everyone will benefit from. 

You can even add an element of positive competition to encourage people to get active and work in teams. Then again, setting up refreshments, snacks, and playing some music can keep them busy and entertained while everyone interacts – this might be an extremely positive experience for your entire workforce. 

Remote work for portions of your business

While some portions of your company need physical office space, storage facilities, and other physical rooms to operate in, others can function quite nicely from home. That said, you can restructure your business operations in such a way to prepare the new location to accept the teams that absolutely need to work from the office. While that switch happens, your non-essential departments can work remotely from their homes, or at the very least introduce flexible work hours to help them make the transition easier on their workload.

This flexible approach that takes your employees into account is highly beneficial for your brand not just for this occasion, but it reinforces your reputation as an employer and makes it far more likely for you to improve your team’s loyalty. 

Keep your clients in the loop

This particular step is especially important for smaller businesses that work directly with clients, and whose clients will notice a change of pace in your work output or your communication. Transparency is the best way to protect those bonds and to make sure that your clients understand that your relocation will not affect your service in any way. Or in case it does, you can explain precisely what kind of changes they can expect and when things will go back to normal.

Instead of ambushing them with the news when you’re already half-way in your new office, you should notify them of this change of address well before you start packing. The first meeting you have with your clients should be reserved for talking about this change and how you can reassure them that your relationship is still very important to your business. Once you do move, it’s a good idea to let them know so that they can feel at ease, and informed. 

 

If you have already moved your business, you have the insights you need to go through the second move more smoothly and without issues. However, if this is the very first time you’re about to relocate your company, this is a great learning opportunity to see how you can improve your operations, introduce some flexibility, and maintain high levels of productivity despite the ongoing changes. Use this brief guide as a helpful source for the upcoming relocation, and you will make the move much easier on your business and your team.