Many companies fail to create the budget for an office move hoping that everything will work itself out somehow. For those who do make budgets, many are arbitrary and unrealistic. That’s why you should pay attention to all aspects of a relocation budget, including the moving and packing services, dealing with disconnecting and reconnecting utilities, and necessary changes with all of your vendors.
The tips below will help you understand what else you need to pay attention to and how they can stop your budget from getting out of hand.
Choose the Right Partner
A Tenant Representative or Relocation Manager is where everything begins, starting with helping you understand what costs you’re facing. There can be many unexpected fees while you’re moving. From fees for early termination of contracts to set up costs and installation charges for your new space. It’s best to stay informed and have a plan before you ever set foot out the door. A tenant representative should help you with the following:
- Analyze your precise space needs
- Find and investigate all property options
- Create leverage in the negotiation process
- Protect your interests in the lease
- Help coordinate all people in the process
The right partner will talk with you about financial and operational considerations as you prepare to change office locations. Moving isn’t just about money – it’s about how efficiently you can get everything done with the budget you actually have. Make sure your partner has experience with similar types of tenants and companies in the your market. Consider asking:
- What specific services do you provide?
- How are you going to reduce my occupancy costs and increase my company’s profitability?
- How do you find available “for lease” commercial real estate space that meets my requirement?
- How much knowledge do you have about the area in which we’re looking to locate our company?
Keep Control of Your Move
Letting your vendors do their thing without supervision is a formula for disaster. Too often, companies will allow many different contractors handle the coordination issues, and manage the schedule. You have to hold their feet to the fire. You need to be in charge of things at every step of the process, because if you allow somebody else to set the schedule of your move, you’re going to wind up with a schedule that works for them instead of you.
Involve the Right Staff
Don’t wait until months into the moving process to pick your team. Instead, select them early on and give them firm dates for accomplishing specific tasks. Support their efforts with weekly meetings where you can hear about their progress and deal with any problems that have cropped up, avoiding scheduling these for times when you’re likely to get interrupted.
Examples to consider:
- The IT Manager will undoubtedly know computers, networking, phone systems, etc. well enough to represent these areas of your move.
- Your HR Manager could be a good asset to manage your communications, and will have access to employee rosters, customer lists and vendor/supplier lists.
- The Office Manager on your team may have experience with furniture, telephone service, copiers, and printing services.
A solid agenda – complete with milestones – can keep the budget under control.
Allot the Correct Amount of Time
A true office move can take months to complete; it’s far more complicated than finding a new building and packing up all of your old office. Waiting until the last minute is a great way to break your budget because you’ll often find yourself just paying for a quick, easy solution.
Preparing for the move will reduce costs (and problems) at every level, and, if possible, you should aim for at least six-months of lead-time. Compressing a schedule is one of the fastest ways of blowing through a limited budget; especially once you start spending extra money in the hopes of meeting a fixed deadline for your move.
The only exception to this is if you have an emergency move, but even then, slow down and think before you do anything. Being thoughtful will never come back to hurt you, but any amount of rushing could start blowing through your budget.
Communicate
You’ve set regular updates from everyone involved with the move now that you have the right team. This will allow you to understand what’s going on, avoid surprises, and ensure that things are working in accordance with the budget you’ve set. But this is critical for dealing with clients, too. Keeping them informed when there’s something they need to know will ensure their confidence remains high. Consider the following regular communications to keep everyone in the loop:
Customers
- Notify customers/clients that you plan to move
- Provide customers with new address and phone numbers after you move
Vendors/Suppliers
- Provide date when relocation is planned
- Provide new address and phone numbers after you move
- If new vendors will support your new space – start the installation process early
Move Vendors
- Weekly emails keeping everyone informed of move progress
Employees
- Notify all employees of the moving plans
- Provide orientation at new site before move-in
- Provide public transportation schedules and parking rules
- Provide lists of local services (banks, restaurants, day-care centers)
- Provide instructions for packing office contents
- Provide employees with name of their move coordinator
There may be times during the move when you cannot provide your usual services to customers, but if they know about this beforehand, then they can plan around it and minimize the burdens they’ll face.
Remember…
The office move budget is something that should be thoughtfully created ahead of time. However, don’t forget about the indirect costs of your move – employees who are focusing on how to switch between buildings probably aren’t helping your customers, and depending on the type of business you run, you may need to take your lowered productivity into account.
This is where allowing plenty of time for the move really shows its value: Doing just a little work on the move each day can help you avoid drops in revenue while still allowing yourself enough time to get everything done properly.