Moving Your Small Business

Moving Your Small Business

here are times when you realise that it's going to be necessary to change your business premises. There may be a number of reasons that come together to explain why this is a necessity, but the most important point to make is that it will need to be handled correctly.

Think about your own experiences of moving from one house to another. You may recall that such experiences in life can be pretty stressful and it's worth remembering that you will face similar problems when conducting an office move. In fact, it's fair to say that you are likely to encounter some additional problems.
This may sound like a fairly negative way of introducing the subject, but the truth is that it is better if you can approach this issue with a realistic approach. If you believe that the entire process will be nice and easy, then it's likely that you will spend far less time preparing. This will almost certainly lead to further issues.

One of the main problems here, in my own view, is that an office move is rarely treated with the importance that it deserves. This seems to be one of those tasks that is assigned to an individual, but where little time is allowed. They are often expected to handle the move, but also to carry out all of the tasks that they normally have to.

When describing that situation, you may feel that it reflects the challenges that you face within your own organisation. There may be a feeling that you simply don't have the time or resources to spare. So how can you approach this situation?

You really do need to remember that it's critically important to have a plan in place. That plan needs to be detailed and should include far more than a few, basic pieces of practical information. In particular, you need to think about business continuity issues. Are you going to be able to assure customers that your business will operate as usual? You'll need to demonstrate that service levels won't suffer as a result of the move.

The fact is that it takes time to put together such a plan and that it's also likely to need input from other individuals. What this means is that the person charged with managing the office move must also be given enough time to put things into action. Without having that time available to them, it's likely that things will go wrong.

In many organisations, it seems that these tasks are assigned to relatively junior members of staff. If you want your own business to thrive, make sure that you hand control to someone who can really deal with all that is required.

A commercial move is about a bright, new beginning. You'll want to make sure that everything is heading in the right direction from the outset.

By: Simon Barnett