Planning is the key to saving your business time and money when you are looking to relocate it. Finding the right property to move into is going to be the easy part. The hard part is how you are going to continue to make money, serve your customers and support your employees.
Undoubtedly, some businesses are far easier to move than others. For instance, moving an office-based business is going to be far easier and less of a headache than relocating a manufacturing business. This is not just because of any large machinery involved (although this should certainly be a factor) but because the business relies on employees producing products that cannot be performed singularly or outside of the manufacturing environment.
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Put office employees on remote working practices
Source: flexjobs.com
Putting your office workers on remote working practices could result in your business losing less money during your move. This is because, if done early enough, any issues that may arise from these practices suddenly taking force can be sorted out before your mind is moved solely to the move itself – as well as freeing up space in your office so that you can start packing up desks and so forth.
However, having your office workers working from home will certainly increase your vulnerability to cybercrime, so you should ensure you have sufficient cybersecurity to cover this period. No doubt, your current IT company will be able to advise you on the risks that you will be open to, along with products and services that you can use to lessen the chances of a security breach from one of your remote workers.
Of course, you may find that the benefits of your office teams working from home are so good that it is something that can be continued after you have moved premises. This is because it will enable you to set your office space up as you want without having to rush for a deadline completion.
Use storage facilities if need be
Source: build-review.com
Once you have your office workers working from their homes and you have started to pack up your office furniture, there is no reason why you cannot make use of any local storage facilities. Storing your office furniture before your move makes sense as it will allow you to be organized while ensuring that your current premises are empty and ready for the next occupant.
As most storage facilities have ample parking facilities, any removal businesses will find it far easier to collect from these places than office blocks in the middle of a city where parking is scarce.
Hire expert movers
Hire expert movers
Of course, you may want to hire the services of a man with a van if your company does not have its own large vehicle to move items and equipment from your current premises to a storage facility.
However, when it comes to the move itself, you should ensure that you hire experienced long distance movers when moving out of or across the state. Shipping brokers such as Shiply have lots of moving businesses using their facilities, so it stands to reason that you will find a service that fits not only your criteria but also your budget.
Have your plans drawn up long before the move
Source: choosemoveon.com
In order to make sure that your move goes as smoothly as possible and that you are not wasting valuable time, you should ensure that you have your moving plans drawn up long before the moving date. This plan should include how every aspect of your business will be affected and how you can go about lessening the impact.
As already discussed, you can bring in remote working to keep your business ticking along. However, this will not help you so much if you are running a manufacturing business. Apart from piecework, most manufacturing will need to be carried out in your factory. You can encourage your customers to place their orders early with suggestions of discounts and then split your workers so that they will be working a basic shift pattern.
This can keep your production lines churning out products for a far longer period of time and could, if organized properly, increase your output, thereby fulfilling the orders ahead of time to cover the moving period.
Undoubtedly, as this area is a fundamental part of your business, it will be the last part to be dismantled, allowing your workers to work up until the point where they can’t. When you get to your new premises, it will be the first part to be assembled to allow production lines to continue.
So, to wrap it all up
When it comes to planning, you need to think outside of the box. Preparation should come first, so after increasing your security, you should start thinking of getting your office staff to work remotely. Issues and problems can frequently arise, and making sure that all of these are dealt with before the stress of the move takes hold is a good idea.
Once you have workers who are confident in what they are doing and performing well, you will need to think about any workers that must be on-site to complete their work. This will include warehouse workers and manufacturing workers. Your relocation will indeed interfere with their work schedules, performance, and ability to work.
Offering overtime will ultimately increase your costs but will also mean that they produce more products. However, you will have to consider that overtime is voluntary, and you may not have enough people to run the number of lines that you want. A method where you will have more control is that of introducing shift work for a short amount of time, building up to the move and after the move to cover the compulsory shutdown period. The shift work could have your workforce split into two groups with hours spanning 6 am-2 pm and 2 pm-10 pm, rotating weekly until work can return to normal.
