6 months prior
- Look for a space
- Secure lease
- Apply for any licenses or permits required
- Prepare location – painting, carpets, cleaning and any adjustments for utilities
- Determine if there are any changes required in the workplace such as hiring or firing employees or changing levels. Make sure you will still have a full staff once you have moved.
- Advise your staff of the move and give them a chance to voice their opinions
- Order signs for the new location or plan to move the current ones
3 months prior
- Hire a moving company
- Purchase insurance for damage during the move
- Arrange to have utilities transferred
- Arrange to get help with packing and unpacking
- Setup appointments with service providers to get hooked up – Telephone, Internet
- Hire services required to get your new space ready – carpets, electrical, painters
- Update your computer software for the new address
- Determine if your computer hardware is still effective or not. Upgrade at this time.
- Backup your computer files before disconnecting
- Purge paper and toss or shred as required
1 month prior
- Get new numbers for phones, faxes and IP addresses if needed. Verify that anything new works
- Update website address
- Contact phone book to update address in next publication
- Arrange for mail forwarding
- Advice vendors of address change
- Advice any organizations or regulating agencies that you have changed address
- Update any advertising for the new address
- Arrange for afterhours access to the new location
- Order new business cards, envelopes, letterhead and signage
- Order new checks
- Get new lettering for any vehicles
- Get supplies required for packing and moving – tape, labels, boxes
- Schedule utilities to be hooked up
- Order a sign to put on existing premises with new address
1 week before moving
- Pack and move the document storage and supply room to the new location and unpack
- Have the movers move the large items.
- Check with your photocopier company if they will move the machines or if the movers should take them. Confirm setup arrangements
- Send mail to all customers and clients with new address, phone number and a map
- Change your address with your bank and order new checks and deposits.
- Verify utilities are running
3 days before moving
- Move the computers and peripherals
- Hook up the phones, Internet and other electronics. If there are issues with wiring or routing, fix them.
- Assign parking locations
- Test the smoke detectors
- Prepare an emergency evacuation plan and place in employee handbooks
Moving Day
- Change the information on the phone system for the new phone number, address and any other details
- Have employees setup their desks
- Clean the old location
