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Your company is about to go through an office move and that means you’ll be assigned a new workstation or office at destination. Do you know if everything in your current workspace will fit into your new one? You might have a large desk or even one with a credenza. Perhaps you have a small conference table for two to three people in your work setting. There are filing cabinets, mini fridges, printer stands, and more that can often be overlooked when moving to a new workstation or office.

Make your move easier and be sure you do your homework ahead of time. Find out if your new location will accommodate the furnishings in your current workspace. Otherwise you’ll find yourself with an over jammed workspace or items that won’t fit at destination. Consider a backup plan in case you end up in that very situation.

One sure way to find out is to look at the destination floor plan and identify your specific location. You can often find area or room measurements on the diagram and check them against your current workspace measurements. Check with you designated move coordinator from your company if you have one or contact your commercial relocation network move foreman and inquire with him or her from the start. They’ll work with you and will try to accommodate your specific needs when it comes to making sure your items all fit at destination.

It may be that you find yourself having to make a decision about which items you’ll need most, and which items you can do without. Hopefully that won’t be the case but if it is, it’s always less stressful when you are aware of the possibility and have an alternative solution available. On a more positive note, it might a good time to inform your boss that you’ll need new office furniture.

Your commercial relocation office movers are well aware of potential obstacles you may face in your office move, and they will work with you to accommodate your needs as much as possible. The more you are prepared for your office move, the better you’ll be and the more able your office movers will be to help you.

Whether you’re moving because business is skyrocketing or simply to have a new location, there’s going to be a bit of stress and hassle throughout the process.  But, you can minimize their impact by thinking ahead a little.

By taking these steps, you can make your move as smooth as possible:

Make a Thorough Checklist

As you start looking for new space, start planning out the entire move step-by-step.  As you progress through the process, make sure you update your checklist and remain in close communication with all vendors and key internal personnel.

Streamline Your Furniture and Inventory

Moving is the perfect time to unload some of that extra stuff your business no longer needs.  Just like you streamline your processes for maximum efficiency, streamline your physical inventory.  It will be that much less to move around and track later on.  If you haven’t used it in six months, donate it or sell it.

Hire the Most Reputable Vendors

The more straightforward a vendor’s process is, the easier the process will be.  One party may be cheaper than another, but then they may charge you more down the road.  The vendor who has the most straightforward approach, even though they might cost more, will be well worth the cost over the long haul.

Set Up Necessary Services

Get in touch with your service providers as soon as you have a new location picked out.  This is for everyone from your phone service provider to the company that delivers your water.  The more notice you provide the less there will be to worry about as your move date approaches.

Map Out the New Location

Make sure you know how to access your new location with ease.  Make sure your employees and customers can navigate to and through your new office with ease.

Consider Data Centers/Co-Location

Rather than moving your powerful servers with you, consider keeping them at a data center.  This can also keep your long-term IT costs down.

If you need help with an office move, make sure you contact the Commercial Relocation Network at 1-866-714-0111.

If your company is moving on to bigger and better things, it’s important to make sure the office moving process goes as smoothly as possible. That way, you can focus on your real passion – operating your business.

Here are 7 common mistakes to avoid:

1. Not Planning Ahead
   Plan ahead – way ahead. In fact, you should begin planning for your move while looking for new office space. Some properties may have moving obstacles that will factor in to your lease or purchase negotiations.
2. Forgetting to Back Up Your Data 
   If you don’t already have off-site storage, make sure you do. Either have a physical location holding your data or get everything stored in the cloud. Most likely, your equipment won’t get damaged and lose the data during the move, but that’s a risk you don’t need to take.
3. Underestimating the Cost of Time Delays
   There are a lot of factors that impacting your move date. Planning ahead and continuous communication with your team and all others involved can help greatly reduce the chances your timeline will slip. There are some circumstances that are out of your control so having a back up plan for your move will also help reduced last minute expenses and down time.
4. Not Thoroughly Interviewing the Mover 
   How does your mover higher employees? Are any of them temps? Do they do background checks? What’s the training process? Do they have chain-of-custody procedures in place? The more you know about the mover and the more concrete mechanisms they have in place for service, the better.
5. Not Having Enough Insurance
   Some items may get damaged during the move. First, check with your carrier to see if your policy covers items while in transit. If yes, you’re all set. If no, ask your mover what options they offer and make the best choice for your business based on the options they provide, keeping in mind most move related claims are under $1000.00.
6. Not Thoroughly Evaluating the Office Space Agreement
   Read through the document carefully with your own in-house staff, or hire a lawyer to do it for you. Make sure the document says what you think and that it gives you the space you need. Some office space lessors will offer documents with the Crystal Mark seal of approval from the Plain English Campaign, which simply ensures the agreement speaks its terms loudly and clearly.
7. Furniture Transition Errors
   You may assume you can use your current furniture at your new office, but be careful. That may or may not be the case. In most cases your existing furniture will not fit exactly the same as it stands today and even slight reconfigurations may mean having to order parts to properly assemble the furniture. Most furniture dealers don’t keep a lot of items in their local showrooms so make sure you leave yourself at least 4 weeks for any furniture or parts you need to order.
   Stay mindful of these seven common mistakes during the moving process, and remember, communication with your moving company and key personnel is key.

When you are thinking about your plan for your office move, organization is essential for a successful move. Besides labeling your boxes, moving crates, and furniture, it is important to make a floor diagram of your entire office space down to each room. Do this for both the origin and destination. Floor diagrams are a great way to organize your move and to help speed up the moving process.

As members of the Commercial Relocation Network, our office movers understand that time is money and we want your move to be just as smooth and efficient as you do.  We want you to get back to operating your business as quickly as possible. Using a floor diagram that depicts where all of your items will be placed at destination will help ensure a more efficient move. Your office moving company’s foreman will convey your floor diagram to the rest of the moving crew and help them understand your exact instructions.

When you put your floor diagram together try to be as detailed as possible about the departments for each area or room space. Make sure you properly label the areas on the diagram legibly, and that the items destined for those rooms or spaces match with your diagram labels. It often helps to use a color-coded labeling system where specific colored labels on items match rooms or spaces with the same color code.

Your floor diagram can include exact furniture placement references per room or space at your new destination. It would be ideal to have measurements already taken to confirm your items will fit in those specific locations.  Then, your office movers can simply match up the furniture with the diagram. This is most efficient floor diagram to use, and would allow for maximum moving efficiency. However, appointing a coordinator who can help with exact furniture placement per room can be just as effective when using a floor diagram.

Be sure to check out CRN’s page on how to plan your office move early and find out even more helpful information with your office move.

Whether your office is comprised of a single room or many rooms, there are plenty of things that can be done on your end to achieve a more successful move. Working with CRN should be priority number one but preparation is the most important thing you can do.

Consider taking a pre-move walkthrough of your office(s) and see if there is anything that might need special attention or handling that you would like your office movers aware of on moving day. Keep a notepad or sticky notes handy and document what’s important to you. You may even leave a sticky note on a piece of furniture or cabinet to remind yourself to share your concerns with the movers when they arrive.
Do you have pictures, posters, or whiteboards hanging on the walls? In many cases these are items that your office movers will need you to take down from the walls. If that is the case with your movers, have those items off the walls and ready to move before your movers arrive.

Are your boxes and totes properly sealed? If you equipped your office with a refrigerator, make sure it’s emptied and waterlines disconnected. Copiers may need to have ink cartridges removed before handling, and ensure your sensitive electronics are properly deactivated and ready to go.

Labels, labels, labels; make sure every item and box is labeled properly so your movers know where to put them at destination. Floor diagrams are very helpful for more accurate placement of boxes and items. These are some of things you can do to help facilitate your move. Be sure to visit CRN’s office moving checklist for more useful information.

By preparing your assets and personnel for your office move, you are ensuring a more efficient and successful move. A move with minimal surprises and downtime will help get you and your offices back up and in business faster.

Moving your business is no small ordeal and it’s something that you’re going to want done properly. One of the best securities in choosing office movers within the Commercial Relocation Network (CRN) is that they aren’t just your run of the mill movers. As part of CRN, commercial office movers have to meet a high standard of quality and efficiency in providing professional moving services to business customers.

By allowing office movers with the Commercial Relocation Network to handle your moving needs, you can be assured that yours and all of your personnel’s equipment will be handled safely and properly. Take for example moving sensitive electronics such as tower servers; the equipment is very expensive, needs to be specially prepared, delicately handled, securely loaded, and safely transported. It’s not always as simple as just ‘grab and go’, which is often the average mover’s working mentality. With CRN, you can trust that your office movers will come prepared with the right equipment for the job, and the experience to do the job well.

Your business’s equipment, furniture, sensitive electronics, and other assets are too expensive to leave in the hands of movers who don’t carry a proven skillset based on real commercial moving experience. The Commercial Relocation Network offers refined office movers who truly know the commercial moving industry. If you’re still on the fence about who to choose for your move, take a look at CRN’s core values. You’ll find that moving with CRN is moving with the ‘best of the best’.

The commercial relocation network is focused on quality customer service and your successful move. Don’t waste any more time weighing your options with other office movers. Choose CRN to provide you the very best office movers today. You successful move depends on it.

“A Mummified Move”

Moving unusual objects can pose unique challenges. Even after more than 100 years in the professional moving industry, at Hilldrup, we still manage to come across a few “moving pieces” that can seem bizarre. Perhaps one of the most unique items a Hilldrup Logistics customer has requested help moving was not only unusual but priceless. We had to move an estimated 3,000-year-old sarcophagus from Miami, Florida to Washington, D.C.

Devoid of its original contents, the sarcophagus had been stolen years before, and had since been trafficked throughout the international art world. The artifact was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Miami International Airport and initially scrutinized for agricultural concerns. A two-year investigation found that the sarcophagus was not legally exported from Egypt, and so it was seized for return.

When the call came for this move, Hilldrup responded with a fine arts team of four people who worked from beginning to end to include transportation. Professionals from the National Geographic Society, U.S. government and Egyptian government were on standby to make sure everything went smoothly. To say the least, the sarcophagus required special moving conditions, such as climate controlled transportation, which Hilldrup provided.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned the ancient funerary piece to Egypt. The transfer of custody took place at a special ceremony at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

Whether we are moving someone’s personal art collection, a 3,000 year-old sarcophagus or a museum in its entirety, members of the Commercial Relocation Network aim to satisfying our customers, no matter how great – or unusual – the challenge.

by E.J. Radford Sales Manager, Richmond
www.hilldrup.com

Vice President, General Manager – Orlando
www.hilldrup.com

As a moving company, you can believe Hilldrup uses a lot of cardboard boxes – more than 600 tons to be exact. That’s the weight of all cardboard boxes we recycled in the past year. With Earth Day having recently passed, we wanted to share some effective ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle during your next move.

Packing for a move often involves sorting your belongings into “things to keep” and “things to toss.” Hauling everything that falls in the latter category to the landfill might be easy for you, but it isn’t easy on the environment. To ensure that your move is eco-friendly, here are some tips on how best to handle those items you have may been holding onto:

• Electronics: Have an old but still working computer or television that you don’t want to take with you? Try taking them to a local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Staples and Best Buy also recycle most electronics that are no longer functioning for free.
• Paint, oil and other toxic liquids: Old paint cans are extremely toxic to the environment and often illegal to dispose of improperly. Try donating extra paint to your local Habitat for Humanity. Also, most automotive stores will recycle used motor oil for you. If either of these aren’t an option where you live, most localities have household hazardous waste facilities that can assist you in disposing of these liquids safely.
• Appliances: Although your main concern might simply be getting your large appliances out the front door, they still need to be disposed of properly.  Energy Star’s website can help you find locations to recycle your old refrigerator, freezer and other appliances.
• Furniture: Donate your unwanted furniture to thrift shops instead of taking it to a landfill. Many thrift stores will come to pick up large pieces of furniture you might not be able to transport to the store.
• Everything else: Visit these websites to help you find out where to recycle almost anything- 1-800-recycling and Earth911.

Looking for another way to help the environment during your next month?   Cut down on all the back-and-forth trips and have your local Commercial Relocation Network (CRN) Member do everything in one fell swoop!

When you move your office, you should have a checklist.  In most cases, the simpler the list the better it will be.  Here is what you need to know:

1. Use a spreadsheet – you will need to use the sort function to arrange your checklist in a couple of ways.
2. It is easiest to print the checklist and walk around checking off progress.  So make the columns all fit on one page.  Include the following:
   • Origin Location
   • Destination location (you do not necessarily need any more info than this)
   • Name  - which refers to one of several things
     • Person
     • Room i.e.: conference room, copy room
     • File drawer
3. For a person, you might want to keep track of their computer equipment.  If a move involves a few hundred people, it is not fun having a person’s monitor or docking station end up in the lost and found area.  Those moving labels easily stick to just about anything (Except computer parts).  Add columns for the following and put in the quantity.  Use zero if they do not have the item.
   1. CPU
   2. Laptop (always have the employee be responsible for moving their own laptop)
   3. Docking station
   4. Monitor(s)
   5. Phone

   Of course there is a keyboard, mouse and some other items, but those should be packed in a keyboard bag or a box.

4. When all is done at origin, you will do something called the walk-thru. You are going to walk around and check off that every office being moved has been picked-up by the movers.  Sort your list by origin location.  This way, you are not flipping through pages from one office to the next as you quickly go through each office to make sure the movers have not missed anything.
5. You will do a walk-thru at destination too.  Sort by destination this time.

This is the simplest moving checklist you can have.  You can have special needs during a move requiring something more complicated.  But if not, keep it simple.  The multiple people who are monitoring progress during the move will all have an easier time of it because of a simplified checklist.

Jim Carey
Clancy Moving Systems
Patterson, NY
www.ClancyMoving.com

I just completed a review with my sales team and asked them a very important question going into the new year. Do you have the right network partners to achieve your goals?

Whether it is your Construction, Art Consultant, Electrician, Furniture, Garbage, IT or Carpet partner; the art of networking is the art of building relationships. Whether your goal is to increase your customer base or find new commercial network partners, building relationships is just as important to both these goals.

Building relationships is a process that will take time before it produces the desired results, and it is important to resist the temptation to rush the process for the sake of obtaining a quick return or meeting your sales manager’s goals. This will only spoil your relationships.

Building relationships with the "right" customers or vendors is critical to achieving your goals. There is no "wrong" customer or vendor, but not every customer or vendor is right for you and your goals, and if these customers or vendors are not right for you, you are not right for them either. Investing time and effort in
first determining who are the right ones will help prevent the collapse of relationships down the road.

Building relationships is key to both parties involved, it is a two-way street. One does not conduct business with businesses, one does business with people, and people want to do business with those they like, respect and trust, and trust is earned over time through the process of building that relationship.

by John Lusardi, Vice President/Partner, The LibertyGroup