Relocating any business is a potentially damaging but often essential aspect of growth, and provides as many opportunities as it does risks when done right. Unfortunately, already overwhelmed entrepreneurs can often get so caught up in every other aspect of business that even an imminent relocation slips clear from their mind until a week or less before.

Unsurprisingly, things then have a habit of going wrong and creating the downtime that often facilitates failure.

This is why any relocation should be approached with a long view of success that starts as far back as two months before the move (or even longer in cases of extreme office renovations, etc.). The question is, what should this long relocation timeline incorporate to ensure that you don’t so much as break a sweat when the big day comes?

Two Months Before the Move

When a move is two months away, it’s all too tempting to push it to the back of your mind in place of more pressing business deadlines and priorities, but a successful relocation will always start around now and should include things like giving notice on your current premises, and also starting to think about your moving day plans.

One Month Before the Move

This is around the time you should be assessing your budget for the move, and also making bookings to ensure that you’re able to avoid dreaded downtime. In a basic sense, this means making an appointment as early as possible on your moving day itself with a company that can take care of business networking cable installation as well as things like internet installation, etc. Equally important at this stage is your ability to book a removals company at a time that best suits, and to turn your initial plan (see above) into a working moving day timeline with those requirements in mind.

One Week Before the Move

A week before the move, you should have all your basic moving day considerations in place, meaning that it’s time to pack what you can. Obviously, this is often easier said than done, but if at all possible, it may be worth asking staff to work at home for the week while you get down to flat packing desks, packing up computers, and generally ensuring you’re all ready to go when the time comes. This is also around when you need to shut down old utility accounts and finalize things with regards to your old office lease.

Moving Day

If things have run smoothly with the rest of your timeline, then moving day itself should be a relatively stress-free experience during which you simply need to oversee those bookings, finalize last-minute paperwork, and do one last walkthrough of your old office before heading to your new premises, unpacking, and turning the page on the future of your enterprise!

Moving is never easy, especially when it has the potential to disrupt your entire business. Take at least some of the stress out of that process by taking this timeline into account as soon as relocation becomes a possibility!