“Many hands make light work” doesn’t always work when you’re relocating your company to another office suite within the same building. Packing up and moving from your tight first-floor office to that spacious office on the third floor doesn’t need to be a headache, but it does require careful planning and organization.

Here are six tips to get you back up and running with minimal downtime.

1. Realize the Amount of Time Your Move Will Take

Your new location may be only a few floors away, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the move will be a breeze. You’ve outgrown your office space and that likely means you’ve upped your percentage of clients or customers. You may have also increased your staff.

Moving after hours may not be an option. You’ve got to clean out desks, pack your files and figure out what goes where in the new office. Planning your move in conjunction with an experienced moving company can help guide your packing and allow you to create a relocation strategy that minimizes downtime.

2. Designate What Goes Where Ahead of Time

You can’t simply move into your new office space without an idea of where furniture (and people) will go. Take a notebook and map out who and what goes where in the destination office. Color-coded labeling supplies and professional moving boxes will provide for an organized move.

3. Decide What’s Mission Critical

If you haven’t already, move mission-critical applications to the cloud. This will allow designated employees to access data during the move.

4. Decide How You Will Service Customers During Your Move

Will you use laptops or cell phones to connect with your clients or customers during your office relocation? Will you have a skeleton staff available for emergencies? Will that staff work from home during the move? Designate your operational strategy before the move, so you can minimize stress for both your business and your clients or customers.

5. Coordinate With Your Moving Company, Staff and Customers

Let clients or customers know of any address or phone changes. You can do this on your website, by email or by direct mail — whatever works for your company. Ask them to make the necessary changes in their records. Advise them as to what your availability will be during the relocation, and the date or dates of the move. Don’t forget to update your online address, including all major online mapping websites and services.

Employees should already be well briefed regarding their roles and responsibilities before and after the move. Corporate policy often dictates what an employee should be doing and whether time will be paid or unpaid during the process. You may also need to coordinate with your building’s operational staff to ensure your move goes smoothly, and that other offices aren’t disturbed.

Provide your moving company with detailed instructions and destination layouts at least two days before moving day. Make sure that if you color-coded boxes for specific rooms in the new office, this is denoted on the layout plan. Designate staff to supervise and liaison from the office of origin to the destination office.

6. Keep Your Sensitive Equipment Safe

IT companies may have networks that need to be moved to the new office. Make sure your chosen mover can box and move sensitive equipment — even if the trip is in the same building. Such moves require plenty of advance planning, which can be challenging. Downtime is money.

Relocating to another office requires proactive management. Don’t just hire movers. Hire transportation and logistics specialists. Contact Island Movers, Inc., and let our specialists get you up and running. We will work carefully with you to ensure your move is optimized for less stress, more organization and proper planning.