Moving to a new office, whether you are upgrading or downgrading can be a rather onerous activity. You need to find your new office, and a professional mover to pack and unpack everything before and after moving. And you will have to pay for all of these services and other expenses involved in the moving process. The entire experience can be costly, stressful, and impede your business goals if you are not careful in the implementation of a move.
It doesn’t matter why you are moving, so whether you are expanding operations and need a bigger office space or the company is tight on cash and needs to cut down on costs, you will need to estimate your costs before the move to avoid overspending. What’s more, while you may underestimate the cost of office moving, it might end up depleting most of your revenue and you won’t realize it until it is too late.
So how do you estimate your office moving costs? Continue reading to see how.
Planning costs
Office moving can be a rather onerous activity. When you’re deciding on moving offices, the first thing you should consider is the budget and costs that will go into it. There are many things to think about when looking for that perfect new work environment; for example, there are many shared and private office space options available in Dallas. The best thing you can do is take some time out of your day to do some research before you decide on one single option.
Before you actually begin to move, you need to have a solid moving plan so as to breakdown all the costs you will incur. First, you might need to make some modifications to your new office space. You want to customize the space to your needs, so make any necessary inquiries and get the quotes for making the changes.
Delegate this to a responsible employee and make sure they put together the pre and post moving costs. Also, make sure you have an inventory of your assets so that you may account for anything that gets lost during the move. This will help you to calculate any damages and lost items. If you have contacts for your service providers ask if there will be any upfront costs needed, then inquire about installations and cleaning services.
Office closing cost
You might be moving to better office space, but you will also need to leave the old one decent for the next occupant. If there are any damages, you might need to account for them too and even if you don’t, the complex owner will likely have you paying for them before you leave. So have them inspect the space and talk about the fees you will pay for repairs and damages. Also, if you are ending your lease early, you might also incur penalties, so make sure to account for them.
Moving costs
The actual move will have its expenses, and some of the things you need to account for include shutting down all systems, packing in the old office then reinstalling and unpacking in the new space. Not forgetting, you will require to hire a mover to do most of the work for you, from dismantling most of the office items and furniture to set them up for you in the new office.
Negotiate with them and make sure that you have an insurance policy with a larger coverage than what they are offering so that it can pay for any losses or damages made during the move. When accounting for the general moving costs, make sure to include any losses made from the business revenues during the transition. You can also see cost estimates here and make a comparison of what you have, add what you might have left out if need be.
Announcing your move
Moving offices might include ads, press releases, snail-mail announcements, and so on, costs that you will need to account for. You will need new business cards since your contact information will change, reprinting other items that need updated contact information, promotional items, and signs, etc.
If there is a need to advertise on mainstream media, then you will also need to account for the costs of advertising on such, eg on billboards, radio stations, newspapers, and TV. Announcing your move might eat up a lot of the business’s revenue, so make sure to budget for it beforehand since it mostly involves advertising.
Wrap up
You don’t want your business to come to a standstill during moving, you want the transition to be smooth and for things to resume from where you left them before you left your old office. Early planning is vital because moving is costly, you don’t want to spend money carelessly as you might end up incurring huge losses for your business. Write down a budget that will help you make an estimation of the whole process, and don’t also forget important factors like an insurance policy, leases, contracts, and a good project manager. Once you have a proper estimate of your cost, other things will flow easily.
