Ten Tips for Moving Your Business

Create a move checklist (see sample). There are so many things to consider when moving a business; without a checklist it would be easy to let something slip through the cracks.

Review all your contracts. Your coffee and water services, janitorial, plant service, etc. All those services need to be transferred to your new location or terminated. Otherwise, you could risk paying for services you’re not receiving or hit with early termination penalties.

When moving don’t assume the previous tenant had a proper voice and data infrastructure in place. The previous tenant might have moved out years before and been operating with outdated cabling. While it’s possible to reuse some older cabling, your company won’t be able to take advantage of the high-speed internet connections or utilize bandwidth intensive applications or cloud technology. Old cabling could lead to bottlenecks and slow performance.

If your company is switching Internet Service Providers and utilizes a static IP, will your new ISP be able to provide you with that same IP address? It’s also advisable to determine if the new provider’s modem can be configured with your same LAN IP address. Here are some tips to relocate telecom services.

Break down your workstations and bag individual cords. Doing so will keep the cords from knotting up and facilitate workstation reassembly.

Before signing a lease, determine what telecom services are available at a prospective location. Broadband isn’t available everywhere. There are pockets in every major city where the local phone or cable companies’ broadband services aren’t available. Where other businesses are experiencing 50 to 200 Mbps of bandwidth, businesses located in these areas are reliant on unreliable microwave connections or expensive T1.

Don’t forget to reprogram your point of sale device so it will print your new address on customer receipts. Also, a move is a great time to transition from dial up connectivity to IP.

Complete a mail-forwarding request with the US Postal service. Forwarding your mail is a temporary service, so make sure your suppliers, vendors and paying customers know your new address.

If your company has conducted any internet marketing, you’ll need to update your business pages (Google, Bing, Yelp and Yahoo) along with the address listed on your website. There are a number of local listing services that can facilitate listing updates and management.

Label and number your moving boxes. Labeling will help you identify the contents contained inside the boxes. Numbering will help you keep track of your boxes.