Whether you’re a growing business or a South Bend staple, relocating to a new office or building is usually a positive sign: additional space to expand and add staff, a better location for more customers, or maybe you simply want a fresh start. But an office move can quietly cost more than the lease does when factoring in downtime. Every hour the phones go unanswered, invoices sit unprocessed, or a warehouse is unable to ship is a potential loss that shows up in next quarter’s numbers.
Thankfully, most of this downtime is avoidable. Businesses that plan a move with the same care they’d give a product launch typically lose only a few hours of productivity. Businesses that treat an office move as “just moving boxes” can lose days of work. Whether you’re relocating a small professional office downtown or a larger operation with a warehouse component, here’s how to do it right and why the right commercial moving partner matters more than you might expect.
Start Planning Months Out, Not Days
Work backward from your target move date and assign dates to every dependency: new lease start and current lease end, required notice to your current landlord, utility and internet installation at the new office, furniture and equipment orders, as well as the day you’ll actually book your commercial movers. Businesses that start this process at least two months out have room to fix problems that inevitably arise. Businesses that start two weeks out are forced to accept inconvenient schedules and whatever companies may be available.
This matters even more in the South Bend area than in other areas of Indiana. Local moving crews, electricians, and IT contractors all see their calendars tighten up around Notre Dame home game weekends and the start of the school year, so any move planned around those dates needs to be booked even earlier, not later.
Put One Person in Charge of the Move
A commercial move that’s everyone’s responsibility is no one’s responsibility. Appoint one internal move coordinator, not a committee, and give that person real authority to make day-of calls without checking back with leadership every time. This person becomes the single point of contact for all necessary communication: with the moving company, IT providers, the landlord(s), and your staff. Having a trust-worthy, single point of contact cuts down on much of the miscommunication that causes wasted hours in a move.
It’s important you give this person a real budget of time and money, not just a fancy title. A moving coordinator who’s also trying to perform their normal job duties during move week will make slower and worse decisions than one who’s been freed up to focus on it.
Protect Your IT Before You Protect Your Furniture
Furniture that arrives a day late is inconvenient, but manageable. A phone system, internet or internal server that is down for a day means lost revenue. Consider the following when it comes to your company’s IT before/during/after a move:
- Schedule internet and phone service at the new location to go live before you disconnect the old office. The goal is to have an overlap window instead of a gap in service.
- Back up your computers, servers and critical data the day before move day. Regardless of how careful the movers are, accidents can happen, and it’s not worth the risk.
- Have someone photograph and label the cabling behind desks and server racks before anything gets unplugged. Label computers and other electronics to ensure they all return to the correct employee.
- If you’re porting phone numbers, start that process weeks in advance. Number porting through carriers routinely takes longer than businesses expect, and a delayed port is one of the most common reasons a company loses calls during and after a move.
- Whenever possible, pack and protect electronics and IT equipment yourself. You and your staff know how to best handle sensitive electronics
Give Your Clients and Vendors a Heads Up
A quick heads-up email a few weeks before the move date can do more for client confidence than a perfect move. Let clients and vendors know your move date, your new address, and whether there will be any window of limited availability.
Don’t forget about referral partners and/or suppliers who ship to your address regularly. Missed or returned shipments is a small thing that can create a major headache during a week when you don’t have time for headaches. Ensure all your important contacts know your new address weeks in advance.
Choosing The Best Time to Move
To keep the disruption out of business hours, an evening or weekend move may make the most sense, even if it costs more than a weekday move.
If your new or old building is downtown South Bend, factor in loading dock access, freight elevator scheduling, and street parking permits required by the building or the city. These little things are easy to overlook but can cause a big problem when a moving truck is idling outside your building with nowhere to park. You may need to schedule your move-in day around some of these schedules.
For businesses that genuinely can’t afford any gap in operations, a short overlap where both locations are staffed for a day or two may be worth the extra cost. You can move some employees into the new office and ensure it’s operating before packing up and leaving the old office. It’s a more expensive option, but for larger operations, it’s often cheaper than the lost business a full 1-2 day move.
Packing Tips
- Reference materials, extra supplies/inventory, decor, and anything not used daily can be packed weeks ahead of time with no impact on operations.
- Label every box by department and destination room (or employee desk), not just “office”.
- For each employee’s desk, put together a clearly marked kit with what they’ll need to be productive on day one: chargers, a keyboard and mouse, any physical files they use daily, and building access badges (if necessary).
- Treat computers and monitors as the last things packed and the first things unpacked, since that’s usually the equipment standing between an employee and getting back to work.
Why Choosing the Right Commercial Mover Should Be Part of Your Strategy
General movers can carry boxes and pack a truck; commercial movers understand the things that actually cause business downtime. That means crews who know how to disconnect and reconnect workstations without losing cable configurations, who bring the right equipment for server racks and specialty office furniture, and who carry insurance that covers business equipment rather than just household goods.
Hiring a commercial mover from South Bend adds valuable local knowledge and experience, helping you avoid issues that eat up time on the day of the move. Local commercial movers such as Around the Bend Movers know which downtown buildings have tight freight elevators, where a permit is needed to hold a loading zone, the best ways to load or unload on a busy street and how to route around Notre Dame traffic. That local knowledge is the difference between a move day that runs on schedule and one that doesn’t.
None of this requires a huge budget or a dedicated project manager on staff. It requires you to start planning early, naming one person to own the moving decisions, and treating IT and communication as seriously as the boxes themselves. Around the Bend Movers provides commercial moving services throughout South Bend and the surrounding Michiana area and can help facilitate a moving timeline based around your business’s specific downtime tolerance. From a small office relocation to a large warehouse move, Around the Bend movers can help. Before you book, reach out and talk with us about the size of your company, your moving timeline and any other important details.
P.S. Don’t forget to update your Google Business Profile, website, invoices, and any directory listings! You can do this 2-3 days before you move so your business information is accurate the day you move in (and it’s one less thing to remember to do after a hectic day of moving).