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Moving your
office? 5 tips for Staying Productive
by Christopher
Elliott
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small
Business Center
 Even if you are only moving to
another floor in your building, the thought of relocating
probably sounds about as appealing as going totally without
carbs for a week.
After all, moving
your business or home is widely considered one of the
single-most stressful life events for an individual. Add to
that the prospect of losing valuable work time, and you can
understand why small-business owners like Michael Hirschfeld
try to get out of town when the business remodels, relocates
or redecorates.
"I have always been
scheduled to be out of town for the day before, day of, and
day after moving day," says Hirschfeld, the managing partner
of a real-estate company in Westport, Conn. "Simply put, less
is more."
Leaving the office
entirely is, of course, the best way of handling any
relocation. Step aside and let the movers do their thing. But
how do you keep your business productive even when your office
is in pieces?
At this point in
many articles, I'd turn to experts on the subject. But I am
the expert on moving. I've moved an average of once every two
years -- about 18 times altogether, counting my home and my
small business -- and I've done it all. I've moved within
cities, counties, states. I've moved coast-to-coast and
continent-to-continent.
In fact, even as I
write this piece, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Orlando,
Fla., while I wait for the paperwork to wrap up on my new
office.
So here are the key
things I have learned about how to make a move with a minimum
of down time:
1. It's
impossible to plan too far ahead. If it's a minor move,
then you should know in advance where the cubicles will get
set up and where the Ethernet connections will get wired
through. Leave nothing to chance. Relocating an entire
business -- and don't think it can't happen to you, because
small businesses do grow -- can also mean moving a local-area
network or a wireless network, numerous PCs and printers. It
can mean shipping equipment and inventory. Line up your
proverbial ducks well in advance of the big day. Tip: With
careful planning, and depending on the size of your business,
you can ensure that the actual move happens over a weekend.
That gives you enough time to install and troubleshoot any
technology that has migrated. If there's any down-time, it
will be on Sunday and Monday, minimizing the impact to your
clients and customers.
2. Be prepared
for the unexpected. A move of any kind forces you to think
on your feet, to be ready for anything. If you travel
frequently, you probably already know how to do that. For
example: Where do you go to buy a box of RJ-11 wire at 1 a.m.
What if you need to make copies, but don't have any of your
machines set up? It forces you to take nothing for granted,
even little things like power and phone service. Tip: You
don't have to be a frequent business traveler to know how to
think like a nomad.
3. Use the move
as an excuse to upgrade. For example, if your office is
using bulky CRT monitors, here's the perfect reason to donate
those clunkers to your favorite charity and buy flat-panel
monitors. It's also a good opportunity to take a hard look at
the software you're using to see if it needs updating (I just
upgraded from Office XP to Office 2003 on one of my
computers). Basically, you want to arrive at your new office
location in even better shape to do business than you were
when you left. Tip: Use your laptop computers as "interim"
office machines while you're in transit. In other words, make
sure they're all synched up and have the latest software
before you begin your move. Then, use them as your primary PCs
while your new office gets situated.
4. Anticipate
down time, even if you expect none. Moving can be
unpredictable. Trust me. For instance, I thought I would close
on a property this morning, but because of some unexpected
financing issues, the paperwork won't go through until the end
of this week. Delays happen. "I notify clients, editors,
associates and friends in advance, via e-mail or phone, that
my availability will be somewhat limited for a day or two,"
says Sharon Adcock, a communications consultant in Manhattan
Beach, Calif. Tip: If it's a long-distance move, and you have
to stay in a hotel for a prolonged period of time, make sure
it can double as an office. Case in point: I'm writing this
article from my room at the Hampton Inn at the Orlando
Convention Center. It features free meeting areas and
high-speed and wireless Internet access. So even though I'm
out of the office, I can still get work done.
5. Let your
applications help you "move." If your relocation also
involves an upgrade or migrating to new hardware (and as I
just mentioned, this is an excellent opportunity to upgrade),
make sure your programs do the heavy lifting. Save all of your
old user options and migrate them to the new hardware or
software, so that once you arrive in your new digs, you'll be
able to get to work right away. Tip: The trickiest of the
migrations tends to be moving e-mail from one PC to the next.
Outlook 2003 automatically imports your preferences and e-mail
when you upgrade from a previous version on the same computer.
When you're switching PCs, go to File, Import and Export, and
pick the option for the application you're using.
With a little
planning and shrewd use of your existing technology, you can
make sure that your next move will be as painless -- and
productive -- as possible. But I can't lie to you: Moving is
still stressful. Yet hopefully, with these tips, it'll be a
little less so. |
