One for the Admins out there (in the UK please :))?

I am in the middle of organising an office move (10 people in total, so not huge). From serviced offices to conventional offices. An offer has been put in on a property and currently the lawyers are putting together the lease for us to sign. The offices need to be refitted and I need to buy furniture for everyone the only things we currently own are all the computer equipment. I think I have everything covered, but does anyone out there have experience of this sort of thing and have any tips/advice on how to make this as stress free for everyone (including myself)? Any comments very welcome :)

All I can say is "Good Luck". I did a similar move for my old company a few years ago, they had about 40 years worth of crappy old furniture to move and thousands of files, but the worst thing was that the so called "refitted offices" had the wrong type of network cabling installed for the computers. Make sure it is the right type (at the time we needed Cat 5 cables and they had something else, I expect technology has moved on a lot by now!!!). Also make sure that the lift is going to be working in your new offices when you move in. Unlike when we did.

Best of luck, enjoy the office furniture shopping!!!

If you're moving from serviced offices, then you're going to find a few things that they used to provide that you now need to take care of:
- You need to organise a cleaning contract - contact a couple of companies for quotes
- Organise water filter suppliers, and anything else you might want in the way of catering facilities such as a microwave
- Find out what happens with rubbish/recycling collection - if you're part of a large block then this may be taken care of, but if you're on your own then you may need to organise your own collection (contact your borough council as a starting point)

Do you have internal IT support - I'm guessing not if there's only 10 employees - or do you have a contractor that takes care of it, or does it come down to you alone? Because you are going to have to deal with telecoms somehow ... BT can supply the lines and numbers, but won't maintain an office network, so you need to find someone who can install it and then be contacted if anything goes wrong. IT equipment won't be such a problem - there shouldn't be any reason why you can't just pick up your current equipment and plug it in - but you obviously need to make sure that you've got a van/truck hired to transport everything.

You say that the offices are being refitted - make sure the plans are left behind! We don't have any for our office, meaning that no-one knows where certain fuses or the emergency light switches are. Even if you know for now, one day you might leave your job and the new person won't know. If possible, have an Office Manager copy and a copy with your legal files.

You also need to ensure that your change of address is communicated to clients and suppliers. Order new letterhead and comps slips. It could be best to involve your Finance Department in this - just make a letter which says that your company is moving and what your new address is (and when) and then they can send out copies with each invoice they send or each bill that they pay.

Basically, no matter how much you plan and organise, it's likely that there will be something that goes wrong. When we moved into our current offices, the Directors had to assemble the kitchen furniture, which went down well! I do think that you should get people to be responsible for their own property - make them pack their own desk supplies and so on - and label everything to make sure it all gets back to the right person.

Hi,

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