Moving Your Business? Read This.

Everyone is aware of all the changes brought upon by the pandemic, affecting businesses of all types. For many, these changes are drifting back to a semblance of pre-COVID normality. For some companies, these changes are permanent.

Starting in March of 2020, record numbers of employees began to work from home, causing a flurry of activity among the entire Charlotte area business community, and in no small way. The new remote workforce sent IT support companies into overdrive setting up secure connectivity to maintain the flow of business. As a longtime, experienced Managed IT Services provider, ITFirm.com was well positioned - with the manpower and expertise to handle this transition – to the extent that we were able to assist smaller IT services firms accomplish those goals for their own clientele.

If you tried the doors to 50 professional offices in Charlotte, you would no doubt find some still locked, but more and more opened up, albeit with quite a few empty offices and cubicles inside. You would also find a surprisingly small percentage that are fully staffed. Even in the waning days of the pandemic, the workplace is not going fully back to what it had been.

The end result is that there is a lot of empty space around town that rents out at a high price per square foot (SF). In downtown Charlotte, rents are at about $30 per SF, while in nearby Matthews office rent goes for almost half that – about $16 per SF. It’s all too high of a price to pay if you’re not using the space, with no ongoing outlook for completely repopulating the office.

Over the past two years, we have seen the anomaly of companies that have increased their workforce by 20% moving to locations that offer 30 – 50% less space. ITFirm.com has provided network infrastructure moving services to many of our Managed IT Services clients as well as non- clients – firms with in-house IT Support, but lack the capability or expertise to install the cabling/wiring required at the new location, or to perform the physical move and reinstallation of network equipment.

If unused, expensive office space is your primary reason for relocation, any smart CEO will convene a panel to ascertain whether their new Work From Home or Hybrid Work model is truly a permanent situation going forward.

Why relocate your business?

Whether for business or residential, nobody likes the actual moving process, although most people tend to like their new office or home. For business, paying lower rent is only one consideration, although overhead and cash flow are a prime concern for any company. Clutch performed a survey wherein they concluded that an office relocation had a positive effect on 68% of employees.

Relocation is a major transition, usually supported by several important factors, and no company rushes needlessly into such an undertaking. In the past, businesses moved to acquire more space as they grew, whether it’s a manufacturer needing more equipment space, a larger loading dock and product staging area or a professional firm in law, accounting, finance, or medical that expands their employee base.

Whatever your type of business and whatever your reasoning, you relocate because it is the answer to something that is currently negatively affecting your business.

Once you have decided to move…

How do I move my company location?

There are TWO office moves involved:
1) The IT infrastructure – all hardware and peripheral devices.
2) Everything else: desks, chairs, cabinets, tables, plants, etc.

It is crucial to recognize and plan meticulously for the two distinctly different aspects of the office move. The IT infrastructure needs to be handled by a veteran, experienced IT consulting service, preferably a Managed Services Provider rather than a garden variety ‘IT guy’. If a business is still using the accountant’s nephew who ‘knows something about computers’ to hold their network functions together, a move like this can easily slide into a disaster.

To avoid a business disruption, the move should always happen on a weekend – two short days. This requires planning with the precision of a military operation. Your employees need to go home on Friday and go to the new address on Monday where everything is set up and waiting for them. They log in and everything works.

For a thorough before, during, and afterward walk through of the planning involved, please visit our sister company IT Support LA’s Office Move Checklist.

The single most important factor in an office move is to establish timelines. Once the new site has been secured, the most critical thing to get rolling is the internet: Is the service you require available there? Internet providers such as Spectrum can take months to establish your new service. Your IT Services provider should be entrusted with this duty as they will undoubtedly have relationships with these providers.

Do NOT wait too long to procure a trustworthy moving company for your non-IT office items: come that Friday night, those trucks need to be there. Depending on the type of site you are moving to, you may have to investigate the lead time required for all utilities. Renovating an abandoned warehouse is quite different than moving into an office in a Downtown Charlotte – even if that requires construction as well. Either type of location will most likely require wiring for the network.