As your business starts to grow or the lease is soon to expire, you may need to relocate your office. For most business owners, having to relocate is frustrating. There so much to do and not enough time. Whether you’re moving to home or to another brick and mortar nearby, the office move process is more or less the same. During the move, your business will continue to operate as normal. That is why you should learn how to move your business without losing any money. Here are some tips to help you relocate your business successfully.
Make a Plan
When you decide to relocate your small business office to home, there are some things you should take care of first. For starters, you’ll need a detailed plan or checklist of when the relocation process will start and how long it will take. This is an important step because you have to adapt to your new office, decorate it properly, move all the furniture, and deal with all the paperwork the process requires. Moreover, you’ll have to give enough time for your employees to slowly get used to the idea of having to work in a new workplace. Therefore, it’s estimated that the move could take somewhere from 4 to 6 months depending on the size of the small business office. That’s how long it will take to notify the local government, adjust policies and procedures, and get necessary permits.
Give Notice
Now that you have a plan, you can put it in motion and start ticking off items from the list. The first on that list should be giving notice to local authorities of your intent to relocate your business office. This is a top priority because you’ll have to familiarize yourself with legal procedures. In particular, you’ll have to check whether or not there are any zoning restrictions your business might be subject to. If that happens to be the case, you’ll have to file for an appropriate variance. Apart from notifying the locals, you should also give notice to current landlords to end the tenancy. For this, you’ll need to prepare a written statement and send it to the landlord within the legal deadline. The deadline depends on the state where the current office is located, so make sure you don’t miss the deadline.
Don’t Forget To Communicate
Relocating your business office is both satisfying and stressful. Satisfying because you’re the owner, and it’s your business. But stressful because of all the details and people you have to take care of, from employees, vendors, investors to clients. This change affects all of them. To make the transition smoother, you shouldn’t stop communicating. When people involved know how things are going, they are more likely to adapt and embrace this change fast. Since you’re already changing things, you might want to reconsider your communication channels and give alternatives to Teams a try. If tools prove to be efficient, you can continue using them in the new home workplace. If not, it’s easy to switch back to the old channel.
Set Up The New Office
You may not know it yet, but you can deduct all moving costs associated with your business move. Moving costs include all those expenses that arise when you’re moving the equipment, supplies and other inventory from the old location to the new one. Additionally, most of your personal costs can also be deducted, but only if they have anything to do with relocation and fulfill the requirements of the IRS. Generally, the space you’re relocating the office to should be exclusively used for business purposes for expenses to be tax-deductible. Anyway, make sure to check with the IRS for any exclusions and restrictions to play by the rules and minimize your expenses.
Change the Name
Before you move offices, you’ll have to make many changes to adjust properly. One of those changes includes your business name. If a part of your business name contains the name of a place, you may have to consider changing it to something more suitable to the new work environment. It’s not easy to change the name of the business and retain customers and brand awareness. What’s important to remember is that changing the business name is not enough. You’ll have to change many relevant documents related to the business as well. Also, you’ll have to re-register your business under its new name and notify the IRS about the changes.
Provide Updates
By now, you should be in the final week or two of your relocation process. This means that you have most things out of the way, and only small details remain. It’s the right time for you to provide updates for the clients, vendors, and investors. In particular, you should update all information regarding location, working hours, phones on your website, social media profiles, business cards, etc. This way, once you finally move, you and your employees can get straight down to business without having to tie up loose ends.
On the whole, the relocation process doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. Following our tips will help you smooth out the transition and get back to achieving the desired business goals.
We hope you found this blog post How to Relocate your Small Business Office to Home useful. Be sure to check out our post Office Relocation: How to Make An Office Move Swift and Easy for more great tips!
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