When planning on moving your office, a dedicated moving service is on hand to help simplify and expedite the process, leaving you to focus on the motivations and reasons, both of which are critical to ensuring that the relocation is a success.
A removal service will naturally not be focused on the reasons for your move and will provide the same excellent service regardless, but there are good and bad reasons for moving your office, which often translate to positive and negative outcomes.
With that in mind, here are some of the best and indeed some of the worst reasons to move office.
Right: Striking Whilst The Market Is Hot
With the property market continuing to see some remarkable growth, your office might be a remarkably significant asset that you can take full advantage of financially, especially if you are not necessarily making the most of the space.
Naturally, this might mean running a cost-benefit analysis of moving onto more suitable surroundings elsewhere so you can make the most of it, or avoid the potential for exorbitant rent increases once the lease expires and prices catch up.
Wrong: On Assumptions Of Infinite Growth
A classic mistake a lot of startup companies make, particularly those who are looking to scale their operations quickly is to set up facilities for the size they want to be rather than the size they are and the feasible size they should be for the market.
One of the most infamous examples of this was the story of Imagine Software in Liverpool, who moved offices multiple times in just three years (long before the lease expired so they were paying many times over), hired huge numbers of staff and draped the operation in luxury.
The result, rather infamously captured on a BBC Documentary, was the sudden and dramatic intervention of bailiffs, who locked down the building and wound up the company.
Right: When Renovations Would Be Too Disruptive
Most offices will need some form of renovation over the course of several years, whether to add new facilities or capabilities or to repair existing furniture, fixtures and fittings. However, there is a tipping point where this becomes too much.
If there are constant breakdowns, unmet requirements and unhappy team members, it may be the time to stop pouring good money after bad and invest in a new office and a relocation exercise.
Wrong: Relocating Purely To Acquire Talent
Whilst this might be a somewhat controversial reason to dub incorrect, given that there is significant historical precedent for this exact exercise, it is nonetheless a mistake to assume that one has to move to get access to a high-quality pool of employees, especially in an age of hybrid work.
Whilst some offices are indeed too far out of the way for a lot of people to reliably commute, remote working allows for a catchment area that spans the entire British Isles, and unless there are other factors in play, this should not be a primary motivation.
Relocating for the benefit of clients, the team that is already there or because the location or facilities themselves do not fit are perfectly valid reasons, but relocation is not inherently a recruitment exercise. Treating it as one might, in fact, lead to a net loss in employees.