Category: Commercial Relocation

Tips and Tricks to make Your Office Move Even Easier

Posted on June 30, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Moving Preparation

Moving can be tough, but it shouldn’t have to be. We want to help you have a stress and worry-free move. So, we’ve compiled a list of some tips you should follow when you’re relocating. After all, this should be an exciting time of new adventures for your business, so leave the stress behind and get excited for what’s to come.

First things first: create your commercial moving timeline. When do you have to be out of your current office space? When are you going to start packing? What are you going to start packing up first? When should I cancel my Internet and transfer it to my new office? You need to answer these questions to help you get organized. We suggest doing this a few months before your scheduled move so that you have ample time to really think about what needs to happen to make your move flawless.

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After you make your moving timeline, we suggest allocating duties to your employees. You don’t want to have to be in charge of everything that deals with the move, do you? After you make your commercial moving timeline, you’ll have a better idea of what needs to get done. From that, you can easily designate various duties to your employees. This will alleviate stress, and allow multiple tasks to get done without confusion and mayhem.

About one to three months before your commercial move, you need to make sure you update all necessary vendors your business deals with. If you need new furniture for instance, be sure to order that furniture in advance. The last thing you want is a beautiful, new office with no furniture in it because you didn’t allow enough time for delivery. If you already have your plate full of other tasks, designate this task to an employee. After all, you aren’t the only one that’s moving, so you shouldn’t be the only one with responsibilities.

When you move, your address will change (obviously). But, the reason we’re telling you that is so you don’t forget to change all business collateral with your current address on it, to your business’ new address. Contact your marketing company and tell them about your move a week or two before so they can make all necessary changes to any materials that have your old address on there. Business cards, letterhead, and any other printed materials.

Additionally, send out an email to your current clients and let them know your new address. You wouldn’t them showing up to your old address after you’ve moved. Your clients are what make your business operations possible, so keeping them in the know is imperative.

By taking these few steps to prepare yourself for your move, you can alleviate some stress and be more prepared for your relocation.

 

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Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality Group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

Designing a Healthy Office Space to maximize employee happiness, productivity and communication.

Posted on June 23, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Office Furniture

Whether you’re moving your company to a new building, or just looking to refresh your office, we have some advice on what floor plans and designs will be best for your company and your employees.

Open floor plans were popular in the 1990’s, and they were designed to help your company boost communication among your employees. But, communication and collaboration may be distracting and cause employees to become less productive. So, we’re here to help you decide how you should layout your new office space, and how you can get a healthy mix of collaboration and productivity all under one roof.

The Huffington Post wrote an article about offices rethinking the open floor plan design for businesses. “People have different needs throughout their day—times they want to collaborate and times where they just need to think by themselves,” said Ethan Griffin, CEO of Groove, a marketing company.

 

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When Griffin was planning his business’ new office space he wanted to incorporate an open floor plan that included a library with books, couches and a fireplace. This space also has an unwritten rule of “no talking” in case someone needs quiet time to relax. Additionally, Griffin added private workspaces for those who require solitude and silence in order to get work done.

According to the International Facilities Management Association, 70 percent of American employees work at an office that has an open floor plan. Some companies are realizing that this open work environment creates less productive employees.

Twenty-five years ago, the open-office floor plan began trending, but today, building private work spaces is trending, according to Sonya Dufner, a director of workplace strategy at Gensler, a design firm.

 

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However, evidence suggests that even though it may cause some distractions, knocking down your offices’ cubical walls can generate good, productive conversation and promote a sense of community.

Environmental psychologists and designers who have studied this workplace dilemma said there’s “no one-size-fits-all solution.” Different workplaces have different needs and methods of functioning. More specifically, different departments within your company have different needs. Some may need communication to occur sporadically throughout the day, and others may not.

“Workspace should be designed as carefully as you would design the cockpit of the Dreamliner,” said Jennifer Veitch, an environmental psychologist with the National Research Council of Canada. Veitch also preached that not giving your employees a suitable work environment can deter from productivity.

When you design your new office space, be sure to keep your employees in mind. Note which departments will need more quiet time, more quick communication or which ones will need a mix of both. So, explore your office and employee needs and come up with your perfect office floor plan.

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality Group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

How Your New Office Can Make Your Employees More Happy, Motivated and Productive

Posted on June 16, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Office Furniture

 

Moving is exciting for your business. You look forward to things like bigger office spaces, more storage areas, and maybe a better location. But, along with these things, we’re going to give you something else to look forward to: improved employee productivity.

Maybe your new office has bigger offices for employees. With more space, come more areas for storage and organization. If your employees have bigger offices and more places to put important files, documents and office supplies, then desk clutter can be quickly eliminated.

A cluttered desk may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Let’s put it this way, if your employee is on the phone with a client and the client asks for information that’s located in a particular file, time spent searching for the file will increase if your employee is searching through mounds of disorganized papers. Not only does this lead to wasted time, it also leads to a stressed out employee. With more space and organization, your employee will be able to quickly locate the client file (without stress) and get the information needed to the customer. If files and other important documents are organized and easily accessible in the new larger office space, your employees will spend less time searching for the file, less time stressing and more time engaging with the customer and getting what needs to be done, done.

 

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In an article by Forbes, they write about ways a disorganized workplace leads to stress and not a lot of productivity. “80% of what we perceive or experience is based upon the visual sense of our environment,” said Sherry Burton Ways, interior designer, color therapist and author. If our environment is cluttered and disorganized, Ways said this can slow down mental energy and make work even more difficult.

A new office also gives your employees a chance to refresh, redecorate and redesign their spaces. Believe it or not, doing these things adds more productivity to your employees’ workday.

Forbes suggests reworking office layouts, changing out lighting and adding personal touches to your office reduces workplace stress. And reducing stress makes for a happier and more productive office.

When your business moves, your employees have a chance to redesign their offices to create more organized and stress free spaces. By making small changes in your new office, a stressful work environment is eliminated, and a more productive environment is implemented.

 

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Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality Group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

Leasing or Buying office space. Which is best for my business? The answer is: It depends.

Posted on June 9, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation

When you’re in the market for a new office space, there are a lot of decisions to be made. Where should you move? How should you design the office layout? Will you take your existing furniture or buy new furniture? But most importantly, you need to ask yourself if leasing or buying your new office space is best for you and your company.

 

Leasing

As with anything, there are pros and cons to leasing vs. buying office spaces. We’re going to take you through some pros and cons so that you can decide what will be your business’ best option.

Leasing                            

Pros                      

  • No down payment. Cash is king, so the longer you keep money in your pocket and business, the better.
  • No expenses regarding the upkeep of the office. So, whenever a light bulb goes out, no problem. Call your landlord and they’ll replace it at no expense to you.
  • You can sign a short-term lease, which gives you some flexibility. If you’re expanding, no problem. You can stay in a short-term lease for a few months and then move to a bigger facility.

Cons

  • Leasing is an expense that doesn’t go towards ownership of property, in fact, you can sometimes spend more renting.
  • You can’t fix things as you see fit because the landlord owns the property, not you.
  • A lease means that the landlord is in charge. And with that, comes uncertainty because the landlord could potentially make you move as soon as your lease is up. Even if you want to stay on the property, your landlord could also substantially increase your rent. This increase is especially possible if the landlord decides to sell the property.

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Buying

Pros  

  • Buying office space can end up being cheaper than renting, and your monthly note goes toward the ownership of property, not into your landlord’s pocket.
  • When you own the property, you can paint the building or hang anything on the walls without asking for permission, or getting a “no” from the landlord.
  • When you own property, you have control over when you move out. Nobody will force you to move out on short notice when you’re the one in charge.

Cons

  • Along with buying property, you also obtain the expenses that go along with the ownership. Any liability that goes along with the property is also put on you, the owner.
  • Replacing AC units or leaks in the roof can be pricey, and if you own the property, all costs fall on you.
  • If you find that your business is struggling in its new location, and you own the property, you don’t have the freedom to pick up and move out when your lease is up. You’re bound to the building, until you sell it at least.

As you can see, there are many options to weigh when deciding whether to buy or lease your new office space. There is no right choice because both have advantages and disadvantages. Whatever choice you make, The Quality Group will be there to help you seamlessly move your office to your new location.

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality Group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

 

Don’t lose your data or computers when moving your office.

Posted on June 2, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Facility Installation

Having movers physically move your companies’ computer equipment makes you cringe. To ease your mind about having movers handle your precious cargo, you want your own employees to move their own computer stations. You may want to have employees move their computers instead because you’ve been thinking, “What if the movers drop my computers? What the movers just throw my computers in the back of their truck like it’s an empty box?”

I’ll give you another “what if” situation. What if your employee accidentally drops their monitor on the way to their car, or what if the computer gets left in their car for the weekend and gets overheated? Now your business has another set of problems because you have to replace that computer so that employee can work Monday morning.

But remember, your employees specialize in your business operations, not in moving computer equipment. Always remember to back up your data before allowing anyone to start moving your computer equipment, servers or workstations. At the Quality Group, we know that your computer equipment and data are the lifeline of your business, so we treat it with the greatest care. We’re going to take you step by step and explain to you how we would move your business’ computer equipment. If moved properly you won’t have to worry. You should expect when hiring any moving company to follow the same same steps in order to safely transport your computers.

We believe that any moving company should have special equipment carts that are designed to safely transport all of your computer equipment. You can see a picture of one of our carts below. But before we put your equipment on one of these strategically designed carts we bubble wrap the monitors. Second, we take all computer accessories such as your mouse, keyboard and wiring and pack them neatly in our computer accessories bag. Next, we begin to load the computer equipment carts. We put all the bubble-wrapped monitors on the bottom shelf of the cart, and then load all of your computer accessories onto the cart. Our final step before transport is to stretch wrap the computer equipment carts. This ensures a secure transport for all of your precious computer equipment. Again see a picture of a properly loaded, wrapped and protected computer equipment on the cart below.

 

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When the Quality Group arrives at your new location with all of your business’ computer equipment, you can be sure that no computer will be without a mouse, keyboard or monitor cable. We strategically pack each of your offices’ computer stations so each computer equipment cart contains every item needed for each computer station to be fully functional.

We then unpack each computer station. But, that’s not all. We make sure every computer is in its correct place and functioning smoothly. You and your employees shouldn’t have to go through any hassle during your office move. That’s why we make this process as easy, quick and safe as possible.

You should expect the same service from any moving company you hire to move your office equipment. If you choose to move the equipment yourself, make sure that you follow the same steps.

If you have questions the Quality Group would be glad to assist you on your move.

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The Perks of Working with The Quality Group

Posted on April 27, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Facility Installation, Moving Preparation, Office Furniture

Our value-added commercial moving services give you the most bang for your buck and keep you calm and comfortable during your office move.

PROBLEM: I can NOT afford to close up shop for a week to get everything moved.

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Our Solution: We’re happy to move your business at night or on weekends. We can coordinate every facet of your relocation outside of office hours, so you don’t lose any business. Our mission is to complete your commercial move while minimizing your business’ operational downtime. We usually eliminate it altogether, so you can move your office without missing a single phone call or turning away a single customer.

PROBLEM: I have too much/not enough/old/broken office furniture.

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Our Solution: At The Quality Group,our professional movers:

–          Safely dispose of or recycle your old, broken or unwanted furniture

–          Work with brands like Steelcase to bring you high-quality, durable office furniture

–          Provide safe, secure warehouse space for extra furniture you might need later

Just tell us what you want to do with your office furniture, and we will take care of the rest.

PROBLEM: I need to move, but I have no idea where to start.

Our Solution: Call us. Right now. There’s no pressure or obligation. We can just talk. We make moving plans every day, so we can guide you through yours no matter where you are in the process. Whether you’ve just realized you need more space or you’ve got a new office and a move date, we can make sure your move goes smoothly. Don’t let anything stand in the way of growing your business. Give us a call, or give us your contact info and we’ll call you (link to contact page).

 

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality Group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

3 Reasons You Need to Know about Moving Insurance

Posted on April 13, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation

Trusting someone else with your possessions is hard enough. But if your movers have shaky insurance, you could be worrying about more than just your office move. Avoid disputes and damaged items by keeping yourself informed of your mover’s insurance policy.

 

TRUSTiconTrust: You don’t want to spend the move worrying about your office equipment. By asking about your mover’s insurance, you can be sure your property is protected. For instance, did you know that movers are only legally liable for 10% or less of the value of lost or damaged items? If you know the kind of coverage your mover provides, you can pay for 100% liability or insure your possessions with a relocation insurance company. The more you know, the better you’re covered.

 

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Credibility: Established companies that are genuinely interested in providing quality service will offer moving insurance. If your movers don’t, or if they’re shady about the coverage details, call their bluff. Look them up and ask around about them. If they are a credible, legitimate business, chances are you will hear good things about them from friends or colleagues.

 

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Accountability: If your movers aren’t upfront about the insurance they provide, can you really trust them? If they’re not willing to hold themselves accountable for the way they handle your property, what does that tell you? Are they going to be careful with your items? If your movers don’t offer insurance, you might want to find another moving company.

 

The Bottom Line: Ask about your mover’s insurance policy. Ask to see it in writing if you can. Ask about every detail, from what is covered to how long that coverage lasts. You can also check out your moving company’s insurance policy here.

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality group serves the gulf states with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

You Deserve an Accurate Moving Estimate

Posted on March 23, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Moving Preparation, Uncategorized

Seems like a no brainer, right? From moving costs to lost office productivity, commercial moving expenses can add up. Obviously, you want to get an accurate estimate from your commercial moving company. But anyone can say that their estimate is accurate. Listen for these key phrases to be sure that the price you agree to is the price you pay.

“Not-to-exceed pricing”: A not-to-exceed pricing basis accounts for every foreseeable cost associated with your commercial move. Every factor, from heavy traffic to elevator weight capacity, is represented by a certain cost, creating a commercial moving formula that results in an accurate moving quote.

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“Guaranteed timelines”: What’s the best way to avoid additional moving costs? Get the move finished on time. When commercial moves run over deadlines, moving costs go up. And if a delayed move keeps you from opening your office on time, your expenses can add up even more. If your movers can guarantee an on-time move, then you can be sure that your moving estimate is accurate.

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Do surprises happen? Sure. But to get the most exact moving estimate available, make sure you hire a commercial moving company that focuses on not-to-exceed pricing and guaranteed timelines. The more planning a company puts into your move, the less likely you are to run into hidden or unexpected costs.

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.

 

 

Your Commercial Moving Questions, Answered

Posted on March 16, 2015 by - Commercial Relocation, Moving Preparation, Uncategorized

A successful commercial move is no easy feat. It takes months of planning and coordination to pull it off without a hitch. And even then, a few inevitable surprises can spring up and threaten the move’s progress. If you don’t know much about planning a commercial move, that’s okay. Let us save you some research time by answering a few commercial moving questions you were probably just about to Google.

Do I Need Commercial Moving Insurance?

The short answer? Yes. If you want to make absolutely sure that the value of your items is protected, or if you’re moving sensitive equipment, insurance is worth the investment. You can get commercial insurance through an independent insurance company, or through your moving company. To find out more about commercial moving insurance coverage and options, take a minute to read this article.

Should I Pack up My Office before the Move

This often depends on which commercial moving company you hire. This is an essential question to ask when you’re requesting quotes and interviewing companies. Most professional moving companies can come and pack your office for you, or they can provide you with packing materials if you’d like to pack up internally.

How Involved in the Move Will I Have to Be?

This is up to you. Some moving companies like you to oversee the move, in case the movers have any questions. Some will let you ride with the movers so you can feel confident that the move is going smoothly. With The Quality Group, a move manager that is completely dedicated to your move will be on site throughout the entire move to make sure everything goes according to plan. This move manager will meet with you several times before the move so he or she knows exactly what goes where, how and when.

 

At The Quality Group, we’re here to answer all of your commercial moving questions. Because our goal isn’t just to get you moved in quickly and efficiently – it’s also to keep you informed and comfortable throughout the moving process.

 

Work with The Quality Group

At The Quality Group, we’re your commercial relocation specialists. Founded in 1987 in New Orleans, LA, The Quality group serves the Gulf States with comprehensive commercial moving services from move planning to furniture installation. No other company puts in the time or preparation that we do to make your move stress and hassle-free.