Moving is no easy task, and it’s
even harder when you have to
continue working during the process.
That’s the first thing Chris Suchan
says he would do differently next time
he has to relocate his business — set
aside time to prepare the new location
and organize the move.
“We didn’t stop working, and that
was a big problem,” says Suchan, president of Legacy Innovation & Design
Inc., a residential design and construction company. “The place we moved
into, we basically had to build our
office. We should have just set aside a
week or two with no work, just
knocked it out and got it done, but we
had to keep going. We had stuff scheduled and couldn’t stop. That was the
biggest headache we had.”
Because the new location wasn’t
completely ready, Suchan didn’t have
an office to work in, which meant he
had to use his own house to do paperwork and run daily operations.
“It would have been better to have
this built, move our office in one day
and be done,” he says. “Instead, I have
a fax machine and phone out here, and
the rest of the office is in my house
until this is built. It would have made
more sense, but you can only do what
you can do at the time. I had a big box
in my truck with all the paperwork we
had to have every day, and I just stayed
in touch with everyone, all of our customers and vendors, and made sure
they knew where stuff went.”
Suchan’s company has two components — one does countertops, and
one does remodeling and custom cabinets. He moved the countertop business overnight and kept it going,
which benefited the business but made
life somewhat difficult.
“The countertops are our bread and
butter,” he says. “The fact that none of
our customers were without what they
ordered was good. While we should
have shut down, it was probably better
but it was just harder on us. We had
everything out on time and kept
income coming in.”
The company moved from a 2,000-square-foot space in Berea to a 5,000-square-foot spot in Bedford Heights. To find that
location, Suchan said he and his partner looked at about 10 locations and
decided on Bedford Heights because
of its proximity to Interstate 480 and
Interstate 271, as well as the number
of other shops in the area.
“We are more centrally located now
to get us to the east and west side easier from the shop,” he says. “There are
other shops around here, too, so when
people get backed up, they look for
different shops to do their work. We
are closer to that, so maybe we can get
in on some of that.”
Although the location cost more than
others they looked at, Suchan says it’s
worth the extra money to better serve
his business.
“It wasn’t enough to say no,” he says.
“It still fit in to what we could afford,
so it made sense.”
HOW TO REACH: Legacy Innovation & Design Inc., (216) 898-1238 or www.legacy-innovation.com
Alleviate moving pains
Moving your business presents a lot
of headaches, but www.123movers.com
offers some tips to alleviate the pain.
Prepare for the move. To save time,
make sure you are familiar with your
new location and offices. Take measurements of the new rooms to make sure
your old or new desks, chairs, filing cabinets, etc., fit inside your new space.
To make sure that everyone knows his
or her new dimensions, create a floor
plan before the move. This plan should
include, by floor, location of employees,
furniture, plants and whatever else you
are bringing to your new location. Make
sure that every employee receives a
copy of this plan, and post it in the building on moving day.
Correspond with everyone. Make
sure that everyone — employees, landlords, movers, renters, etc. — is aware
of every detail. They need to know the
exact moving plan before the actual
move. The fewer questions on moving
day, the better.
To help the movers, use colored
labels. All of the furniture that belongs
on one floor can be labeled a certain
color. Label colors and numbers for
each employee, and place labels in a
spot that is easily visible to the movers.
Get rid of garbage. Make sure that
you throw away as much garbage as
possible before the actual moving day. It
is possible to get permission from the
city to have industrial-size trash containers placed in front of the building if you
have an excess amount of garbage to
throw away.
SOURCE: www.123movers.com
