Packing and unpacking is like working a massive jigsaw puzzle.  When your home office is included, you can't afford to lose any pieces.  To add to the complexity, usually you keep the office functioning right up until moving day, and need to get it up and running again immediately after the relocation.  To make moving your home office a success, try these tips:

1.  Make arrangements in advance. Send out notifications of the impending change of address.  Order new business cards, stationery and other print items that contain your address.  Verify that the new location has the required number of telephone and internet lines; if not, make appointments with providers to have them installed.

2.  Begin packing rarely used items early.  Some items we reference daily, others we keep on hand 'just in case'.  Keep your daily items at hand, but spend an hour each evening boxing up the lesser-used supplies.

3.  Back up your computer hard drive.  This is essential to the success of your move.  Anything can happen to equipment in transport.  A moving company can pay you for lost or damaged equipment, but they can't get lost data back again.

4. Last out, first in.  Your most basic business items, the ones you refer to daily, should be the last to go into a box and the first out at the new location.  Make sure the moving company knows this, and mark each box clearly so necessary supplies do not get lost in the shuffle.

Expect to have some downtime in your business during your move, but minimize the pain by keeping in perspective your long-term goals for the move.  Transitions -- and the upheaval they cause-- are life's way of bringing growth and renewal.

May your move take you upward and onward.

Marsha Cleaveland

Contact me for your real estate needs in Phoenix, Peoria and Glendale, Arizona.

www.HomeKey.org