Monday 30 September 2013

Removing Anxiety from Your Office Move

Going through an office relocation can be a stressful experience, so you will want to prepare as much as possible in order to make the move run smoothly. Creating a clear plan as to how the moving day, or few days, will work on a practical level, and researching as much as possible about what needs attending to before the move is the best way to decrease stress and save valuable working hours.

You should try:
  • Researching and inquiring about storage and removal companies if your budget will allow it. This will make your life a lot easier as they will take care of all the details and organization involved.
  • Make a list of office equipment that will be required at the new premises and start sorting through what doesn't need to go with you and whether it is to be sold, given away or thrown out.
  • Put some items (especially furniture) in short term self storage if you have to leave the old premises before the new ones are ready.
  • Give yourself and staff members plenty of time to prepare and carry out the move. If you rush then it can be harder to make a smooth transition to a new office.
  • Make sure all the equipment and furniture will fit in your new office by making a floor plan and measuring all of your current and any new furniture you intend to buy.
  • Ensure all the technical aspects are organized beforehand so they can be up and running from day 1. This includes printers and photocopiers as well as internet connection and telephone lines.
  • Moving is similar to a new start, it means improvements can be made and upgrades instigated. Use this opportunity to get a better and faster internet provider if need be, or the latest PC models for the office.
  • If you really don’t want any time wasted during the working week then consider moving over a weekend when most offices are closed and official business often gets put on hold.
Delegate a section of the office to each member of staff including responsibility for their own working space and desk. With the whole office delegated to someone the work load is shared and it should be much easier to pack up and move. If this doesn’t appeal to you then put together a moving committee, hand over their normal daily tasks to someone else, and give them responsibility for the move. They would have to be good organisers and very efficient individuals - have a preliminary meeting beforehand to run through the issues that need to be addressed and then a few progress reports before the moving day to check everyone is on track.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Moving Your Bedroom Items


When you are thinking of moving houses, you try to plan your way through from the time you knew about it and when you have secured the new place to move to. Then you try plan accordingly by tackling the bigger items first – you find some self storage facility near your new place to store your items, you book this new place giving an estimate of when you start and for how you would require the self storage facility. After which, you now stand in front of your major rooms to be cleaned, sorted and the items to be packed away. You seem not to be able to put a finger to which one you would like to start with, but decided you have really have to do it. The first stop is your ‘bedroom’.

The bedroom, apart from your kitchen, can be one of the trickiest rooms in your home to sort through, clean up and pack when you are moving house. You see in every corner of the room items that you have grown familiar with and not have the heart to throw these away, memorabilia that you are hoping to pass on to your children or the younger generation in your family, and some items that you just forgot to sort and clear out, but then you foresee that you have some use for these. But this is just a single room. What if you are part of a family with at least 4 members?

If you are in a family this means multiple rooms with clothing, personal belongings, toys and furniture. And you just can’t seem to know where to start. Take a deep breath and just close your eyes to calm yourself. Once you have done so, pick a box and label it ‘used in the past 6 months’, ‘not used at all’, and ‘will foresee using in the next month’. You sort your things in the way whether you have used these or not in the past 6 months. Chances are, those that you have used in the past 6 months, you will still use it but those that you have not touched in the past 6 months, you won’t even bother picking these up in the next month. Now, the tricky part is ‘foresee to use in the next month’. This will involve a bit of thinking and foresight, but once you got the hang of it (and still have lesser items in this box), then you are on the right track of clearing up your bedroom with unnecessary items. By clearing up, you will be able to save a lot of space in the self storage facility or in the usage of mobile storage later on.

In a gist, it is always an important step to first sort through clothing and personal items in each bedroom and decide what you can take with you, what can be given or thrown away and what can be placed in storage.

Once you are done with the items not stored in the clothing cabinets, then you can start sorting through the clothes in the same manner. You just have to make sure these are place and packed in marked boxes so they can be placed in the right room in your new home. Mark the boxes and number them accordingly, while you note these down on a notebook. This is just to keep track of the number of moving boxes you have when you move form the house to the storage facility near Sydney and to the new home.

It is also important to keep clothing boxes nice and sealed so they don't get dirty during the move. Ask the movers to keep them away from heaving boxes so that these won’t get crumpled during the move and while in self storage. Also put shoes in separate containers - you don't want your clothing to smell like feet!

Next clear out the linen and other bedding and pack any personal items in the room away so you are only left with the furniture. Make sure that the boxes containing the linen, which are going to get heavy, will not be placed on top of fragile items. You need to note or color code the boxes if these contain fragile items or not. It will help the movers and make it easier for them to organize among themselves, as well. Once done, your pieces of furniture can be wrapped properly by bubble wrap. Then, you can dismantle your bed so it is easier to move and start taking out any other pieces of furniture which should now be empty. Ensure that you label the bed parts and keep them together in one place. You do not want to arrive at the new home and not able to find the bed parts easily. It is hard to sleep on the floor for one night!

Moving the contents of the bedroom can be tricky, similar to the kitchen. But once you get the hang of it, it will be a breeze and you can repeat the same steps easily in any part of the room. It will just be easy as 1-2-3!

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Keeping Excess Inventory in your Business

Planning your inventory sometimes can be very tricky. As an entrepreneur, you base your inventory levels on past sales, inventory movements and projected demand. However, there are so many factors that also affect what is at present – changing tastes, the environment of the business, and other factors that most of the time are out of your control. No matter how you plan it well, it is either you end up with less supply of your products or just too much of these on hand. Having fewer items on hand tends to make your customers unhappy and very impatient, and you are in the danger of losing them. Most of the time, you are inclined to over-order or over stock and you end up with a lot of excesses. But having excess inventory could be answered right away, especially if the kind of products you carry does not have any expiration or non-perishable. All you have to do is to find a temporary self storage in Sydney near your business and you could store these until demand picks up. This is good for seasonal non-perishable items, which you could keep for a period of time.

While many businesses try to clear out excess inventory through sales and other promotions, some items can be kept until the market picks up. This is indeed true if the items you carry are non-perishable like clothing, accessories, or even pieces of furniture. We see a lot of similar businesses that have clearance sales in order to clear out the excesses. If you are in the same business, the first thing that you would usually think is to look at the storage space you have in your warehouse. But while storage space in your shop or warehouse may be incredibly tight, you can immediately consider extending it for a short period of time by simply engaging a self storage facility near you. It is not that expensive to simply hire more storage as a short-term or medium-term solution, given that the self storage facility is near you, affordable and secured. If you are able to strike a deal with the self storage owner that you would need his business’ services every other time so that it can lower the costs considerably, then it is even better. Apart from that, you can pre-pay some months to make the overall cost even lower. Contrary to popular belief, hiring a self storage facility can be advantageous and inexpensive.

Extending your warehouse space thru hiring a self storage facility is great for seasonal products, including clothes that may be out of fashion for three or four months but can be sold again after. It is better to keep the stock safely stored and be brought back into your store at the right time or season. This is not only true to clothing but also to other non-perishable products that have style that are classic and cannot go out of season for a long time. In other words, higher probability of coming back to the sales rack in no time!

With the changing demands of customers and more and more newer and better business sprouting everywhere to meet these demands, it is always better to be at a competitive edge. Customers nowadays have a wide array of choices of products in front of them and if they are unsatisfied with one, they can easily switch. Given this, it is not wise to keep the customer waiting and that it is better to have too much stock than to have too little. Out of stock items can frustrate customers and you may jeopardise the chances that they will shop with you again. Having extra storage space also allows you to snap up bulk discounts without the fear of having nowhere to put everything. Thus, it is best to manage your stocks well and if there is a high likely chance that you will end up having excess inventory, it is just good to have a back up plan of putting it at a nearby self storage facility. It may cost a little bit more, but in the long run, you keep your customers happy and satisfied.