4 Cost Factors SMMEs Must Consider Before Hiring Office Furniture Removal Companies

Furniture removal companies specialise in moving certain types of furniture. It therefore makes sense that the removal company you choose to move your office furniture should specialise in this field.

Just read a frightening article where a business paid up to 250K to move their office – and it was only up a floor in the same building. Today’s SMEs face many new challenges than a decade ago. Then along comes COVID-19 in 2020, destroying businesses in South Africa.  98% of South African businesses are SMEs, and in just the first quarter of 2020, 40% of small business were already reducing capacity and retrenching. Six months later, 90% of SMMEs were in crisis, either laying off employees or closing shop.

Problems Facing SMMEs

SMMEs play an essential role in our economy but consumer spending, lockdown laws, rising petrol and food costs, and meeting salary demands decreases the chances of survival. It is hard building a business from the ground up and then watching it fall to the ground in a matter of months. That is happening with many small and large SMMEs throughout South Africa. For instance, a busy lawnmower sales and repair shop in Johannesburg suddenly lost its value over a fort-overnight. Retail, management, admin and support, real estate, and many other businesses throughout SA are in the same boat.

Digital transformation is disrupting existing business operating models, which is why adapting is now a matter of survival rather than choice. For years, economists have been telling SMMEs to get online. COVID-19 arrived, and in the first quarter of 2020, online sales grew by around 40%. Surviving businesses are those that listened and went digital. Many others simplified by retrenching employees, selling off assets, going remote, or moving to smaller office spaces.

Businesses Are Down-scaling

Renting a fancy office space in a Big Tech high-rise is now a tremendous expense for many businesses. As South Africa’s economy sinks to its lowest since the Great Depression, retailers, and service providers – regardless of size, location, or financial support, move towards the suburbs. Aside from paying cheaper rentals in the suburbs without being tied to fixed city building leases, taking up smaller offices in the suburbs not only benefits employees, suppliers, and customers but is also better for a company’s bottom line. As a result, moving office has led to a demand for furniture removal companies and cost enquiries.

If you’re one of the few surviving South African SMMEs, you know that the only way you will survive is to downscale and reduce your monthly overheads, but that means forking big money on moving expenses. Moving heavy-duty office furnishings like tables, chairs, technology, servers, and more is a lot more complex than moving kitchenware and bathroom, bedroom and living room furnishings. You’re dealing with priceless contemporary art, fragile furnishings, and technology – and that’s why you pay more. However, that cost will triple if you hire amateurs.

Furniture removal companies and why you should hire the professionals

At Elliott, we have witnessed many nightmare stories of how a cash-strapped business, desperate to move within a tight timeline, lost everything in a pre-mediated hijacking. Sure, they caught the guys from the cheap fly-by-night moving company they hired. They even retrieved most of the stolen valuables, but it took weeks and in the interim, the business took a huge knock and had no choice but to shut its doors and go into liquidation. South Africa is red zones for criminals, and this is the type of scenario to expect when you hire cheap office movers with zero experience. So, is it worth putting your investment in the hands of strangers, just because their furniture removal cost was dead-cheap?

Moving home is simpler because not every second or minute costs you money. However, in business, time is currency and delays, theft, or damage can be the difference between staying afloat and closing shop. But moving office is one of the most stressful events for any entrepreneur, as not only are there concerns about downtime, but what happens if valuables arrive damaged or do not arrive at all? You won’t have to worry about not meeting deadlines, hijacking or robbery when working with professionals.

Moving office is not a quick, cheap furniture removal job. It is a complex project that can add up in cost. When moving to a new office space, there are several costs that you need to consider. Besides your office rental and deposit, building and reception area signage, and office security systems and more, the following factors will affect your overall office furniture removal cost.

Volume and Vehicle Rental:

You are paying for the cost of labour, vehicle rental, time, and volume of furnishings, which the removal company will measure in cubic meters. In addition, the overall cost also depends on the distance of travel. As a result, moving cross-country relocations will cost far more than relocating to another neighbourhood.

Removal Service:

Although the cost of furniture removal varies from one company to the next, most removal companies provide a full-package that includes the entire move – from pickup to delivery. That includes professionally packing your furnishings, like assembling, boxing, loading, delivery, and unloading to dissembling furnishings. You pay for the service you get. That means if you want a company to just load and drop-off, you pay for that cost. Alike, if you want a removal company to provide the whole removal package, while you sit back and relax, you pay for that cost too.

Packing Materials and Equipment:

Moving office furniture is a lot different from moving household furniture. You are moving heavy glass, metal and wooden tables, cubicles, computers, servers, desks, cabinets, and other bulky valuables requiring assembling and dissembling. Often, moving such furnishings demand unique equipment to lift without damaging items. As a result, the cost of moving will include boxes, packing tape, and equipment and tools.

Additional Services and Insurance: 

Professional movers have more than one job. Not only must they get your valuables from A to B without delays or damage, but they must assemble and install your furnishings at your new premises. You will need an engineer and IT and security professionals. Professional moving companies work closely with sub-contractors. That means once dissembling your technology and furnishings, they send in sub-contractors to install lights, equipment, wiring, servers, and computers. Further, you also get insurance, which is another expense that will add in cost – regardless of size, location, or financial support, but worth every cent.

Get a Transparent Quote with Zero Hidden Costs

The ongoing COVID-19 impact tests business owners operationally, financially, and mentally. As a result, this is not a time to let one’s guard down. It is time to think smart. Unlike moving residential furnishings, moving an office is a full-on project that requires proper planning, coordination, and execution to meet disruption deadlines. However, office furniture removal companies are a dime a dozen and hiring the first company you find in the classifieds will cost you. Do your due diligence and get a transparent cost estimate – regardless of size, location, or financial support, laying out every expense from labour to coordination to execution with zero hidden costs.

How Elliott Mobility Can Save You Money and Your Sanity

Although South Africa seems like it’s slowly heading out of lockdown, it is essential to remember that we are only entering autumn, which means winter is on its way. So, can we expect another lockdown like the UK, Europe, and the USA over their recent winter months, or will business stay open? The future is uncertain, but what we know is that we move hundreds of offices each month throughout Johannesburg and South Africa without a hitch.

At Elliott, we are leaders in local and international relocations. Besides our extensive, countrywide network, we bring experience and capability to the business sector and view each move as a project rather than a job – from pickup to delivery. To get a free furniture removal quote, chat with one of our project managers.

Moving office? See our business relocation page for more information.