Getting off the ground can take time for a small business that’s just starting up, but moving to a business improvement district can help. This kind of relocation in New York City helps businesses, customers, and the community as a whole. Watch this video and find out what business owners should know about NYC’s business improvement districts.

New York City’s business improvement districts aim to enhance the community by bringing all aspects of it together. Small businesses, residents of the area, and property owners all stand to benefit in their own ways. Businesses get more attention from prospective customers as well as the ability to network with other owners, property owners can fill vacant spaces with incoming businesses, and shoppers can buy products from local vendors who live in the community. Customers tend to create stronger bonds with business owners when they know they live locally, so the neighborhood thrives.

Even though you may have digital backups of your files, your business is still obligated to retain physical records for a certain period of time. The retention process in New York City is easier when you know how long you need to keep your records for, and you can use this information to create a retention policy for your staff to follow. The records you store need to be in acceptable condition so you can refer to them if you need to, which means you’ll have to find a way to keep them safe throughout the retention period. Read ahead for a look at the essential rules of record retention.

Know Your Minimums

You need to keep important documents around for a specific period of time, but that timeframe depends on the type of document. Certain documents, like Bylaws and Share Transactions are crucial to your business and should be retained for as long as possible. There are other important documents that come with legal record retention periods. Most documents that you’re legally required to retain should be kept for a minimum of seven years. This includes documentation of credits, income, and employee payroll. You should also hold onto leases and contracts for four or more years after the end of the term.

Create a Policy

Knowing how long you should keep your important documents allows you to set up an effective retention policy. Record retention might not be something you think about every day, so rather than looking up the minimums every time you need to know them, create a retention policy. The policy should outline how long each type of document needs to be retained, as well as when and how you can get rid of documents that have passed the retention period.

Store Records Safely

Part of record retention is keeping your documents safe. There’s no use in retaining documents if they’re destroyed when you pull them up, so consider hiring a professional record retention service for assistance. The pros will keep your documents safe, and they’ll make sure they don’t end up in the wrong hands.

If you’ve outgrown your office space, then moving can dramatically improve the way you do business. When a corporate move is on the horizon, you can rely on UMC Moving in NYC. Our skilled team of moving professionals has been managing corporate relocations for more than 30 years, and we remain committed to helping businesses of all sizes execute flawless, stress-free moves.

When you choose UMC, you’ll work with a senior management team member, who will walk you through every step of the moving process. We will survey your office and inventory and create a moving timeline for your consideration. Once we begin working on your move, we’ll make suggestions along the way to cut your costs and limit downtime for your business. Our extensive moving resources mean that we have the equipment that is necessary to relocate your office efficiently and safely. Thanks to our state-of-the-art communication, we can respond to all of your queries immediately, so you can continue to focus on what you do best—running your business.

During your corporate relocation in NYC , having a project team that is focused on ensuring that your move goes smoothly is extremely important. Your project team can work directly with your moving company to minimize your company’s downtime and prevent avoidable delays.

Watch this video for some advice on selecting your corporate relocation project team. Your team members should have a proven track record of overseeing large projects with impeccable attention to detail and accountability. Once your team is in place, determine how often you will meet with them to discuss things like your moving calendar, packing, and transferring things like phone lines, internet connections, and utilities.

As businesses grow and change, they often find themselves sitting in offices that no longer work for them. An office that is a bad fit can compromise productivity and hamper employee satisfaction, but the idea of a corporate move can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure that your corporate move in NYC goes smoothly and doesn’t disrupt your business. These tips will help you pull off your corporate move without causing chaos at your business.

Work with a Corporate Relocation Company

Rather than adding the task of planning your move to your plate, turn the job over to an experienced team of corporate relocation movers. By working with a company that specializes in corporate relocation, you’ll get the benefit of their experience as well as a dedicated team of people working to facilitate a smooth moving experience for your business. With your movers focusing on the relocation, you can focus on continuing to run your business.

Organize a Team in Your Office

For efficient communication and planning, organize a project management team in your office to take the lead on moving-related tasks. This team can work closely with your corporate movers on creating a timeline for your relocation and executing the things that need to be done to prepare. If you have a large office, it can helpful to have someone from each department of your business on the relocation team, so that they can then take responsibility for ensuring that move-related work is completed within their own departments.

Plan for Customer Support on Moving Day

Determine how you will meet the needs of your customers on your moving day. This may involve leaving internet and phone service active at both locations for a period of time or allowing employees to work from home. It may also be helpful to let regular customers know when you will be moving so you can try to meet their needs before moving day. Keep in mind that employees should stay home on moving day, aside from a small number of managers. Asking employees to help while moving opens you up to insurance issues, and they can make it more difficult for the movers to do their job.

Keeping records is an essential part of doing business, but it can also be confusing and even burdensome to small businesses, who are already trying to juggle demanding workloads. Although you can’t skip your records keeping responsibilities as a business owner, you can find effective ways to manage them. Here is what you need to know about business record retention in NYC for your small company.

Retain the Source Documents

Ideally, the records you keep should be the original, source documents, rather than copies. For financial records, this means keeping canceled checks, cash register tapes, credit card slips, and financial statements from your bank. Corporate documents, such as meeting minutes, property mortgages and leases, charters, licenses, and copyrights, should also be original documents. If you need to produce this information for tax purposes or a legal case, having the originals can be very important.

Know How Long to Keep Records

Some documents, such as those that are related to establishing your business, should be kept indefinitely. Records retention for tax purposes is different. Generally, you should hold on to tax records for as long as the IRS could request them. Employee records should be kept for four years. Keep records of taxes owed for at least three years. The IRS has different rules for a variety of different business documents, which can be found on their website . Your business accountant can also help you determine how long record retention is necessary for financial documents.

Use Off-Site Storage

Not only does retaining records off-site make sense from a space perspective, but it is also safer and more secure. An off-site records retention facility will provide your important documents with greater security from fire, flood, theft, humidity, and other issues. Your records will also stay organized so that they are easy to access when you need them, and tracking software will let you know when the records were accessed and who accessed them, adding an extra layer of security.

Your business needs to hold onto certain kinds of records in their physical forms. Business record retention in New York City is partially governed by federal law, so there’s certain patient and client information that your company might be legally required to retain. This might be tricky if you don’t have a lot of space to work with, and a cluttered office could also make it difficult to keep your documents safe. The record retention professionals can help you store your physical records, and they can help you destroy them when you’re done as well. Read on as we look at why you should use professional record retention and storage services.

Save Office Space

The proportion of paperwork your company generates to the size of your office space might not be favorable, which means you won’t have the physical capacity to store your records and important documents. You also don’t want to be tripping over boxes of files while you’re trying to conduct your daily business. You can save space in your office by working with professional record retention and storage services. The professionals can help you uphold your retention policy without taking up too much of your valuable office space.

Keep Your Documents Safe

Saving your important documents is a useless practice if you don’t keep them in decent condition. Physical documents are susceptible to threats that their digital copies are not, and these hazards are important to consider. Paper products can become damaged when they’re stored in the wrong conditions. Business record retention and storage professionals will be able to keep your records in perfect shape, so they’ll be ready and waiting for you when you need them.

Destroy Your Archive

Most records only need to be kept for a certain amount of time. Unless the documents are still useful to you or your clients after this period expires, you can destroy them. This frees up more space and makes sure that sensitive information doesn’t get picked up by the wrong people. Professional business record retention and storage companies can help you dispose of your records once you no longer need them.

Corporate relocation in New York City is exciting when it means moving to a bigger office and expanding your business. You might not be thinking about the furniture that you don’t need and how to dispose of it, but your lease might claim that you are responsible for getting everything out of the space at the end of your term. If much of your furniture won’t be coming to your new location, ask UMC Moving about our liquidation services.

You’ll need a company that specializes in corporate location in order to safely and efficiently relocate your business. When you choose a moving company to help you, choose one that offers office furniture liquidation services, like UMC Moving. Most leases require that the space is left in a “broom swept” condition when you move out, and we can help you satisfy this condition. Once we’ve moved everything you need from your original office to your new one, we’ll go back and see what’s left to be dealt with. We can get rid of your cubicles, file cabinets, and other office furniture so you don’t get stuck with premium charges from your landlord.

Offices have a lot of stuff to move, and professional movers need to know how to get the job done without injuring themselves. Even the most fit people can suffer injuries if they don’t follow the right techniques, and this can slow down the move in addition to sidelining an employee. Watch this video on rules to help your moving team avoid lifting injuries when preparing for relocation in New York City.

No matter how strong you are, you should use the right methods when lifting heavy objects. Always keep your back straight and use your knees and hips to lower yourself, rather than bending over the load with your back. Stay close to the object and use a wide stance for leverage. If an object appears to be heavier than 40 pounds, find a partner to help you move it, even if you think you can handle it yourself.

If you’re moving your office to a new building , you might be celebrating a recent success that has allowed your business to take the next step forward. As exciting as this is, you need to plan your move in New York City carefully to make sure everything works out. First, you’ll need to find a viable place to move to. Then, you can look for a moving company in your area that specifically deals with corporate relocation. Finally, either you or your moving company will go back and clean up the old space. Feast your eyes on this step-by-step guide to organizing an office move.

Look for a New Space

Once you have decided that moving to a new space is the right idea for your business, start looking at what’s available. It’s helpful to get an idea of what other places will cost, how advantageous the space will be, and the logistics of the move, even if you’re not quite ready to pull the trigger yet. No matter how close to being ready you are, you will need a landing spot before you can set the plan in motion.

Hire a Moving Company

You may have worked with moving companies if you’ve moved to a different home before. Corporate location is similar, but there will be more furniture, appliances, and files to transport. That’s why you should work with a corporate relocation specialist rather than a mover who dabbles in all forms of moving. Make sure your moving services actually specialize in corporate moving, as these are the experts who have years of experience in exactly the service you need.

Clean Up Your Old Office

Depending on what kind of moving services you end up using, you might be able to have the professionals go back to the old office and clean up. Your lease may require you to leave the old space in “broom swept” condition, meaning that none of your furniture is left behind. You or your moving company can go back and get rid of any file cabinets, chairs, and desks that you no longer need.