- Do you need a virtual business address?
- Should you invest in a professional address?
- What’s the best business address for your virtual business?
Q: What’s the best address for my business? What is a virtual business address?
A: The best address for your business is likely a Virtual Office. A Virtual Office from Alliance provides you with a well-known virtual business address and access to several other amenities. A virtual business address is simply an address that may not be a traditional office but serves as your company’s address and provides other services.
Keeping up with the changes in the labor market is a full-time job in and of itself.
In recent years, thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting social perceptions, the labor market has shifted considerably. Authoritarian management styles have been replaced by more employee-centric, collaborative styles of management, and nontraditional workstyles have risen in public favor.
The recent popularization of remote and hybrid workstyles is one of the most obvious shifts. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 87% of Americans enjoy flexible work when the opportunity is offered.
Due in part to rising corporate rent prices and in part to employees feeling entitled to remote work, virtual business ownership is more popular and easier to secure than ever before.
Thanks to tools like Virtual Offices and other virtual business address options, entrepreneurs are in a unique position to offer flexible working arrangements even easier than their larger, more corporate counterparts.
A virtual business address may be something as detrimental as an address with no basis in reality that gives potential consumers unnerving information, or it could be a well-known and professional address that inspires confidence in potential investors, clients, and consumers – the choice is yours.
In this article, we’ll explore whether you need a virtual business address, whether you should invest in a professional address, what the best business address is for your virtual business, and finally, how to secure a virtual business address from Alliance.
So, if you’ve been searching for things like “virtual business address near me” or “virtual business address and phone” – you’re in the right place.
Keep reading for more information about securing a virtual business address for LLC!
- Do you need a virtual business address?
- Should you invest in a professional address?
- What’s the best business address for your virtual business?
- Securing a virtual business address through Alliance
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Do you need a virtual business address?
Before you know whether you need a virtual business address or not, you need to understand what a virtual business address is and the difference in quality of some of these addresses.
Read more: Business Address Rentals: What Are Your Options?
For the sake of this article, virtual business address and Virtual Office will be used somewhat interchangeably, but both offices have slight differences.
For example, a Virtual Office is a physical office space that is managed by a third party but available for use by various companies that have agreements in place with the Virtual Office Center. These kinds of offices typically come with access to physical space as well.
A virtual business address, however, is a physical office space that companies can use as an official business address but may or may not be managed by a third party. Access to space in a virtual business address is subject to the provider.
Some PO boxes and other mailboxes offer themselves as virtual mailboxes, but most of these platforms won’t allow you to use the address as a virtual business address for an LLC, which almost entirely defeats the purpose.
The variety of quality you may find in these virtual addresses depends mainly on the provider associated with the space. A good bare-minimum metric to abide by is whether or not the provider offers access to physical space.
There’s no real point in paying for a glorified mailbox that won’t even allow you to form an LLC, especially when the price differences between these services are almost always marginal.
So, the question remains: do you need a virtual business address?
The short answer is yes. By law, any business must register with a physical address within the state in which it operates.
This physical address clause is why most PO boxes and other wholly virtual services aren’t adequate for your LLC formation.
Even if your business is entirely online, you’ll need to register for tax purposes and to keep yourself safe.
You can’t register as a “virtual business.” You must have an address to receive mail from the government.
Many first-time entrepreneurs take this to understand that they can use their home as their business address, but this is a terrible idea.
Read more: Home Address as a Business Address: Is It a Good Idea?
Outside of the largely logistic reasons you should utilize a virtual business address, keeping your information safe and secure is something that isn’t as often discussed.
When you register for an LLC, the information you use on the application becomes public knowledge. Any address you use for your LLC is almost immediately accessible to anyone motivated to look for it.
For individuals who use their home as their business address, this usually spells trouble.
Scammers, bad actors, and pesky solicitors now have unfettered access to your address. Almost immediately, you’ll be inundated with spam mail, junk, and other potential scams.
When you utilize a virtual business address, you may have to put your address on the rental agreement for the Virtual Office itself, but that will prevent these bad actors from having access to your data.
Not to mention, if you utilize a service like Alliance Virtual Offices, you can get all your mail forwarded to your home. This allows you to filter unnecessary mail out of what you receive while keeping your address private.
In addition to these generalized concerns, there are several other reasons you should avoid using your home address for any online business ventures.
Should you invest in a professional address?
Determining whether or not to invest in a professional address for your online business is easy. All you must ask yourself is: “Am I registering for an LLC?” If the answer is yes, you should utilize a virtual business address.
A virtual mailing address allows you to keep your information safe and, with the right provider, can ensure that you get your mail anywhere in the world, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.
Read more: Virtual Mailing Address for Your Business
A Virtual Office from Alliance is incredibly cost-effective and will save you a substantial amount of both capital and headaches as it effortlessly scales with your business.
If you’re still on the fence about using your home address for your online business, don’t worry.
We have three more reasons why you shouldn’t ever make your home address public, especially if you’re running a business.
- Privacy
- Security
- Convenience
Privacy
When you use your home address for an online store, your personal information becomes available to the store, its employees, and any third-party vendors involved in the shipping and delivery process.
This can increase the risk of identity theft, fraud, and unwanted solicitation and marketing materials.
This is worth bringing up because many business owners are under the impression that bad actors have to specifically search for their information after it’s been added to the public domain.
Unfortunately, with the proliferation of online stores and other digital tools and services, this is no longer the case.
Remember, just because you’re trusting an individual to serve as your business’s vendor does not mean you should trust that individual with complete access to your personal information.
Ultimately, the more you can keep private, the better. When you use a virtual business address, you’re able to circumvent this disclosure and keep your personal information as secure as possible without operating an anonymous LLC.
Something worth noting is that privacy is one of the most difficult things to reattain once you’ve lost it. Once your information has been added to the public domain, there’s no going back unless you take succinct, actionable steps to disappear.
The best advice for new entrepreneurs and business owners is to retain any semblance of privacy you may have because once it’s gone, it’s a struggle to regain it.
Security
Using your home address for an online store can also make you vulnerable to physical threats such as burglary, theft, or stalking. Especially as your store succeeds, these threats become far more tangible.
When you provide your address to an online store, you are essentially making your home a public location that anyone can access through the internet.
This means that, yes, several individuals will be exposed to your private information through no additional steps of their own, but that any individual who feels inclined to find out where you live can now do so.
This can put you and your family at risk, particularly if you are a high-profile individual or live in an area with high crime rates.
Even if this isn’t the case, any entrepreneur’s goal should always include total domination of the industry they’re entering. If you’ve set out to accomplish this, you should never dream of giving your future detractors ammunition or information that can be used against you.
Convenience
Finally, using your home address for an online store can be inconvenient if you frequently travel or move.
It can be time-consuming and frustrating if you must update your shipping address each time you move, particularly if you order several items online.
Using a professional address you control can make it easier to manage your online orders and ensure your packages are delivered to a secure location.
Realistically, the more convenient it is for you to receive mail and packages, the more convenience you can deliver to your customers.
The process of changing your business address is not as simple as sending an email and allowing the information to populate. You have to consider Google Business listings, other local listings, your LLC itself, and any other relevant entities that may be using your business address.
By utilizing a Virtual Office early, you can eliminate these worries by giving your business a concrete address that can grow with your company rather than against it.
Using your home address is risky and frankly isn’t worth it if you’re a serious business owner.
You should view your address as an investment in your business. Sure, you may save a few dollars by using your home as your business address in the short term, but the capital, headache, and other effort you’ll have to expend down the line makes this a terrible business decision.
Part of being successful as an entrepreneur is understanding when a short-term expense will equate to long-term savings and when short-term savings will be a detriment to your long-term operations.
Finding a virtual business address for free may sound like a great idea at the moment, but when it’s setting your business up for constant incoming junk mail, logistic frustrations, and difficulties in scaling, it’s probably not your best option.
What’s the best business address for your virtual business?
Unsurprisingly, a Virtual Office is the best address for online businesses.
Since you aren’t able to signify “virtual business” when you secure an LLC, regardless of whether you operate entirely online or not, a Virtual Office is the most cost-effective way to secure an address that will not only scale with your business but is ready to serve as your business address for as long as necessary while retaining your privacy.
Read more: How to Start a Virtual Company
Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits that Alliance’s Virtual Offices offer. If you’re searching for a virtual business address and phone number, you can’t find a better option.
Remember, the address for your online business should be seen as an investment rather than an expense. If you’re willing to spend money and time securing a high-quality office, that investment will pay off over time.
Below, we’ve put together some of the different qualities that Alliance’s Virtual Offices offer to entrepreneurs in need of a virtual business address.
- Professionalism
- Private
- Flexible
- Cost-effective
- Access to physical space
- Mail forwarding
Professionalism
A Virtual Office from Alliance provides a professional address that can help establish your online store as a legitimate business. In a market so saturated with competition, anything you can do to naturally increase your business’s legitimacy should be done.
This can be particularly important if you are just starting out or if you operate your store from your home. Using a Virtual Office address can give customers the impression that you have a physical office or storefront, increasing their confidence in your business.
Professionalism is an aspect that countless other providers struggle with.
Think about it this way: if you’re searching for a hyper-specific financial services business and you’re only able to find two options, both of which have existed for the same amount of time, have the same number of employees, and the same caliber of management, but the only difference between these two businesses is that one shares an address with an office supply store in Kansas, and the other is located in the prime of Manhattan’s financial district, which one will you choose?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is the business that appears the most professional. Through Alliance, you can give your LLC a professional, well-known location that inspires confidence in potential clients, investors, and consumers alike.
As your business appears more professional, other entities will begin adding onto this legitimacy until suddenly you have a professionally-feared business run entirely from the comfort of your living room.
Private
Using a Virtual Office address from Alliance for your online store can help protect your privacy.
Virtual Office providers like Alliance offer mail forwarding services, which means that your mail will be sent to a different address from your home initially.
This can help prevent unwanted solicitation or marketing materials from being sent to your home and reduce the risk of identity theft or fraud.
If you’re considering utilizing a virtual office provider that does not offer robust mail forwarding, find a different provider.
Flexible
Virtual Office addresses can be used from anywhere in the world, which can be beneficial if you run an online store that caters to a global audience.
Using a Virtual Office address can also be more convenient if you frequently move or travel, as you can keep the same address regardless of location.
With Alliance, you can have your mail delivered anywhere. This means that regardless of where you’re traveling or what you’re doing, you can ensure that you’re receiving your mail in a timely fashion.
In addition to the flexibility of receiving your mail, Alliance’s Virtual Offices are incredibly flexible concerning the way you can design your plan.
At Alliance, we focus on entrepreneurs paying only for what they use. This means that if you don’t need access to physical space or are comfortable picking up your mail, you don’t pay for the amenities associated with these features.
Cost-effective
Using a Virtual Office for your virtual business address can be a cost-effective solution for small online businesses, as it can provide many benefits of a physical office address without the high overhead costs.
A traditional office is unmanageably expensive.
First, you have to determine a location that will attract customers, typically more expensive than other, less attractive properties. Then, you’re responsible for paying a security deposit, the first and last month’s rent, monthly rent, monthly utilities, and other extraneous monthly upkeep.
As you can imagine, this gets incredibly expensive incredibly quickly.
With a Virtual Office, these costs largely do not exist.
Virtual Office providers like Alliance offer a range of services you can utilize as necessary, so you’re never paying for more than you need.
Access to physical space
Access to physical space is a huge benefit for virtual business owners, even if that access isn’t always utilized.
Because Alliance offers easily reservable meeting rooms and coworking space, you never have to feel obligated to utilize the shared spaces. However, doing so is a great way to break the monotony of a routine comprised solely of working from home.
Alliance’s physical space allows entrepreneurs to network with like-minded individuals and provides a great outlet to refresh, recharge, and reapproach their work with renewed vigor.
Not to mention, if you have to host meetings, virtual or otherwise, there’s no better place to do so than one of Alliance’s Virtual Offices.
Mail forwarding
As previously mentioned, mail forwarding is a huge benefit offered by legitimate Virtual Office providers.
At Alliance, we have a 4-tiered mail forwarding system designed for businesses in various growth stages.
For businesses dealing with little to no incoming mail, our monthly ( $10 per month ) and bi-weekly ( $20 per month ) options offer a great way to stay up-to-date.
For businesses dealing with larger amounts of incoming business mail, we offer weekly ( $30 per month ) and daily ( $70 per month ) options that prevent you from missing anything important.
Securing a virtual business address through Alliance
Your virtual business needs an address for legal reasons.
While it might seem like it doesn’t matter, it does. Investing in your address is an important part of setting up your online store for success.
Remember, you must consider your virtual business address as an investment rather than an expense. The more seriously you can take your search for a reasonable and professional business address, the better prepared you are for long-term success.
Further reading
- Virtual Mailing Address for Your Business
- Business Address Rentals: What Are Your Options?
- Home Address as a Business Address: Is It a Good Idea?
- How to Start a Virtual Company
Alliance Virtual Offices offers Virtual Offices for established entrepreneurs and new business owners searching for a virtual business address.
Our Virtual Offices provide access to physical space, professional business addresses, unlimited flexibility, and a cost-effective alternative to traditional office space.
Contact us today to see how Alliance can help you find a Virtual Office that serves as your company’s perfect virtual business address.
