- How do you get a virtual office address for your business?
- What should you look for in a virtual office?
- How do you register once you have a virtual office?
Q: How to get a virtual office address?
A: Alliance provides credible Virtual Office addresses backed by a professional workspace. You won’t have to settle for address-only mail plans. Work flexibly with professional on-demand space and a prestigious company address for your business. Read on to learn more.
A virtual office is an attractive option when transitioning to digital entrepreneurship.
In the past, starting a business was often prohibitively expensive – namely because of the cost of renting a traditional office or storefront.
Thankfully, this is no longer the case. By using virtual offices, maintaining your business no longer requires daunting loans or tenuous lines of credit.
For entrepreneurs trying to find out how to get a virtual office address, the task can seem more overwhelming than it is.
“Virtual Office” might sound wholly virtual or digital… but that isn’t the case.
A virtual office with Alliance provides a reputable address in a well-known office building.
Furthermore, a virtual office allows you to receive packages and business mail, use meeting rooms, book workstations, and enjoy secure on-demand private offices.
A virtual office helps the modern entrepreneur fortify their local presence and maximize their brand’s global reach all while keeping costs low and eliminating unnecessary bloat.
In addition to the straightforward benefit of having someone forward packages anywhere you need, a virtual office also lends credibility to your business — especially to the public and outside investors.
Read more: 5 Ways Your Business Can Benefit From a Virtual Office
Not only does using a well-known physical location for your virtual office address add legitimacy to your business, but it also provides a layer of security when you’re operating out of your home.
Incorporating your home address and simply registering that address can seem like the easiest method, but putting your personal address out into the public eye is typically not a great idea.
The address you use to register your business is made public by your secretary of state. A virtual office shields your personal assets.
Once your personal address is registered, the amount of phone calls and general spam mail you get goes through the roof. When you consider the fact that any potentially disgruntled employees will have access to your information, you can see why using a virtual office address might be beneficial.
Virtual offices are also cost-effective. You’re also able to do each of these things while spending considerably less money than a traditional office building rental would cost.
Keep reading to see how to get a virtual office address, how to register, and what you should be looking for when you’re deciding on a virtual office for your business.
- How do you get a virtual office address for your business?
- How do you register once you have a virtual office address?
- What should you look for in a virtual office?
How do you get a virtual office address for your business?
Getting a virtual office address is a straightforward process. The only difficult part is making sure you’re dealing with a trustworthy virtual office provider — but we’ll talk about how to select a provider later.
You’ll want to make sure the provider has all the features that your business is going to need.
With Alliance Virtual Offices, the process is incredibly easy, and it can be completed entirely online. With this approach, you can get your virtual office up and running in a matter of hours.
Take a look below to see how to get a virtual office address with Alliance Virtual Offices
- Go to: AllianceVirtualOffices.com
First, make your way to the Alliance Virtual Offices website
- Search Your Desired City
You’ll see a search bar that allows you to search for a virtual office by location. Go ahead and look up the area you’re hoping to register in - Browse the City Results Page
After you’ve searched for a location, you’ll be greeted with a selection of office addresses - Pick A Location
From the results page, click on a location that suits your needs. For your convenience, the price for a platinum plan is listed next to each option on the list - Signup
After selecting your plan, simply enter your information and click continue! - Checkout
Follow the prompts to move through the checkout. Remember to apply a promo code to get a big discount, and you’re done.
Once you’ve decided on a provider, you’ll want to choose a location. Because the tax laws are so different from state to state, this step often depends on your unique priorities and needs.
No matter your intentions, consider the tax benefits and professionalism associated with your virtual office location. Alliance Virtual Offices has several states to choose from, and each of these locations offers physical addresses that are well-known and professional.
Now that you know how to get a virtual office, let’s look at the things you should be looking for as you search for this resource.
What should you look for in a virtual office?
Because remote work is now so popular, virtual office providers are becoming quite prevalent. This means that you have a wide selection of options to choose from. So how do you narrow down your choices?
Read more: Remote Work Persisting and Trending Permanent
One of the biggest criteria for a good virtual office is a wide variety of locations. Because of the different tax laws in each state, you might want to strategically register your business in a state to maximize post-tax profits.
Providers that offer at least one location in each state provide the greatest range of potential tax benefits.
If you’re providing financial services, using a Manhattan address to register your LLC will provide a level of legitimacy that a random address in Nebraska will never achieve. If you’re looking for a business address close to other tech startups, it’d make sense to procure an address in Silicon Valley.
It’s important to put your virtual office in any area that makes sense for your business. You get all the benefits of these well-known locations without paying exorbitant monthly fees in rental or lease costs.
Another key aspect of a worthwhile virtual office is a strong mail forwarding system. Because you’ll be receiving key government documents at your business’s registered address, you’ll need to have regular and consistent mail forwarding so that you’re able to respond quickly and effectively.
When you’re dealing with government documents and other time-sensitive materials, responding promptly will eliminate stress and save you an inordinate amount of time.
Read more: Virtual Mailing Address for Your Business
Alliance Virtual Offices offers a robust, reliable mail forwarding service to ensure that you have convenient access to all the important documents and other communications you may receive.
If you’re hoping to learn how to get a virtual office for free, you’re unfortunately out of luck. While there are some free virtual office options available, these services typically exist without a physical address or operate out of a PO box.
Registering your business with a PO box is impossible, and beyond the registration issues, you wouldn’t get any mail forwarding with these services. While these free options aren’t viable for any kind of business, Alliance Virtual Offices offers business addresses for as low as $48.00 a month.
It’s important for your virtual office to be tied to a physical location. As previously mentioned, PO boxes won’t work for registration, so any other kind of address that isn’t tied to a physical location isn’t going to cut it either.
Fortunately, Alliance Virtual Office’s locations are all credible and professional physical addresses that are very well known in their respective areas.
Virtual mailboxes, unfortunately, suffer from the same issues.
Because of the lack of a physical address, you won’t be able to register this address with your LLC. There’s a strong chance that using this service will prevent you from receiving mail in a timely fasion.
Outside of these negatives, virtual mailboxes would erode your business’s credibility in the eyes of the public.
After choosing your city, completing the necessary research, and acquiring a virtual office, it’s time to get started on registering your business or updating your address. Keep reading to see how to keep things moving for your LLC!
How do you register once you have a virtual office address?
After you’ve learned how to get a virtual office address, the next step you’ll need to take is to register your business with your newly acquired business address. Of course, because of the various state tax laws, this will involve filing a change of address form for your LLC.
Simply check in with the local tax laws and statutes to make sure you know exactly what kind of process you’ll need to go through to register successfully.
Read more: Using a Virtual Address for LLC Registration
More often than not, the process will be as straightforward as filling out a form. The hardest part of the process will usually be navigating through the complicated web pages of the state you’re making the change in.
Below, we’ll take a look at the process for filing a change of address form in New York and in California, just to give you an idea of the kind of process you’re going to be looking at.
California
The State of California Franchise Tax Board is one of the more confusing state websites, largely due to the sheer volume of information. We’re going to look at the steps you’d take to find this form online. Unfortunately, California requires you to mail this form in, but we’ll leave the address where you’d need to send it below as well.
- First, you’ll need to go to the State of California Franchise Tax Board
- Here, you will see four main sections at the top of the page; click on ‘Forms’
- Next, head to the search bar up at the very top
- In the search bar, go ahead and type ‘FTB 3533-B’
- The number of forms provided on the website makes it difficult to navigate through all of the options effectively, which is why we’ve provided the actual name of the form rather than directing you through the website
- Clicking the first option after your search should take you here
- Once you’ve made it to this page, you’ll see a link to a PDF of the FTB 3533-B Form
- You’ll need to print a copy of this PDF out, but once you’ve done so, all you need to do is fill in the necessary information
- After you’ve filled it out, send the form to this address: Franchise Tax Board, PO Box 942840, Sacramento, CA, 94240-0002
California doesn’t make changing your business address anywhere as simple as New York. Just to make it a bit more straightforward, we’ve provided a link to the FTB 3533-B Form right here.
New York
In New York, the process can be handled entirely online or by mail. We’ll go over the online steps below because the website has a lot of information and can be a bit overwhelming.
- First, head over to the NY Department of Tax and Finance’s website
- Next, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page
- On the left, you will see a Get Help column with a “Contact Us” option; click through
- Now you will see a section titled ‘Your Tax Account’ with a few options beneath it
- Click the first option, ‘Update your business or personal address’
- Now you will be on the correct page; scroll to the business section to update.
- After clicking ‘Login to update’ you will be directed to fill out a DTF-96 Form
- That will take care of it! And in case you get lost, here’s a link to the page you’ll find the login button on
As you can see, the process isn’t complicated, but with so much information on any state’s website, it’s nice to know what you’re looking for.
After you’ve submitted your form, processing can take as long as a few weeks. This is why it’s crucial to start making these submissions as soon as you’ve procured a business address.
Most states will start utilizing the new address you’ve listed as soon as the forms are submitted, once again showcasing how important it is to have easy access to mail pickup or a trustworthy mail forwarding service.
After you’ve taken care of the registration, it’s time to focus on expansion.
Keep reading for some essential tips on expansion, a recap of the lesson on how to get a virtual office address, and more information about the services provided by Alliance Virtual Offices!
Expanding on how to get a virtual office address and how to manage growth
When you’re hunting for a virtual office address, the process can be broken down into a few easy steps.
Ensure Your Virtual Office Provider has:
- Locations in every state
- Physical address locations, as opposed to PO Boxes and Digital mailboxes
- Worldclass Staff to support your business needs
After handling your due diligence and deciding on a provider and a location, the next step is as simple as submitting a change of address form with the state government where you’re now located.
The current trend of work-from-home initiatives and the widespread appeal of remote work mean that this transition to a less office-based landscape isn’t just temporary. Many companies are already focused on setting their operations up for long-term virtual work.
Entrepreneurs are in an interesting position today. Instead of making a broad shift to this virtual style of work, they’re able to begin operations from this remote starting point. That said, there are still several entrepreneurs that are making a shift from brick-and-mortar locations to a wholly virtual business model.
Read more: Reconfiguring The Modern Office: Making The Shift To Virtual Long Term
If you’ve made the transition from traditional office space to a virtual office, the savings can be astronomical. Renting any office space will cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each month for fairly small locations that offer no amenities.
If you’ve landed a virtual office outside of your home state, it’s a great time to better familiarize yourself with the market you’re hoping to break into.
If possible, visit your new virtual office’s physical address. Get to know the businesses surrounding you.
Taking a trip like this allows you to identify the competition and start networking in the market you’re hoping to corner.
For example, if your business is a tech startup with a new virtual office in Silicon Valley, go meet other tech-focused entrepreneurs in the area! Social media is a trove of local information, and many of these locations have various meet-ups, groups, or other networking opportunities that are available for anyone who cares to look.
Networking and knowledge will go a long way if you see them as just another part of running a successful business. A robust network of other business owners and a deep understanding of your market is equally as important as a useful product or service.
Further Reading
- Remote Work Persisting and Trending Permanent
- Reconfiguring The Modern Office: Making The Shift To Virtual Long Term
- Virtual Mailing Address for Your Business
- 5 Ways Your Business Can Benefit From a Virtual Office
We strive to ensure that Alliance Virtual Offices’ solutions are far and away the best on the market. Not only do we offer a wide variety of locations in all 50 states, but we also provide locations tied to physical addresses with fast, reliable, and secure mail forwarding and a world-class concierge service backed by our industry-leading support staff.
Need a virtual office address AND number? No problem — Alliance provides a virtual phone service that gives you a business phone number, protects your privacy, and effectively connects your employees with your clients.
Are you expanding rapidly? Need some help answering phone calls? Looking for a meeting space to speak with remote employees? Again, Alliance Virtual Offices has the answer.
With a live receptionist, you can focus on running your business while your calls are all screened by a friendly and professional receptionist.
Meeting rooms available in every state provide a comfortable and secure location for you to meet with your team and clients alike — without having to use a coffee shop or hotel room.
Regardless of what your business needs, Alliance Virtual Offices is here to help. Understanding how to get a virtual office address is just the first step. A whole world of virtual office tools and services is waiting to help your business grow.
Contact us today to find a virtual office in a location that fits your needs. Our virtual offices are available in every state and provide savings, convenient mail forwarding, and a credible physical address you can use to build legitimacy for your business.
