Although there’s never been more opportunity to start your own business than there is today, starting a business is never an easy undertaking, whether you’re doing so on your own or as part of a team.
In either case, the main challenge you’ll face in starting your new business is a financial one—that being the necessary capital to start-up your business and a sufficient cash flow to keep it going, as both will most likely be in limited supply for the majority of startups.
This is why most startup businesses look to minimize their workplace costs as much as possible, with many trying to bypass it altogether: it is quite common for startups (and to a lesser extent, even established businesses) to register their business at a residential address, including the use of it as their centre of business correspondence.
While this strategy is of course far less costly than using a proper business address and workplace for your business, it is far from being cost-effective, in that it essentially precludes any kind of professional image for your business. Furthermore, it can easily lead to your business lacking even the credibility to get itself up and running.
A business address is therefore a crucial factor for any startup company, which cannot afford to risk creating an unprofessional image for itself, as the appearance of being inexperienced and perhaps even untrustworthy is not going to garner much of a client base.
Evidentially, however, this fact is still not enough to convince new entrepreneurs to avoid using their own home as their business address, since many people continue to try it.
With this in mind, new business owners should consider the following important factor – often underestimated if not overlooked – that makes it a wise decision to avoid using a home address for your business.
Personal Privacy: It’s Priceless
Although the financial convenience of registering your business at your home address is quite clear, the sacrifice involved tends to be overlooked by many new entrepreneurs. Above all, startup business owners using their home address for business correspondence have essentially traded their personal privacy in doing so.
Think about it: if your business is registered at your own home, then anything concerning or connected to your business is going to automatically publicize your home address. This means all online listings and correspondence, which of course can also be accessed by telemarketers and any other opportunistic businesses or individuals—all of which spells hassle for you in what should be your place of repose.
This lack of separation between your home and your office – your personal life and your business life – effectively means that your privacy has been compromised—and it’s something that cannot be reversed.
This fact becomes even more significant if you have a family, as each of their lives will also be affected by it—at least indirectly, if not directly. But it will be a sacrifice on their behalf however you look at it.
Therefore, using your home address as your business address is not something to be taken lightly, and it should really be avoided at all costs.
The good news is that, today, there is simply no need to take this measure anymore, no matter who you are or what line of business you are in.
The Virtual Office
Primarily, a virtual office allows someone to acquire a professional business address at a low cost, and includes the professional services of a receptionist and mail forwarding. This address represents the official location of your business, including its main point of correspondence.
However, the owner of a virtual office doesn’t actually work at the location of its address, but is instead free to run the business from any location at any time: as the virtual office represents the headquarters of your business whilst processing your mail and phone calls, you and your employees can work from wherever you please and save the costs of a acquiring a physical business premises. This is why it’s called a “virtual business address”.
These essential aspects make the virtual office a flexible low-cost business model that is a godsend for startups, as they can avoid the great expense and commitment involved in a long-term office lease. And for new business owners who would otherwise have had to use their home for a business address, a virtual business address will save you the inconvenience of having to publicize your personal space for the sake of your business enterprise.
A Virtual Address: A Business Address with Personal Anonymity
A virtual business address gives you a professional address to register your business under, whilst ensuring that your business life is kept separate from your personal life. Thus even if you are actually running your business from home, your home address will have nothing to do with any of your business activities or correspondence, meaning that you will retain your full privacy there.
By having a virtual business address, your home address is kept off public websites, which is critical for protecting the privacy of your family. Otherwise, the many activities relating to your business will involve the entering – if not displaying – of your home details online, such as when registering a domain name for your business, creating accounts with suppliers, and communicating with clients.
With a virtual business address, then, you ensure the protection of your precious privacy, both for yourself and your family. But this is only the negative half of its advantage, being a deterrent you should heed: the positive half is a benefit that you should exploit.
The Professionalism and Freedom of a Virtual Business Address
Of the essential requirements for creating a professional-looking and professionally-run business, a proper business address is the first and foremost, as it will establish a basis for credibility in a way that nothing else can. And if you can acquire an attractive address, such as in a major city centre, the address of your business will add a lucrative dimension of prestige to your image as well.
Along with a proper business address, your virtual office can also provide you with the facilities that will allow you to both run your business effectively whilst maintaining your image of professionalism. The most essential of these facilities are a fully-functional office space to work from and professional meeting rooms for which to host your client meetings.
This business model also allows you the total freedom to work from wherever you want, as opposed to being tied down to a fixed office location. This spares you the much loathed routine of commuting to and from work, thereby saving you all the idle time and considerable travel costs involved.
Traditionally, this working model would be unattainable for all but a few entrepreneurs, with most aspiring business owners being unable to afford the basic requirement of a professional business address. However today, there exists one solution that has virtually been designed to address these very needs.
A Virtual Address: The Gateway to Business Professionalism with Personal Privacy
Not only are the entry level plans for a virtual office affordable to almost any new entrepreneur, but the almost limitless locations means that you can choose a virtual business address that best matches the nature and image of your business. In this way, a virtual office offers you an ideal model to start your own business, no matter what industry you’re in and what amount of resources you’re working with.
With a virtual business address, then, you have an affordable opportunity to start-up your own business whilst running it in a professional manner. And in the same stroke, you protect your precious personal privacy by keeping your home completely unassociated with your business.
The virtual office thus gives you a stable foundation of credibility and professionalism from which to build a successful new business, whilst also maintaining the integrity of your personal life at home: truly the best of both worlds.
Be sure to visit Your City Office for the best Virtual Office shopping guide around.
Photo: Nastuh Abootalebi