- The right way to calculate costs
- How much does a mail forwarding service cost?
- Your mail forwarding service options
Q: How much does mail forwarding service cost?
A: Our mail forwarding services cost from $10-70 per month. But that figure doesn’t take into account everything you need to understand the net cost of mail forwarding. This article explains how to calculate the true cost of mail forwarding.
As a business owner, you want to maximize your profits, right?
Most business owners answer with a resounding “yes”.
Yet those same business owners often neglect adding a mail forwarding service to their Virtual Office plan.
They think they’re saving money by picking up their mail themselves.
But innocent as this task may seem, it might be costing you severely.
This article explains why mail forwarding helps you maximize your profits and grow your business faster.
So, if you’ve ever searched for “mail forwarding service near me” – you’re in the right place.
- The right way to calculate costs
- How much does a mail forwarding service cost you?
- Our mail forwarding options
- The benefits of mail forwarding
What is Opportunity Cost?
Opportunity cost is the cost of something in terms of the next best alternative that is given up as a result of a decision.
It is a key concept in economics that helps to understand the trade-offs that individuals, businesses, and governments make when allocating resources.
If you have a limited amount of time and money and you decide to go to a movie, the opportunity cost is the other things you could have done with that time and money.
You could have used that time to study for an exam or go to work, and you could have used that money to buy a new shirt or save it for a rainy day.
Opportunity cost is relevant in all kinds of decisions, whether big or small.
For businesses, the opportunity cost of choosing to produce one product over another is the potential profit they could have earned by producing the other product.
Opportunity cost is an important concept because it helps you and organizations make informed decisions by considering the potential benefits and costs of different options.
It also helps to understand how resources are allocated and how they could be used more efficiently.
And while it might seem trivial, it matters much more than you think.
Why Does Opportunity Cost Matter for Business Owners?
As a business, your two main goals are growth and profit.
You need money to grow your business. The more you’re able to free up funds to reinvest in yourself, the faster you can reach new markets, make more sales, and launch your business into an upward spiral.
The same can be said of your profits. The bigger and more successful your business, the more money you can afford to pay yourself.
While the gross expenses associated with your business certainly matter, they aren’t the best indicator of how your business is doing.
Opportunity cost matters because it shows you where your expenses could be better spent.
For example, imagine you spend $400 on Facebook ads. You make an additional 50 sales from those ads.
A surface-level interpretation of this event is that you’ve succeeded and should undoubtedly continue to run Facebook ads.
But that misses some important considerations.
What if you might have made 100 sales with that money if you’d run ads on Instagram? What if you could have made 200 had you run Google ads?
From an absolute standpoint, your Facebook ads made were profitable.
But, when you factor in the opportunity cost of other advertising options, you’ve lost money.
You could have made more sales and earned more net profit with the same money had you spent it elsewhere.
Some business owners are already aware of this. Many looks at the variety of options available when determining and adjusting their budgets.
But even the opportunity cost-savvy tend to leave out one critical factor: their time.
What Most Business Owners Miss When Calculating Costs
Your time is the most valuable asset you have. This is true for absolutely everyone, but especially for business owners.
As a business owner, you are ultimately responsible for moving your business forward on every level.
You can and should delegate, but even that delegation requires your time.
What’s more, the more time you have available to you, the more you can get done within your business.
Whether it’s engaging in upkeep or working on pushing high-level projects through to completion, your time within your business is among your most valuable assets.
But most business owners fail to account for their time when considering costs.
They look at the gross cost of adding a product or service to their operation and think they’re saving money by just doing the work themselves.
But what is that time worth? What else could you have done that would have moved your business forward had you saved that time?
A prime example? Mail forwarding.
How Much Does Our Mail Forwarding Service Cost You?
Mail forwarding is far cheaper than you think it is.
While it’s completely understandable that you’d be hesitant to spend more, the reality is that many business owners lose money by not including mail forwarding with their Virtual Offices.
Sure, in a vacuum not spending money on mail forwarding would be a net gain. But your business (and your life) don’t happen in a vacuum.
When you choose to pick up your mail yourself, you are consistently sacrificing your time to pick up your mail.
As a business owner, working fewer hours is crucial to making more money.
When you opt to pick the mail up on your own, you’re making your working hours longer. This means you’re decreasing the value of each hour you work.
You’re giving yourself a pay cut by picking up your mail.
You’re also likely forgetting to factor in the cost of gas and wear and tear on your car.
The weighted average cost is about $.69 per mile according to AAA.
And with inflation pinching business owners harder than ever, that number will only increase.
Additionally, you’re giving up an hour that you could be using to actively grow your business.
As a business owner, how much is your time worth?
Most of our clients value their time between $50 to $200 or more per hour.
Mail forwarding costs are likely less than a single hour of your time, yet picking up your mail yourself likely eats up more than an hour of your time each month.
This means you are taking a net loss by not adding mail forwarding to your Virtual Office plan.
What Could You Do With That Time Instead?
You don’t work for the mail forwarding service USPS. You work for yourself.
Mail forwarding helps you keep it that way.
With mail forwarding, you can spend the hours you would otherwise be stuck driving out of your way to build and grow your business.
You may be thinking “but my Virtual Office is near me, mail forwarding service seems unnecessary”.
Maybe it only takes you 30 minutes round trip to pick up your mail.
But that 30 minutes still matters. People have built entire businesses using an extra 30 minutes here and there.
What’s more, you’re competing with other businesses for that growth.
When you’re busy driving to pick up your mail, your competition can get ahead of you. That 30 minutes might be the reason they capture the market in South Dakota or Florida and continue growing throughout the USA.
Had you opted for our mail forwarding service and spent those extra minutes in the comfort of your home office building your marketing campaigns, your business could have come out on top.
Even if it isn’t a matter of competition, you still lose money when you pick up your mail yourself.
We’ve found that our clients who consistently get their mail forwarded have enjoyed sustained, stress-free growth.
They’re able to focus their time on their business without tipping into overtime and diminishing their per-hour rate.
This gives them the best of both worlds.
You work hard. You deserve to be compensated, even if it’s by yourself.
With our mail forwarding service, you give yourself a raise and give your business a boost toward continued growth.
You Can’t Afford to Waste Money
Waste is the antithesis of a successful business.
Factoring in your opportunity cost is an obvious benefit for most things you do.
You consider the best branding, the best marketing campaigns and platforms, and the best employees and freelancers.
You’re aware that every decision you make excludes your other options. And you want to make the most of every choice.
Your mail shouldn’t be left out.
Successful business owners know that the details matter just as much as the big picture.
You can have the best idea in the world, but if it’s executed incorrectly, it won’t get anywhere.
Mail forwarding is one of those important yet often overlooked details.
It is a minor expense with an outsized opportunity cost.
When you choose not to include mail forwarding, you miss out on net profits.
The best-case scenario is that this cheapens your labor time and holds your business back from growing faster.
But it can easily translate to being outworked by a competitor and losing significant market shares.
We want to help you grow, which is why we offer a range of mail forwarding plans to suit your exact business needs.
Our Mail Forwarding Options
You can choose a mail forwarding option that is precisely attuned to your business needs.
We offer mail forwarding packages that range from monthly delivery to daily delivery.
This allows you to optimize every dollar you spend on mail forwarding. You can get your mail delivered when you need it without having to pay for more delivery than you require.
Our monthly mail forwarding plan runs as low as $10 per month.
Our next frequency is biweekly. This plan typically costs around $20 per month.
If you’d like your mail forwarded weekly, our centers provide that service at around $30 per month.
And finally, if you’d like your mail delivered to you every day of the week, we offer daily mail forwarding plans at roughly $70 per month.
Compare these figures to the value of your time and the cost of driving your car.
If you value your time even at $30 per hour, monthly mail forwarding pays for itself if you’d have made a single 20-minute drive to pick up mail.
And that isn’t factoring in the cost of gas and the depreciation and additional maintenance costs of driving your car to get it.
The Benefits Of Mail Forwarding
Mail forwarding is the key to getting the most value out of your Virtual Office.
Mail forwarding unlocks the full value of your Virtual Office plan.
Imagine you purchase a cell phone. Would you also purchase a cell plan to go with that cell phone?
Of course you would! Without the data and call ability, the cell phone isn’t nearly as valuable.
Not only are you not getting the full functionality of the phone without a phone plan, but the money you are spending on the phone gets you less.
The item you’ve purchased is limited in its capacity, and as a result, each dollar you spend purchases less.
The same is true of a Virtual Office without mail forwarding.
Your Virtual Office is here to provide you with a professional business address while also supporting your flexible work style to the fullest.
One of its primary functions is to serve as a virtual mailing address for your business.
We want you to get the full value out of your Virtual Office, which is why we strongly encourage all our clients to mail forwarding.
In addition to increasing the value of your Virtual Office, mail forwarding also frees you up to build your business.
How much is an hour of your time worth? How much time are you spending picking up your business mail?
This isn’t just an abstract calculation. As a business owner, your working hours result in more reach, more sales, and more profit.
Your time directly makes you money.
Driving out of your way to pick up your mail wastes that precious time. It eats into your work hours, and as a result, your profits.
Finally, mail forwarding saves you the hassle of going out of your way to pick up mail.
Business owners are busy. You are responsible for so many things as it is.
Taking time out of your day to get in your car, drive through traffic, find parking, walk in, get your mail, and drive all the way home isn’t fun.
Mail forwarding frees you from the burden of worrying about that. You can relax knowing your mail will be directly forwarded to your home mailbox. You won’t have to lift a finger.
Wrapping Up: How Much Does Our Mail Forwarding Service Cost You?
As a business owner, your time is one of your most valuable assets.
While many business owners are careful with their spending, they often fail to consider opportunity costs in terms of their own time.
Mail forwarding is a prime example. While you may think you’re saving money by not adding mail forwarding to your Virtual Office plan, chances are you’re losing money.
Further reading:
- The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Offices
- How We’re Improving Mail Forwarding Standards, One Letter at a Time | Alliance Virtual Offices
- Starting a Business with a US Mailing Address | Alliance Virtual Offices
You’re also adding unnecessary hassle to your week.
We want to help you make the most of your time, which is why we offer a variety of mail-forwarding options for your Virtual Office.
Call, email, or chat with us to set up your mail forwarding plan today.
