- What is a virtual business address?
- Does your virtual business address need to be near you?
- How to choose the right location for your business
- Alliance’s Virtual Office business address
Q: Do I need my virtual business address near me? Is there any benefit to having an office that’s in my vicinity?
A: No, the beauty of a virtual business address is that you can use any location you want, but nothing is stopping you from finding the closest Virtual Office either. The only real benefit of being close to your Virtual Office business address is the ability to enjoy hybrid and flexible workstyles.
At the height of the pandemic, it didn’t seem outside the realm of possibility that everyone would be working remotely in a few years.
At times, over 50% of full-time employees worked fully remotely, and for the first time in modern memory, employees seemingly had the upper hand over their employers. Thanks to the Great Resignation and a renewed focus on employee well-being, workers had the opportunity to pick and choose work styles and, if denied, find new work, often for better pay.
Although fully remote work isn’t as popular as it was during the bulk of the Covid-19 pandemic, the “return to the norm” that several experts and economists anticipated hasn’t come either.
In fact, despite a sizable shift in Americans’ preferred workstyles, totally remote work still accounts for approximately ¼ of the American workforce. An exponential gain from the approximately 6-9% of Americans that worked remotely before Covid-19.
To accommodate this continued interest in remote work, some business owners are utilizing a Virtual Office business address to provide flexible workstyles for their employees.
Naturally, this begs the question – “should I search for a Virtual Office address near me?”
In this article, we’ll answer this quandary while simultaneously defining a virtual business address, looking at situations where you may want your virtual business address to be close by, how to choose the right location for your company, and finally, we’ll explore Alliance’s virtual office business addresses.
So, if you’ve found yourself pouring through the search results for questions like “Do I need a virtual mailing address for business near me?” – you’re in the right place.
Keep reading to understand why a virtual business address in Philadelphia is equally as useful as a virtual business address in New Jersey – regardless of where you are located!
- What is a virtual business address?
- Does your virtual business address need to be near you?
- How to choose the right location for your business
- Alliance’s Virtual Office business address
What is a virtual business address?
A virtual business address can be many things. We’ll dive into some of these explanations soon, but first, let’s take a moment to explain what a Virtual Office is and how Virtual Offices are the best business addresses available.
Read more: What is a Virtual Office and How Does It Work?
For the sake of this article, we’ll be using ‘virtual business address’ and ‘Virtual Office’ interchangeably, but here are a few of the kinds of virtual business addresses you might encounter in the wild.
- Web addresses
- Glorified PO boxes
- Bad actors
- Alliance’s Virtual Offices
Web addresses
Some virtual business addresses are nothing more than web addresses. Searching for a ‘virtual business address near me’ for one of these low-quality virtual spaces is ineffective because it’s a wholly digital experience.
You might encounter these kinds of web addresses while searching for a free virtual business address, and you’ll be unhappy to learn that you don’t receive any benefits for using these.
Essentially, these ‘virtual offices’ are nothing more than software and provide next to nothing to your business.
When you want to register for an LLC, you’ll need an address that’s tied to a physical location. Most states won’t even allow PO boxes to register for an LLC, so using an application that amounts to nothing more than some software you could find for free elsewhere presents a new slew of problems in the registration process.
Independent of the logistic problems you’ll encounter with this kind of address, the harm they do to your company’s legitimacy is another issue.
Imagine you are a consumer looking for a specific product only two businesses offer.
One of these companies uses a fully digital address, and the other uses a well-known and professional one. Outside of these seemingly minor distinctions, the companies are the same.
When you do a cursory Google search for the first company, you’re confronted with a slew of information that doesn’t even pertain solely to the business you’re searching for.
You notice that the company shares an address with other businesses and that some of these businesses are defunct. Upon further inspection, you realize that the address the business uses is occupied by a retail store in a completely different market than the one you’re trying to research.
When you do a cursory search for the second company, however, you immediately see a professional address that you’re at least tangentially familiar with. Then, as you continue exploring, you find other well-known companies that are still doing well.
Not surprisingly, you’re going to choose to use the second business. Thanks to the sheer number of scams that Americans experienced in the past few years, consumers are on high alert.
By understanding this and avoiding addresses that give a poor first impression, you can ensure that your company is seen as legitimate and professional.
Glorified PO boxes
Another kind of virtual office business address you may encounter is the glorified PO box.
Again, these should be avoided, as they don’t offer you the prestige you need to wow customers and investors alike.
While the PO box-based offices are more legitimate than the fully digital offices, they still come with a slew of extraneous issues.
You may have access to mail forwarding through a glorified PO box, but that’s not enough to make them worth the investment, especially considering you’ll likely be unable to use the office to register for an LLC.
In addition, the PO box-based virtual office business addresses have limited functionality, don’t provide space, and aren’t nearly as private or secure as their high-quality counterparts.
Because these offices are largely used for mail forwarding, you won’t have access to other amenities that make Virtual Offices worth it. If you need access to meeting rooms, receptionists, or other physical amenities, you won’t find them in a PO box.
In terms of privacy and security, PO boxes are inherently less secure than other Virtual Office options.
With the right key, anyone can access your mail. Combined with the fact that there are several times during the day that your PO box is unguarded, this is a scary thought.
Most states won’t allow you to register with a PO box, the amenities these offices provide are lackluster at best, and the security and privacy leave a lot to be desired.
Unfortunately, some virtual office business addresses are even worse.
Bad actors
The previous two styles of virtual office business addresses aren’t great for running a business, but they’re also not typically run by bad actors.
With the influx of need for Virtual Offices and other digital entrepreneurial services, some providers are nothing more than bad actors trying to collect your information, charge you with innumerable “hidden fees”, or in some cases, outright scam you.
These terrible-quality virtual address providers don’t want anything outside their next dollar and will often do anything to achieve this.
The offices run by bad actors have awful customer service staff that are untrained and unprofessional, if available at all. These individuals will take their time responding and may even provide incorrect information before disappearing altogether.
Sometimes, these businesses will present themselves as a free virtual business address that seems too good to be true. If you’re seeing someone offer a prestigious address in the heart of downtown Manhattan for no charge, chances are high that you’re getting scammed.
The advertised address may not exist, or several businesses may share them. Both of these outcomes will cause many problems when it comes time to register your LLC.
Because the bad actors care about nothing but value extraction, you’re unlikely to have access to physical space. That said, they still might claim that you have access to these amenities to get you to sign up.
Other concerns with these bad actors are the hidden fees they impose on your company. Typically, these fees are hidden until you’ve completed signing up.
Another problem with using offices that bad actors provide is security concerns.
Scammers are everywhere, and even if the provider is just a greedy company that isn’t outright scamming you, you can rest assured that they aren’t doing the required due diligence to keep other scam businesses out.
Read more: Scammers Hate Us: Only Legitimate Businesses Use Our Virtual Offices
Because these low-quality providers just want as much money as possible, they’re sticking several companies at the same address and doing next-to-nothing to properly vet the individuals they’re putting together.
Unfortunately, this creates an environment where your business is reputationally on the hook for anything that these other companies may do.
If you’re sharing an address with a company that is outed as a scam business, all other businesses using that address will be forced to deal with the fallout of the original company’s scams.
If consumers think you’re associated with scammers and bad actors, you’ll have a more challenging time finding new customers.
Alliance’s Virtual Offices
Finally, an Alliance Virtual Office business address is a dedicated address in a prestigious business center that sets the ideal tone for anyone looking you up.
With Alliance, you don’t need to worry about searching for a “virtual mailing address near me” because we have offices available in every state and almost every city.
Alliance provides a suite of amenities too, with Live Receptionists, access to coworking spaces and meeting rooms, mail forwarding, and total customization.
Rather than risking the potential fallout of using a free virtual business address, take a look at Alliance’s Virtual Offices and the flexibility we can offer without sacrificing the amenities that traditional office space is known for.
Do you need a virtual business address near you?
You don’t need your virtual business address to be near you. According to studies referenced in this Forbes article, nearly ¾ of existing companies that can offer remote work plan on doing so.
Sure, some workers may prefer hybrid workstyles, but offering fully remote positions will always be more attractive to workers and easier than filling fully in-office positions.
Through Alliance, you can register your business, or launch a satellite office if you’re an existing company focused on expansion, in any state you choose.
Read more: Satellite Office: Your Complete Guide
With a satellite office, you can determine its location based on the proximity to the employees you hope to hire.
Alliance offers Virtual Offices in all 50 states, allowing you to set your business up wherever you want.
In conjunction with our countless locations, our mail-forwarding add-on allows businesses to truly work from anywhere.
That said, we’ll never force anyone to use any of our extraneous services. If you want to be able to work from anywhere and receive your business mail while doing so, our variety of mail forwarding tiers can help you do so.
Read more: Unlock Full Flexibility with Business Mail Forwarding
There are specific situations where you may want your Virtual Office to be located close to you, but these situations are few and far between. With Alliance’s network of Virtual Office Centers, you can typically meet all of your business’s needs without feeling obligated to secure an office nearby.
Deciding on a location
Although you typically won’t need to search for a “virtual business address near me,” there are some situations where doing so is beneficial.
Below, we’ve put together a brief list of situations where this is the case.
- Providing flexible workstyles
- If you like a hybrid workstyle, you’ll probably want a Virtual Office close to you, especially if you hope to use the space frequently or use our Platinum Plus Plan.
- Despite increased productivity, fully remote work can become isolating and lead to job burnout. Sure, there are ways to avoid this, like working at a coffee shop or in another public place, but these solutions may require you to use unsafe internet connections and are rarely as quiet and professional as you’d like.
- Regardless, if you intend to use the coworking spaces and meeting rooms with any frequency, you should look for a Virtual Office that’s close by. Thankfully, with our vast network of Virtual Office centers, you should be able to find a location without an issue.
- Regularly scheduled meetings
- Some business owners have more meetings than others. If this is you and you’re anticipating regular meetings, you should be searching for a “virtual business address near me.”
- This will allow you to use Alliance’s meeting rooms and prevent you from having to find alternatives.
- Whether in-person or virtual, hosting meetings requires a private and professional place to make good impressions and give off an air of professionality to your attendees.
- Otherwise, you’ll be forced to use the same coffee shops, hotel conference rooms, and potentially your home to host meetings, none of which lend legitimacy to your operations.
- Alliance’s Virtual Offices come with easily reservable meeting rooms of varying sizes to meet any of your business’s needs.
- Location-specific marketing
- If you want to market primarily to your local community, it’ll help to have a Virtual Office that’s close by.
- Many benefits can be found in using an office that’s seen by your target audience as a local business. If local consumers consider you a local, you’ll have a much easier time breaking into the market.
- Typically, if there is a specific reason for your business to be located in a particular area, you can leverage that to your advantage to make use of word-of-mouth advertising and other grassroots forms of marketing.
- Tax-law advantages
- Some states are better for taxes than others. According to CNBC, remote work might serve to fight against national inflation, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find particular states that offer tax havens and other legal benefits for your business.
- If you’re familiar with the best states to use for tax benefits and your business would work in these areas, there’s no reason not to make use of these states.
- That said, this doesn’t inherently require you to search for a “virtual business address near me.” Instead, you can simply register your business in the states with attractive tax laws and do business from anywhere in the world while still retaining these benefits.
These reasons are all typical reasons to take advantage of utilizing a Virtual Office in a specific location. That said, these reasons are fairly specific, and you can typically get the benefits of a certain state’s tax laws without needing to relocate to that state.
If the reasons above don’t resonate with you, picking a location is considerably easier.
First, think about the various tax laws of each state and choose the state that makes the most sense to you.
Keep in mind that if you register your LLC in a particular state but never actually do business in or around that state, you might be forced to pay twice the taxes as a foreign LLC. Naturally, this can be avoided, but you should talk to a tax professional to ensure you only pay what is necessary.
Once you’ve found a few states with attractive tax laws or regulations that cater to your industry, you can start thinking about public perception.
Next, consider your reputation.
Some businesses seem more trustworthy if they’re based in a big city like Los Angeles or New York.
This might seem silly, but consider whether you’re more likely to trust a new and exciting tech startup from Silicon Valley or a business providing similar services based in a fly-over state. Remember, image is everything.
Finally, consider the local markets.
If you know a majority of your target audience lives in a particular area, it may be worth setting up shop there.
With these guidelines, you can easily determine where you want your business to be centered.
Better yet, with Alliance’s Virtual Office network of centers across the country, you’ll seldom need to search for a “virtual business address near me” – but if you do need something close, you can typically find a Virtual Office within driving distance.
Alliance’s Virtual Office business address
You don’t need your virtual business address to be nearby.
That said, it may make sense for some businesses, depending on the particularities of their operations.
Alliance Virtual Offices offers Virtual Office services throughout the United States, and our mail forwarding add-ons and other amenities make it easy for you to grow your company remotely without sacrificing any necessary flexibility.
Further reading
- What is a Virtual Office and How Does It Work?
- Scammers Hate Us: Only Legitimate Businesses Use Our Virtual Offices
- Satellite Office: Your Complete Guide
- Unlock Full Flexibility with Business Mail Forwarding
Alliance provides Virtual Office services to new entrepreneurs, established business owners, and everyone in between.
Rather than spending time searching for a “virtual business address near me” take the time to explore the amenities and benefits associated with using a Virtual Office.
There’s no point in securing physical space because Alliance ensures that our partners have access to all the amenities associated with traditional offices without losing the countless amenities and flexibility associated with remote work.
Contact us today to see how Alliance can help your business find true scalability!
