Are you planning to start a business? Deciding to start a new business is a stressful event of its own, putting together a business plan, hiring some industry experts, and investing a descent amount of money. For location, you may be thinking of some tall glass building in the middle of a capital, but the fact is, most businesses do not necessarily have a physical office or mailing address. In fact, most business startups associate with a virtual office to bypass the costs of a physical workplace.
When starting a new business, money will always be at the front of your mind, but it is necessary that you set up your business in a correct and legal way. This means, after you take all the initial steps, you must register your business as an LLC, get the required business licenses, and start building business credit. Every business startup needs to be set up as a business entity, which is determined on the basis of the type of business. The most common form of a business entity is Limited Liability Company or LLC.
What is a Limited Liability Company (LLC)?
LLC is a type of business entity that protects stakeholders in a business from personal liability. This means the personal assets of the stakeholders of the business are entirely separate from the business. This ensures that the personal property of share holders is well-protected as it is treated separate from the taxes, legal processes and business debts.
However, registering as an LLC requires a virtual business to have some kind of physical presence, that is, have a mailing address. It can be any address that receives paper work related to business. Most commonly used are personal home addresses, PO Box addresses and virtual addresses.
Although PO Box and home address are the choices available, yet not much viable.
Why Not Home Address
Associating your home address with your online business invites potential security risks and is a breach of privacy. It reveals the personal residence of the owner or the business partners to public, because the address mentioned while registering for LLC is published in online directories and is assessable to all. It also eliminates the very anonymity that business owners seek from LLC registration. Lastly, it does not look professional.
Why Not PO Box Address
Some businesses might want to register a PO Box address for LLC. But before considering that you might wonder, how would you explain to the clients why your office is situated in a Post Office? Yes, it will make your task even more complicated than facilitating you.
Hence from a professional point of view, a virtual mailing address for LLC registration is the sanest choice.
Virtual Mailing Address for LLC Registration
A virtual address is any mailing address on which business mail can be received without actually being physically present there. It provides a physical address for a business to get registered and enables the business owner to manage his/her mail remotely.
You can learn more on getting a virtual address for LLC registration here,
How-To Guide on Getting a Virtual Address for LLC Registration
After the virtual address is registered, paper mail arrives at that address from where it is either scanned and uploaded to the owner’s virtual mailbox, or shipped to his/her physical location to be read at some other time. It gives the power to handle one’s business mail digitally, from a phone or a computer much like the e-mail service.
Provides Anonymity
A virtual address for LLC provides the required anonymity, preventing any controversy from being paper trailed back to the owner; and it is especially beneficial if a business seeks to expand beyond the borders of the country of origin. Almost every legal expert or attorney will suggest a mailing address for LLC registration that provides anonymity so that the business liabilities cannot be linked to personal assets of the owners or shareholders.
Offers Operational Flexibility
A virtual address offers a great deal of operational flexibility that does not come with other options like PO Box or home address. It offers a wide range of services and a great deal of control over how and when to receive mail, and which mail to shred in order to avoid security risks.
Lends Professional Credibility
The location to which the virtual address is linked has a great impact on the perception of a business. Choosing a virtual address in a well-known business area of a metropolitan city can offer a great deal of credibility to the business, especially if the target customers are also located in the same area. Hence choosing a virtual address that suits the business most adds extra legitimacy and positive customer perceptions.
Therefore, those new business owners, who wish a business address to register for LLC but want to avoid security risks or the inconvenience associated with PO Box or home addresses, can go well for a virtual address option. It is cheaper, safer and convenient, and goes especially well for the fledgling virtual businesses.
