A virtual address is a solution that suits a number of businesses from different industries. It suits the kind of business that don’t have mail handling facilities at their premises or perhaps their business premises are also their home address. It may suit people who travel abroad a lot and aren’t around to check mail or it may simply be that the business doesn’t have the budget for a receptionist or administration assistant. This is where the virtual address service comes in.
What is a virtual address?
A virtual office service is available in several different variations to suit all types of businesses and all points in the business life-cycle. The range of facilities available means that businesses can take as much or as little as they need - from the start up entrepreneur working from the dining room table to the international company juggling dozens of bases in different locations.
The virtual services
The first part of the service is called a virtual mail room. This can includes a number of different services depending on your needs including mail sorting and scanning to email to storage of mail until personal pick-up or bulk forwarding to another address. This includes cheque depositing and a mail forwarding service as well as options such as cloud based accounting services.The second level of service is termed as a virtual office and includes general services such as phone answering as well as company mail handling. Your chosen level of mail-room services can be added on or you can simply have all of your mail forwarded as required. Our Virtual Office services also includes physical services such as the use of a smart, state of the art, unbranded conference room and an office area for physical meetings when you need to do business in person. By using this service, you get to use a prestigious London address for those important meetings.
UK Postbox services
Our virtual mail-room service is a comprehensive service that makes use of the top online mail management service available, called UK Postbox. This service is operated around the world and offers private and confidential mail handling services, much in the way of a PO Box but with several additional benefits.With a normal PO Box, you need an address and the box needs to be within your sorting area. But the UK Postbox service has no such restrictions so you can be based anywhere in the UK. It can receive and action important personal and business documents that will be scanned and sent to you as you choose. Other options include having documents stored on the secure server that you can then print or just view online.Finally, as the service is privately owned, it can offer complete privacy for customers. There are no requirements to release information under the Data Protection Act to give customers an added level of security to that offered by simple PO Boxes.
Extra services
There are also additional services that can be added to the package or taken in their own right if they suit the needs of the business.Private mailboxes are an ideal solution for small businesses and for people that travel a lot due to the nature of their work. They allow the receiving and safe storage of mail and ensure that there is no risk of mail being lost or damaged while no-one is around to collect or deal with it.The virtual address service can also be used for two legal purposes – as a registered office address and as a director’s service address. By using a registered office address service, the business can use a single London address on all of its correspondence, with the added prestige that comes with owning your own central London business address. It is also a practical measure if you work from home or don’t have a permanent business address yet, allowing the business to be registered in one location, regardless where it operates.The director’s service address works in a similar way. Any company directors need to register certain details with Companies House and this includes their address. As it is a matter of public record, some people don’t want to use their home address and have this disclosed to the general public, so instead use a service address for the public record. This service is for that purpose and allows the London address to be used on all official matters. It also helps to keep business cold-callers from arriving uninvited at your door at all times of the day or night.
Benefits of virtual office services
There are other reasons why a business would choose to use one or a number of virtual office services.Top of the list, especially for the mail handling services, is that there either isn’t someone available to deal with mail at the business premises on a daily basis, or the business address is also a home address. Managing mail can take time and also space which some businesses don’t have. Or they may not be in the position to employ someone to do the task and this can result in a haphazard approach to mail handling where important paperwork may be easily missed.Privacy and security are two big issues for businesses and one way to help with both is to withhold the business address from public record, especially if these are private residential addresses. Using virtual office services allows you to do this as well as to be certain that paperwork and deliveries are handled in a secure manner before being forwarded to your chosen address.There is also a great first impression that comes when a business has an address in London, regardless of where they are actually based. This can add prestige to the company and this can help to quickly establish new companies who have recently formed and want to be taken seriously by their new clients.Finally, if the business is based abroad but trades in the UK, virtual office services can offer a London address for those UK customers to correspond with that guarantees the handling of mail in a timely manner and can even handle incoming phone calls from UK based customers.
