Virtual / P.O. Box address for new business

Elmroad82

Hi, I’m starting my own company but I don’t want the address of the business to be my home address. I’m assuming the best option is for a virtual address that you can pay for?  Is it basically a mail forwarding address and therefore does it take twice as long for mail to arrive?

Can anyone recommend a reputable company and how does it work?

thanks 

Savvy_Sue

There's no one answer. If you have an accountant, they may offer such a service, and how long they take to forward stuff is something you should ask them about.

IMO a proper physical address (such as your accountant might have) looks better than one which is obviously just a forwarding address. 

Then there are the services like Mailboxes, where I think you'd expect to go and check your post regularly. 

Grumpy_chap

Elmroad82 said:

Hi, I’m starting my own company but I don’t want the address of the business to be my home address. I’m assuming the best option is for a virtual address that you can pay for?  Is it basically a mail forwarding address and therefore does it take twice as long for mail to arrive?

Can anyone recommend a reputable company and how does it work?

thanks 

The simplest (and cheapest) approach can often be to use your Accountant's address if they offer this service.  Some offer a Registered Office address service but not the mail forwarding service.  (I think there are now restrictions on who can offer a mail forwarding service?)

The you have the mail forwarding services where they either forward the mail or, I think more commonly now, scan mail and send a pdf via email.

Also, as mentioned above, the Mailbox services where you need to go and collect the post.

Will you be operating the business from home or from another location, such as co-working site?  The reason I ask, is some co-working sites also have an option to receive mail as your postal address and either forward or hold for you.  These services (like the mail forwarding services) can also extend to sometimes include reception / call answering so allow your small business to project an image somewhat above its weight.  

The thing to remember is that the more virtual office level of service you have, the more the cost will be.

Bookworm105

note a Limited Company cannot use a PO Box number as its registered address
Set up a private limited company: Check the rules for registered office addresses and email addresses - GOV.UK

as others have said, your accountant may offer registered office address service and may also offer mail forwarding at a frequency you pay for (where I used to work did it weekly) but I doubt they would be happy processing mail from customers ("trading address" mail) as the volume could be very high

inevitably there are plenty of companies that offer a dedicated registered office and/or virtual/mail forwarding service, but what you cannot do is rent a PO Box from a high street company such MailBox Etc as your company's registered address.

Be clear on what you are trying to do (registered office only or registered and trading address) and thus what service level you need in relation to expected volume of mail ...
if you want to "hide" your trading address as well as registered office address then you may end up having the  registered office with one provider and your trading address with a mail forwarding company 

Savvy_Sue

I'd also say a key question is why you do not want the company registered to your home address? I'd think carefully about whether it's worth the effort - we are registered address for DS1's company and it's about 1 letter per month, usually offering to buy his business or sell him a credit card, with the odd one from HMRC etc. But he does not sell physical goods, so there are no returns. Plus what he sells is absolutely wonderful (I would say that!) so no-one is going to come looking for him because they are not satisfied.