10 Places To Put Your New Address

When you buy a virtual address, there are some obvious and some less obvious places to use it.

You bought it because …

- You don’t want to use your home address publicly, or your landlord may forbid it; 
- You need to look professional but you can’t endanger your loved ones; 
- XYZ company is asking you for your business address and ‘No. 23 Acacia Drive’, where you live, is an obvious residential address.

Here are 10 useful places you can use your new virtual address:

1. Companies House 

Companies House is the UK registrar of Companies. A postal address is used in 3 public places in their database:

- Registered Office Address;
- Director’s Service Address;
- Person With Significant Control. 

These entries are publicly searchable at the Companies House website. Other websites can download them.
Businessmen who use their home address thus find it plastered all over the internet. Registered Address clients find that its our address that shows instead.

2. Website

Websites have 3 places a postal address typically shows:

- Contact Us;
- About Us;
- Footer.

In each of these a registered office and/or postal address is necessary to look professional.

3. Intellectual Property Office

Individuals who register trademarks in the UK have to give a public postal address. If this is a home address, it too becomes public knowledge quite quickly.

Any address published online on one website can easily end up on other websites and then become impossible to remove totally. Your competitors will be snooping around your business. Don’t let them see your home address.

4. Email Signature

Professional email signatures have a company logo, personal name, company name, telephone number, website URL and company postal address.

Otherwise, the recipient will take you less seriously and perhaps wonder what you are hiding.

5. Invoices

Professional invoices are printed on letterheaded paper or PDFs and contain the company name, company registration number, company address, telephone number and VAT number if applicable.

The more of these items are missing, the less seriously the recipient will take your enterprise. They may even delay paying you, as they will surmise that you cannot enforce payment of the debt.

6. Stationery

Contracts and formal letters are similar to the above. The more details they have on them, the more seriously the recipient will take them.

Formal documents must have a postal address on them. This is so the other party can respond and record, at their end, that they have responded to ‘X company at Y address on Z date, in the matter of ABC…’

7. Business cards 

These are not much used nowadays, but they are used. They are still a quick way to give a chance encounter a way to contact you, without needing any electronics or pen and paper.

Having, or not having, a business card tells the recipient something about you and your business.

They also sit in someone’s wallet or on their desk. If they are actually interested in what you’re selling, it may prompt them to contact you, just because they come across it three months later.

8. Business contacts

A sole trader who doesn’t have a postal address feels uncomfortable when dealing with other businessmen. 

Sooner or later, they’re going to want to post him something, see his website, get a business card from him or even ‘come down to the office for a meeting.' 

If you have no formal address, that’s embarrassing. 

The more successful you are, the more your clients and suppliers are going to investigate you; they want to know if you’re worth investing in. Your competitors will seek to undermine you or discover your weaknesses. Don’t give them ammunition. 

Give them a nice-looking address in a smart part of town and then get on with your business.

9. Domain registrations

A domain registrar will want a postal address for your web address listing. Nowadays they don’t publish them publicly, but they can become very important if there’s a dispute over your domain name. 

Where will the letter go to? To the postal address on the account. 

If you move house a lot, or you just want some privacy, you need to use a virtual address. Your circumstances may change but at least all will not be lost if you move house.

10. Other online registrations

Very often you’ll need to give a postal address to the more ‘serious’ websites. Problem: this address might be sold on, or the website hacked, or the website itself may start sending you commercial mail. 

Get a virtual business address and get some peace of mind.