What is a virtual office?
For businesses that don’t have a physical commercial location, a virtual office is an address you can register your business under that can receive mail on behalf of your business and then forward it to you.
Who needs a virtual office?
Anyone can use a virtual office including individuals who are sole traders, limited liability companies, freelancers, and individuals who may be between addresses, or without a permanent address such as those who lease their homes.
Virtual offices are great for anyone with a small business that needs a consistent and reliable place to receive mail, but doesn’t want their home address to be publicly available.
Benefits of a virtual office:
Protect your privacy by using a virtual business office as your business’ registered address instead of your personal address.
Virtual offices are also great for nomadic workers who need a consistent place to receive official mail. Many places, including COMMON, can forward your mail to your location.
For a business that doesn’t have a physical office space, using a virtual office address adds an extra element of professionalism. Your business will show as being located at an office space instead of a home address. At COMMON your virtual address will be located at our office space in downtown Tucson.
Why not get a P.O. box?
The biggest downfall to this option is that you can’t officially register your business to a P.O. Box. You could receive mail on behalf of your business at a P.O. box, but many organizations like the IRS will mail official documents to the registered address on file, which makes receiving mail for your business more of a hassle.
COMMON Virtual Office Membership Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Protect your privacy by registering your business under your virtual office address instead of your home address
- Elevate the professionalism of your business by having a location that’s located in a metropolitan area of town
- Have your mail conveniently forwarded to you
- Ensure that your mail is going somewhere where it will be managed with confidentiality and in a timely manner
- Attend COMMON events for free
- Get members-only pricing on conference rooms and printer
Cons:
- Due to Google’s terms of service, you won’t be able to use the virtual address as your business address on Google Maps, however you can still put in your home address, set a ‘service area’ and then hide your home address
- Your mail won’t arrive directly to your location. It will have to be picked up or forwarded, meaning you’ll have to account for this when receiving urgent or timely mail