A virtual address is a smart, cost-effective way to establish a business presence in a specific area with a professional address. It’s a great way for home-based businesses and entrepreneurs to avoid using their home addresses for business correspondence — but what about manufacturers?
Manufacturers have plenty of reasons to set up a virtual office address too. It can free you from constant trips to the local post office, improve your business’s professional image, take mail management off your plate, and much more.
Here’s what manufacturers need to know about switching their business entity over to a virtual address.
A virtual address is a real, physical street address that businesses and individuals can use as their mailing address without physically occupying that space. It’s owned and managed by a virtual address provider (like Stable), that manages the physical location and processes any mail you receive at that address.
A virtual address isn’t the same thing as a virtual office. Both offer a business address and a place to receive mail, but a virtual office adds more in-person services.
Virtual offices typically come with physical space you can use on an occasional basis (physical office space, meeting rooms, or both) and may include branding and front desk reception. Costs are considerably higher as a result.
Using a virtual business address delivers numerous benefits:
You’ll also see the term “virtual mailbox” tossed around, and it might seem identical to a virtual address.
These services are similar, but there’s one key difference. Virtual address services provide a physical address and may offer limited or a la carte mail handling services.
Virtual mailboxes, on the other hand, provide a more comprehensive set of mail management services. They typically offer digitizing, forwarding, and shredding of business mail, along with package consolidation, registered agent services, check depositing, and more.
A virtual mailbox comes with a virtual address, as the mailbox doesn’t work without somewhere to send that mail. But a virtual address can be a standalone service without mail management.
So what does all this have to do with manufacturing? You certainly already have physical real estate, which eliminates the most obvious reason to use a virtual mail service.
Still, there are plenty of benefits to using a virtual business address that apply to the manufacturing sector, which means a virtual address may still be a good idea.
Here are three of the most important reasons manufacturers choose to use a virtual address or virtual mail service.
Many states won’t allow businesses to use a P.O. Box for registration purposes — and many banks won’t let you open a bank account using one either. So you may need a real street address for legal purposes. (You can look up your state’s policies via the Small Business Administration.)
If, for any reason, you don’t want to register using your warehouse address, a virtual address is the simplest alternative.
While you already have access to a street address, your warehouse or manufacturing facility still might not be the ideal location to present to your clients or customers. You may also want to avoid broadcasting to the world where your manufacturing facility or warehouse is located.
This can be for privacy and safety reasons — say you manufacture high-end electronics or components for sensitive material. But you may also want to present a more professional image for branding and marketing purposes.
For example, there’s nothing wrong with a manufacturer making and packaging protein bars at a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of a small rural town in the Midwest. But it might feel a little strange to any curious customers who look up the address on the sleek modern packaging.
And it’d be even weirder for any customers, clients, or potential business customers who show up at that warehouse address expecting to find a storefront or showroom.
Receiving postal mail at your primary manufacturing location comes with a host of follow-up requirements.
It means you need someone to be at that location ready to receive and deal with mail. It might mean you need a public-facing front desk. And before you know it, you have a small staff of office workers in a little box you tacked onto the edge of your commercial building.
But do you really need those non-manufacturing staffers to be at that location? And do they want to be there?
Using a virtual mailbox service for incoming mail could be the key to abolishing the physical office side of your business. Those team members can work remotely, reducing distractions and the possibility of an on-site accident from team members who don’t really need to be in the warehouse and don’t know how the machinery works.
Plus, with virtual mailbox service, multiple team members or departments can access and categorize mail digitally. So HR can deal with mail that’s relevant to them, sales and customer support can deal with their correspondence, and so on.
Getting a virtual address for your business is easy — just follow these steps, and you’ll be on your way to a hassle-free virtual address experience!
First, choose your virtual mailbox provider. There are plenty of options out there, and researching them can be a bit frustrating.
Each provider offers a slightly different set of features. Plus, many providers have confusing pricing models designed to draw you in with a “low monthly price” that’s quickly inflated by volume pricing and a la carte services.
So before you select a provider, take a few moments to list out your priorities. For example:
With a clear understanding of what you need, start looking at various providers to see how they compare against your priorities.
Stable, LegalZoom (formerly Earth Class Mail), and iPostal1 are three popular virtual mail services worth checking out.
And Stable offers advanced transition guidance and ongoing support, along with tech-forward features built in. Auto-routing, assigning mail to teammates, and even registered agent services (as an add-on) are all here.
We don’t have the space here to do a deep dive on every virtual mailbox provider. But if you’d like to explore the competition more thoroughly, our roundup of the best virtual mailbox providers is a great place to start.
Next, you’ll want to think through whether you need a virtual address alone or a virtual mailbox along with it. The primary driver here is whether you intend to regularly receive mail at the address and how much mail volume you anticipate.
Some small business owners and startups receive virtually no physical mail, while other business owners rely heavily on receiving mail at a physical address.
If you receive mail regularly, you should opt for a virtual mailbox service that receives and processes each piece of mail at a secure mail center.
Even if your mail needs are minor, you still might want one. A virtual mailbox comes with a much wider range of features and capabilities (such as remote check depositing, registered agent services, and mail scanning and forwarding).
Next, select your chosen virtual address. Each virtual address provider handles this process in its own way. Some will offer you countless options at varying tiers. Others have only a few to choose from, while others (including Stable) offer attractive addresses in multiple strategic cities and states.
You’ll work with your chosen address provider during this process to select an address with the right mix of elements for your business use case.
Businesses must declare a registered agent in any state in which they operate. A registered agent is a person assigned to interact with the state on business matters. This can be yourself, an employee, or an independent third party.
However, it gets tricky for businesses that want to operate in states where they don’t actually have a physical presence. So some virtual address providers offer registered agent services as an add-on.
If you’re struggling to manage or find registered agents in all of your markets, choosing a virtual mailbox service that offers registered agent services could be the optimal solution.
Switching your manufacturing business to a virtual address or virtual mailbox delivers a lot of benefits beyond just giving you a professional address. And Stable is a leading virtual mail provider that offers fully customizable services to perfectly fit your business needs.
Stable is a true one-stop shop for any mailing needs your manufacturing business may have. Whether you just need a virtual address or require full mailbox services, check cashing, and even a registered agent, Stable can deliver.
With competitive pricing, prestigious addresses, and superior service, Stable is the clear choice for all of your mail management needs.
Why wait? Get started with Stable today.
