There are many reasons why you would want to run a home based business. You can be your own boss, working the hours that suit your life in a comfortable environment.
However, registering your business under your real home address, as natural as it might seem, is not the best choice for you or the business itself. Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn’t register your home based business at your home address:
1) Your home address will be public
You need to provide an address to register with Companies House.
This address is logged by Companies House, so is publicly available. This means anyone could then go and find your home address, which could lead to privacy issues and unwanted visitors.
Registering a separate address not only avoids the cons of a home address that are mentioned in this post, but also keeps your private life private.
2) You would have to display your home address on your website...or no address
Having a good contact page on your website is a big part of making a good impression. People want to see that your business operates from a real address and if your only address is your home address, you’ll either have to display this or display nothing.
It’s essential that you make the best impression, so the best option is to use a virtual address to avoid this dilemma.
3) You may struggle to instil trust in prospects
London is a city full of powerful, high-quality businesses. Dublin is another. So is Edinburgh. Simply having an address in one of the several prestigious UK locations will transfer some of that city’s reputation to your home based business. This is a simple way to bolster your business’s image, but so easy to miss out on.
Your potential clients will be sensitive to the significance of your location, whether they know it or not. A home based address could convey to them a lack of professionalism compared to an office address in a city. They might never find out how good your business actually is. You should be doing everything you can to show customers why they should pick your business. Particularly online, where it’s difficult to show people what your business ‘looks’ like, your address can say a lot.
5) Mixing up business and personal mail
When you list your home address as your business address, you’ll receive business mail to your home. Think about how much mail you get now and then double, triple - even quadruple that! You’ll get mail you want, as well as that you don’t, and it can be difficult to keep up.
Keeping business and home separate is a great way to compartmentalise the two areas of your life. This enables you to be more organised and to ensure you always read your business mail and that it doesn’t get lost amongst personal post.
What are your options as a home-based business?
Many home-based businesses today are choosing to register using an official business address, rather than their own residential address.
To do this, you could rent a space, but this can be expensive (especially if you want a prestigious address in a location like London). Alternatively, you could choose to buy a registered address from as a little as £30 per year. This can be used to register your company with Companies House, keeping your personal address off public record. For just a little extra, you can choose from mail forwarding or virtual office address services, which include mail handling for your business too
published under Starting a Business
