Many business owners still hold the assumption that their business needs a physical address. This could be an office, a shop or a store. But the fact is, none of this is necessary anymore. Instead, businesses can be run entirely digitally. We’re going to look at a few areas on this article including why this happened, what it means for companies and the tools you will need to be successful without a physical address. We’ll also look at some of the problems that you can have with your business when there’s no physical address and how these issues can be rectified. But, let’s begin by considering an important question.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Pranch
What Changed?
Obviously, there was a time when a physical address was an essential part of your company. For offices, you needed a place for employees to work and operate together. This was crucial for keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring that the company was operating smoothly. It wasn’t just about having a physical address either. Typically, an office needed to be in a certain location as well, usually in the center of the city.
An office wasn’t just useful for practical purposes. It will also a sign of success and superiority. The most powerful businesses had massive, advance offices with the best workers and tech on display for clients and investors to see. The office was a crucial area of the business brand. Nothing short of the heart of the company.
Today, the heart of the company has evolved. It could be argued that the heart of your business is now your website. What does this mean? Think about it, the website is where customers come to find information about your business, buy products, use services or even contact your company. This is the main point of access for them. Most clients won’t feel the need to come down to the office when everything can be handled online.
In the past, there were limitations to what you could do online and how you could interact. Advances in technology have slowly chipped those limitations away to the point where they are no longer apparent at all. An example of this would be data transfers. No more than five years ago, the amount of data you could transfer online was quite small and limited. Today, you can transfer, store and process as much as you like. It’s one of the reasons why data protection regulations like the GDPR are so important and indeed crucial. You can learn more about the GDPR on TheGuardian.com.
But it’s not just the tech that has changed. Human behavior has evolved as well. Think regarding shopping and purchases. In the past, you would need to go down to your local store or high-street to purchase products. These days you can buy most of the products you want online and make things far easier. For instance, Amazon has driven many companies out of business or forced them to adopt the online model. Some businesses have successfully adapted to become purely online. This includes HMV and Zavvi that used to be a staple of the high street for film enthusiasts. Now, they profit from selling products online, both trading in exclusive products that can’t be found in bigger stores like Amazon. This is one of the ways that previous real-world companies can still be competitive online.
Also Read
What Do You Need To Succeed
Shutterstock licensed Photo – By Lemau Studio
If you are going to run a company without a physical business address there a few crucial aspects of your company that must be in place. This includes a rapid internet connection or server. It is crucial that when you operate online, your productivity levels are not impacted, and your business remains efficient. With a slow connection, this becomes near impossible. Luckily, there are many businesses that provide fast speeds for companies.
It’s worth pointing out that this is another reason why businesses needed to be located in the center city. That’s was the fastest point for online connections. Today, you can survive or indeed thrive with a business in the suburbs because your company will still remain connected.
Speaking of connectivity, you need to consider how your business team will work without a business office. Obviously, if you don’t have an address, you won’t have everyone working from the same place. The market is more than able to compensate with freelancers, mobile workers and outsource companies. But you can also think about hiring full-time workers and have them operate on a level of mobility. If you do this, you need to make sure that you can still connect and communicate, keeping everyone on the same track or on the same page.
How do you do this? Well, there is software available that you can use to setup a base platform for your company. This will operate on your website and allow clients to communicate with you. Or, it could be a private access system, purely for employees and colleagues. Learn how to set up an online platform for your business on Dummies.com.
Even basic instant messaging software can provide you with a beneficial way to keep everyone connected. This is free, so it doesn’t require massive investments or complicated setups.
You might also want to think about investing in the management service for your e-commerce model. As soon as you decide to go purely digital, you will be running an e-commerce company, even if you weren’t before. It can be quite difficult to remain competitive in this arena. The solution is to use a service offered on sites such as SourceShipSell.com. With a company like this, you won’t have any difficulty handling every aspect of your online e-commerce company, even selling on sites like Amazon. The more resources you can use online, the more likely it is that your company is noticed and sell to a large audience.
This will be essential for maintaining profitability. These three things will provide the basics that your business operating purely in the digital realm. However, there is one other thing you will need, and that’s security. As mentioned the new digital world has led to more intense security issues including struggles with hacks and cyber theft. If you don’t have the right security, you will quickly lose customers.
Any Exceptions?
Be aware that this only applies to public business models. There are companies with physical addresses that a client or customer will never see and is not intended to be part of the brand. An example would be manufacturing. A Manufacturing company will still have a factory, and this may include an office within it. However, there is no need for a business like that to have a head office. The website can help instead by the home hub of the company.
Indeed, even companies that seemingly online exist in the real world and have no brand basis online, actually don’t need a physical address. For instance, construction companies can now exist without an office. Instead, mobile offices can be setup at the construction site of each individual project or build.
Solving The Issues Of No Physical Address
It’s true, there are issues that you will encounter when you don’t have a business address, but they can all be fixed and solved. For instance, even if you don’t want a full business address, you can still have temporary options. You can use a virtual business office offer on Rates.JaySuites.com. The benefits of this are that you will still have a physical address as part of your company, brand. Clients and investors will be able to see this and even contact you there through a virtual mailbox. This is also one of the ways that you can avoid the perception that only small, unsuccessful businesses avoid having a business address.
Even if you are operating outside of the city, you can use a virtual number to make it look like your business is in the center city. This helps you counter unfair perceptions that will immediately be formed by customers.
What happens when clients want to meet in person? You can give them a more personal service by taking them out for a meal or even travelling to their office if you are running a B2B company. Typically, though, you will in-person meetings are very rare. Most people these days are more than happy to interact with video calls and these can be set up anywhere with a strong internet connection.
You might also find that the lack of physical address and the fact that all your employees are operating from different locations leads to drops in quality. However, the rules of maintaining quality are more or less the same. In other words, you need to make sure that you are keeping track of your employees and the work that they are putting out. Only lazy managers and owners will struggle with this problem when they are running a virtual company. Ultimately, as long as you remain hands on, you will be able to address any issues with the quality of service as soon as they appear.
We hope you see now that public physical businesses addresses should be left in the past. As well as adding massive costs to your company typically they are no longer needed.
