Virtual Office

Even if you've been working at home for years, many clients still get worried if they spot your residential address. In fact, some think that you're not a "real" company if you don't have an expensive business address they can send mail to.

The easiest way to deal with this throwback is to set up a virtual mailbox. This gives you the vaunted commercial address – without you ever having to leave your home. How it works is simple: Your business mail goes to an actual office building, but once it gets there, it can be forwarded to your actual location (or anywhere else you choose), scanned to see if it's worth picking up, and more. Of course, you can also drive over and pick it up yourself.

Since most clients will never come to your physical location, this type of arrangement is often called a "virtual office." You can print it on your business cards, use it in your marketing materials, and otherwise represent it as your company location. As long as the clients don't recognize the address, the virtual office might as well be a physical one.

If you'd rather have your actual office at a business address, the same company that offers the virtual mailbox can take care of that, too. One in New Jersey has private office space for rent in the same building as their mailboxes, so you can have a business location without paying the high cost of commercial space. This is possible because the building is shared by many other entrepreneurs.

Whether you want a virtual office or a physical one, having your mail go somewhere other than your home is a big plus. You'll immediately seem more established in your field.