subject: Mail Options When You're Homeless (office-wise!) And Want To Look Bigger Than You Are [print this page] Are you operating a tiny, home-based business? Does the idea of having all of your business-related correspondence arrive at your home seem weird? If so, you have two basic options: P.O. Boxes and FedEx store boxes. Sometimes, the best piece of information to help you decide is simply location (is one of these in walking distance?), but there are some clear advantages and disadvantages to both.
You'll pay about $50 or less annually for a basic box at the post office, versus approximately $250 annually for a FedEx box. With a P.O. Box, you'll experience the occasional annoyance of FedEx and UPS packages requiring delivery at a different location, as they cannot deliver to their competitor's facility. That said, you can pick up mail from your box 24/7 (as the lobbies are typically unlocked), whereas FedEx boxes are generally only available during business hours.
The big selling point of FedEx store boxes is that you can actually get a physical address. At first glance, this will make you look bigger than you are. For example, your address may be, "123 Smith Avenue, Suite 300." Sounds like a street, but actually it's 123 Smith Avenue (the FedEx store location) and mail box 300 (you have mail box 300, of potentially hundreds of other boxes, inside the building). In addition to generate a sense of largeness, there's a big benefit to doing this: Google Local and Yahoo Local require a street address, not a P.O. Box. Apparently, they haven't cross-referenced against the list of FedEx locations, because these boxes actually count. Thereby, you can get an instant local presence on the web.
I didn't select this option, myself. The first reason: It may seem a little deceptive, if someone realizes what the address really is. For example, a polling firm called Strategic Vision has been charged with very credible claims of extreme dishonesty (making up their survey results from scratch, to fit political objectives) and they use a FedEx box for their address. When people learnt that they weren't located at whatever number, whatever street, but simply had a mailbox, it added to their overall essence of deceptiveness. I didn't want to take the credibility risk.
The second reason why I didn't select this option: I didn't necessarily want the local presence, as it would be arguably limiting. If you don't mind the local presence, it's a great way to get some backlinks. Run a backlink check for the website of a small business local to you, and you're likely to find Yahoo Local links (and possibly not much else)! This is wonderful, if you're not trying to be a national service/website. But if you are trying to be national, the reinforcement of a local presence will make you look better to your neighbors and more alien to everyone else.
