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Website Business Address??

by BarryUK
9 replies
Dear Friends

I am preparing to start my business from home and I am in the process of designing my first website. I understand that to be legal now you have to list your business address on the your website. I do not want to list my home address so I have been looking at paying for a business address. Looking at virtual offices prices these address range upwards of £40.00+ per month. I find this very worrying as being made redundant and a new starter I do not have the money to throw around at the moment.

I would be grateful if anyone could help me with their own knowledge or any contacts they may have. Also I understand you have to have a business telephone No as well this will no doubt be another expense for me.

Many thanks in anticipation of your responses.
Regards
BarryUK
#address #business #website
  • Profile picture of the author IMChick
    Can you get a mail box at the post office? This is much cheaper than the virtual office addresses. The main drawback beyond not having a listed address is that here in the States is that you can not receive packages shipped by FedEx or UPS.

    What about a virtual phone number from a message only service. This is a very inexpensive way to get around it. Or look at a Virtual number from a VOIP company like vonage here.

    It's good to keep your eye on the expenses as you start out. These two recurring expenses are absolute essentials to business entry, unfortunately.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mo Goulet
    Originally Posted by BarryUK View Post

    Dear Friends

    I understand that to be legal now you have to list your business address on the your

    BarryUK
    Is this a law in the UK?

    I haven't heard anything about it here in the US.

    I know you need to have accurate data for the whois listing but on your website???
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    Domain Names For Sale. Make an Offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Earl Smith
    I would recommend a p.o. box address than a virtual address and since you cannot recieve Fed Ex or UPS from a P.O. box if you are frequently dealing with that type of shipping i would set up an account with a company post it on your site and work out pick up arrangements with that company to conceal your personal address. I may seem to be a lot but its really two calls a trip to Fed Ex or UPS and PEACE IN MIND

    Hope I could be of some help
    Earl Smith
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    Earl Smith
    InGenious Revolution News

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  • Profile picture of the author Paul1234
    The registered address of your company can also be your accountants or solicitors address (with their permission). There's no requirement (that I can see) amongst the disclosure rules in the Companies Act 2006 to have a business telephone listed. The address information is simply used to serve legal papers.
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    Paul Turner

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    • Profile picture of the author BarryUK
      Hi Guys

      Many thanks for your replies unfortuately you are not allowed to use PO Box Nos you have to show a geographical address along with a telephone No and e-mail address plus vat No if registered. I have copied below a section of the Ecommerce Directive.


      Ecommerce Directive

      (a)You must display the name of your business, the company registration number (or proprietor's name), geographical address (not a PO Box number), contact information e.g., telephone number and email address, VAT registration number (if registered).(b)You may refer to trade or professional schemes if applicable.(c)You must provide clear information on price, tax and delivery to buyers.(d)You must clearly display your site's Terms and Conditions.(e)You must acknowledge all orders.(f)In commercial communication with your customers, you must clearly identify any electronic communication designed to promote your goods or services.(g)You must clearly identify the sender of all electronic communication.(h)You must clearly define any promotional offers and the qualifying conditions regarding these offers.(i)If you send unsolicited emails, you must clearly identify them as unsolicited.For more information see:
      The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations
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      • Profile picture of the author earnontheinternet
        Maybe just display your real home address on your website - as long as you know your customers are going to be happy there is no reason not to.

        just my 2c worth
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  • Profile picture of the author ExRat
    Hi Barry,

    upwards of £40.00+ per month
    There's no need to pay that much. Just make sure to set up the mail service properly (IE if you want mail sent via there it's going to add up, so tell them to hold any mail (rather than forwarding it) and don't encourage people to send mail to that address.)

    I'm a little confused about that directive. I googled it and found this page -

    The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002

    After a quick skim I noticed near the top it says -

    Made 30th July 2002
    Laid before Parliament 31st July 2002
    Coming into force
    Regulation 16 23rd October 2002
    Remainder 21st August 2002
    Notice there is no date given for coming into force. I don't have my business address on my websites, and wouldn't want it there, because it would attract junk mail which I would have to pay for the handling of. I suspect this is something 'put before parliament' that never came into force - but don't take my word for it.

    I use a virtual address mainly for autoresponder and whois purposes.

    Anyway, I use these -

    virtual address in UK

    They're a lot less than £40 a month and I haven't had any issues with them. I used another one in London previously, but it's worth googling the address they will give you before signing up - the last one I used was heavily utilised by a bunch of porn and dodgy fetish type websites - so if someone googled my previous virtual address, they might have incorrectly associated me with all those weirdos.

    HTH
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    Roger Davis
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    • Profile picture of the author BarryUK
      Originally Posted by ExRat View Post

      Hi Barry,

      There's no need to pay that much. Just make sure to set up the mail service properly (IE if you want mail sent via there it's going to add up, so tell them to hold any mail (rather than forwarding it) and don't encourage people to send mail to that address.)

      I'm a little confused about that directive. I googled it and found this page -

      The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002

      After a quick skim I noticed near the top it says -

      Notice there is no date given for coming into force. I don't have my business address on my websites, and wouldn't want it there, because it would attract junk mail which I would have to pay for the handling of. I suspect this is something 'put before parliament' that never came into force - but don't take my word for it.

      I use a virtual address mainly for autoresponder and whois purposes.

      Anyway, I use these -

      virtual address in UK

      They're a lot less than £40 a month and I haven't had any issues with them. I used another one in London previously, but it's worth googling the address they will give you before signing up - the last one I used was heavily utilised by a bunch of porn and dodgy fetish type websites - so if someone googled my previous virtual address, they might have incorrectly associated me with all those weirdos.

      HTH

      Hi ExRat

      Many thanks for your reply it's appreciated. I will check out the link you gave me.

      Kind Regards
      BarryUK
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      • Profile picture of the author alexph11
        Thanks for the Virtual Address website in the UK seems like the cheapest I've seen so far. Does anyone have a list of websites that they know of showing the best deals for virtual addresses?

        For use in the auto-responder for the follow-up emails, can you use a virtual address from anywhere in the world or should it be in the country or province you are resident?
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