How I Save $180 a Month in My Offline Marketing Business

26 replies
Hello everyone,

I do offline marketing full-time, and have been hanging onto my physical office (left-over from my last business) as an attempt to appear more professional to the local businesses.

Of course I am NEVER there (one client stopped in a few times to see me, and didn't even tell me. Of course I wasn't there), and keep this for professional reasons only. The rent was low (right smack in the center of town, for less than $200 a month!) and when I first started out in this biz it seemed to help me appear more legitimate since I had an actual office, and didn't work out of my home. I think people are afraid to hear that, because it makes you look less serious. Of course I realize this doesn't actually make us less legitimate, but when you are first starting out appearance IS important.

Now I know a lot of you out there are starting out and can't afford an office or don't want one, I don't blame you. Here's the thing though, if I ran my business mail through my home, my address is a court. Business owners will look at that and say, "bah, he runs this through his home", and may toss my mailing aside.

So how do you get your business out of your home while paying a small amount?

One option is to rent a post office box (people in the United States), but I think that looks lame too. To have an address: PO Box XXXX just screams cheap to me.

I had NO IDEA that the UPS store offers mailboxes but check this out, they DISGUISE the fact that they are boxes! How cool is that

I just closed my office, and instead of paying $200/month, now just pay $20 a month for my box at the local UPS store. My address now looks like this:

Local Ecommerce Solutions
434 Commons Square, Suite #434
Mytown, PA

Okay, that's now my address but you get the idea. It looks professional, and is cheap.

Just thought I'd share, I wish I knew about this a year ago, lol.

Matt
#appearing #business #marketing #offline #professional #tip
  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Ya I did the same thing, except I refer to mine as a Suite instead of a Unit, but same concept.

    "PO Box" has such a red flag associated to it these days, and a lot of companies refuse to mail to PO boxes that have no problems mailing to my "suite number."

    Add in a 1-800 number for clients to contact you through, and you can quickly look bigger / more professional than the average Joe (imo)

    ~Dexx
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    • Profile picture of the author Jagged
      Originally Posted by Dexx View Post

      Add in a 1-800 number for clients to contact you through, and you can quickly look bigger / more professional than the average Joe (imo)
      If your target market is national or multi-city then an 800# is great to have...almost a necessity.....but if you target locally only it's not really necessary to have an 800#....local businesss would tend to think your "not so local".... Also it's not advised to use 800#'s for Google Local Business Center...

      ~Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    Yeah I'd change unit to suite too. Unit sounds like an apartment, even worse!
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    • Profile picture of the author Flipfilter
      Originally Posted by Aaron Moser View Post

      Yeah I'd change unit to suite too. Unit sounds like an apartment, even worse!
      Hey! Our offices are a Unit

      In England unit is generally used for either Industrial properties, or as with ourselves, offices based on Industrial parks (because were cheap and Manchester City rents are ridiculous!) but never for apartments or domestic use.

      I'd also recommend getting human call answering service if you're in an industry where providing a customer support number can make a difference.

      They often charge by the call, the cost of which will likely be much less than the potential loss of a sale if you happen to be unavailable.
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Yeah, I was hoping to use Suite but wasn't sure if they were okay with that. Will definitely do that

    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Thanks everyone,

    Flipfilter, you raise a good point about having a human answering service. I initially did a campaign with an 800 number and was disappointed to see the number of people that called and didn't leave a message. I understand why it would make a difference.

    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author mpeters7
    I can't seem to find anything to back this up at the moment, but I think I read in the Four Hour Workweek that you can write a PO Box address like a normal address and it will get delivered. You just need the post office's street address.

    For example, say your PO Box is #150 and your post office is at 55 Main Street.

    Rather than writing
    PO Box 150
    Mytown, PA 15234,

    you write

    55 Main Street Suite #150
    Mytown PA 15234

    and it gets delivered the same, but looks way more professional.
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  • Profile picture of the author Formulam
    In New Zealand you would think a business was dodgy if it didn't have a p o box! Also lots of private people have p o boxes if they live in a village - it's the only way to get mail. Out in the countryside we have mail delivery, and in towns, but anything in between has a post office box at the local shop!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jimian
    Good move Matt.

    Like Dexx says about getting a 800#... they have it so
    they play 'on hold' music while they transfer it to you.

    Every little bit helps.

    ~ JIM
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    OFFLINE Marketing Strategies For The OFFLINE Warrior
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Yes, as Ken mentioned, it is not recommended to use an 800# in the local business directory.

    I have things separate, and have an 800# that only appears when targeting people nationally. I promote my local number locally. This also helps me separate my leads.

    Matt
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    • Profile picture of the author blissk
      Have you guys tried virtual office? I know here in NYC there are virtual offices you can rent and fully equiped with fax, local phone number/address, printer and usage of conference room for couple hours a month. I haven't personally tried it but strongly considering it. You can meet several clients a month using the conference room.
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      • Profile picture of the author Amanda_Davis
        Originally Posted by blissk View Post

        Have you guys tried virtual office? I know here in NYC there are virtual offices you can rent and fully equiped with fax, local phone number/address, printer and usage of conference room for couple hours a month. I haven't personally tried it but strongly considering it. You can meet several clients a month using the conference room.
        I use these all around the world... very useful.

        You can often use them for personal answering, mail, packages (sending and receiving), conference rooms, secretarial services and anything else you need. They're also usually part of large office buildings, so if you have meetings, nobody knows how big/small you are
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Hi Amanda,

    Very interesting! Yes, I've often thought about "opening a branch" in a bigger town that's about an hour away. This just might be the ticket I love the conference room inclusion and the fact that it can be an actual office building.

    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author SirThomas
    I heard you can't use "suite" for UPS mailboxes... I'll have to ask again.


    Thomas
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    • Profile picture of the author stacyfox
      I have an executive suite that I pay $50 a month for. Conference room time (if I need it, but I never do) is $20 an hour. My husband uses the same set up for his law office and uses the conference room time to meet clients extensively and never pays more than $500 a month - far less than having an office and secretary/receptionist etc. This is a great solution if you want a physical, staffed location but don't want the excessive overhead of an office.
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    That would be a shame if you can't use "suite" on UPS mailboxes. Any thoughts as to what would be the best thing then?

    I'm thinking just to have it like this:

    33 Trindle Rd. #343
    My town, PA

    Is that too confusing?
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    • Profile picture of the author Dillinger411
      @freudianslip27

      I purchased your Internet Marketing Superstar program a few months ago and now have three paying clients with a fourth in the works.

      The PO Box on my business card *is* really lame. The UPS store up the street told me that they would give me a physical address while I was shopping for a mailbox. I spent so much money on IM programs and computer equipment that I had to decline at the time but will reconsider soon. This is a really good suggestion.

      In the last 3 months I have gone from taking the marta bus to driving a car. In the next week I will be moving out of a room in college housing next to Georgia Tech and will be living in a 1200 SF house with a deck overlooking a quiet neighborhood. Received a $1000 order via email for another WordPress site this evening. I can't thank you enough Matt for your program and the inspiration.

      BTW the $120/month on SENuke has been a lifesaver. I can now run my business and *have a life*. I've been using it with the Thesis WordPress theme and gotten nothing but excellent results.
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    • Profile picture of the author DogScout
      Originally Posted by freudianslip27 View Post

      That would be a shame if you can't use "suite" on UPS mailboxes. Any thoughts as to what would be the best thing then?

      I'm thinking just to have it like this:

      33 Trindle Rd. #343
      My town, PA

      Is that too confusing?
      You can use a 'suite' for a home address.
      Jimmy James
      124 Oak Pl. #B
      Hometown, St, 99999

      (The B stands for 'Basement' Lol.)

      The other thing is to perfectly candid about having a home office and if you outsource at all, you are saving a lot of car pollution for yourself and you people. As well as drive time, "a perk of the business I'm in."

      When I worked for a business, we had several vendors with home offices. No one though twice about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    You are aware, that several reports label virtual offices as 'this address has been connected with multiple simultaneous residents/business. In some cases outright disclosing that that address is a mail box. Probably not a lot of clients run those reports, but it is legal for them to do so.
    Putting a virtual office address in Google sometimes discloses the entire set up. It's fine to use something like that as an address, but if outright asked, don't lie.
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
    Good thread. I especially looked for and use a mailing company that I can have a mailbox that I can put any words (unit, appartment etc) before or after the number that identifies my mailing box. It's great as I have one box I use for business (unit I use) and personal (box). They forward my mail or scan (and destroy). Works great especially as I'm not in one place anymore.

    Rich
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    • Profile picture of the author jjebfafl
      Matt,

      I've had my PO box for my business for at least 8 years or more...

      ...originally it was another local PO box / stationary store and then was taken over as UPS store. Actually it was one of the first things I did so I could then get business cards made up online at Vistaprint.com :-)

      I pay quarterly at $45, which is $15 a month. A cost saver compared to your empty office that you never really used at $200 a month right? And check their rates because if you pay it annually you will usually save a month or two's worth of payments for your PO box.

      Here's my PO address:

      J5Enterprises.com
      20687-2 Amar Rd. # 308
      Walnut, CA 91789

      Many Blessings,
      Jerold Johnson
      Los Angeles, CA
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Thanks Jerold,

    It's great to hear from a long term user. Yeah, I ended up just going with the # too. No suite or anything. I think that's the best way from the sound of other's opinions as well.

    Now if I could just find a quiet spot in my home to work, lol!

    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Same for me, I've been using Mail Boxes Etc for about 8 years in the UK. I just use the address and #122
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    nothing to see here.

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