One Crucial Thing For Every Home Based Business

I heard a commercial on the radio this morning, and they said it was National Start a Business Month.  Over the years, and through the various businesses I started, I learned a few things.   I wanted to quickly share one thing that I wish I would have known a few years ago; and a few businesses ago.

One Thing I Wish I Would Have Known Before Starting  My Business

Given the business that I’m in, I could sit and write all about how important it is to have office space, or how a virtual office can help you.  I don’t want to do that, plus I already have; you can check out those  blog posts here.

What I can tell you though, is…

How important it is to have a good address –

When you are starting a business it is worth the minimal cost to invest in a solid address.  Safety alone, is a good enough reason to not display your home address.  Having an address, other then your home address, also looks more professional, but there is one other main reason.

If you are going to display an address on your website, and you want to rank in the search engines, it is crucial that you have a business address.  In order to rank high in Google Maps you will have to verify your business address.  It helps tremendously if it isn’t a home address, and it can’t contain a P.O. box.  If you go to a virtual office, or some other type of mailbox service, you can get an address that uses something like, Suite 110 instead of P.O. Box 110.  This seems like a little difference but it means a lot.

Your address will also be displayed in directories all over the web, and the address needs to be universally the same.  It’s funny, because of the business I am in now, this didn’t come into play, but I can speak from past experiences.  The first address I ever got for one of my businesses was P.O. Box, and I quickly found out the waste of money it was.  I couldn’t get a lot of deliveries, it looked cheesy, and I also wasn’t able to create a Google Map listing.  Google has changed a lot of their products since then (Places is switching to G+), but it if you are going  to verify your listing, I bet this is still the case.