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Nowadays, you don’t need a swanky impressive physical space to attract clients and assistants to handle your mail. Flexibility and cost effectiveness are two key features that define most startups, and most small business entrepreneurs rely on virtual offices. They often rent prestigious mailing addresses in important business districts without the hassle of registering at that residential addresses.

Why virtual postbox systems?

With the world of communication changing rapidly, virtual postboxes are fast replacing traditional, physical postboxes. Virtual postbox systems are less expensive to install and offer enhanced security than traditional postbox systems. For business owners who are on the move all the time, mail handling services are a blessing. No one really wants to be away on a vacation, come home, and find bills past the payment date or unanswered urgent correspondence. For example, at Gliffy, people rely on remote mail services such as Earth Class Mail to handle their overwhelming snail mail from customers and vendors.

What can virtual mailboxes do?

The sense of freedom that comes with knowing that a pile of unanswered mail is not waiting on your doorstep, or that your mail is unlikely to be lost or ignored, is great. One thing you can be sure of is that there will be no annoyed USPS mailman trying to stuff more mail into your already overflowing physical mailbox. Easy mail management at comparable costs—that’s what digital mail handling services can do. Online services scan, shred, recycle or forward the item that arrives at a unique virtual address—be it a letter, document or package. Moreover, you can sit in Paris and write a letter, scan and upload it, and post it to your client back home in Mumbai, without having to go to a post office or buy a stamp!

Making virtual mail handling work for you

Accessible across the globe, virtual PO boxes give your business the much needed professional image, increasing credibility and respectability. Small business owners need look no further than efficient and reliable virtual mailbox services, say the multinational Regus for example. All you need is a laptop and the Internet and, hey presto, you have access to your snail mail while waiting for your next flight. Mail gets sorted automatically and efficiently, and you are immediately alerted to incoming mail. These mails can be archived too. You can ensure that your private email remains secure and unopened if you so wish. Mail handling staff are typically monitored constantly. You can even sign up for virtual assistants, remote receptionists and phone answering services. As with all things, there are downsides to buying mail handling services. The money you pay to have your mail content scanned can add up. International forwarding can be expensive and can be a problem if you need it urgently.

Deciding whether a virtual mailbox works for you depends entirely on the kind of business you have and how you run it—that is, if you run a home-based service or are away from office a lot or want to keep it out of the public domain. Thanks to ‘paperless,’ convenient virtual options, your virtual presence can help retain control of your business no matter how often you go globetrotting.