Business owners could be putting their home address into the public domain without realising the long-term consequences.
With more businesses being launched from homes and operated remotely, founders will often use their residential address when setting up a company. It is convenient and free, particularly in the early stages of a business.
But that address can then appear across a range of public records and business materials.
A home address used as a company’s registered office or a director’s service address can appear on the Companies House register. It can then be used on websites, invoices, correspondence, business directories, stationery and other business records.
This means an entrepreneur can unintentionally turn their private home address into their public business address.
For some business owners, this may not initially be a concern. However, as a company grows, keeping a distinction between home and business can become increasingly important.
There are obvious privacy concerns. Business owners may not want customers knowing where they live, suppliers sending correspondence to their home or someone who has found their address online turning up at their front door believing it to be the company’s premises.
There is also the issue of professional separation. A business may be operated from a spare bedroom or kitchen table, but that does not necessarily mean the owner’s home needs to become part of its public identity.
One alternative is a Royal Mail PO Box, although this has limitations. Companies House requires UK companies to have an “appropriate address” as their registered office, meaning a PO Box alone does not meet the requirement. It can also provide less of the appearance of a physical business address when used by a company dealing with customers and suppliers.
This has helped drive demand for virtual address and mail forwarding services, which provide businesses with a physical address without requiring them to rent office space.
London-based PostHQ.co.uk provides clients with a London street address that can be used to separate business correspondence from their residential address.
Its services include registered office addresses for Companies House, director’s service addresses, virtual mailboxes and mail forwarding. Mail received at the London address can be handled on behalf of the client, while the address can also be used for business correspondence on websites, stationery, business cards and directories where appropriate.
The model allows entrepreneurs working remotely to separate having a business address from having physical business premises.
It can also provide greater continuity for businesses.
A business owner using their home address may need to update records, websites and correspondence when they move. A remote entrepreneur could move between cities or countries while retaining the same London business address.
Businesses that later move into commercial premises can also choose to retain a separate correspondence address, avoiding the need to update an address that may already have been distributed across hundreds of records.
There is also a financial benefit. PostHQ says its London address services are available from the equivalent of around 33p per day, allowing businesses to have a professional address and somewhere to receive mail without renting office space.
PostHQ’s service reflects the changing role of the traditional office.
For many entrepreneurs, a permanent workplace is no longer essential. Businesses can be operated from homes, shared workspaces, hotels or from other countries, while employees and founders increasingly work across multiple locations.
The need for a permanent business address, however, has not disappeared.
Companies still need registered offices, directors need service addresses and businesses need somewhere to receive correspondence. At the same time, business owners are becoming more conscious of keeping their professional and private lives separate.
The address chosen when a business is first set up can therefore have consequences long after the company is established.
Once a residential address has appeared across public records and online, removing every reference to it can be difficult. Establishing that separation from the beginning can be much simpler.
Working from home may be increasingly common. Publishing the address of that home does not have to be.
