We currently use my home address as our business mailing address. We don’t have an office or garage space, so our trucks meet here in the AM and I review the day’s routes with each crew. And all payments are mailed to my home.
That said, my wife and I are moving into a new home this spring. It’s slated to be completed in around 6-8 weeks. My question is for those of you who have moved recently or at anytime while in business. How did you notify your customers and when do you begin telling customers to use your new address?
I’m thinking of including a notice with each invoice stating our new address. I’m guessing I’ll start including these with our invoices around 2 weeks prior to our closing. Just curious how others have handled this so that I can get a solid game plan in place. I’d like to keep our accounts receivable running as seamlessly as possible throughout the move.
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I think a P.O. Box is the easiest way to do it. I have one and they aren’t that expensive. Mail forwarding is not very reliable. I have had some bad experiences with mail forwarding.
I think a P.O. box is a good idea in some respects but some customers might not take you serious if you have a P.O. box. On the other hand you don’t want clients or customers to pop into your house if they need to talk to you. I use my house address and have never had a problem. When I moved I just forwarded mail to the new address and mailed notifications to all my invoiced clients. Admittedly, I only have a small number of invoiced customers as I am mostly resi and get paid up front. Just my rambling opinions.
Lots of large companies with multiple locations use P.O boxes to collect mail, Including the California DMV, so I dont think it makes you look unserious… I think it would be better to have a po box rather than a customer seeing on google maps that your mailing address is in a residential area…
I would start giving out the notice earlier than 2 weeks as some customers take plenty of time to send checks. I don’t think it would hurt to direct them to the new mailing address as soon as you can receive mail there. PO Box would certainly eliminate any confusion during transition times.
I use the PO for all business related except for shipping (as we all know UPS won’t ship to a PO). I am glad I got the PO box. I have been surprised how many companies research business licenses for solicitation. I have been contacted on my biz line and my PO box by at least 10 different credit card processing companies along with insurance companies, The BBB and others. I feel better not having my home address so publicly available.
PO Box is the way to go. Mail is always early and if you move your PO Box stays. So no reordering estimate sheets and invoice books and notifying customers of a change of address. I too learned that the hard way
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PO box for sure! And I would do it now. I just moved a year ago and sent out notices a month before, changed the address on my invoices and still had cheques going to the old address 10 months later. If you do it now, when the send it to your home you can phone them and make sure they update there records. You’ll be surprised how many don’t even when you send a written notice.
Guess I’m the odd man out, hated the po box…it usually meant an extra trip or 3 to town…they stuff it with every advertisement imaginable…for some reason more so than home…once filled with junk mail, they don’t put the “good” mail in…I dumped it within a year. Much easier and more efficient for me to get deliveries to my residence.
Thanks. Yeah, I think you guys are right. This is a good time to transition my business to a PO Box. Do you guys only use the PO Box for billing? And then continue to use your home address for legal documents, taxes, banking, etc?
