Does anyone have suggestions for how to get around this problem?

I live in an apartment and my lease forbids me to use it for anything other than residential use. In philadelphia they charge a Use & Occupancy tax that my LANDLORD would be responsible for filing MONTHLY, if I use this address as my legal business address. That is why my lease forbids me to run a business from here.


So i need a business address for my DBA form, BPT (business privilege tax, another philadelphia tax burden) form, etc. I can't use a PO box I need a physical address. My business is a Music Publishing company, no physical product, no meeting clients, etc. I have no need for actual office space as everything I do will be via the web and phone/mail.

I would rather not incur the expense of renting full office space that I have no use for, just so I have a legitimate physical address for my business.

I have looked into office shares and sublets, as well as virtual offices. However, I'm not sure that either of these would provide the legal cover I need. Also even with virtual offices as low as $79/m, that works out to much more than the couple hundred dollars in Use & Occupancy tax I would pay annually if I simply owned my apartment/house.

Please suggest legal business address possibilities!!

Thanks!

Do a search in your area for PMBs or Private Mail Box. These are rental boxes that use a suite address. I don't know if that will really solve your problem or not, but some do offer a street address with a suite number, so it appears to be a physical address.

The other option is to look for part time suites, where you don't actually lease a permanent office. It's more like a time-share, where they have 'x' number of offices, including extra services such as copier and receptionists to take messages for you. Each time you might need it, you'd get the next office available - kind of like how some car dealers are stacking 2 to 4 sales people in the same office. Only as you have a client to meet with, or are making phone calls do you use the office. And if 'yours' is busy, you grab the first available.

I don't know if they offer that in Philly, but it's a big enough city to do it. And, it gives you the physical address and office to satisfy every letter of the law.

I've been hearing some company offering offices on talk radio, but they aren't in my area, so didn't pay much attention. It sounded like what I described though, so I'm sure they are out there, whether national or independent.

Good luck with your search.

Dennis

The previous person gave some great options. The only other one I can think of is to find someone with an office and to get permission to use their address for your business. You may find that if you know the person they may have no problem with it since you are not actually using space there.

Good Luck. Fortunately for me that's not a problem. I'm in an apartment too but we can use apartment addresses for home businesses here. That's one pro to living in Utah, nearly everyone has a home business.

Hi. There are several coworking facilities in Philly. These are places where homebased, entrepreneurs and freelancers can come together to work, to share ideas and thoughts, and lots of them let you use their address as your physical address as well. Check out: http://www.indyhall.org/coworking-faqs/.

Also, not knowing Philly I can't give you specifics, but I know that lots of businesses provide identity services where you get a virtual office that includes mailing address, phone answering, and more. You should check it out.

Good luck!

Nancy Becher
Business Success Unlimited
http://www.success4biz.biz
269-858-3431

You could look around for office space for rent that is inexpensive. I live in MN and have an office with a lobby. I offer the office space as a "shared office space with lobby to meet clients for a lite traffic for $100.00 a month". You can get business cards with this business address but do most of your work at home. You may find even less expensive in your area. And if you need to meet clients, they don't know you don't have an individual desk, they just come to the lobby.

The last suggestion will work, but I have to repeat my thought that a cowork center is a much better option for probably not a lot more money. There are conference rooms, there is free wifi, coffee/tea, etc., the use of a kitchen, and people around to collaborate with. I question meeting with colleagues/clients in a lobby. That stands out right there that it's not "really" your office.

Nancy
Business Success Unlimited
where we help businesses succeed: connecting/motivating/collaborating
http://www.success4biz.biz

:-)

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