Virtual Offices and Mail Forwarding for Expats

Looking at virtual office solutions and mail and phone call forwarding services for expatriates living and working abroad

At the moment Britain is witnessing massive levels of emigration and the brain drain is the worst for the past fifty years according to the OECD.  Many of us have had enough of expensive, dull and violent living on an overcrowded island and have decided to jump ship and get away from the UK as it sinks into recession.

Whilst many expats choosing to live abroad are retired, there are many of us who have to continue working overseas as the ability to retire abroad is still some way off. 

If you’ve managed to find work with an overseas company - all well and good - but if you’re working as a self employed or freelance worker you may not want your clients back home knowing that you are now living and working overseas, envy being one of the deadliest sins after all!  Setting up a virtual office and mail forwarding service for expats allows you to maintain a face in any country you choose and continue to operate from any location you like without anyone having to find out. 

It’s not quite the ultimate deception, but it’s just another weapon in the growing armoury for expats living abroad.

The virtual office and mail forwarding idea was initially designed to allow people to set up businesses without them having to incur the costs of setting up an office.  It also allowed such individuals to register their business with an exclusive address without having to actually rent or own an office at that address.  Doctors, for example, working in Lower Slaughter in the Cotswolds could register their business at an address in Harley Street, an altogether far more agreeable location for worried patients! 

Taking the idea on to its next logical step, it was obvious that mail forwarding and virtual office solutions also offered advantages for people living abroad.

Virtual office and mail forwarding services vary and are extremely flexible both in terms of the solutions on offer and the prices being asked by providers.  The services themselves offer expats living abroad a cheap and easy method of maintaining a company profile in the UK. 

There are a number of virtual office options, dependant on your needs.  The most basic option is to purely buy a business address for such things as registering your company with an authority such as Companies House in the UK.  Costs for a simple business address and mail forwarding are around £20 - £30 per annum, and you can choose somewhere special for your address like Bond Street in London.  Your mail will be forwarded on to a destination of your choice.

Taking things up a peg, virtual office and mail forwarding suppliers also have the facilities to offer expats living abroad the advantage of a telephone answering service with a telephone number from a country of their choice, obviously it should match your business address.  They can also arrange to have it answered in the name of your company.  A UK based telephone answering service for a month during standard office hours costs in the region of £30 per month. 

As an aside - Skype also offers you the chance to buy a telephone number in a range of countries and you can then receive calls over your computer anywhere in the world whilst your clients, or your other half, still thinks you’re in London!

Should you need to actually meet some of your clients - heaven forbid - many virtual office providers also offer the option to hire out offices per hour, half day or day.  All in all, what a fantastic way for expats to live overseas, working from the beach, Piña Colada in hand whilst their clients are happy to continue paying top rates, continuing to think that you are still working from a dingy office basement in Stoke on Trent!