By utilizing iPostal, your business might be inadvertently losing out on millions of dollars. Do you ever wonder why you are getting flagged when it comes to funding? That could be from your virtual mailbox. In this episode, Patrice Jordan sheds light on how going the cheap route with a $7 or $9 mailbox could be costing your business more in the long run. Discover the crucial role of your corporate address in this process and learn why overlooking key factors, such as using iPostal, could result in significant financial losses for your business. Patrice emphasizes the importance of thorough research before selecting your address and shares insights on identifying red flags for lenders. Join us in unlocking the secrets to successful business establishment and growth – tune in and embrace your inner boss!
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Using iPostal Is Costing Your Business Millions Of Dollars
Can you guys believe we’re already on Episode 6? Episode 6 is probably going to be one of our most important moments. I say that because a lot of you guys come to me for specific things. One of those specific things just happened to be a business address. A lot of you guys apply for companies like iPostal or mailbox services that are getting you guys flagged. Let’s get ready to jump into Bosses Build Business Credit Episode 6. I am your host, Patrice S. Jordan, Founder and CEO of Her Secret Vault and now Bosses Build Business Credit Show.
Let’s talk about this really quick. When it comes to getting vehicles, Airbnb, and funding under your business, so many of you guys want to get funding, but you are using a mailbox that’s getting you flagged. First, we want to switch the term from saying virtual mailbox to now, corporate account. Many of you guys are going to places like the banks and you’re saying things like, “I have a virtual address.” The bank would tell you, “Unfortunately, we cannot use a virtual box. It has to be an actual address.”
We want to switch from saying virtual address to now saying corporate address because that is a proper term. We also want to stop using companies like iPostal. It’s the number one company that’s flagging you guys when it comes to getting no PG business credit, no PG vehicles, no PG Airbnb, and no PG funding. We want to stop using things like virtual boxes. Whenever you guys are picking an address for your business, make sure that it looks like a corporate building. Many of you guys are trying to go the cheap route and go into a $7 and a $9 mailbox. When it’s time for you guys to grow and scale your business, you cannot. The reason why you cannot is because your address is flagging you.
Do Not Use Your Home Address
Let’s jump in quick about the breakdown of business addresses because this is probably number one. First and foremost, do not use your home address on your Secretary of State paperwork or your IRS paperwork. The reason for that is, as you guys saw in Episode 5, all of your business information is public information. I talk about this all the time, especially those of you guys who are in the credit repair field. You have a lot of clients who mess up their credit in a short amount of time. When they come in to do credit repair, they want overnight success with credit repair. It takes time for people to mess up their credit. It’s not necessarily a short amount of time, but it takes time.
If you have people that are putting things in collections, repo, evictions, and inquiries on their credit report, that takes time. When they come to you, they want you to be a magic worker and remove these things off of their credit immediately. I tell credit repair specialists all the time, “I have a whole new respect for you guys because dealing with clientele on the credit repair side, I keep you guys in prayer.” Going back to this address. If you’re in industries like that where people can easily find you, which every business could be found online, in a more environment where they’re more distraught or upset about something, you should not have your home address on your corporate documentation or EIN documentation. You should always be using a corporate address AKA a virtual address.
I want to show you guys what a proper corporate address looks like. I’m going to show you guys the difference between a bad corporate address and a good corporate address. You have to invest in your business because investing in your business is you investing in yourself. Stop trying to take the easy way out and run into iPostal, PO Box, or these other places that are causing you guys to get flagged. I have a few options that I want to tell you to help you guys through the process of not getting the vehicles under your business. I talk so much about getting vehicles under your business that is a secondary thought to me, but picking the proper virtual address or corporate address for your business. This is the number one reason why businesses are getting flagged when it comes to funding.
Bad Corporate Address: iPostal
Have you ever gone to the bank and the bank said, “We cannot use this address. We have to use your home address?” This is one of the reasons. It’s because you have a bad corporate address. Have you ever tried to get funding and they say to you, “We can’t give you funding without you personally guaranteeing it because your business is not established enough?” I’m sure. These are some key points as to why they ask for things like these. First, let’s talk about corporate addresses and why you need to have the proper corporate address, then I want to show you what real good corporate addresses actually look like. Let’s go to iPostal. iPostal has 99.9% of bad addresses. A lot of you guys pick iPostal because it’s cheap, but you’re also picking addresses that are flagging your business.
When you go to iPostal, you go to Locations and Office buildings. Now keep in mind that iPostal literally gives the same address to every and anybody in that state. You are not unique. That’s a difference between these addresses that you have to be unique within your business. If you are going to use the same address, you have to use a different suite number. iPostal gives the same address with the same suite number and that’s what’s flagging people.
Let’s go to Georgia because Georgia is a huge market when it comes to entrepreneurs and business owners. Most of the time, people go to something like this because technically the photo shows us a corporate address. Let’s start here and I want to show you guys the difference. Before you even think about purchasing an address, make sure you do your work behind it. It’s simple. Go to Google, copy and paste the address in, and let’s see what comes up.
Before you even think about purchasing an address, make sure you do your work behind it.
With this particular address that comes up, it has a suite number of 160 on it. Sometimes it’s a suite number that’s flagging people. Let’s look at this address. The first thing that pops up for this address is office, Alliance, then you have more virtual office. You have Davinci, which is more virtual office. This off the back is a bad address. When you are looking for an address, the first thing that pops up should not say virtual address. That’s what’s happening here because a lot of these companies are using the same suite number. What I tell my students all the time is sometimes we have to remove the suite number, not all the time, to get good results.
Now let’s see if removing the suite number gets us a better result when it comes to getting a proper virtual address or corporate address. It didn’t make a difference. What this tells us is that the address as a whole is bad. It’s the number one reason why we do not use iPostal. Look how many companies is using the same exact address. This is a major red flag to lenders. You have all these virtual companies in different walks of life using the same address.
Let’s stay within that same state. Let’s look at another one that looks like a corporate building. This is why it’s important for you guys to understand how to pick the proper address for your business. We’re going to go to this address. Let’s look and see what’s happening with this address. Again, we’re going back to an address in Georgia and let’s see what comes up. Office, virtual, liquid space, and Davinci. These are bad addresses. When it comes to getting anything under your business, if it’s a vehicle, getting funding, or anything that you guys are looking to do, this is a bad address.
Again, we have to remove the suite number sometimes in order for us to get better results. Let’s try to remove the suite number and see if it made a difference for us here. Off the back, you can already tell there’s a slight difference because instead of showing us nothing that was here, it is showing us now a building. Atlanta buildings are a little bit different. Let’s go back down and see if we can remove the suite number in order for us to get better results from using an address like this. Removing the suite number made a slight difference, but it doesn’t make a huge difference when it comes to what these lenders are looking for. Hence, why I tell you guys to stop using iPostal. iPostal addresses, in general, are not good at all.
I want to go to another company. I pulled up another mailbox because I want to show you why this mailbox is what’s flagging you guys. Here’s another address in general from one of my students. It’s also in Georgia. Here’s the thing about this address. It’s already registered here. If you notice, it says, “Georgia Secretary of State.” Some people are even allowing you guys to use addresses that are connected to other companies that’s getting you flagged major quickly. This does not work. You have to have a proper address.
I want to go to one more. Same exact thing. Another Georgia address. When you guys are picking these virtual addresses AKA corporate addresses, you should not be utilizing these addresses that come up as virtual from the very beginning. The first three lines here are virtual. What you want to do is if virtual comes up or corporate address comes up as the fifth, sixth, or fourth one, you’re in a better position. You can use those addresses.
Using iPostal: If a virtual or corporate address comes up as the fifth, sixth, or fourth one, you're in a better position.
Let’s look at an address that is a little bit better into what you guys need to use for you to have a proper corporate address. This is a personal address that I use myself. If you guys notice, I come up in the search engine on Google for this particular business and address. I’m already sitting in a good place. We have Yelp reviews and eateries.
Let’s see how far we going to go down until it starts saying virtual address or corporate address. Sky New York Realty tells you the office space for lease. My business is good. Why? Because nothing on here so far says virtual. As we go down, it says First Office Hub or office space. Notice that it says office space versus going back to an iPostal address that’s giving us something along the lines of virtual spaces or all these other spaces that are using the same address.
I’m going to pull this up in more detail. When you guys are picking an address, pick an address that looks like a corporate building. If you look at this building, you can tell it’s a corporate building. New York City has different types of buildings but it also says, “Office space for lease,” which doesn’t flag me because it shows that I am renting a space out of this location, which I am and which I have been doing for a very long time. During the pandemic, there were a lot of changes to this business address. It’s important that when you guys are picking these corporate addresses, we’re picking something that not only the lenders are not flagging you guys for, but also the banks are not flagging you guys for.
Using iPostal: It's super important that when you are picking these corporate addresses, you are picking something that not only the lenders are not flagging you for, but also the banks are not flagging you for.
Physical Address
Let’s look at some other options. This was iPostal. I want to look at some other options for you guys because I want you to understand these things before you guys go to pick these addresses with any company. Anytime you type in iPostal, you’re going to get different options. A lot of you guys are also using Physical Address. Let’s look at that. A lot of you know they’re cheap. Cheap is not always good. You have to invest in your business. You are investing in yourself when you invest in your business and that would never change.
When you go to Physical Address, you guys go to Location. They also give you the addresses that they have available. They give you availability for Nevada, Georgia, Dallas, Orlando, New York, and so forth. Let’s take another New York address, 99 Wall Street. Again, keep in mind that sometimes it’s the suite number that’s flagging you when it comes to getting these addresses. Let’s look at this. This is an address through Physical Address. This shows up as an apartment building, which already is a flag because they know it’s not a home business. You have something like rent or lease units, which can work in your favor. What I would recommend is if you were to use an address like this, I’ll remove the suite number.
Let’s remove the suite number and see what happens. The address as a whole is not necessarily good because had the office unit been up top. Once we took out the suite number, the office unit no longer pops up. If we kept the suite number in here, the office address will pop back up. The office for rent is all the way down to the bottom when this should have been up to the top. This address within itself is bad. I would not recommend using this address from this particular company. Now I want to show you another one quick because picking these addresses are important. Let’s go back to iPostal again. Even Anytime Mailbox, you are using these things that say, “Mailbox versus iPostal.” There is no difference.
The address is flagging you in general. Whenever you guys are picking a corporate address, make sure the first 2 or 3 lines talks about either leasing a space or a commercial space. It’s even better if, in the box on the left-hand side, you see an actual commercial building. Do not get any address that shows you guys a Staples. They love to give you guys a Staples location, a UPS location, a tax preparer location, a storefront type, or a mall type of situation. Those do not work for the lenders. This is why you are getting flagged and not getting funding. The business address is number one when it comes to getting funding or anything that you guys need to get under your business. You want to make sure that you see a commercial building come up in the first two lines.
Opus Virtual Address
If you guys go back to Episode 5, you will see where I talked about online presence. You can also create your own online presence for your business to put your business on the map, which is what a lot of people are not doing. A lot of people are doing these fly-by-night-type of businesses, where we get funding and then we run off with the plug. That does not work if you need to have a legit business that you want to build and scale and eventually sell the building. You have to have a good address. Even companies that we use sometimes, like Opus. Anytime Mailbox and iPostal are companies that have 99.9% of bad addresses. Companies like Opus do have that 0.1% of bad addresses. What you have to do either way is to Google these addresses before you guys go to use these addresses.
If you notice, I typed in Opus and Anytime Mailbox came up. See how they have that? AnytimeMailbox.com, Opus Virtual address. Stay away from that. That’s a sponsored ad that they’re doing. Go to the actual website for Opus. Keep in mind that Opus reports to the credit bureaus, not the major credit bureaus that you guys think about. Some of you think that they report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. They don’t. They report to Creditsafe. Keep in mind that it does help you within your process, but it’s not the bureau that you think it is. I’m going to stay in New York. Let’s look at some options for Opus. Again, Google the address first before you use it.
Just because it’s from Opus, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be 100% right, but it’s going to be ten times better than using iPostal, Anytime Mailbox, or UPS stores. The first thing that popped up here was Opus virtual address. The reason for that is possibly because of the suite number. Let’s remove the suite number and see if that changes anything for us. There’s a major change. It no longer shows up as Opus from the top. It shows us now a building. Sometimes, it’s a suite number that’s flagging you guys. Now I am very familiar with this address because I used to live in New York for a very long time. They do have some offices above, but you want to pay attention to what the lenders are paying attention to. If you go down more, you’re seeing stuff like Brooklyn Heights.
That’s a dental office in there. The dental people created an online presence for themselves where they pop up. If we keep going down, you see how nothing pops up for the virtual address like it initially popped up for Opus. That’s simply because the suite number is what’s flagging that address. The suite number means that Opus is giving every single person the same exact suite number. You do not have to put the suite number on your Secretary of State documentation or your IRS documentation. You can leave the suite number off.
I want to show you guys another quick example of using Opus because using these addresses or getting these corporate addresses makes a huge difference in how your business stands out. It looks like they only have this one location in Brooklyn, which again, removing the suite numbers were changes. Let’s go to Chicago. Let’s see what’s available in Chicago. The first thing that you want to do is take the address because the address is available to view. Let’s take the address and let’s put it into Google and see what comes up. We have the suite number in here as well. Immediately, Opus virtual address, because Opus doesn’t care about online presence. They don’t care about you getting funding. All they care about is making sure that they’re making money off of you because you need a location.
Now let’s remove the suite number and see what happens. Remove the suite number and look at what comes up. A building comes up, which is exactly what it is that we are looking for. Let’s see if it’s flagging us. We got a Walgreens. We have a Chicago office. These are one of those buildings that I would say it’s a 50/50. 50% yes, 50% no simply because it has a Walgreens. If you go back to Episode 5 like I discussed, what you can do is create an online presence for yourself where this ends up working for you and not against you. It’s important that we focus on making sure that our business has a proper corporate address. If we do not have a proper corporate address, that’s one of the biggest things that’s stopping us from getting funding.
It's super important that we focus on making sure that our business has a proper corporate address. If we do not, that's one of the biggest things stopping us from getting funding.
It’s one of the biggest things that’s stopping us from getting vehicles under our business because we are choosing the wrong business address. I want to go back to maybe doing one more. Let’s look at one more address with Opus because again, sometimes it’s a suite number. Let’s go to LA. We’re going to use the suite number and the full address to see what comes up on this. I want to make sure that you guys understand this concept before we end this episode. It’s the same exact thing. Using the suite number immediately flags us. Removing the suite number is a big difference. We see a building coming up. Let’s see what type of store this is. Even though the building comes up, it does not mean that it’s still a good location. Let’s go down somewhere and see what comes up from here.
Remember, I told you that if you are going to pick a virtual address or a corporate address, make sure that it doesn’t say virtual address on it. Nothing virtual as we start to get lower. Now it says Opus virtual address. This is not necessarily a bad address to use, but it’s also 50/50 because there’s some location here where I’m trying to figure out what type of store this is here. Those little things as well can also get you guys flagged. Let’s try to zoom in and see if it will give us a little bit more information as to what type of building is in here. It’s a location that’s permanently closed, which is not a problem. Again, my building is permanently closed, but I still have an online presence using that address because that’s the address that I was using before.
I would not use this location only because it says virtual. At the same time, I will use this location because it says lease this space. You see how this address can operate as 50/50 for you. It operates 50/50 because we know it’s a virtual address, but we also know that we can lease the space. We can always say we’re leasing the space at this location. These are some prime examples of why picking the wrong address will harm your business. We have to move accordingly when it comes to our business in order for us to accomplish the things that we need to accomplish. Sometimes something as simple as removing the suite number off of the address can stop you from getting flagged.
When it comes to going down to the Secretary of State and IRS, do not put your home address. It is public information. Anybody is able to find you off of the internet. Always put your home address. In the event that after you learn about this class and you guys have a bad address, what we want to do is first we want to find the right address, then we want to contact the Secretary of State and the IRS and let them know that our business address has changed. Some states allow us to call in. Some states allow us to walk in. In some states, we have to complete an amendment form and send into them.
If you guys have an accountant, an EA, or somebody that’s doing your taxes, you can have them do it because it takes less time for them to do it. You guys get a faster turnover with your EA or your accountant if they do it for you. You can find the amendment form online. If you go online, you type in the amendment form or the Secretary of State Amendment form. You are able to get and print out the form.
In New York City, it was $25. Every state has its own fee. It’s not that much in order for you guys to amend it, but try not to do too much amendment with your address because then it starts confusing the system with Dun and Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. If you guys do have to make a business change to find the right address because after tuning into this episode, you see that your business address has been flagged. Make sure that you guys update with Dun, NAV, Experian, and Equifax.
The only reason why I say NAV is because NAV is the net asset value of your company. NAV is a monitoring system. The business bureaus itself is Dun and Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. Those are where your scores come from. A lot of you guys go to NAV expecting to see a score and then you’re confused or upset that there’s no score. Your scores do not come from there. NAV is a monitoring system, the net asset value of your company. Your scores come from the actual bureau. Your Paydex score comes from Dun and Bradstreet. Your Experian and Equifax scores come from Experian and Equifax. It’s always good for you guys to have those types of accounts and make sure that you make those changes.
I hope that this episode was very helpful for you guys when it came to understanding the process of getting a proper corporate address under your business. If you have any additional questions, please drop your questions in the comments. I’ll be more than happy to take a look at your questions and answer it for you. If you want to have more of a one-on-one consultation with me, you can book a consultation through the link in my bio, either on my Instagram @HerSecretVault or on my website at BossesBuildBusinessCredit.com. Thank you so much for tuning in to Bosses Build Business Credit Episode 6. I’ll see you guys in the next episode. As a reminder, bosses build business credit. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
Important Links
- iPostal
- Anytime Mailbox
- Opus
- Creditsafe
- @HerSecretVault - Instagram