Junk mail is annoying wherever you are. Whether you’ve started up from home or you’ve opened an office for your new small business, dealing with unsolicited flyers through your door can become more than just a drain on your time and resources. It can become a question of security.
Your business address, by legal requirement, is easy for anyone to find. Companies House lists it publicly and it must be displayed on your website. It’s reassuring for your customers that your company can be traced to a specific address and it shows your commitment to corporate transparency. This address is also where important correspondence from Companies House, HMRC and other government agencies goes.
Of course, you want official regulatory bodies and your customers to know where to find you. But you don’t want just anyone to be able to send you their bulky marketing materials.
There is a simple way to stop junk mail dropping on your doormat. Sign up to LegalZoom’s Registered Agent service when you form a limited company. Our central London office becomes your official registered address. So all your post comes to us. We sort it, bin the junk, and send it on to the address you give us.
Go junk-free for £19.99 per month
>See also: How LegalZoom protects your private address – keep your home safe
Jettison the junk
Is your recycling stash higher than your to-do pile? Don’t waste precious time sorting out the important letters from the distracting flyers, catalogues and irrelevant promotions designed to look like something else. It’s time to stop scaling Mount Mail completely.
Citizens Advice has outlined several steps to help you stop the constant drip of junk mail onto your doormat. With LegalZoom, however, you can cut it all off with just one signup.
Our plans are designed to be flexible enough to suit your business needs. Test it out first with a month’s free trial when you form a limited company with us.
- Monthly plan £19.99: First month FREE. No contract. Cancel anytime.
- Yearly plan £139.99: First month FREE. Save £40.
>See also: Protecting your privacy – keep your business address separate
Scrap the scams
It’s not just about clearing the clutter. Using a Registered Agent service can help protect your business from scams. While focus has naturally shifted onto cybersecurity, that doesn’t mean that your pile of post is suddenly only full of good intentions. You’re probably already investing in ways to keep your inbox protected against phishing scams, but are you putting the same effort into keeping your letterbox locked against swindlers?
When you’re signed up to LegalZoom’s Registered Agent service, we’ll remove the known and obvious scams along with the rest of the junk. You will be able to focus on your work without the fake lotteries and pleas from fraudulent charities trying to catch your attention.
This leaves you the mental space to spot the more insidious types of scams that target businesses. So what should you be looking out for?
False invoices can look very authentic and convincing. They might look disarmingly similar to invoices for goods and services that you already pay. Remember to double-check the credentials and details of anyone you’re paying money to, even if it looks at first glance like a familiar name, and to build in robust approval processes for payments if you have other staff dealing with them.
Take the same approach to letters and notices that look official. One scam that’s been doing the rounds recently imitates a request for data protection registration from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Eagle-eyed recipients notice that the fee is noticeably higher than the correct amount and that VAT is included when it shouldn’t be. Due diligence is essential whenever a request for money or information comes through your door – just the same as when you’re operating online.
Even if these or similar scams get through LegalZoom’s barrier (and we try to filter out as many as possible), cutting down on the amount of unsolicited mail that gets to your door will help you focus on each piece that comes through.
With LegalZoom’s Registered Agent service, you get:
- Use of our central London address on the Companies House public list – not your own private address
- Post collection and forwarding service
- Freedom from junk mail and known scams
Our digital solution is already in the works. To speed things up, you can choose to receive scanned copies of all your correspondence. Until that’s ready, we’ll send over only the post you want and need on a weekly basis.
