Home > Blog > 4 Ways a Virtual Mailbox Helps You Manage Your Side Hustle

4 Ways a Virtual Mailbox Helps You Manage Your Side Hustle

January 11, 2023 | 3 min read
Running a side hustle can start to feel like a full-time job. It often includes proposals, invoices, its own bank account, or even business registration.
40% of employed Americans have a side hustle that takes up an average of ten hours each week. Between keeping track of appointments, juggling finances, and keeping up with orders, a side gig can quickly muscle in on life and lead to exhaustion and burnout. What was once a passion project can become a bummer if you’re not careful.
This is where modern tech applications make all the difference. A virtual mailbox, for example, can easily provide the convenience, efficiency, and organization you need to succeed without becoming overwhelmed.
Here are four ways a virtual mailbox can help you manage that side hustle:
1. Manage Your Mail Items and Packages From Anywhere
With a few quick swipes on the Anytime Mailbox app, you can manage all of your incoming correspondence. You can access and manage your account online, and you’ll be able to view images of your mail items and decide what items you want forwarded, shredded, or recycled.
To set up a virtual mailbox, you simply select a location with a real street address by browsing through a list of available locations across the U.S. and internationally.
You sign up, submit the right paperwork, wait for approval, and voila! You’re now able to receive packages and postal mail to a dedicated business address like any established business.
Solopreneurs, home-based business owners, and freshly minted digital nomads find a virtual mailbox indispensable to managing a side hustle successfully.
2. Have a Real Street Address to Build Credibility
Building trust with potential customers can be challenging when running everything out of the house. An official business address helps you look more official, instills confidence in your customers, and builds credibility.
A virtual business address is also vital when invoicing your side hustle’s vendors and clients. Having a separate address for your business means you can use it on your website, business cards, collateral materials, invoices, and receipts, and helps you keep your brand on point.
Tip: Some virtual mailbox locations are coworking spaces. You can use the same address to meet clients, network, or, if the coworking location offers this package, display your business signage on the building exterior. This can help you scale step by step, possibly even build your side hustle into a full-time business.
3. Have Vastly More Privacy and Security
When using your home address for your side hustle, you’re seriously sacrificing privacy and security because your home address immediately becomes a public record. And now your home address is available to anyone—friends, foes, and otherwise, via a simple online records search.
With a virtual mailbox, you’re protected from unwanted solicitation, snail mail spamming, and unsavory characters who might be up to no good.
Many side hustles are DTC (Direct to Consumer), which can mean returns, replacements, and repairs are par for the course. A return address is necessary, and a virtual mailbox address can be the business mailing address you can put on your website or packaging. You can use the same address to receive orders from suppliers.
4. Avoid the Hassle and Cost of Maintaining Physical Office Space
Physical office space can be expensive. Think rent, furniture, and utilities. If you’re using the space only for your side hustle, the cost of physical office space, even a small or a shared one, can quickly turn your side gig into a costly hobby.
With a virtual mailbox, you can easily create a virtual office space to help manage your side gig by adding phone and reception services.
A Virtual Mailbox Can Help You Grow and Sustain Your Side Hustle
Whether you’re considering a new side hustle or you’ve been running one for years, a virtual mailbox helps uplevel your operations. And, if you’re looking to grow your side hustle, the virtual mailing address can give you the stability and credibility you need to attract investors and partners.
Check out Anytime Mailbox and see how easy it is to manage your side gig with a virtual mailbox. With a variety of plans and over 2,028 locations to choose from, you’ll undoubtedly find one that suits your needs.