Location for online business??

several to be honest.

You have your clerical side of things i.e tax rules, business set up complience etc

Then you have your front end side of things. i.e if your advertising your site on say a .co.uk website and all your products are in £'s..., it might look a bit dodgy if someone clicked on the contact us and saw your registered office or place of trading was in Burma.

I believe as long as you set it up correctly, everything is fine doing it this way, but i would where possible always try and keep everything local to your market
 
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alwaysinamess

Free Member
Jul 5, 2012
354
56
are you being UK Specific ?

If so then the Internet speed / connection reliability is probably a factor and so is your courier collection time, They are the two major factors

Then your supply of the product, is it easy to access then lastly the area that you store the product - is it safe, once you sorted that out then you can deal with the other costs.

I could run my business pretty much anywhere in the UK and I am moving out of the UK, but I like it down south so then you have to ask yourself about how your affected by climate etc, even though I work inside I find it very difficult to get motivated here because of what I feel is the 'cold', If I moved my business to say Newcastle where costs would be 90% + slashed, I don't think as not being bought up there I would deal with the climate and prolly throw myself of the Tyne bridge, you have to take your living factors in too, unless your young or your gonna be on mega money to heat the house
 
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A

AlexandraS

As seoswat says, it's a legal requirement of an EU business - i.e., you must provide on the site a physical address, not a PO box!

I am a Brit operating out of mainland EU although I sell 99% to Brits and trade in sterling. I put my overseas address on the website because I do not wish to be seen as fraudulent or trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

My geographical location does not affect the service I provide.
 
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deniser

Free Member
Jun 3, 2008
8,081
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London
And once you get really big like Amazon etc. it helps to be situated along the M1 for easy access across the UK or like NEXT who have their own train line into their courier company's depot enabling them to offer next day despatch for orders up to 10pm.

You also need to be situated somewhere where potential employees are readily available which could mean it needs to be accessible by public transport
 
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D

digital way

So what do you do if you are running your business from home? I understand it might look naff but I guess a lot of people do it right?

Well depends doesn't it? For a b2b company it would be nicer to have some kind of official looking address especially when dealing with larger companies but its not the be all and end all. What really counts is your client portfolio, cost, testimonials, reputation etc. For B2C I'd say it's less important -joe public just wants a good product at a good price not a business relationship.

You can get a virtual office which forwards your mail to you and has meeting rooms for hire for meeting people. However before rushing into that, my priority would be developing the business to justify these expenses - and in that order.
 
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