24 Tips to Get Organized in January, Tip #6: Get a Post Office Box
Tip #6: Get a Post Office Box.
Junk mail can overwhelm your business life. Even “second tier” junk mail is annoying at times – you know, the junk mail that you sort of, kind of asked for (mail order catalogs that you might actually use, newsletters, etc.). That’s why I recommend to all of my business clients – home based offices and otherwise – to get a post office box.
Post office boxes are kind of the yahoo/gmail accounts of real mail. I use mine any time that anyone asks for my mailing address when I know it will result in solicitations, newsletters and other paper clutter coming my way. This includes official state and local tax business filings, a prime source for folks gathering addresses.
I don’t visit the post office regularly – maybe once per month or so. Sometimes there is good stuff there, but stuff that could wait a bit to be discovered.
Post office boxes are not that expensive – the smallest one is just a few dollars per month and it’s an expense that I’ll gladly pay. The privacy if affords, in particular, is a great benefit.
Having a separate mailbox cuts my daily mail cull substantially – and alleviates in person sales calls!
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4 Comments
I have a post office for my business, and you’re right, it does help alleviate a lot of the “paper stress”. I only have to check it once a week (or so) therefore, I don’t have to think about or deal with its contents until then. Good post!
I also agree about the PO Box. When you apply for a business license it will be published in the local business journal if you have one, and many companies use those listings to find for new businesses to sell to. By having a PO Box all that junk went there and I could deal with it all at one time and not have my primary mail dumped on.
Exactly! That stuff drove me nuts. Solicitations for credit cards were the worst offenders (still are).
I can’t imagine not having a post office box anymore, it has been useful in so many ways like the ones you’ve mentioned. The other great thing is there is a recycle bin right there so junk mail never even makes it into the house. It’s great!