In Singapore, it is not a mere line on your letterhead to carry out a business address. It indicates trustworthiness – to the consumers, to the government, to the competitors. Make a mistake, and you have to play catch-up. Singapore is a city in which reality is created by perception. People in an instant, judge where you are the moment you get into any business deal. The address in Raffles Place sounds quite different as compared to the residential unit in Jurong. No harm in that–it’s the way things are done here. Visit us!
This is what most new founders fail to understand: you do not have to be in a physical office to be able to have a prestigious address in Singapore. Registered address services enable business organizations to put their flag in prime areas at no prime rents. It is clever, it is convenient and is completely in line with ACRA requirements.
All companies which are incorporated in Singapore are required to have local registered address- no P.O. boxes and it should be an address where official correspondence can be received. Ignoring this is penalties and bureaucratic hassles that always appear at the most inopportune time.
As your business expands so will your needs. A single founder checking out the market does not require a full office – a registered address package takes care of the compliance fundamentals. However, a business that seals business transactions requires more: customers want to have confidence that they deal with a reputable business and having a physical meeting room is important when it counts.
In Singapore, most virtual office packages also include the registered address with the mail handling, optional local number as well as access to the meeting room on a few occasions. It is a relatively cheap method of portraying the appropriate image without having to bear soaring overheads.
The place in Singapore is important as well. The name of CBD addresses – Tanjong Pagar, Marina Bay, Shenton Way bears some weight. Tech firms have a tendency of being concentrated around one-north or Mapletree Business City. Understand the geography of the industry that you are in and leverage it.
One of the underestimated errors: considering your registered address as a passive piece of information. Companies establish it and do not bother to check what comes. Keep-up notices of IRAS or ACRA are not read. Deadlines pass. What starts as some small administrative issue slowly evolves into a fact.
Your speech is ever at your service. Investors check you out on the Internet. Applicants look into your history. Only after evaluating your credibility, vendors will give credit. In Singapore, a believable business speech does not necessarily have to be expensive – however, the lack of such is sure to be.