Would you feel more comfortable shopping in someone's apartment or would you feel better doing business with an established company? When shopping online, some people couldn't care less. Personally, I feel more comfortable knowing I'm buying from a company I can trust rather than giving my credit card information to Joe Smoe! Using a postal box rather than your home address could make a difference in your bottom line.

If you are working from your home, you certainly don't want customers dropping in on you at all hours of the day and night. I am a work at home mom, who doesn't particularly care to give the entire world access to my home by providing my street address. For my own, and my children's protection, I prefer to have a post office box listed as my business address.

In most cases, you can rent a postal box for an average of $50 to $60 per year. The price will depend on where you are located geographically. Small rural towns offer postal boxes at a much cheaper rate than what you might find in larger metropolitan areas.

You can present your address as follows for a more professional appearance: (Note: You can use the physical address of the post office in addition to the postal box number).

Joe Smoe Company
120 East Broadway, PMB 112
Anytown, NV 75613

The reason behind making your postal box as "PMB" is that most people don't immediately associate this with a post office box, even though PMB stands for Post Master Box.

IF you wish to use your street address, consider listing your apartment number as Suite #3. This will also help your business to appear larger even if you are working from home.

Providing contact information, such as your phone number and address on your web site, flyers and promotional material not only makes you appear to be a "real business", but also makes it much easier for a customer to contact you should they have any questions about their order or prior to making a purchase.

How you display your business address could mean the difference between making and losing a sale. A professional image is reassuring to potential customers - especially those who are insecure about shopping online.

Kim Haas

You may already know me from my biggest online venture, Womans-Net.com. I started Womans-Net in June of 2000. The site quickly blossomed into a leading resource for women in business and work at home moms.

My latest and fastest growing venture is Article-Host.com, where I have continued my work as an online publisher and writer. Article-Host allows me the opportunity to offer syndicated article services worldwide.

I earned an Associates Degree in Word Processing while raising a family. I am a self-taught webmaster. I began my online experience when the Internet was still a series of BBS's (Bulletin Board Systems) where users logged into each other's desktop computers - and monitors were still green letters on a black screen.

Although I had only limited formal education in business management and computer skills, I obtained my business education from the 'real-world school' where lessons weren't graded with A's and B's, but rather with success or failure. After failing at several MLM and 'work at home opportunities', I began seeing a pattern to the failures. Those failures were a direct result of not putting God first in my life and not having confidence in myself.

I currently live in south-central Illinois with my soulmate and our two children. We also share 4 adult children and 5 wonderful grandchildren.

Over the past ten years I've learned a lot about building businesses from the ground up, both online and offline, and I've learned how to deal with different types of customers. I have discovered that a little self-confidence can go a long way and I've found the mysterious "secrets to success".