Singapore is always among the top ten countries in the world where it is easy to establish a business. That goodwill is true– till you begin to window shop office room and hope is stealing out of the room. The average rental rate of CBD is SGD 10-15/month. Before utilities. Before furniture. Prior to the imminent debate within the company as to whether the company covers filtered water. To a fledgling company, such a monthly obligation can be literally debilitating. A virtual office answers just that. This site!

You have a legal, business address in Singapore – Raffles place, Cecil Street, Robinson road – without the lease being added to it. Mail is gathered and sent forwarded. On your behalf, calls are answered. It will appear and operate like any other business to anyone who comes in contact with your business. Inasmuch as it is functional.

It is here that most explanations fail.

Foreign business owners that integrate in Singapore are not doing so in order to have a virtual office just because it is convenient – in many cases they have no other option. ACRA must have a registered address locally in order to incorporate. In absence of one, the process comes to a halt. A virtual office eliminates that barrier during the first day and you can concentrate on establishing the business and not in pursuit of paperwork.

In the case of freelancers, value proposition is the same but no less acute. A business address on proposals and invoices is professional and the signal of credibility to the reader of even a single word. Clients get a first impression. The address of a Shenton Way and the Tampines block number are quite different – wishing to think so is just fantasy.

Another good use case is regional ambition. Singapore has earned a credibility in commerce in the southeast Asian region that is seldom seen in other cities. Partners in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City take a Singapore registered company as a serious company. That indicator is important – virtual or not.

Not everyone is an equal provider and comparison shopping does pay off. Others provide the registration of addresses alone. Others are the services of call handling, mail forwarding, access to meeting rooms and reception. The correct package will be purely based on the way your business functions on a day-to-day basis – not what one package might sound like on paper.

On compliance: ACRA provides that registered addresses be available during business hours. This is automatically done by any reputable provider and will ensure that you are in compliance without having to go out of your way.

The more general one is agility. Commitments stay small. Options stay open.

Structural flexibility is invaluable in a market whose conditions can change at any given time, until the time when it is needed.