Are you operating a tiny, home-based business? Does the idea of having all of your business-related correspondence arrive at your home seem weird? If so, you have two basic options: P.O. Boxes and FedEx store boxes. Sometimes, the best piece of information to help you decide is simply location (is one of these in walking distance?), but there are some clear advantages and disadvantages to both.

You'll pay about $50 or less annually for a basic box at the post office, versus approximately $250 annually for a FedEx box. With a P.O. Box, you'll experience the occasional annoyance of FedEx and UPS packages requiring delivery at a different location, as they cannot deliver to their competitor's facility. That said, you can pick up mail from your box 24/7 (as the lobbies are typically unlocked).

A big potential advantage to a FedEx box is that you can actually get a physical address. For example, your address may be, "123 Smith Avenue, Suite 300." Sounds like a street, but actually it's 123 Smith Avenue (the FedEx store location) and mail box 300 (you have mail box 300, of potentially hundreds of other boxes, inside the building). In addition to generate a sense of largeness, there's a substantial benefit to doing this: Google Local and Yahoo Local require a street address, not a P.O. Box. Apparently, they haven't cross-referenced against the list of FedEx locations, because these boxes actually count. Thereby, you can get an instant local presence on the web.

For Couponfield, I selected the P.O. Box option. It’s cheaper and I felt a little odd, suggesting that I had an established office when I don’t. (Furthermore, the idea of a “green, virtual office” is compelling to me.) But, I can see the FedEx option being quite effective for some businesses.