Have you found the domiciliation address of your dreams? The price is attractive, the address is prestigious, the services are interesting, and the domiciliation period is unlimited? Be careful! Don't be rushed and analyze all the pitfalls to avoid:
- mail management,
- optional services,
- additional costs,
- The premises... not quite like the photos on the website.
So, before you commit to a domiciliation company other than the largest and most transparent, like SeDomicilier, we're going to tell you about these many pitfalls.
Costly mail management.
When you sign up with a business address provider, you often think your monthly fee includes mail forwarding, since it's usually listed as part of your package. But that's not always the case.
Some domiciliation companies charge you handling fees. And yes, the mail that needs to be sent to your home needs to be re-stamped. This therefore represents a cost for the domiciliation company, which may be tempted to charge you for it, in whole or in part, in addition to your monthly payments.
Here are two ways to protect yourself from this practice:
- Be wary of eye-catching prices!
- negotiate your contract.
Let us explain.
Avoid attractive prices
When it comes to attractive prices, don't confuse introductory offers with consistently low prices. In other words, offers at 3 euros per month for the first two or three months, like Kandbaz advertises, or at 1 euro for the first three months, as sedomicilier.fr offers, are introductory offers.
What constitutes an attractive price, clearly filled with hidden costs, is based on the cost of the actual monthly payments, those that will be offered after the introductory offer. Under 20 euros, you can start to ask yourself some serious questions. Why? Because a domiciliation company faces costs, especially those related to its staff and the buildings it owns or rents, and therefore the payment of loans, rents, and local taxes.
Negotiate your contract
A contract is a legal document that is often negotiable. Therefore, if you find yourself dealing with a domiciliation company that wants to impose a membership contract on you, which is a take it or leave it situation, that's already a bad sign. If, on the other hand, it allows you to include in the contract the exclusion of mail forwarding costs, because they are included in your monthly payment, and limited to that monthly payment alone, that will demonstrate that it is indeed far from this kind of practice. Why? Because the presence of this clause will have no consequence for it, given that it will not be in the habit of charging what your clause expressly excludes.
What are these fees? All the services that are not included in the basic offer. Let's recap the possible services:
- postal box,
- mail digitization,
- mail forwarding,
- telephone reception,
- provision of offices,
- provision of meeting rooms,
- secretarial services.
The key is to compare the basic offer fees of different domiciliation companies. We're here to help you save time.
Don't spend hours comparing
As an entrepreneur, or future entrepreneur, you know that time is money. So, to avoid wasting hours comparing basic offers, the solution is simple. Select three domiciliation companies, five if you want to broaden your search a little, or ten if you're really doing a market analysis.
So, we're going to give you five:
- Sedomicilier.fr,
- Kandbaz,
- Ma-domiciliatin.fr,
- Abcliv.fr,
- Sofradom.fr.
You contact each of these companies, ask for a quote based on your needs (mail management, number of times you need access to an office or meeting room, per month or per year, telephone answering service, etc.). From there, you will be able to compare things at a glance:
- the price,
- the quality of the response,
- the response time,
- how the answer is worded.
So, without spending hours on your computer, you've let these companies do the work for you, and already, thanks to this initial contact, you can assess how reliable they are.
Additional costs
When you've opted for a domiciliation company and you see a contract with writing in very small print, often at the end of the document, or at the end of pages, it's usually not out of concern for ecology. The domiciliation company isn't trying to save trees, or office costs by buying five or six fewer reams of paper per year. It's more likely trying to get you to sign up for additional fees without you even reading them:
- application fees,
- security deposit,
- mail forwarding fees,
- etc.
Let's stop there, because when it comes to additional costs, the sky's the limit. So, here's my advice:
- read your contracts,
- go for clear and precise contracts.
This advice applies to all contracts that you will have to sign in your private and professional life. Therefore, always favor companies that present you with contracts whose font is the same from beginning to end, with regard to the content. Avoid domiciliation companies that do not have clear and precise pricing.
Take a look at the future address of your registered office.
Choosing a business address is a bit like choosing a property. It's best not to judge by photos alone. We all have in mind that superb apartment that we saw on such and such real estate agency's website. Arriving on site at the time of the visit, we told ourselves that the photographer had some talent. Not only to take a bright photo in a dark place, but also to make the necessary adjustments on dedicated software.
It's the same deal with domiciliation companies. You might find fancy offices with meeting rooms that can hold dozens of people, projectors, digital tools for video conferencing, and spacious, private offices. Or, you might end up in a dingy basement with no windows, which definitely won't impress clients or suppliers (unless you're trying to make them disappear!).
So, be careful and match the domiciliation location to your needs. It's possible that, among the many domiciliation locations offered in the same city, some are better suited to what you're looking for than others. So don't hesitate to contact them and discuss it. For example, they may have a domiciliation address with an office located in a coworking space, which will immediately prevent any confidentiality, but also another address, three streets away, which will allow you to find a 10m² closed office. The same goes for the meeting room.
Don't rush. Creating a company doesn't happen overnight, so you have time to find the right domiciliation company to house your company's registered office. Especially since once the articles of association are drafted and registered, modifying them will cost you money.
So, compare the services, prices, locations, quotes, and even the contracts.
Nothing prevents you from requesting a contract from each of them, comparing them, and asking your questions based on what you read from each one.
Contacting these companies will also allow you to compare their response times, the quality of the information they give you based on how you formulate your request, etc. All these points will already allow you to get an idea of which one you want to work with.
