When I moved to Japan I ran into a classic problem: Many vendors stateside won’t send snail mail (letters) to Japan, or if they do, it can take weeks, sometimes longer. I needed a solution to get both personal and professional mail in a timely manner, with zero issues, so I can continue running my businesses in North America seamlessly.

First important point: the solution I recommend in this post works for any entrepreneur, even if you live within the US, not just expats like me.

Mail handling services are not new. I once used a company acquired by Intuit, the QuickBooks people (don’t use this service, trust me), for several years before moving to Japan. Today there are tons of new businesses jumping into mail handling as well, making it a more crowded market and making it more confusing for an entrepreneur or business owner to select the right service.

The mail service I rely on and love

The one I have been using for a few years now is called Traveling Mailbox. First, a quick disclosure: I wasn’t paid to write this post- I’m actually writing it for a dear friend who is launching her new business. I did sign up with Traveling Mailbox to receive a referral reward, so when someone signs up using my link I’ll get a small credit. I absolutely love Traveling Mailbox and would never recommend a service I don’t personally use and love.

I compared several services when shopping for a mail handling service. First, I needed a mailbox that the US Postal Service would officially recognize as a legal mailing address. In my case, when I completed a mail forwarding application with the US Postal Service, I needed to provide legal proof of who I was (e.g. a valid Drivers License) in order to complete a full mail forward. In hindsight, I would do this even if I were still living in my home in California. A huge amount of identity theft is powered by a theif having easy access to mailboxes, like the kind that anyone can open right in from of a house.

Picking an address is no longer about “local”

When it comes to your new mailing address you can pick an address in a city and state that makes sense for you.

To me, local doesn’t matter anymore because Traveling Mailbox will receive all my email, let me log on via my iPhone or the web browser on my computer, decide what I want them to toss, what I want them to scan and PDF, decided if I want to download it, forward it via email, or scan then securely shred it. I can even decide which mail I want them to keep in order to forward it to my address in Japan. Because of this, I picked a city and address that makes so much more sense for me as a technologist, founder and entrepreneur (you can probably guess which city just based on that description, right?)

Customer service: When it matters most

All this said, sometimes the best idea and business model can turn into a disaster when the customer service sucks. I can confidently say that Traveling Mailbox absolutely blows away all the competition in this regard. It may be less than 1% of the time you need great service, but when you do it may have a 99% impact on your life or work. This happened to me when a seriously time-sensitive document would have cost me an entire trip for my family if not received on time.

I won’t get into the private stuff, but imagine an entire international trip with your spouse and two children - four international flights, two weeks of hotel bookings, and all the other expenses associated with that - all going down the tubes and having to schedule the entire trip all over again. This is how much this one letter meant to me when I called Traveling Mailbox in a panic, asking how we could get it to the destination I needed it to, on time.

The owner of Traveling Mailbox meant business. He couldn’t guarantee success, but he told me he would do everything in his power. And he did. Within a few hours he had a member of their team collect the letter from my Traveling Mailbox and process it using Fedex International Priority. Now here’s the key: At this time they weren’t set up for Fedex yet. They went out of their way to drive it to Fedex because Fedex was the only delivery agent capable of meeting my time requirements.

Here’s the note I sent back to him (back in 2019):

Travis,

We are in tears (of happiness - previously of worry).

If you don't know the word omotenashi, please look it up. You just did
that. I am deeply, very grateful.

This is the kind of thing that wins over a client. If you want a case
study, just call me. I will be more vocal about success than I could ever
be about failure.

You are amazing.

Kind regards,

James

I can’t recommend Traveling Mailbox enough, not just as a solution for expats from the United States, but also for entrepreneurs worldwide, and even local entrepreneurs looking for the best professional, secure and effective way of handling mail.

If you sign up for Traveling Mailbox, let me know how your experience goes. And remember, the more work you put into planning for the results you want, the better the results will match your expectations. Take the time to navigate their site, watch the videos and learn everything about them. If you have a specific question about any aspect of the process, you can message me on twitter @japaneur or on Instagram @japaneur.