I've never quite seen how the virtual office arrangement could work, but if it DOES work, more power to you.
Our clients, certainly, expect someone to go over the return with them at pick up. What if they owe a lot more than expected? What if additional forms need signatures (and explanations)? A general all-purpose-utility receptionist has no knowledge of any of this. He or she just hands packets of info over to someone (and, I assume, collects money).
Yeah, collects money: that's important. You should NEVER let a tax return go out the door unless it's paid for. Believe me, you will regret it if you don't follow this advice.
In Oregon, a receptionist can hand over a return and collect the fee, but he or she can NOT -- by law -- say anything about what the return shows or means. Need a license to do that. California requires the CTEC license, and may have similar rules. Again, even in most states where licensing is not an issue, few clients are going to be very satisfied picking up and signing a return blind without any kind of explanation about the bottom-line results. (And what if the return required 3 hours more to prepare than you expected. You just give that away, or increase the invoice? Tell the client ahead of time or just hit them when they pick up? Either way, they'll want to discuss and maybe dispute it. The receptionist won't have a clue).
I think the virtual office set-up can still work, but I'd imagine you'd need to schedule pick-up days (and specific times for each client) when you'd be there to smooth everything.
As for SBA loans: my understanding is that they tend to prefer to finance businesses with lots of fixed assets -- small factories, retail outlets, etc. Personal service businesses like tax prep are too easy to fold up and vanish into the night. This, at least, is what the SCORE adviser told us a decade ago when we were first starting.
Many preparers do, in fact, work JUST during the tax season. I'm not quite sure how they manage it. First, most clients want and need occasional help year-round. What do you do when some of them (as invariably happens) get IRS notices due to mistakes you or they made? If you've vanished, they are kind of screwed. And how do you handle all the clients who must go onto extension because they were missing info or simply came in too late to meet the deadline?
As for number of clients you need: that entirely depends on what you charge and what kinds of returns those clients require. As a general rule of thumb, you don't want to spend more than 10% of your gross revenue on an office. That percentage will be more initially, of course, and may also be more if you're in a high-rent area. Don't ever let it go above about 15%, though, or you will be in a world of hurt.