You Need a Professional Email Address

Are you still using a @gmail.com or @hotmail.com email address for your business? Stop – I’m here to help.

If you are still doing this, I’m sure you have thought many times that you needed a more professional email address. You know you need an email address that reflects what you do and immediately tells people that your business or organization is legitimate.

But maybe you thought a business email would be too expensive or weren’t even sure where to start to get one. I’m here to give you the nitty, gritty details – and you’ll be surprised how easy and affordable it is.

Step 1

First, decide what you want your email to be. If you have a website already, your email address should match. For example, if your business website is www.chucksflowershop.com, your email address after the @ symbol SHOULD ALSO BE chucksflowershop.com. Do not get an additional, separate domain for your email. It will be very confusing.

*This is a great time to make sure you know where your domain is – your domain is your www.yourbusiness.com. If you don’t know where it is registered, contact me and I can help.

Now to decide on the first part of your email. Most people use their first name or last name, such as:

chuck@chucksflowershop.com

This could work, but if you are just starting out and plan to only have one email address for the business, consider something more generic like hello@chucksflowershop.com or welcome@chucksflowershop.com (info@ is very overdone and impersonal – consider something more memorable).

Step 2

Now it’s time to create your email. I recommend using Google’s GSuite for your email. It’s inexpensive, extremely easy to use, and so adaptable to however your business grows or you need to add or remove emails in the future. Plus, it not only provides email, but shared calendars, online file storage, and much more.

Start the process here:

Google GSuite

This is a referral link, but I would recommend this product even if they didn’t have a referral program. This is what I use and have been super pleased.

Step 3

Next, you need to pick your plan. You need to decide between the $5/month plan or the $10/month plan. My recommendation is the $10/month plan. For only $5 extra dollars a month, you get SO much more. However, if you really want to keep this cheap, start at the $5/month and you can always upgrade later.

You also get two weeks FREE to try it – so there’s no risk.

Click the Get Started button by the plan you want and it will walk you through the steps. It’s super easy and you will have your own, professional, business email in about 10 minutes.

Frequently asked questions:

Can I import my old email from my previous email provider?
Yes! If you used Gmail or Hotmail, GSuite can easily import your old inbox. Other email providers will most likely work but might take a call to Google to get it done. If you have a large inbox, it can take several days to do the import, but you can start using your new email right away while the import runs in the background.

It’s asking to verify my domain. How do I do that?
If you have a website hosted with me, contact me and I will take care of this step. Otherwise, you need to contact the person who registered your domain and have them input the code GSuite has given you onto your website to verify you own the domain.

Can I get GSuite email on my phone?
Yes! Using the Gmail app on your phone, you can easily check your messages on any mobile device or tablet.

Any other fees I should expect?
None! You get invoiced each month and the price is always the same. As you add additional email addresses, the price will go up, but no other fees to be worried about.

I am not sure I want to spend money on my email when I can use Gmail and Hotmail for free.
I understand it’s always hard to add another monthly expense to your business. But, how often do you use email? My guess is daily. Email is so important it is worth investing in since it plays such a large role in how your business communicates. For the price of 1 or 2 coffees each month, you can improve the image of your business and the functionality of your email tremendously.

What happens when someone emails my old email address?
To ensure no email is lost in this transition, as soon as you have your GSuite email set up, log into your old email and set up an “email forward” that says any message sent to the old email address should automatically forward to your newly created business email. Set it and forget it!