Business Email - Dress for the Job You Want

Introduction

Let's do a small (albeit shallow) experiment. If you were conducting job interviews for your business and a candidate arrived in a singlet, shorts, and sandals, what would be your immediate reaction?

You might consider whether they were serious about the job. You might also worry about how they could impact your company's or brand's reputation.

In reality, your email address can have the same impact. People are less likely to do business with someone that uses businessname@hotmail.com as opposed to yourname@businessname.com.au

Even if you're the most qualified, highest-reviewed, or most widely known person in your field, you are likely leaving business on the table. Without a business email, you signal to potential customers that your company might lack skill, quality, or maturity. Or perhaps won't be around next week.

Is it horrible, wrong, and judgemental for people to think and behave this way? Undoubtedly. But it is the reality.

Luckily, getting a business email address is relatively simple and inexpensive. With it, you can put your best foot forward when engaging with new customers.

Want to skip all the hassle and get your business emails set up in a few hours? Give us a call or Contact us.

Purchase a Domain Name

The first step in setting up a business email address is obtaining a domain name.

Without getting into tedious technical details, a domain name is a unique name registered to you/your business. It helps people on the internet find resources that belong to you (email address, website, apps, etc.).

An example of an Australian domain name would be the one for Custom Code IT - customcodeit.com.au

The ".com.au" part of the domain is called the top-level domain (TLD). There are many TLDs to choose from, but you should try to stick to ones that complement your business and location.

The ".com.au" and ".au" TLDs require an Australian Business Number (ABN), which makes them a great choice for businesses operating in Australia.

Some other good TLDs are:

• .com - Good all-round TLD, but more challenging to get your name as this was one of the first TLDs
• .shop - Good if you run a global e-commerce/online store
• .app - Nice if you run an app/online platform.

Where to Purchase

There are hundreds of places you can purchase a domain name from. Some are better than others in terms of features, price, and ease of use. Some good ones are:

• VentraIP - 100% Australian owned and operated with good support.
• Hover - A sound option with support for many TLDs

As always, it's essential to do your research and find a registrar that meets your needs.

Choose an Email Provider

You're spoiled for choice, but be mindful of smaller email providers offering cheaper services; the experience sometimes lacks functionality and simplicity. Your best bets are the following:

• Google Workspace - More or less the defacto for business email and includes access to Google's productivity apps and cloud storage. It's a great place to start if you want simplicity and room to grow.
• Microsoft 365 Business - Another solid option. It is potentially more complex for a novice to configure correctly and might be overkill if you're an individual or small team.
• Proton Mail - A privacy-focused option for those turned off by mega corporations potentially having access to all their data. Surprisingly full-featured and user-friendly.

Once you have selected your email provider, you will receive instructions on how to configure your domain so you can start receiving emails.

The Migration Process

Once you have everything configured and are ready to receive emails, you're probably wondering: "How do I stop people from using my old email address?" and "How do I get all my old emails to my new address"

This will be a three-part process. The first thing to do is redirect your mail to your new address. This will ensure you don't miss any emails and allow you to reply to customers from your new address, informing them of the change.

Step two is updating your online accounts. Go through all online accounts that use your old email and update them to use your new one. This will ensure you can still get password reset links and two-factor codes. It's a very streamlined process if you're using a password manager.

The final step is to export your existing emails and import them to your new address. Depending on your experience level, this could be a bit tricky. Another option is to forward essential emails from your old address to your new one on an ad-hoc basis. This takes longer, but you will eventually get there.

Other Cases for Business Emails

Moving away from a personal email address has advantages besides giving your business a polished and professional look. The largest of which is continuity of service. Personal email providers or Internet Service Provider (ISP) provisioned emails (BigPond, iiNet, Optus, etc.) can theoretically discontinue their service anytime, leaving you without an email address and scrambling to update your customers and accounts.

This can still technically happen with business email providers. However, because you own your domain name, you can move to a new email provider in minutes to hours without impacting your ability to send and receive emails.

What are You Waiting For?

We specialise in setting up businesses with professional business emails and even provide training and ongoing support so you can hit the ground running.

Supercharge your business and contact us today!