It never ceases to amaze me how many people still use generic email providers for their business email. I get it, I really do. It’s free, it’s quick to get set up and once you give that email out, the thought of changing it is daunting. How do you notify all your customers that your email address has changed?!

Unfortunately, yourbusinessname@hotmail.com doesn’t make the best first impression. It seems to imply that maybe you don’t take your business seriously, makes it more difficult to be found online and isn’t as credible as a tailored email address. Also, if you add more people to your team, you are facing all sorts of confusion when it comes to creating similar email addresses.

For as little as $30, you can secure your domain and some respectability for your biz!

The good news is, creating a tailored email is simple and relatively inexpensive. For as little as a few dollars a year, you can own your domain and set up Gmail along with the other G-Suite apps. Doesn’t you@yourbusinessname.com sound a whole lot better now?

1. Purchase a domain! There are a lot of ways to do this, but here’s my method. Type your potential domain names into your browser and see what pops up. If a website opens, you know the domain is already owned and operated by someone else. If you get a more generic screen saying you can purchase the domain, you’re in business! Once you have a few options, go to a reputable source and purchase the domain. My go to source is namecheap.com. You can compare various options and see the pricing up front so you know what you’re in for. Also, think about purchasing multiple years for a better deal. For as little as $30, you can secure your domain for a few years and not have to worry about it for a while.
2. Sign up for G-suite. Many registrars like namecheap.com have great help files, so take advantage of that. Next up, go register at the G-Suite site and set up your new account (still free if you have fewer than 10 users!). Follow the prompts and indicate that you’re using a domain you already purchased. Once you have an account, you’ll then start the setup process and have to verify you own the domain. This involves logging into your registrar account (namecheap.com if you used them) and updating your MX records. This sounds super techy, but all it means is copying/pasting a few lines of text and some numbers into the correct fields and hitting save.
3. Have fun emailing from your new custom email address! It can sometimes take an hour or so for everything to update, but usually, it’s pretty fast and you can start emailing to your heart’s content.
4. Forward your old email to your new address. This way, you never miss a thing and notifying people is much simpler. In the settings of your old email account, you can create a forwarding rule to send all incoming email to your new account. You’ll likely have to approve the forwarding in your new account as well. Once that is complete, just add a little blurb to your email signature asking your customers to update your contact information to your new email address.

Find a solution that can grow with you. Domain specific email means you can add team members down the road.

A huge added bonus is that you also have access to the entire suite of Google Apps like Documents, Sheets, Forms, Calendar, Hangouts and more! All of this functionality is hosted online so you can update and collaborate from anywhere. As you add people to your team, you can simply create a new email address for them at your domain and they can immediately access any content you wish to share with them. Those amazing how-to manuals you’ve been working on, Customer Lists & records, Email templates or sales pitches, it’s all right there for everyone to collaborate on.

Bottom line, not only will a custom email address add credibility to your business but it’ll save you time and money in the future too.