There are many options for small-business email; choosing the right system can be quite daunting.

This post walks through choices for professional email addresses, where they can be hosted and which email client might benefit you.

Separate Business and Personal Email Addresses

We strongly suggest having separate email addresses for business and private life, even when you need to register a Google account, for example, to run the company’s Google access – create a new one.

The personal address can then be detached from the business. I caution against ever putting a personal address on a website, as it is bound to attract SPAM emails.

Having the two separate ensures that you don’t get distracted by personal sales emails when answering business emails.

Presenting a professional business address also looks far more polished than handing out a personal ‘Yahoo’ one.

Let’s start with paid email addresses, which I recommend over free services for security, reliability, and professionalism.

Paid-for Domain Name and Email

As a business start-up, the most credible option is to reserve a domain name (website address). One that includes your company name or what you do.

Domain names are available for anything from £20 per year, depending on which ISP (internet service provider) you choose. I list some reputable ISPs at the end of this post.

The benefits far outweigh the cost if you are enthusiastic about running a successful business.

Once you have purchased a domain name, the email addresses need to be created on a server.

I.e., purchasing an address such as techentertainment.com would allow you to add any email address associated with that domain. Such as kelly@techentertainment.com or info@techentertainment.com.

Setting Up Email Accounts Server-side

Email accounts can be set up with the ISP you reserved the domain with, or you can point the domain to a second ISP and set up the email accounts there. Maybe one ISP is cheaper than the other for certain services, maybe one is more secure, faster; a whole host of reasons.

If you struggle – Kaydee Web offers professional email addresses, and we can set up email accounts (server-side) that coincide with our new domain name. You can choose whatever prefix you like.

But let’s carry on with the options to actually start using the email.

Using a Business Email – The Options

To use email addresses, you will need an email client, which is a programme that sends and receives email.

You can use a web-based email client or some software on your computer.

Web-based Email Clients

There are a few web-based email clients such as Roundcube, but by far the most popular is Gmail. Gmail is free, secure and very reliable. There is also an app that you can use on your phone.

What slightly confuses people is that to use Gmail, you need a Gmail address, which is used to log in.

Obviously, you could use your personal Gmail account, but I would advise setting up a second one, especially for business. You can keep the two accounts independent of each other.

Use the business name as a prefix to the Gmail address. Logging in and out will be much less confusing.

Your business email addresses can be set up within the Gmail interface under SETTINGS. Set the business email account as the default.

Google Workspace – Online Suite

There is a paid Google service called Google Workspace. To use this, you would point the domain’s MX records to those recommended by Google Workspace, bypassing the ISP.

Within Google Workspace, you use the Gmail interface, Calendar, Docs, secure messaging, and storage space in Drive. Plus more with the higher packages.

There are different packages to choose from, but the basic Google Workspace account is about £9 per email address per month.

Gmail App

The beauty of using any of Google’s services is that you can download the Gmail app to any phone or device, log in to your account (or accounts), and start sending and receiving mail straight away.

Microsoft 365 – Online Suite

Microsoft also offers a web-based email client, which is Outlook on Microsoft 365. Starting at £3.80 per user per month.

Microsoft offers all the standard apps – Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Access online for this price.

For a little bit more, you can also have the desktop versions of the apps.

Computer-based Email Clients

There are different reasons for choosing email clients. Some, like Thunderbird, are free but are secure and easy to use.  Apple provides Apple Mail, which is already installed on Macs. Microsoft Outlook, which is paid for, can be used with a calendar.

To set up an email account in any email client, you need your provider’s email settings.

Use IMAP accounts in desktop email clients so your emails sync with your phone or other devices.

Email Forwarding

To keep things simple at the initial stages of business, email forwarding can be set up. This is when the new business address ([email protected]) would redirect to another address. This could be one you already use, like [email protected].

The downside to this is that when you hit reply, the email is sent from the latter address.

Free Email Addresses

Services such as Mail.com offer free email addresses with a wide choice of suffixes. The free service is all available online. If you’d like to use the address anywhere else, such as on your desktop, the service is charged for.

I can see the appeal of a free service like this, but growing businesses switch to paid services very quickly.

Conclusion

Even if you are just starting out, it is good advice to reserve a business domain name from the beginning. Pay for professional email services. It really isn’t expensive, looks way more professional and will save time switching in the future.

Tip: choose a domain name that will last the lifetime of the business – a longstanding domain name sends signals to Google that it is owned by a trusted company.