Use a Professional Email Account to Boost Perceptions, Pay, and Profit

Conveying a professional image is critical to maximizing pay and profit when you’re self-employed. One of the easiest and most affordable ways to be perceived as a professional is to use a business email address.

If you’re using an email that ends with @gmail, @hotmail, or @outlook, or a “fake business email” like JohnDoeConsulting@gmail.com, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Instead, present yourself as a professional by using an email with the name of your business as the domain. For example, John@PremierConsulting.com or Liz@LizSmithConsulting.com.

Adverse Impacts of Unprofessional Email

Your email address may seem like a small thing, but it’s tremendously important. It can affect the perceptions of your prospective clients, your pricing, and your profit.

The recipient may perceive you as unsophisticated and/or insincere about your business, or just too lazy to do things right. Obviously, none of these are a good first impression.

As the president of two consulting-related businesses, I correspond with hundreds of solopreneurs. Their email address gives me an immediate impression of how serious they are about their business. If the email is from someone I don’t already know and it ends in @gmail, I usually don’t even open it.

Your pricing may also be impacted. If you present yourself as a business, you can charge more for your services. It’s all about perception. Clients will take you more seriously if you present yourself as a business instead of someone with a side hustle.

Your lack of professionalism may impact your own confidence too, and when it comes to pricing, confidence is everything. Over the years I’ve noticed that consultants who use a personal email address tend to charge less than the consultants with a business email address.

A lazy email address can also impact your profit. To keep more of what you earn, you’ll want to lower your tax bill by taking advantage of business-owner tax deductions and better retirement plans. But to do those things, you need to be paid on a business-to-business 1099 tax basis, and to qualify for that, you’ll need evidence that you’re an established business. You’ll need to show that you are “customarily engaged in an independent trade, occupation, profession or business.” Using a Gmail address won’t cut it.

Stop Procrastinating!

You can have your own business email set up within 30 minutes for as little as $6 per month. Yes, just $72 a year, and it’s tax deductible. I always wonder why people don’t do this; I just assume they're too cheap or too lazy. Either way it’s not good.

Note: You don’t need to have a website to use a professional email account! You will need to buy your domain name (the “@mybusiness.com” part), but this can cost as little as $5 a year, and it is part of the email sign up process. You don’t need to use it for a website, though of course I recommend that you do.

Here are two easy options for getting a business email address, though many exist.

Gmail for Work from Google: You can get you@yourbusinessname.com delivered to your existing Gmail inbox, or you can set up a separate account. It includes 30GB of cloud storage and is compatible with Microsoft Outlook and other email clients. Plus, it's ad-free with 24/7 support.  

Professional Email from GoDaddy: All plans include world-class data security and spam filtering, an Outlook web application (for your mobile device too), guaranteed 99.9% up-time, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Bottom line: If you are serious about your career as a solopreneur, use a professional email address. Be treated as a business owner, not just a worker with a string of gigs. If you want your clients to recognize you as a business, take the first step to look like one.