This morning I was at one of my business networking group meetings and there were a few minutes for a discussion topic. I decided to bring up a couple of pet peeves I have about small businesses and received an unexpected overwhelming agreement from the others in attendance.

The first subject I brought up was about how others perceive a business owner and operator that does not have an email with their own domain, but instead uses a generic public domain from a free email service provider.

I’m talking about the part of your email that comes after the @ symbol:

autoinsurance@GMAIL.com VS. autoinsurance@YOURBUSINESS.com

Your email is a part of your image and your company’s image. How are we supposed to take you and your business seriously if you are unwilling to invest in your own business? If you work for a major company, they typically provide employees with a corporate email address, but when you own a small business such as a solo practitioner lawyer or CPA, business consultant, or have a single location retail shop, why would you want to advertise anyone’s name but your own? It doesn’t cost a lot of money to purchase a domain each year and Google offers a service to host your email on their platform with your own domain.

Additionally, I brought up how I felt it was important to have a professional voicemail on all of your phones, including your cell phone. Many times we give our personal cell phone numbers to our business clients as a way of offering additional value to our client services. Well, I have called many numbers over the years and an overwhelming amount still have a generic voicemail offered by their carrier reading the number I reached, instead of a voicemail personalized to state who I have reached and any pertinent information they want us to know.

This is yet another way to professionally make people aware of your business and what you do. Free marketing of your services to anyone who calls and gets your voicemail. Think of it as your own commercial directed to friends, family, clients and business associates. Would you pass up free air time on the radio to your direct market?

So as I sit here in my office trying to assist my clients, friends and family in growing their businesses, I urge you to take a few minutes and make sure you have a personalized domain for your business emails as well as verify that all of your voicemails properly promote you and your business effectively. If you don’t have these simple things in place yet, take a few minutes and take the necessary steps to make a few adjustments. I think you will find that others will respond much more positively to you and your business with a simple makeover, and you will find yourself even prouder of the amazing business you have created and grown