Lately I’ve been blown away by the overwhelming number of entrepreneurs who use Gmail for business. While Gmail is a free and easy way to send emails, there are lots of reasons why you should not use Gmail as the primary email address for you or your business.
Here Are 4 Reasons Why Gmail Is Bad For Business…
1. It Hurts Your Credibility As A Legitimate Business.
Since anyone can open a Gmail account, people are more skeptical of entrepreneurs who use Gmail as their primary email address. Show that you’re a serious professional with a stable business by taking the time to setup an official email account for your business. Buy your own domain name and create an email address that reinforces the fact that you have a real business.
2. It Weakens Your Brand.
As an entrepreneur part of your every day duty is to build and promote your brand. When you give someone your email address it should represent your brand, remind them of your business name, and lead them to the website where they can learn more about your business. Unfortunately you miss that branding opportunity when you use Gmail. Get your own email address so it can work hard for your brand.
3. It Makes You A Target For Hackers.
Since so many people use free email accounts like Gmail and yahoo, hackers spend all day every day trying to hack into those accounts. While it may not be a big deal if your personal account gets hacked into, you don’t want hackers sending spam and adult content to your clients and business partners. That’s definitely not a good look. Protect your business and save yourself that embarrassment by getting your own email address.
4.It May Result In Lost Messages.
Just as I was writing this story, it was announced that as many as 500,000 Gmail users lost access to their inboxes as their accounts were accidentally reset. This Google hiccup resulted in the loss of years worth of messages, attachments and chat logs. (Read more about this on Engadget.) Think about the damage an error like that can do to your business.
Get an official email address for your business. If you need to buy your business domain name and setup your email address, sites like GoDaddy and Network Solutions are great places to start.
