What's your email address?

How many small business owners do you come across who don't have proper email addresses?

By not proper email addresses, I mean ones that don't use the company's domain name (assuming the company has a domain name) - yahoo.com, hotmail.com, aol.com etc.

Don't these people realize the messages they're sending out? "Not a proper business". "Doing things on the cheap". It's the internet equivalent of only giving out a mobile phone number. Or the guy who knocks on your door to ask if you want your trees lopped, hands you a business card and then asks for it back when you tell him to **** off. It's simply not professional.

A proper email address, and a domain name, cost peanuts. There's no excuse for any business not to have one even if they don't have a website. There's even less of an excuse if they do have a website!

So, if you've got a hotmail, or similar, address go out and get yourself a proper one today and ditch that hotmail address. It's making you look like Dell Boy.

123-reg.co.uk is a great place to start, you can set yourself up a domain name and email address for a few pounds, or call any website developer who should be able to set you up for only a few pounds more.

Mike Brogan