Most of our contractors should know by now that we highly suggest that you work for as many other companies as you can.  If that seems a bit strange to you then you are still stuck in an employer-employee mindset.  As a contractor you are actually a sole proprietor of your own business. That makes us your client, not your employer.

With that being said, one thing that is so over looked, and more important than you realize, is your email address.

What Your Email Address Says About You

Any email address with numbers in it shows a severe lack of computer skills. Some people will have there age in their email address.  Hello?  What happens when you get older silly?  Or they will have stupid things like the year they graduated, or an anniversary date.

You live on a street with house numbers. Those numbers are there with a design and purpose.  What if instead of a house number your home address was monkypuck2001?  An email address should identify you as a person, and it does.  Do you really want to be known as BoogerPicker67@aol.com?  Think McFly, think!

What your email address is, shows a lot about you.  And who you host your email address from, says even more.

At National Mortgage Field Services we receive 3 to 5 hacked email messages from current and previous contractors a day.  All of them from Yahoo.com.  If you have a Yahoo email address make sure your password is not easily deciphered.  Otherwise some hacker will use your email address to send out their messages with links, to every person in your contact list.  If you must use a free email service provider use Gmail instead.  I’ve never received a hacked email coming from anyone using Gmail.

If you are in business to make money, you should have a personal email address, and a separate business email address.

Which email address sounds more business like? JohnDoe1983@yahoo.com or John.Doe@fieldservices.com

 

How To Get a Business Email Address

It may seem a bit daunting to involve yourself in all the steps necessary for creating a business email address, but the rewards to your business growth could turn out to be the best move you ever made.

Basically what you are doing is getting yourself a website domain without the website.  (Unless of course you want to use and create a website.) What ever you name your website domain is what you use for your email address.  They go hand in hand.  But just because you have a website domain name does not mean you have to create a website. You can just use the email part for the purpose of having a business email address. When choosing a business name, make sure you think it over carefully. 

The first thing you must do, even though you may only use your web-hosting service for email purposes, is to come up with a business name.  This is what your email address will have, just before the .com or whatever other TLD you use.  TLD means Top Level Domain.  The TLD is the .com, .net, .org etc.  By the way, if you can, always go for a .com TLD.  If the domain name you would like to use for your business name is already taken under .com then try .net,  .us, or .biz.  Click on this link for more advice on choosing a business name.

To find out if the domain name (business name) you would like to use is available, go to NameCheap.com.  Don’t use their web-hosting.  I can show you a better place.

Once you have found the web domain (business name) that you want, you will then have to Register it. Registering your domain with NameCheap.com is fine. This is something you do once a year and is very inexpensive.

After registering your domain name you will need to have a place that it is hosted from.

After you have your new email address set up, you can then start using it.  The best email program is of course Outlook.  But if you like how Gmail handles your mail then you can add your new business email account right to your Gmail interface.

If you want to make the appearance that you are a legitimate mortgage field service or Property Preservation business, then you have to look like a business.  WeDoInspections@aol.com is not a business email address. It’s a fly by night operation that other real businesses are going to shun.

Do it right. Get a real business email address.  If you want to keep using your free email service, that’s fine.  Please use someone other than AOL or Yahoo.