As a small business owner I still think it's funny when people email me to inquire about employment. Don't get me wrong, I am flattered. Amazed and flattered, so I usually try to send a personal "thanks-but-can't-help-you" email.At the same time I get a little puffed up with pride too. I obviously have convinced someone that my small business is a lot bigger than it really is. And that my friends is the beauty of the internet.
You can be as big as you want to be on the internet!
But (You knew there was one coming), there are two things you must do first:
1) Get a real email address and
2) Get a real website.
Let's discuss both shall we.
Real email:
If you send business related emails using @aol, @gmail, @comcast, @netzero or anything other than you@yourdomain.com you will be summarily written off as a hack before they read the first word. I know for a fact *cough* IhavedoneitwhenIwasacompanycog *cough* that when companies are culling through leads from a trade show, email addresses as noted above do not get the follow up that "real" addresses do. It's the same philosophy when scanning incoming emails. Survival of the fittest, playing the odds, time is money, whatever you want to call it - contacts from those types of email addresses don't get taken seriously from a business perspective.
There are lots of places to get your own email so sit tight and I'll give you a recommendation later.
Real website:
You need to have one and it must be www.yourdomain.com. Never use a domain like freewebs.com/mybusiness. You can register a "real" domain name and host a site for around $60 per year. If your business can't afford that, you don't have a business. Ouch. How's that for some tough love?
Now. About your website. They don't cost $10,000 any more. They don't even cost $2,000 anymore - at least for what you need to establish a web presence. The reason you have to have a website is because if you send out emails using yourname@yourdomain.com some of your email recipients (the smart ones) are going to go to yourdomain.com and so you better have something there for them to see or you are back to "@aol" status.
"Ok, Mr. Smarty Pants, you've convinced me. How do I get a real email and a real website?"
Fair enough. Here's what you do.
First, come up with a domain name. You definitely want a .com domain. It should be as short as possible and it should be as close as you can get to the the name of your business.
Next, go to GoDaddy.com. I know. I know - you techno geeks who already have (and probably host) your own site can suggest 20 places that are "better" than GoDaddy and yes, you are probably right. But, I am directing this to the web owner newbies. I'll sacrifice some functionality and cost for simplicity, and based on my experience, the GoDaddy interface is easy to use and they actually answer the phone if you have questions. Sign up for the Website Tonight economy hosting plan and for less than $60 you get one year of hosting and email for the domain you selected.
Once you are signed up, log in and poke around your account. Pretty soon you'll have a working email, a passable website and you'll be saying "Hey, this ain't that hard!".
When you get your site up. Shoot me an email and tell me how the process went. I promise to open mail from you@yourdomain.com
(I still won't be hiring but I'd still like to hear from you.)
P.S. Gmail ROCKS - but only as a secondary email / back up account (That's a whole other post)
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