Free email addresses provided by your Internet Service Provider or those from Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail are bad for your business. There is just no way around it. Don’t use a free email address for your business.

Here’s why.

The primary reason is branding. You want to establish yourself as a brand that people will relate to. You’ve agonised over a business name that reflects the business you are creating and connects you to your customers. You want customers to build confidence in your brand. You want your name in their minds every time they interact with you. You want to present a consistent image. This can’t happen if you use a free email address.

You can’t build a reputation on the back of a free email address. In fact, these addresses will work against you due to the number of scams that originate from their domains. How many rich, exiled, African princes have contacted you from their Hotmail account to ask you to help them move millions of dollars to a safe haven using your bank account? Really? It doesn’t take much to see why your customers will be wary if you use the same free email service as an African prince.

Your business is bigger than one email address, or it should be. There are a number of personas that you as an individual use to represent your business to the outside world. I talk about that in this post.

By not registering a Domain Name you come across as cheap and not serious about your business. Customers will wonder if your business will still be around a year from now. It doesn’t take much time and money to register a Domain Name even if you don’t need a web site just yet. You can use your Domain Name just for email at the outset.

Free email services have quotas. If your in-box fills up, you won’t be able to send or receive any email until you do something to get back under your quota. Your customers won’t appreciate having email bounce back with a note that your in-box is full. As a business, you never want that to happen. Your customers might think you’ve abandoned the business and take their business elsewhere.

Free email services provide little by way of privacy. Do you really want Google advertising your competitors products to your customers? The free services have to make money and they way they do it is via marketing. Don’t be surprised when you email a link to a customer showing off your latest widget and the next time they use their browser, they see ads for identical products from your competitors. You’ve seen this yourself and wondered “how did they know I was looking for a new … ?”.

Free email services are prone to hacking. It happens to these providers because there is lots of information to be had. If you have your own Domain Name you are unlikely to attract hackers.

Confidential business information needs to stay confidential. It is just normal, sensible business practice. You’ll be emailing your accountant, partner businesses, and maybe your bank. Confidentiality is hard to achieve using a free email address.