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| | The **The Business Consortium** Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | Views: 481 | | Sep 03, 2008 5:37 pm | | Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # | 
Felicia Slattery | | Last week on another network here on Ryze someone raised this question:
"I saw the comment that using a Yahoo email address as your business email address is "unprofessional".
I really don't understand this comment, and would love to hear from you as to whether you think this is true or not, and if so, why."
The consensus of the answers, including mine is that to use and distribute an email from a free source such as Yahoo, Gmail, MSN or the like lowers your credibility.
A Yahoo email account as a main email address (for example on business cards) could say someone is either new, or fly by night, or something else. Is that the image you want to communicate about your business?
It's about your credibility. You want every opportunity to be sure your clients and prospects want to know, like, and trust you. A free email account sends up a yellow flag for some and you won't ever get the opportunity to win them over.
However, using a Yahoo or Gmail account to sign up for newsletters and such is another story entirely.
That can be a way to track the messages you have coming in or to filter them in some way. And it's not any reflection on your professionalism.
When you give clients an email address and you represent yourself as a professional-- you need to have an email associated with your domain name. You just need it.
One thing I will say-- when people sign up to be my subscribers, I always get a notification. If they have used their domain email address, I often will click to see more about who they are. It's market research for me so I can know who my newest subscribers are and what they may be interested in. Occasionally I've even signed up for their stuff because it looks like what I could use, too!
So there are perks to using your email with URL in it for anything related to your business.
What do you think?
Warmly,
Felicia
Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed.
It's back! Discover how to write a speech to market your business.
http://www.SignatureSpeechWorkGroup.comPrivate Reply to Felicia Slattery | | Sep 03, 2008 11:55 pm | | re: Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # | 
Julie Bestry | | Felicia, I was doing my best Arnold Horshack ("Oh! Oh! Oh! Ohhh!) before I even got past your main point about having an email address that reflects your own professional domain name. (Of course, I agree wholeheartedly with your point, though I didn't contribute to the thread on that other network.)
You're right, too, that signing up for newsletters with your professional email address (i.e., at your own domain) gives you a chance for free marketing. The recipient, another professional such as yourself, looks and says "Jane@CoolPastryKingdom? Wow, I have to check that out!" and could become a perfect client, referrer or strategic partner. (Junk mail? Shmunk mail! Strategic use of a spam filter and using the rules function of your email program makes the marketability of a "grownup" email address far outweigh the negligible protective powers of a freebie.)
Finally, having a professional email address that reflects your domain name makes it so much easier for people to remember you. I can't tell you the number of times I haven't remembered someone's exact name and haven't wanted to log into Ryze or Facebook just to figure out "hey, who was that?" I can often remember just enough of the domain name to Google and get what I'm seeking, making me more likely to sign up for someone's newsletter, recommend them to clients or investigate their products.
All that said, I admit to having an odd bias against almost all the freebies (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.), I don't have as strong a negative reaction to Gmail accounts. Perhaps it's the anti-junk stance of Gmail or my ridiculous affection for all things Googlified.
--
Julie Bestry, Certified Professional Organizer®
Best Results Organizing
"Don't apologize. Organize!"
organize@juliebestry.com
Visit http://www.juliebestry.com to save time and money, reduce stress and increase your productivity Private Reply to Julie Bestry | | Sep 05, 2008 8:55 pm | | re: re: Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # |
Felicia Slattery | | Thanks Julie!
That other thread got a bit outta hand... but over here, we have a lot of like minds. For all the reasons you said and more... yeppers :-)
BTW-- I've been getting lost in your blog. You have SO much content-rich stuff over there. If you don't have it all compiled in an e-book for sale, you should! You could make SO much $$!!
In fact, I have to get back there. I read about what to do w/ the forms, but still have more paperwork issues from school homework and classwork coming in w/ nowhere to put it.
Warmly,
Felicia
Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed.
Do you know Marilyn Jenett?
We're teaming up for one night only
here: http://tinyurl.com/5p9u7z Private Reply to Felicia Slattery | | Sep 07, 2008 8:26 pm | | re: re: re: Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # |
Julie Bestry | | Felicia, I hope you realize you've just obligated yourself to writing a testimonial when the big ebook on paper management DOES come out. :-)
Seriously, thank you. I really prize your evaluation, so I'm going to walk around smugly for a bit, mumbling "La, La, Felicia likes me!" :-)
You can all fee free to email me questions about paper-related issues; I can always use inspiration for blog posts. I feel a little bifurcated sometimes. Today is "Paper Doll" day; now today is TBC/entrepreneur organizing day. My best inspiration comes from other people's questions.
--
Julie Bestry, Certified Professional Organizer®
Best Results Organizing
"Don't apologize. Organize!"
organize@juliebestry.com
Visit http://www.juliebestry.com to save time and money, reduce stress and increase your productivity Private Reply to Julie Bestry | | Sep 09, 2008 3:28 am | | re: re: re: re: Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # |
Felicia Slattery | | Well you asked for it, Sister.
Questions:
*Top 5 tips for organizing notes from the school. That I may never have to refer to again, but should keep because there is no where else to access that info and goodness only knows when I'll need something that appeared in the 1st day of school note from the principal.
*Best way to handle kids social correspondence/ notes/ b-day invites/ etc.
*In a home business with one home office, how do you keep home papers separate from work papers? (Do NOT say magic.)
*What papers do we REALLY need to keep and what can we throw away?
*What is a good "system" for handling bills as they come into the house with all the other mail?
*What alternatives are there to filing? Is there an easier way?
-------------
That enough?
I could keep going....
Felicia
Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed.
Do you know Marilyn Jenett?
We're teaming up for one night only
here: http://tinyurl.com/5p9u7z Private Reply to Felicia Slattery | | Sep 09, 2008 5:46 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Comm Wed: How Do You Represent Your Business w/ Email? | # |
Julie Bestry | | Fabulous questions, Felicia, only we're now so completely off-thread that someone will probably thunk us on the noggins. :-) I'm on my way out the door to Atlanta for our monthly National Association of Professional Organizers meeting, so I'll have a good long drive to think about answers to your questions, but just off the top of my head, I do have a few quick thoughts.
With regard to alternatives to "filing", remember that filing just means putting something away in its HOME. You file the groceries in the fridge and cupboard when you come back from grocery shopping...you don't just leave them in piles on the kitchen floor, or just leave the ice cream in the car until you get a craving. If you've had difficulty defining what the "home" should be for any given thing, that's a great place to start.
Now, if you mean is there an easier way for storing papers than in file folders, that depends on that kind of papers we're talking about. For many families, I use three-ring binders. If you read my blog posts (which I think you tweeted you did) at: http://www.onlineorganizing.com/BlogEntry.asp?id=1791 and http://www.onlineorganizing.com/BlogEntry.asp?id=1806, you know I often recommend alternatives to filing in file folders. However, for most families, school-related papers can be handled the most quickly and easily by using an open-top desk-top file box. Get it, read it, drop it (in the right folder) and you're done. I timed one of my clients last year at the start of the second semester. We processed 72 pieces of paper (from multiple weeks) in under 15 minutes. She'd been dreading it, but when she saw how well the system worked, she was giddy with delight.
My answer to MOST of your other questions comes down to using a tickler file in concert with a few other systems (and since I realize mentioning my ebook on how to use one is awfully self-serving, maybe we can do a phone session where I can explain it in more detail).
But I have to be honest--I did a survey of my business, home-based business and residential clients a few years ago, and all the business and home-based business clients rated my lessons and systems for using a tickler file as the number one aid for them getting their paperwork and time organized. (For residential clients, in ranked second.) So, yeah, I feel REALLY strongly about using a tickler. People swear up and down that it won't work for them, and then after they learn the RIGHT way and get some practice, they wonder how they lived without it. (My clients feel about tickler files like I feel about my cell phone and Swiffer.)
As for keeping papers, do you mean for business or personal? I did a PDF I can send you on records retention, but if you're talking about items for your business, we'd need a one-on-one discussion, because the laws and regulations governing each business type vary widely.
Honest to Betsy, though, until I get back, please do peruse my blog...Felicia, I think if you start back in the posts from last November 6th, where I began the arc on family filing http://www.onlineorganizing.com/BlogEntry.asp?id=335, those six or seven posts will at least tide you over for a little while.
--
Julie Bestry, Certified Professional Organizer®
Best Results Organizing
"Don't apologize. Organize!"
organize@juliebestry.com
Visit http://www.juliebestry.com to save time and money, reduce stress and increase your productivity Private Reply to Julie Bestry | | |
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