I frequently attend networking events during which I meet a variety of business owners. Often we exchange business cards and I continue to notice a trend which disturbs me: the use of consumer email as a business email address.

I often see email addresses using the domain “sbcglobal.net”, “yahoo.com”, or (shudder) “aol.com” listed on a business card. This really makes me cringe. It’s poor branding, and says to the world that your business has not invested in a proper email system. It’s also risky to operate your business on a free system or a system that is designed for consumer email due to the lack of support and functionality.

When you are using a proper email system for business, your email address will match the address of your website. For example, my email address is michael@spinweb.net, which matches my company’s website address: www.spinweb.net.

There are many options for excellent business email. At SpinWeb, we provide Google Apps for Business for our clients, which gives them a complete email, calendaring, documents, and collaboration system. Other companies may want to consider using Microsoft Exchange, which is a great business communications system. Scott Sells at ZingTech provides an excellent Exchange solution.

Let’s get rid of the consumer email addresses on business cards. Brand your business properly and use a system you can rely on.