Legitimizing my business
So this week, I want to talk about a small expense with a big impact. It's what I call a business legitimizing expense.
Shortly after I registered for college, the college assigned me my first official .edu email address. This address gave me legitimacy as a college student. It allowed me to register for classes, view my transcript, and pay my bill. Plus, it gave me perks because I could authenticate myself as a college student. I was in awe of the power this simple college.edu address had given me.
When I first started this side hustle, I didn't consider an email address as a top priority. But shortly after, I had the thought of how seriously would I take someone who supposedly had their own business but when they sent me their email, it was from a personal account? There's a certain degree of formalness and seriousness that comes from getting an email from a "company" address.
Plus this might be a stretch here, but stick with me. ........
It creates trust. If you have an email with your domain address, it means you have a website. And a website builds trust. First thing I do when I'm checking out someone or something- scour their web page. And if your business doesn't have a webpage, a) you're super old school or b) you haven't even invested enough into your gig to get a webpage up and letting everyone know what your about. I will make allowances to those in the first group, but the second group, they will have to work harder for me to trust them because I don't know them.
So just to wrap this up, why not have an email? It was slightly painful for this tech newbie, but I managed! And it's so worth the minimal cost. I set up an email account with Google. I received a "free period" then went to the $5 a month plan. Next step, build that email list!
Let me know what your email experiences have been rachel@redheadsystem.com