Setting up a Custom Email Domain and Website for Your Business

There are a couple easy things you need to do to make your business feel legit and show that you know a thing or two about technology. I will go over these at a very high level here, feel free to dive into YouTube if you need more help.

For starters, you need an email address that has a custom domain name tied to it. All too often I see people starting their own business and continuing to use a free email ISP domain like gmail.com, yahoo.com, or aol.com. When I encounter email domains like this being used for a business it feels unprofessional and lazy. Further, it telegraphs that the business owner may not know much about technology or how the Internet works and makes me think perhaps they aren’t too serious about their business. 

You should also use this same custom domain for your business’ website. This website doesn’t have to be overly complicated but it does need to exist.

This is all so easy to set up and configure these days, so let's do it.

Let’s start with the domain name.

A domain name (like paperbak.com) needs to be purchased through a domain registrar. There are many domain registrars to choose from and they all have similar functionality and pricing, generally. I use GoDaddy for no specific reason, though you can use any other registrar of your choice.

The domain registration process is super straightforward:

1. Create an account on GoDaddy
2. Search for a domain name that is not already taken, preferably a .com address if possible.
3. Skip the dozens of upsells of other things that GoDaddy wants to package in with the domain name. Just decline all of that other stuff and buy the domain, I usually choose a 2 year term since most of my ideas burn out anyway before that time.
4. Make sure you have your user name and password that you used for your GoDaddy account handy, you're going to need it in the next step.

Next, let's get a professional email system up and running.

I use Google Workspace to do the majority of back office work for my business. It’s $6 a month per user for the Business Starter plan which includes secure and compliant email, cloud storage, and amazing collaborative online tools for doing just about anything with anybody. The email portion of Google Workspace works exactly like Gmail, but without the ads.

This plan also allows for a custom email domain and makes that process super easy. This is the best $6 a month you could invest in your business, particularly when starting out.

Signing up for Google Workspace these days is now a step-by-step "wizard" process that walks you through everything, no need to re-hash it here. It even auto-configures your custom domain from GoDaddy if you provide your GoDaddy login credentials in the process. Piece of cake.

Not into Google? Try Microsoft 365, with similar pricing and features.

Lastly let's create a website.

Again, so many options here that don't involve any code or technical skills whatsoever. Squarespace, Wix, Framer to name a few. All of these platforms will auto-connect with your GoDaddy account to magically configure your custom domain to the website, as well.

So there you go. Now you're connected with enterprise-grade communication tools (Google Workspace) and a professional website (Squarespace, Wix, Framer) tied together with a nifty and professional domain name registered via GoDaddy.