I’ve been collecting business cards from people as I meet them at various events. I’ve noticed that many use third party domain names such as gmail.com, telus.net, shaw.ca, hotmail.com, yahoo.com and so on. This is not ideal as it is not as professional looking as it could be.

When you get a domain name you usually buy a hosting service for your website. With this hosting plan you usually get a bunch of free email accounts with it, for example at GoDaddy. Domains names are only about $10/year – any real business should be able to afford that. If you just have a domain name and no hosting plan, you can use Google Apps to get a business email account instead of using mycompany@gmail.com.  Go here to find out more about Google Apps for business.