Hi,

This is just a general comment to all those aspiring people/middle men and generally anyone trying to gain business partners or service agreements.

I can't see many people, or organisations, taking you seriously if your contact addresses are those of free sites such as hotmail and yahoo. It merely states that you haven't got yourself a company account, which leaves the impression that you haven't actually got a company.

It's not enough to just give yourselves an impressive title. It needs to be backed up by some tangible evidence.

Here here, at last someone has spoken out about this.

A Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail address does not cut it in business and I personally would have nothing to do with someone that worked in that manner. It does not give out professional status.

AC

I must admit my Public E-Mail Address is my Yahoo one as
I try to keep my CCV posts away from work.

Saying that there are several people on here who have my work address.

I still receive unsolicited mail in the Yahoo account from centers looking for contracts.

Ah well.

DaveA

Completely agree with the above comments.

This is specially true of the new industry in India. That is one reason I have removed all my contact information from my profile. Just way to much email asking for free consultancy and low grade middle men chasing you with small time contracts trying to make them sound big.

"A Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail address does not cut it in business ..."

Whilst I appreciate a limited or publicly quoted company ought to have a business address, there are many sole traders and freelancers in business who use them. Most of them do not try to make out that they are a sole trader/ one person operation and they sell specialised services eg. HR consultancy, training, tax advice, Health and Safety consultancy, auditing etc. Most are professionally qulaified and have earnt their place in industry and society.
Since they dont try and make themselves out to be anything but a one person operation with limited computer back up and given that they are frequently working away from their base, a free web based email such as Hotmail or Yahoo seems a sensible, financially astute, critical, efficient, global and wholly reliable means of communicating with clients who use email.

"I can't see many people, or organisations, taking you seriously if your contact addresses are those of free sites such as hotmail and yahoo" - all of the above types of sole traders regularly correspond with banks, inland revenue, large mulitnationals etc.

As someone who uses hotmail.com, no one has EVER commented about my email for the reasons I state above.

We dont query the telecoms supplier even thought the call may be routed via a bizarre international route encompassing some very unsophisticated networks, so why query the email, its just email and shouldnt be confused with the respectability that a whole network and intranet might have.
I now find myself contradicting my first point, which worries me. Is this just snobbery?? What if my country or culture does not have the technology to support the network I require? What if it is an accepted practice in my culture?? What iuf I'm constantly mobile and an entrpreneur?? What next my mobile network brand is more business focussed than yours???

Lets not confuse the email owners professionalism, skills and ability to do the job with the effectiveness of the communication method. Hotmail and Yahoo go down a lot less that some company computer systems I've worked with and at least the person its accessible anywhere not just at the office!! Its just outsourcing for the sole trader.

Your comments greatly appreciated. Or why not email me? - I bet mine is more cost effective, requires less maintenance and doesnt crash as much as much as yours. Isnt that something to take seriously in business?

"Most of them do not try to make out that they are a sole trader/ one person operation "

Should read "Most of them do not try to make out that they are ANYTHING OTHER THAN a sole trader/ one person operation "

Dear CCV
An edit post mechanism on this would save all the spelling mistakes PLEASE!!

The best of Business relationships are acquired through referal system and not by email ids. I receive most of my mail on my accounts at yahoo, hotmail and indiatimes. Owning a company email id is beneficial but do you avoid corresponding with one who has a public email id just because he has no company id ? You deal with a person for what he has to offer and what you can get from him. In case of a new relationship always one looks at the others capabilities and does enquire about his credentials prior to entering into serious relationship.

I never marketed my services actively.Whatever business I have got is always through referals and people who read my postings in CCV and send their enquiries. In my profile I have given only my public email ids like hotmail and yahoo.

I am making decent money without advertisements and extra costs and still manage to get on an average 7-8 fresh enquiries for my services on my yahoo and indiatimes ids.

Vedula

I agree entirely with you, the number of people being made redundant and going it alone are on the up and to expect them to fork out left right and centre on domains names etc. is ridiculous.

So what if its Yahoo or Hotmail, have you forgotten what your mummies (or nannies) taught you, to never judge a book by its cover. Your snobbish attitude could be eliminating a potentially cost effective supplier or business partner, who knows!!

Humm !
I had no idea this would be such an emotive subject. Looks like it struck one or two nerves.

Still, the point made that it seems unfair to pay out on a Domain account doesn't stand. Surely the ISP that is used to access these free accounts has already provided 5-10 additional addresses just waiting to be activated and called whatever they so desire. Company prefix or personal choice. Plenty of web-hosting space available too. All at no extra cost. Unless then, there are people still using cafes/coffee shops (didn't know they still existed) in which case a laptop and mobile must surely be cheaper in the long run - coupled with any of the stable global ISP's.

"to never judge a book by its cover" Of course I agree with the old adage - but it does seem quite a bold statement when we consider the medium that we are currently using. Lets be fair - equality does not exist on the internet. Judgments are made in less time than a browser has to refresh. People are what they claim to be until otherwise found out. In today's web savvy environment it's often what's not said/ or the way it's said that leaves the lasting impressions. More business is lost at first point of contact through slow preload speed than in any other marketing environment.

We have all contributed to what is now considered common practice on the net every time we log on. So then a conscious decision gets made to standout from the herd. But to do that means taking a simple betting option. It's a 50/50 chance of getting it right. You either stand out positively or negatively.

One thing is for certain - that conscious choice still remains the option of the individual.

No offence was meant in any of the two postings by the way - apologies to any who might have thought it was aimed at them directly.

Graham

Just thought it worth mentioning that to actually get a professional web address is fairly cheap and easy, and does not require you to build a web site (or even purchase web space - see last para). If you purchase a domain name at between £10 - £120 for 2 years, this should include e-mail forwarding. This allows you to set up numerous (in some cases unlimited) e-mail accounts and have them directed either all to one hotmail address, or have them individually directed to different addresses.
I agree that a hotmail address is not ideal when selling yourself or your products, and surely at such a low investment cost you & your business are worth the spend.
On a final note, if you purchase a web space it is better to put up a single page, e.g. a bio for the company, so that should people look up the web address they are not confronted with a space not found message. Good resources for cheap web space and forwarding include www.namesco.co.uk & www.micronicos.com - there are many many others but I can vouch for these 2 from personal experience.
(p.s. I am happy to provide basic HTML and JAVA codes for anyone wishing to build a space)

Just to bring you all back to the ground with a bump...we have to start somewhere, we've all been at the bottom of a ladder at least once in our careers, maybe this applies to our e-mail addresses too!

Are we so fickle these days that a simple e-mail address can be the downfall of a business or service. Remind me, what did we do to market ourselves before the internet and e-mail..?

Good Luck to anybody using free e-mail accounts, if I hired you I'd be glad to pay for your work and commitment not a fancy web address.

I stand down from my soapbox now..!

J

In reply to Ms. Tunstall and Mr. Boyd-- respectfully, I am of the opinion that both of you have to be overgeneralizing somewhat. There will predictably be a whole spectrum of reactions in the market. You will have people in Mr. Boyd's camp, like Ms. Craig, whose reaction is "free address implies lack of professionalism". Equally, you will have people in Ms. Tunstall's camp, who do not consider it relevant to anything, or even look at it as a positive.

The point is, you have to be able to sell to the whole spectrum of opinion. Ultimately, all business is about R.O.E.-- how fast a given business takes a dollar and makes two dollars with it-- vs. risk-- how often that business takes a dollar and just loses it. If you did not improve your company's R.O.E.-to-risk ratio today, your company basically paid you for nothing, today.

In reply to Mr. Closed Account - You consider hotmail "a sensible, financially astute, critical, efficient, global and wholly reliable means of communicating with clients who use email." I have worked internationally, on projects that involved being thousands of miles from 'home base', and I have to agree with you, up to a point.

However, "wholly reliable" does not accurately describe hotmail. Lots of businesses may have confidentiality concerns. In any domain where sensitive data is being exchanged, hotmail and the like is totally unacceptable, because it is not secure. That being said, most business' sites and 'internal' e-mail have major security issues as well. Even major financial institutions maintain a strategic silence about the security breaches that happen to them, on a regular basis. No sense telling the other con artists how it's done, is there?

In your first paragraph you draw conclusions from previous responses then in the second paragraph you say "The point is, you have to be able to sell to the whole spectrum of opinion. " I'm not sure who you are referring to.

Regarding e-mail accounts you kinda dont have to sell them to the whole spectrum of opinion - only those people you trade with and those you want to trade with in future. If the organisations you correspond with are used to web-based email from suppliers and buyers and thats your market then thats it - full stop (period).
I do agree with you regarding security issues.

But how about those people that buy domain names just to redirect them to hotmail accounts? ie: me@moi.net redirects to mmarrou@hotmail.com
A domain name is less than $30 per year.
Why wouldn't you do that as soon as possible if you have a real business?

(I am one of the people who wouldn't buy from a seller with a hotmail account, not for business or even on eBay)

A postage stamp or a franking machine....which is best???

Three personal *and* business references, fingerprint analysis, run a check thru the national sex offender database, blood and urine sample, and voice authentication? Then we meet in person and shake hands with latex gloves on.

Just to be safe.

Mr. Closed Account--

My apologies...I was overgeneralizing or writing in incomplete sentences. I suppose it should have read "whole spectrum of opinion *among* those people you trade with, and want to trade with in future", to paraphrase your post.

The real issue seems to be with 'those that you might want to trade with in the future', and how they react to the use of hotmail (e.g.) for business purposes. One would not want to make a bad impression on a potential trading partner ;).

Unlike Ms. Marrou, I would not make any general judgments based on what sort of account was being used. I would rather make them based on the use(s) to which the account is being put.

Mr. Preece--

Latex gloves...and a *full* background check, to filter out those whose family members and business associates have 'questionable' backgrounds. Make sure everyone is happily married, as contested divorces can have a serious impact on both business performance and ownership interests in closely held corporations.

I'm only being half sarcastic ;). A former Head General Counsel for Bell Canada Enterprises told me (in person) that the background checking they engage in is **literally** that deep, especially when outsourcing offshore.

This does not necessarily imply that one should never do business with someone based on their questionable background. It is all a question of the R.O.E.-to-risk ratio. If you do not know someone's background, you are not apprised of the risk side of the equation.

WP

I have to agree with the original poster.

In this day and age a professional e-mail address is not difficult to come by. I own approx 3 domains that I use soley for e-mail. These include a "company" name and my own actual name. (www.dechaine.com)

I use them soley for e-mail as I believe it gives me that extra slight advantage over hotmail or yahoo.

That being said...my name is harder to spell...and truthfully since I do not even have anything active on my domain it may even hinder me more than a yahoo address.

I got to get around to putting up a splash page or something.

I recently had 4 different companies I was considering giving some business to. I cut it down to 3 I am currently looking at.

How did I cut that fourth? well, I found an ad for a third party company on their website that didn't relate in anyway to the service they provide. It can be a very small thing that will either give you a contract or your competitor. Even something as small and inocious as an e-mail or an ad could be a deciding factor.

The cost to risk benifit makes it an easy decision for me to get a professional domain and a good solid e-mail address that I can keep forever.

That tiny ad probably cost that company $10,000.