What's your e-mail address?

Do you use a yahoo, hotmail, or other free service for your business e-mail? Or does your e-mail address end with @verizon.com, @comcast.com, @msn.com or some other provider?

If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, I suggest you reconsider your e-mail address options.

While free accounts are attractive for the obvious reasons, they are more appropriate for personal e-mail than business correspondence. Everyone knows these accounts are free, easy to set-up and change, and therefore, they don't project the image of a serious established business. Personally, I use a free account for online purchases so that all the spam associated with buying online doesn't bog down my business e-mail.

Verizon, Comcast, MSN, and similar accounts are not universally available; therefore, if you were to move or change internet providers, your e-mail address would need to change. Not only would you be at risk of missing messages sent to your old address, you would also lose all the settings and contact information you had built up in your old account.

Ideally, your business e-mail address should be yourname@yourcompanyname.com, and it's less expensive and far less hassle than you might think. To start, you'll need to reserve a domain name like www.yourcompanyname.com which costs as little as $10. Next choose a place to park/host your domain and set up an e-mail account through the domain. The vendor I use includes domain registration and unlimited e-mail accounts for a cost of $99/year. So for about $100 you and your employees would have permanent e-mail addresses your employees that can move and grow with you and your business and you'd also will have started the process of setting up a company web site.

Save your e-mail, save a tree and more!

Did you know that you can save an e-mail message instead of printing it out? If you use Outlook Express, go to File >Save and then choose a destination for your file.

I used to print my e-mail so that I could save it in my job folders, but for the last few months, I've been saving the digital file along with the attachments in the digital folder where I keep my working files. I first made the change when my laser printer was out of commission for a week, and I've realized that saving digital copies is a better choice.

The obvious benefit is that I'm saving paper, but I'm also saving toner and electricity since I don't have my printer on all day. My electricity bill has been about $30 less a month since I made the switch. I've also spend less time filing, and I have fewer papers floating around the office.

It's been a few months now and I've noticed my paper files are becoming much thinner which will allow me to change how I file and track jobs. For example, instead of having a new folder for an annual conference each year, I'll be able to set up one permanent folder for the conference project, keeping all the paperwork in one place. Want to send your banner to the same vendor as last year? No problem, I've got that info right here. Need to increase your print run by 500? Again, I've got the numbers from the last run handy.

So by clicking >Save instead of >Print, I've saved paper, toner, electricity, time, file folders, and probably the expense of a second filing cabinet!