The Quest for 'me@mybusiness.com': A Business Email Story

 For the first six months of my business, I ran everything from MyBusinessName_88@gmail.com.

I know, I know. I can feel the collective cringe from entrepreneurs everywhere.

In my defense, it was easy. It was free. And it worked. But with every email I sent, I felt a tiny pang of imposter syndrome. Nothing screams "this is just a side hustle" quite like an email address that includes an underscore and your birth year.

The breaking point came when I was trying to land my first major client. I had my proposal ready, my website looked polished, and my services were dialed in. I typed out the email, hit send... and then stared at my "Sent" folder. The email, coming from MyBusinessName_88, just felt... amateur. It was like wearing a sharp suit with a pair of old, muddy sneakers.

I decided right then: it was time to level up.

Thus began the great "business email" quest. I dove into a sea of options, and it was immediately more confusing than I expected.

First, there was the "free" email that came with my website hosting. My cPanel dashboard promised me unlimited email addresses. "Great!" I thought. I set one up. The interface was a clunky, web-based mailer from 2005. It felt slow, and I read horror stories about deliverability—emails from shared hosting servers landing straight in spam folders. Not a good look. That option was out.

Next, I looked at the big two: Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) and Microsoft 365.

This felt like the "real" solution. I could get me@mybusiness.com. With Google, I'd get the familiar, powerful Gmail interface I was already used to, plus Google Docs, Sheets, and a calendar that actually synced. With Microsoft, I'd get the corporate standard, Outlook, and the desktop versions of Word and Excel.

Both were professional. Both were reliable. Both, of course, cost a few dollars per month.

I also stumbled across other dedicated email providers. Zoho Mail popped up, offering a surprisingly generous free tier for custom domains. As someone already exploring business software, this was tempting—an email that could plug right into a whole ecosystem of other apps.

I spent a weekend weighing the pros and cons. Did I want the ecosystem I was already familiar with (Google)? The one that was the corporate standard (Microsoft)? Or the one that offered a path to an all-in-one business suite (Zoho)?

In the end, I chose familiarity. I went with Google Workspace.

The setup took about an hour—mostly just proving I owned my domain by adding a weird-looking TXT record to my settings (a new skill I promptly learned from a tutorial).

The moment I sent my first email from hello@mybusiness.com, everything changed.

It was more than just a new inbox. It was a statement. It told my clients I was serious. It told me I was serious. That small monthly fee wasn't just an expense; it was an investment in legitimacy.

My proposals now land with confidence. My follow-ups look professional. And MyBusinessName_88? It's been happily retired, relegated to signing up for newsletters I'll probably never read.