It may be tempting to use a free email for your business, but it's just a bad idea. Your email address contributes to your business image. Your customers will typically see your email more often than they will see you or anything else about you or your business.

Creating and building your business image or brand takes time and money. Don't let one small, low cost thing destroy all of your hard work.

You need a professional sounding name for your business and your email address. This is not the place for cutesy names. What image is conveyed by an email address like nurseratchet@***.com? In my opinion, this doesn't convey the image of a professional company. Potential customers will likely feel they could not be confident hiring a company with this type of email address. A free email can make you look cheap and cause your potential customers to wonder if you will be around six months from now.

Having a free email address can also impact whether your email gets delivered. Some email systems will screen out email from free email addresses. The chance of your email being opened is also affected by having a free email address. Even if email from a free account is delivered it may not be opened by the receiver because it doesn't appear to be worth opening.

Help your business appear professional by using a paid email account.