Email
Whoever you choose
as your internet service provider (ISP), will provide you with an email
address or several addresses.
If you want to have
your own company identity in the email address you can have this quite
cheaply by having a domain name registered. See Domain
Names. These services often have free email addresses and forwarding
included. You can normally set them up so email can be forwarded to
the address given to you by your internet service provider. You can
set up the email software (included in the office software you purchase)
on your own PC so that messages you send with the forwarding address
you want shown.
It is also useful
if the email forwarding service or your ISP has a facility for you to
access your email via the web, so you can look at your mail even when
you are away from your own PC.
Be careful about
publishing your email address. Any email address published on a website
will get a certain amount of unsolicited mail, which is tedious. You
may wish to have a public address and a private one. Clearly it is still
important to carefully review mail sent to the published address, as
there will be new customers in there!
Make use of the
tools in your email software on your PC. You can use it to maintain
customer contact details, auto sort of incoming mail, reminder of schedules,
maintain distribution lists. Do not print them off, and do not get someone
else to type your mails, you will end up technically illiterate.
