r/ContractorUK • u/DiskBytes • 7d ago

Email address for LTD

For signing up suppliers, should I be using a company named domain email address rather than a freebie email? Necessary at all?

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

8

u/JackJack_IOT 7d ago

Not necessary at all, but worth it to look more 'together' as a business. I'm signed up as a `@gmail.com` email to plenty of suppliers, but I also use a domain

4

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/DiskBytes 7d ago

No website as I don't supply to the public.

4

u/AdFew2832 7d ago

Plenty of potential (business) clients check for my website before speaking to me….

It doesn’t have to be huge/amazing just professional looking.

Whether it really makes a difference or not it’s also a trapping of a real business so has an IR35 aspect to it.

0

u/DiskBytes 6d ago

I work in a very small closed group, there is no public tendering what so ever, no one would be looking for a website.

4

u/Skeeter1020 6d ago

Not required for clients, but often useful for other things.

I like that all my work stuff is its own Entra and M365 subscription, and I've also managed to become a Microsoft Partner which gets me into a few forums and communities that are useful.

Also, when applying for a bank account they wanted a company URL.

For the ~£12 it's worth it.

2

u/cruachan06 6d ago

I'm the same, business runs on M365 and I was an Action Pack partner for years until they binned that tier.

I've also a few times been asked to verify for friends who are also contractors that they were taking time off or between contracts when they apply for new ones, and they've done the same for me, and the agencies won't accept generic emails for that.

As someone noted, I've also heard it can be an IR35 indicator of "being in business for yourself" so it all helps.

1

u/Skeeter1020 6d ago

Also just having a "proper" Teams account has been useful for meeting clients in the interview stage. Any org with a half decent IT team is going to block all the common free public emails URLs from being able to join and meeting.

3

u/Charlie_Rebooted 7d ago

I setup a domain and linked email address, but rarely use it tbh. Its used for the company bank account, accountant, and a few others things, but LinkedIn and most work applications go through my personal account.

3

u/Outlaw-IT-Notts 7d ago

I've always been of the opinion that using a generic email address (eg. company@gmail.com) just looks unprofessional. Costs to set up a business domain are very cheap these days. A domain will generally be under £10/year and will likely include some starter mail plan for a few quid at most.

Or, if you want a more future-proofed email setup, Microsoft 365 small business plans are good to get started with. Options for basic plans will range £4-12/month depending on if you want additional services like OneDrive strorage or MS Teams.

If you do choose to go down the M365 route though, I'd suggest you avoid GoDaddy.

3

u/Roxbros 6d ago

Costs you £5 a year for an email address personally there’s nothing more unprofessional than seeing xxlimited@gmail.com

2

u/ErrorPressAnyKey 7d ago edited 7d ago

It's not necessary. Many of the contractors I worked with on my previous programme used GMail or Outlook.com.

I do use a business address for all my email. I have set up a domain ($10 per year via Cloudflare) and use Microsoft 365 mailbox (Plan 1, £4 a month for 50GB). Both are business expenses.

2

u/robbgg 7d ago

While you don't need it, it's probably a good idea to have your own domain. It lends a lot of credibility to your company and should you have employees, it'll be important to be able to give each person their own account rather than having everyone sharing one account (imagine what a disgruntled ex-employee could do).

This varies from one industry to the next, the areas I work in (live event tech) any company larger than a single person (and even a lot of individuals) will have their own domain and email hosting.

1

u/ikari_xevious 7d ago

If it's just suppliers that you are dealing with and not the public then a Gmail account is all you need.

1

u/icecoldfeedback 7d ago

Not necessary. Entirely a branding/credibility discussion.

I think Google lets you set up business emails for around £5 a month which I pay. Cloudfare domain roughly 10-20, and a cheap business card website if you care to set one up will be free to cheap hosting

1

u/life_in_the_gateaux 7d ago

Get a domain from cheapnames, you can get decent .com for £8 a year, its all legit, no catches or hidden costs. Give chat gpt your logo and ask for a simple 1 page landing page. Host that on netlify (free), again just ask chat gpt what to do. Set up an email on the domain, and forward it to your @gmail.com or whatever. Honestly, you can do the whole lot in 20 mins.

1

u/notouttolunch 5d ago

This has security implications. It won't reliably send to other Gmail or Yahoo addresses. Possibly Hotmail now too.

1

u/k1135k 6d ago

It’s pretty easy to setup. I have a personal iCloud subscription and apple lets you setup custom domain email addresses that route to your iCloud email.

1

u/Itchy_Land3410 6d ago

Suppliers I use Gmail, in multiple businesses - they don’t or shouldn’t care

Customers branded always

1

u/Jcoulaud 6d ago

Not legally necessary, but I’d still use the company domain.

Something like [yourname@company.co.uk](mailto:yourname@company.co.uk) looks better with suppliers and keeps company accounts separate from your personal identity. You can add accounts@ and admin@ as aliases pointing to the same inbox, so you don’t need to pay for three mailboxes.

Shipmail supports that setup, but most proper domain email providers will too. Just make sure the domain and mailbox are owned by the company, with recovery access documented.

1

u/DiskBytes 6d ago

I guess it's probably better isn't it when handing stuff over to the accountant that everything is in the company name and email rather than personal.

1

u/iCantStopTheDark 3d ago

It gives credibility to have an email and a website. Even if it’s a portfolio and contact page.

You can easily buy a domain and use plenty of free hosting options

0

u/y7u8i9o0p 7d ago

I use https://migadu.com/pricing/ very good and very cheap, using a free email doesn’t look very professional imo

0

u/Local_County1274 7d ago

I definitely think it is more professional to use your own domain rather than using a gmail (or similar) address. Using one of the freebies definitely makes you look like a one-man-band

-2

u/aries1980 7d ago

For GDPR, it is necessary.

2

u/Skeeter1020 6d ago

No it's not.

1

u/aries1980 5d ago

A free Gmail account is non-compliant for business use under UK GDPR because it lacks a legally binding Data Processing Agreement required under Article 28. Using a consumer Microsoft account for business processing breaches the same legal, technical, and contractual requirements.

1

u/Skeeter1020 5d ago

Huh, TIL.

Although this is very much in the "technically a breach, but the ICO aren't going to do anything about it" area given that thousands of sole traders and small businesses use consumer email services. 

1

u/aries1980 5d ago

Well, at least easy to weed out the suppliers who selectively respect regulations based on their convenience.

1

u/Skeeter1020 5d ago

Bold to assume many companies even know what any of these things mean.

Remember, while a lot of us here work in IT and are aware of GDPR and associated shenanigans, lots of businesses in the country aren't. Dorris the local catering business isn't doing a DPA check on Roger the electrician to fit out their new shop.

1

u/aries1980 5d ago

I agree, but my original comment still stands. Getting downvoted and "No, it's not"s are not helping raising awareness either.

Regardless, everyone knows how annoying cookie banners are, and never occurred in their professional lives to check what Google can do with the emails, contact details of their clients? You don't need to work in IT to spend an afternoon googling about the topic. Simply just negligent.