I receive many business cards that use @yahoo.com, @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @sbcglobal.net or some other “free” email address for business.
If your email account is compromised on one of these services, whom do you call? (Beware that a Google search may give you a scammers call center to call into. Google and Hotmail do not have published call center numbers, they are handled by FAQ and community bulletin boards).
Do you have an alternate email address on file? Do you have 2-stage authentication set up (where it sends a text to your cell phone in order to reset your password or authenticate that it is you that is making the changes?)
I’ve recently run into business users that were compromised by their password being guessed and when they finally got back into the account, their contacts and/or email was missing. And all of their contacts had been spammed, usually with an email saying you’re stuck overseas on travel and to wire you money at some website (this is a scammer’s technique of getting money).
Be sure to set up an alternate email address for any email account that you use for business and 2-stage authentication to send a text to your cell phone for account recovery. Know whom to call when your email service is down.
Another suggestion is to get your own domain name so you have more control of your business email and to give you someone to call when your email account quits working. If you need to see if a particular domain name is available, go to GoDaddy.com website and see if your desired domain name is available. This also separates your personal email account from other businesses and shows you’re more serious about how you run your business. The rates for domain names are very affordable and I highly recommend having your own specific domain name for business.