Should a consultant trying to get business have professional email?

I mean does it better if you use Yahoo, gmail, lycos for free webmail trying to get business. I am not a small business but trying to get some consulting work.
Should a consultant trying to get business have professional email?
It depends on what your business is. I'll try to give you some examples and thoughts, but the answer will vary based on your particular "consultant" business.





- If you are a company where your physical location is key (tax shops, financial services consultants, etc.), a webmail email account would be fine. Your business will be driven more by your presence at that location, and having a yahoo or gmail suffix will not usually matter to your clients. More important will be your signage, advertising, location, etc. If it's not cost effective for you to have your own company email, then it probably wouldn't hurt you to start off with a webmail address.





- If you are working from home, without much face to face interaction with clients, and your email and webpage are your primary sources of contact, then I think it is important that your contact information conveys your company name, and your company name conveys what you do. All of your marketing and advertising and points of contact should be in sync to convey a professional and knowledgeable image. I would not recommend using a webmail account in this instance, if you want to be taken seriously in this day and age.





- If you are making most of your sales or are gaining most of your clients in person, then your personal appearance will matter most. What email address you have on your business card won't matter, if you're able to close the deal and deliver value to your clients. A webmail would be fine in this instance.





For all of the above, if you are building a website, then I'd go ahead and get an email account that matches the website. Most domain registries come with a few email addresses, and wouldn't cost that much to add if they don't. When you're talking about $5-$10 a year, it would be worth it. Oh, and one last thing...don't have your email address a mile long. It needs to be something fairly easy that your clients can type in, without any wacky spelling for them to mess up.





If you're just "trying" to get some consulting work without doing much, and don't want the extra expense of something without any sales yet just in case nothing works out, then it won't hurt too bad to start with a webmail account (I would go with Yahoo or GMail personally). If you can't get anything with a webmail account, then chances are you wouldn't do much better with a company email. However, if you do land a client, then I would spend the small amount to get a company email.





I hope this helps. Without knowing your exact situation, it's difficult to tell you exactly what I think you should do.
Reply:To succeed in business you have to look like you have been around a long time. In regards to email, it always looks better to get a domain name, host it on some really inexpensive service and have your name in the email:





Example: Your name is John Doe, so you get johndoeconsulting.com.


Your email should be: owner@johndoeconsulting.com, or general_manager@johndoesonsulting.com





People want to get the feeling that they are dealing with a larger company without the big company prices.
Reply:If I were to look for someone, the domain name wouldn't matter as much to me as whether or not they are foofoo69@ whatever. As far as gmail vs Yahoo, I associate Yahoo with more fun and gmail with more business.
Reply:No, the only difference from paid E-Mail or Free E-mail is generally the size and amounts of files that can be sent. As far as the way it looks to prospective client, I wouldn't worry about it. It looks far worse to have no E-Mail at all.