When was the last time you picked up a business card and the email address was a hotmail or gmail ( or similar ) address.

Imagine for one moment you are about to spend your hard earned money or valuable company assets on purchasing the services or products of a company that cannot even be bothered ( or afford or never thought about it ) to have its own domain name in the email. What does this imply about their possible service / credibility.

While I concede there maybe companies out there who offer a great service and do a wonderful job with a gmail or hotmail email ( I know some ). Would you as a client shopping around or as a referral partner want to take the risk and refer someone like this.

Referring people is an incredibly efficient way of doing business that has tried and proven result and yet it relies on our reputation and contacts. Can anyone really afford to be putting their reputation on the line for such a small and easily “fixable “ basic business necessity.