The real dangers of free email accounts for your business
It is understandable why new business owner would think to themselves "why not just create a free email?", be it on Yahoo, Google, AOL or any other service. After all, they are familiar with these services as they often use them for personal use. Well the old saying "you get what you pay for" has never been truer, and in this case it may even cost you. Let's explore some of the pitfalls.
BAD IMAGE
Beyond the "my business is not well established" message a free email sends, it also tells potential customers that you didn't want to spend the few dollars for real email accounts. Hardly an encouraging statement of confidence.
ONE POT, MANY HANDS
Assuming you actually grow your business and get employees, with one free email account, you open yourself to a situation where various people can log into the one account with no way to keep anyone accountable if an improper email is sent. I met a CPA with that very situation: i can't imagine any customer sending sensitive tax documents to that email address. Who accesses this account and who's to say they even still work there or not?
DEAD END AHEAD
Last but not least, free email accounts usually have storage limits (some may allow you to buy extra storage), display ads, have little in ways of backups or features to help with regulatory compliance and present a single point of failure meaning if your account is hacked you entire business could get crippled.
Cost is no longer a barrier to get a solid email solution, tools like Office 365 have brought enterprise level email management features and security to the masses.