

I don't know about you, but I've become more and more selective when it comes down to what I open or automatically delete in my inbox. Spam emails are a thing, and I'm not here for it.
When businesses or brands reach out to me, as a business owner I find it hard to take the company seriously if their company email address is "companyname@gmail.com". If you're a business owner, I highly recommend having a professional email domain before you start sending out emails. Not only is it the professional way to conduct your business communication, but it's also surprisingly really cheap too.
Like dirt cheap.
If you need more convincing, keep reading for three reasons why having a professional email domain is a must, and a budget-friendly way to get one.
1. It’ll make you look less like Joanne the Scammer.
A professional email domain with your company name automatically makes your business look professional, legit, and more trustworthy. Just think about it, would you buy something or open an email from an email address from kimscupakes@gmail.com or from team@kimscupakes.com?
I'm sure you picked the latter.
If a potential customer sees your email from your professional, company email domain, they'll see that you're legit and more than likely will open your email. However, if you are sending company emails that end in gmail.com or yahoo.com, it's possible that it'll get deleted, marked as spam, or blocked.
2. It’s free advertising.
Every time someone opens up your email, they are engaging with the marketing for your business. By having a professional email domain for your company, it will help imprint your business brand in your target market's mind every time they open or see your email.
3. It’s cheap AF.
Lately, I've seen more new business owners emailing from their Gmail or Yahoo! accounts, and after speaking with them, I've learned that they weren't aware of how cheap and easy it is to have a professional email domain that includes their business name.
Sis, the gag is, it doesn't cost a lot at all to have a professional email domain.
It can literally cost you a few dollars a month and is way cheaper than what you'll spend at Starbucks or Chick fil A each day, or for your Netflix subscription each month.
Because of the benefits and inexpensive cost, it's beyond worth it to invest in a professional email domain.
4. It's easy to use.
Keep reading for a step-by-step tutorial on how to create your professional email domain. As you'll see, the instructions are for creating it using Google's services. I'm a huge fan of Google and their offerings, and also, it's a very cheap, easy to use, reliable option.
Step 1. Purchase your custom domain name from sites like GoDaddy.com if you haven't already.
Step 2. Go to the G Suite site, click "Get Started", and then enter your business information, including your company's domain as requested.
Step 3. Choose your plan. Unless you know for sure that you need unlimited storage, I recommend starting out with the Basic G Suite account. It costs $6 per month and includes 30 GB of cloud storage, compared to $12 per month for the Business account. Of course, you can always upgrade later if you find that you need more space.
Step 4. Verify your domain. The easiest way to do this is to just "insert an HTML tag into your site's home page". Trust me, even if you can't code, it's not hard at all. Essentially, this is simply a small bit of code that you will copy and paste into the backend of your website. The code is provided by Google so it's not like you'll have to figure it out on your own. Easy, right?
After you've done that, you'll click "verify" in G Suite, login into your G Suite account, and add new users (just so you know, users in G Suite are your custom email addresses). You can start off with one "user" (email address) or as many as you would like - keep in mind, the price per user is $6 per month per user, or $12 per month per user depending on what kind of G Suite plan you choose.
Step 5. Celebrate because you're done! Have a drink or two because you did it!
Now that you have the tea on creating your company's email domain, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or run into any issues.
Want more stories like this? Sign up for our newsletter here and check out the related reads below:
How To Get Your Boss To Invest In Your Professional Development
6 Tips For Stepping Up Your Resume Game
Why Personal Brands Are Important For Black Women Who Want To Diversify Their Income
How To Build A Personal Brand Based On Your Personality Type
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Brittani Hunter is a proud PVAMU alumni and the founder of The Mogul Millennial, a business and career platform for Black Millennials. Meet Brittani on Twitter and on the Gram at @BrittaniLHunter and @mogulmillennial.
'He Said, She Said': Love Stories Put To The Test At A Weekend For Love
At the A Weekend For Love retreat, we sat down with four couples to explore their love stories in a playful but revealing way with #HeSaidSheSaid. From first encounters to life-changing moments, we tested their memories to see if their versions of events aligned—because, as they say, every story has three sides: his, hers, and the truth.
Do these couples remember their love stories the same way? Press play to find out.
Episode 1: Indira & Desmond – Love Across the Miles
They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, but for Indira & Desmond, love made it stronger. Every mile apart deepened their bond, reinforcing the unshakable foundation of their relationship. From their first "I love you" to the moment they knew they had found home in each other, their journey is a beautiful testament to the endurance of true love.
Episode 2: Jay & Tia – A Love Story Straight Out of a Rom-Com
If Hollywood is looking for its next Black love story, they need to take notes from Jay & Tia. Their journey—from an awkward first date to navigating careers, parenthood, and personal growth—proves that love is not just about romance but also resilience. Their story is full of laughter, challenges, and, most importantly, a love that stands the test of time.
Episode 3: Larencia & Mykel – Through the Highs and Lows
A date night with police helicopters overhead? Now that’s a story! Larencia & Mykel have faced unexpected surprises, major life changes, and 14 years of choosing each other every single day. But after all this time, do they actually remember things the same way? Their episode is sure to bring some eye-opening revelations and a lot of laughs.
Episode 4: Soy & Osei – A Love Aligned in Purpose
From a chance meeting at the front door to 15 years of unwavering love, faith, and growth, Soy & Osei prove that when two souls are aligned in love and purpose, nothing can shake their foundation. Their journey is a powerful reminder that true love is built on mutual support, shared values, and a deep connection that only strengthens with time.
Each of these couples has a unique and inspiring story to tell, but do their memories match up? Watch #HeSaidSheSaid to find out!
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Feature image screenshot/ xoNecole YouTube
Love Is The Muse: How Skylar And Temi Built A Creative Life Together
When Temitope Ibisanmi DM’d the word “muse” to Skylar Marshai, he knew he was shooting his romantic shot. He didn’t realize, however, that he was connecting with his future business and creative partner, too.
“I was the boyfriend,” Temi says. “Everybody out there knows, you’re the cameraman at that point.”
Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Today, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak