Managing Email Accounts

Some of us are consultants and are used to having various email accounts to manage, but for those of you who aren't sure how to handle this, my good friend, Dyske has kindly allowed me to publish his article on the subject so here it is...
Managing Email for Your Business

I remember the days when only a small number of my friends and colleagues had email accounts (i.e. mid 90s). I used to think, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if everyone had email... I could send out my party invitation in one click!" (Yes, I used to throw parties.) Now we assume everyone has an email account. Even our government asks for our email addresses, which implies that having an email account is a social responsibility. Also, every legitimate business is expected to have its own domain name for the email addresses of their employees. It does not look professional to have email addresses at AOL or Yahoo. But it's not so simple to have your own domain name and manage it. The solution I offer below assumes that you have a small business without an IT department. That is, it is a cost-effective compromise, and not a definitive solution for all businesses.

Let's suppose you have a restaurant called Chinese Laundry and your domain name is chineselaundry.com. Every employee should have his or her own email address with that domain name, like mary@chineselaundry.com. But, if you were to create an email account for every employee, she would have to check two accounts all the time: her personal account and her business account. Unless she happens to be tech-savvy, she wouldn't know how to add another account to her email program. As a business owner, you become responsible for trouble-shooting it. Or, you would have to provide a separate email program (or Webmail interface) for your business. Either way, it's a hassle unless your business is large enough to have an IT department support them.

So, don't create a new email account, but forward the email to an existing account. Instead of creating a new account you can forward each email to a specific address. Suppose your employee, Mary, has a personal account, mary.doe@yahoo.com. You create a forwarding address, mary@chineselaundry.com, and configure it to forward all the emails to mary.doe@yahoo.com. This way, Mary will start receiving all the business emails into her existing Yahoo account. No need to install or learn any new program. Even if she decides to leave your restaurant after her appearance on Top Chef, all you have to do is delete the forwarding address. Mary will stop receiving emails addressed to mary@chineselaundry.com. You would also have the option of forwarding the emails to your own address so that any business contacts Mary had would now be contacting you.

For critical roles like sales, support, and press, it is better to create email addresses dedicated to those roles. For instance, instead of using mary@chineselaundry.com for press inquires, use press@chineselaundry.com. This way, even if Mary leaves the company, there would be no disruption. Also, keep in mind that each forwarding address could forward the emails to multiple email addresses. The emails sent to press@chineselaundry.com could go to your account as well as to Mary's.

Typically you create forwarding addresses on the website of your ISP, the Internet service provider, who hosts your website (e.g. Media Temple, Blue Host, Dream Host, Pair Networks, etc..). You could also do this through your domain name registrar such as Network Solutions and GoDaddy, but I recommend that you use your ISP. (For some of you, I am your ISP, so you can ask me to set up your forwarding addresses.)

One thing to keep in mind is that when your employee hits "Reply" or compose a new email, the "from" address would be her personal address. If you want the "from" address to be her business address, this can be configured in most email programs like Outlook, Entourage, and Apple Mail. Since every email program has a different way to set this up, I cannot go into them in this newsletter, but here is how you can do it in Gmail:

1. Click on "Settings" (upper right corner).

2. Click on the "Accounts and Import" tab.

3. Within the section labelled "Send mail as", click on the button "Send mail from another address" and follow the instructions.

4. Within the same section, there is also an option labelled "Reply from the same address the message was sent to". You should have this selected.

Once you have it set up, whenever you compose a new email, you should be able to select a "from" address from the drop-down next to "From:". And, when you hit "Reply" on any email sent to your business address, the "from" address would automatically be set to the same address.

In Gmail, you can also create "Filters", so that all emails sent to your business account would be labeled as "Business", or whatever label you create. This is also available on the "Settings" page.

In the rare cases where your employee does not have an email account, or where she prefers not to mix her personal emails with her business emails, suggest that she create a new Gmail account. Gmail is free and it can be used with any email programs and devices (Blackberry, iPhone, etc..). Gmail is what I use also, and you will need it for other popular tools like Google Analytics anyway, which will be another topic of this newsletter in the near future.

I hope this is helpful to some of you, and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

All Rights Reserved Rosemary Flannery and Dyske Suematsu 2010

Silence IS Golden

Today I had the pleasure of taking the Hampton Jitney to Manhattan from Long Island after an extended stay on Shelter Island. The Jitney strictly enforces a no cell phone policy and limits calls to emergencies with a three minute maximum. How refreshing to find a place finally where I don't have to wear my ipod to avoid cluttering my brain with other people's mundane phone conversations. Clutter isn't just physical - it affects our mental health as well and I for one, hate being distracted by a conversation of people I don't know nor am uninterested in hearing about. I try to block it out but it's hard when the person is usually talking above a normal decibel level. I applaud the Hampton Jitney for creating a transportation haven where passengers can read, crochet or just look out the window, in silence. I wish more venues would follow their example so we can all relax and keep room in our brains for information that is meaningful to us. What are your methods for keeping your mind clutter-free?

2010 Rosemary Flannery All Rights Reserved

Organization Is Possible

It's always thrilling when clients check in with me to show their progress on their organization journey. I get very excited when I hear that so much of what we discussed during our sessions is now being learned and put into practice. I have one client who is a convert to The Container Store. TCS should be thanking me for all the money she is putting in their coffers! I'd like to share with you what a client wrote about her Clarity experience to see that all things are possible when it comes to organization!

Rosemary has been helping me systematically purge my house. We started with paperwork (which I am overrun with due to my freelance business on top of my regular job).
I was so inspired, I started clearing out one closet at a time on my own, making it though four so far. I have donated clothing, books, etc. She came over... recently and we began tackling the garage.
There is nothing like friendly support when you're in the trenches!!! If you need help, contact Rosemary, she's better than psychotherapy and makes a fantastic gift for yourself or someone who has everything literally!

Lowering Landfill Capacity

I just saw this on the blog, Unclutterer and thought this was a terrific idea. I hope other college towns follow suit. Hear that NYU?????



Columbus gets creative with clutter recycling program | Unclutterer

http://unclutterer.com/2010/06/10/columb...

The Ohio State University has a program that not only helps students responsibly get rid of their clutter at the end of the semester, but it is also available for residents of the Columbus area to use. The program is called Dump and Run.

A Non- Material Gift That Is Just As Meaningful

June the month of weddings, anniversaries and Father's Day. Follow some of my clients' leads and give a gift of de-cluttering instead of a material gift. So far I have done a husband's dressing room and just got booked for a day of garage clearing.

This Could Be You

I just had to share a testimonial from my one of my latest projects. You may remember that I spent almost a month in London working on making a client's flat feel "more grown-up." Here are some before and after shots. You too can achieve this same level of satisfaction. Contact me for a consult.



Hiring Rosemary was literally the best thing I’ve done in years! I was so sick of looking at all the clutter in my flat that had been accumulating and expanding for years and years and thought, what is one thing I could do for myself that would have a huge impact on my life, and my solution was, get Rosemary over to London and let her loose on my flat. Then from the moment she arrived her enthusiasm for de-cluttering and providing the most useful tips on keeping things tidy and in their respective places was just incredible-and contagious and after 2 weeks of Rosemary transforming my flat, drawers and cupboards I have continued to utilise all her useful tips and hints to ensure I didn’t go back to my old ways. In addition to transforming my flat, Rosemary tackled my huge “to do” list of things like, get a repair man in for this and that and I am happy to say that after 11 years in my flat I finally have beautiful gas fireplaces, smoke detectors and an intercom that actually works! I can’t thank Rosemary enough for all her hard work, enthusiasm, dedication and wonderful guidance in making my living space and life so much less cluttered and relaxing-she’s like a magic wand that EVERYONE who knows her should make use of-she’s just fantastic!!!

Rosemary Flannery All Rights Reserved 2010

Keeping It Together

I encounter this problem often in my practice: families living under one roof leading separate lives. Here's how you can tackle this problem.


Peter Walsh's Challenge for Busy Families

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Peter-Walshs-Challenge-for-Busy-Families