E-mail is something we too often overlook as a small or unimportant part of business and networking. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Take the couple extra steps to bring your email, and subsequently, your business game, to the next level.

E-mails can make or break people wanting to work with you.

I have to admit, I was not very careful with emails in college. Even still, I’m not an expert, but I have upped my game and realized the power of email. I worked at a real estate law firm for a while after college and though I quit the legal professional upon my acceptances into law school, one of the most valuable lessons I gained during my time in the field was attention to detail and the importance of communication.

Below are simple strategies for email that will insanely up your hustle.

Let’s get to work.

The back end of your emails

 

G- Suite for email

If you have a website, blog, or personal website (the last of which I can’t recommend enough!), I suggest setting up your domain name with Gmail.

So often I see bloggers and entrepreneurs make Gmail accounts with their domain as the first half of the address. For example, if I did that, my Gmail e-mail would be: urban20something@gmail.com.

The harsh truth? That doesn’t look professional.

Having your own domain in your email address shows ownership and professionalism. For instance, my e-mail is: contact@urban20something.com.

Depending on which host you use for your website, you may receive complimentary email addresses with your domain at the end (like mine is above).
For instance, I use Bluehost and have had a great experience with them. When I signed up, I got 5 free e-mail addresses with my domain. I used those for about a month but honestly, it was awful.

They were slow, difficult to access, and I quickly missed all the amazing benefits of Gmail, including google drive. Google drive helps so much with budgeting my side hustles, working with clients, and keep track of growth.

Enter G Suite

Seriously, is there anything google can’t do? It’s only $5 a month to transfer your domain over to a google account. #worthit. And…

I have a coupon for 20% off G suite! Sign up below and receive the coupon instantly.

 

Now, it’s so much easier to manage my blog and personal website’s emails using Gmail. I even have several e-mail addresses with my domain at the end that funnel into my one Gmail inbox. I highly recommend!

Boomerang

Boomerang is a free google plugin for chrome and Gmail. It has many features that ensure you’re just e-mailing, well, better.

When starting a side hustle, business, and/or blog, you’ll find you’re going to get a bunch of emails from people that want to know more and are interested in working with you, but these e-mails can be surprisingly hard to answer.

It’s not always as easy as it sounds to concoct a sophisticated, exciting collaboration when you’re just starting out, juggling a million things at once, talking with a stranger, and might not even know what collaboration even looks like for your business.

You’re not alone.

One of the worst things you can do, though, is not follow up on those emails and let them fall through the cracks.
Some of my favorite parts of Boomerang are:

• Scheduling e-mails you write them to be sent later (great for late night e-mails)
• Setting reminders for yourself to answer an e-mail within a given amount of hours
• Reminding you if you don’t hear back from an e-mail you sent within a given amount of days

Boomerang is the tool we’ve all always needed in email without even knowing it.

 

The email itself

Now that you’ve got your email account set up for success, it’s important to make sure all those successfully sent e-mails are made of gold. My favorite tool first…

Grammarly

Grammarly is the best discovery I’ve made for personal branding, my side hustles, freelancing writing, and for work. I really can’t say enough positive things about it.

The best part? It’s FREE.

Grammarly is an editing and proofing tool with abilities far and beyond that built into Microsoft Word or Apple products. It tracks your writing online through its Chrome plugin and you can also copy and paste text into the App for things you write offline. I can’t say enough about it and how much more confident it has made me in my writing for work, my blog, and for my freelance writing work.

In case you’d be worried of this, it definitely does NOT make you lazier with grammar because you “expect” Grammarly to take care of it. In fact, I feel so much more confident in my grammatic abilities and proofreading skills since installing it about 6 months ago. Yet, I still would never send an e-mail or submit a freelance piece without running it through.

A little typo or grammatical error can do more damage than you think. In an entrepreneur’s world, there’s barely time to breathe. The likelihood of details slipping through the cracks is sky high. Don’t let a small slip cost you the hard work you’ve put in.

What we don’t want is this, team…

Grammarly is the best. If you’re not using it, you’re doing it wrong. (It being life.)

Networking with your email

 

Collaboration Kit

Collaboration kits are the entrepreneurs’ version of media kits.

First things first, media kits? A media kit is used by bloggers and social media influencers to work with brands and sponsorships. It’s a document they have on hand to send to brands with all the essential information a brand is looking for. This includes information about a blog’s mission, audience, traffic, followers, and services for brands.

So, what’s a collaboration kit?

Like a media kit, a collaboration kit is a document that entrepreneurs and side hustlers should have on hand for when they are approached (or when they approach) others to collaborate with. This kit also has information about your hustle, you, and your collaboration opportunities.

This will ensure you don’t miss any connections again.

It actually makes me slightly ill to think of how many e-mails I got when starting out my blog and side hustling about connecting, working together, etc. that fell through the cracks. The exchanges usually went something like this:

Blogger/Entrepreneur/Potential BFF: Hey! I like your blog. It seems like we have similar interests and work and I would love to connect. 

Me: Thanks! I totally agree. Let’s do something together!

** Crickets**

Do you see what I mean? There’s interest but no direct, and alas, nothing ever happens.

If you have a collaboration kit on hand, you just attach the document to the e-mail and volia! Your blogger/entrepreneur/potential BFF now has a variety of ways to collaborate with you and they can select which one works for them. Book a virtual coffee date and get to work.

Above is my own collaboration kit that I use for my blog. I also have another one that I use for my personal website that’s great for professional development and networking.

Want your own collaboration kit?

I’ve made a template similar to mine above, but that’s easily customizable for your own brand and business. You can grab your template below in my SIDE HUSTLER RESOURCE LIBRARY. It’s free and it’ll have you networking via email like a pro in no time.

Personal Branding

One last e-mail note.

Make sure that your e-mail signature includes a photo of you, your social media handles, and your personal website.

You’re an email pro!

Good work, hustler!

I’ve slowly incorporated the above techniques into my blog, my personal networking, and at work in the past 6 months and I really can’t remember how I lived without any of them.

Our digital footprint is nothing to mess with. Perfecting your online presence has never been more important. But, with these steps, it’s never been easier!
Don’t forget to sign up below for your free collaboration kit template + all my best side hustler resources.