May 16, 2019
This may not be the most fun or interesting topic, but it is vital to your company. Every business uses email and has some kind of internet presence. Email is the primary form of communication between employees and clients, so it is important to have complete control of your company’s email and any services that are associated with it. Always create your own email domain, account, and password, and NEVER delegate this job to an employee or manager; this applies to all social media accounts too. Do not let someone use a personal email to set up these accounts, including you, because you want these to be property of the company rather than an individual. This will ensure that if anything goes wrong, you always can easily access the account and be in complete control of it. Also, if for some reason you have to fire an employee and they are vindictive, you, as a manager, can take away their control of the account instantly. It is time consuming and frustrating if you have to jump through all the hoops in order to remove the account from the former employee’s control.
Now that we have established how critical it is for you to set up your own email domain, let us talk about some online resources that can help. Companies, such as Google, have developed services that enable businesses to work better. One of these services that is particularly relevant to our discussion is that Google allows you to set up a company email and password. All employees should have a company email to avoid confusion for clients and to ensure that if they leave the company that you can take away their access and protect your information. Once that is done, every other digital asset can be connected through your Google account; in layman’s terms, your company email is the torso of the body of your business. There are also other useful services such as Google analytics, Google search console, and Google business.
We have established the that main Google account you set up is your torso. Google analytics can be seen as the left hand of your company because this is where you take the pulse. It allows you to set goals, you can even add monetary values for each goal, for each quarter, year, or any time period you desire, and it will keep track of how you are doing. Google search console is your right hand, as it tells you how to do SEO better and will give you insight on what key words should be on your website. The legs of your company come from Google business which allows you to change the address, hours, or any information on your company for clients to see.
Google is also aware of some of the dangers that can occur if the CEO or head of the company does not set up the Google account themselves, which is why they have built in safety precautions to help you! After you have set up the accounts, you can designate administrators for each separate account. They will be able to utilize the service, but it will be under your general control. Think about who you let supervise the accounts and what information they need to access in order to do their job; it is highly unlikely that one administrator will need connection to every account, and by designating each account separately, you have the built in safety of preventing some employees from seeing more than they need to.
Once again, we cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you personally set up the email addresses and passwords yourself. You can arrange for employees to set up accounts under you in Google business. This is another safety precaution that can protect you from, for example, attacks by a rogue employee that creates false information on your website such as you are closed permanently; if you have the main password, then this is a problem you can quickly correct.
Even when using a third party or working with a client, we help them set up a Google account of their own and then connect us as a manager through Google analytics. We do not want to have that kind of control on your company and you do not either.
To reiterate and summarize all of the information we just threw at you, let me start with the most important lesson: you NEED to have control of your business. To give away that control, is like not having a title on your car or property; in other words, it is a nightmare! The next thing to remember is that you, personally, need to set up your email address, domain, and passwords. Use the Google services and make sure they are all based on the original email address that set everything up. Also, passwords should never be changed without your approval and make sure that anyone you do give control of these accounts to is someone you can trust. Take advantage of all the precautions that are set up by these companies, and if you ever have any questions please reach out to Ally Cole at ally@elocglobal.com.
Quote 1: Always create your own email domain, account, and password, and NEVER delegate this job to an employee or manager; this applies to all social media accounts too.
Quote 2: The most important lesson: you NEED to have control of your business. To give away that control, is like not having a title on your car or property; in other words, it is a nightmare!