Once you get your custom email address set up, your next task is to create individual email addresses (the part before the @). Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you’re bad at making decisions), the possibilities are endless. You can use your first name, your last name, some combination of the two, generic words like “owner” or “support”, nicknames like “bossman” or “lordofemail”, or any other name you can think of.
But before you start, take a minute to think about the future. First, you’ll probably want to make specific email accounts for individual people. Here are two potential landmines:
firstname@: You’ve started your brand, now you want your email to be personable, yet professional. So you go with [email protected]. When your brand is small, it’s fine, but what happens when you hire another Amy? Does that Amy get an email address using her last name (which would break your naming consistency)? Her initials?
lastname@: Same issue as firstname@.
If you want to be safe, go with something like firstnamelastname@, firstname.lastname@, firstnamelastinitial@, or firstinitiallastname@. Sure, there will always be exceptions to the rule (if two people have the exact same name, maybe you can force them into a Hunger Games-type situation), but doing what you can to avoid future duplication will make your life much easier later.
After everyone has an individual account, be sure to create some general accounts for different roles. For example, it’s better to create a press@ account than to just have that email go to a specific person (what happens if that person leaves or takes on a new role within the company?). Don’t go overboard though—having too many email accounts can get confusing for everyone.