I see this all the time.

Someone new forms an LLC (sometimes two or three) and a holding company, pays a lawyer, a registered agent and the state filing fees, and spends thousands before they've done a single deal. Then they send me an email from a Gmail address

I'm not here to argue about whether you need the LLC. My point is that you'll spend thousands on structure that may not matter yet, but you won't spend a few dollars on something that affects whether your email gets through at all.

It hurts you in both directions.

When you send from Gmail to a business:

• Corporate email systems often filter free-mail senders more aggressively, so you can land in junk or quarantine.

• Your message can get sorted into a folder nobody checks.

• Even when it gets through, it looks like a side hustle. When I see a Gmail address on a deal submission, I assume the sender is less established, fair or not.

When businesses send to your Gmail:

• Emails from title companies, lenders, realtors, insurance agents and vendors often get flagged by Gmail and land in spam or the Promotions tab.

• That's where contracts, closing documents, invoices and e-signature requests go to die. You miss a deadline, someone thinks you went dark, and the deal moves on without you.

• Most people never check those folders, so they don't even know it's happening.

Fixing it is cheap:

• A domain costs about $10 to $20 a year.

• Business email through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 runs about $6 to $8 per user per month.

• Have whoever sets it up configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC. That's what tells other mail servers you're legitimate, and it does more for deliverability than anything else on this list.

That's under $150 a year. Most of you spent more than that on your LLC operating agreement.

If you're serious enough to form an entity, be serious enough to have and not . Deals, partners and lenders will go to the people who look like they'll still be around next year.

Ps: it also makes you look a lot more legit.