Business Email on Your Own Domain: Moving Off Your Gmail Address

You opened the business with the email address you already had, or a quick new one like yourbusiness.evans@gmail.com. It works. But now the domain is registered, the cards need printing, and every invoice still goes out from a free Gmail or Yahoo address.

Moving to email on your own domain (you@yourbusiness.com) is a one-time job, and it goes smoothly if you do it in the right order. Nothing gets lost, and the old address keeps working while people catch up.

The quick answer

1. Pick Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and sign up with your domain.
2. Connect the domain by adding the DNS records the setup wizard gives you.
3. Copy your old mail, contacts and calendar into the new account.
4. Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC so your mail lands in inboxes and nobody can fake your address.
5. Turn on sign-in codes for every account, the old one included.
6. Forward the old address to the new one, set an auto-reply, and tell your customers.
7. Move your logins (bank, suppliers, software) to the new address one at a time. Don't close the old account.

Why a free address costs you

It's a trust thing, and it's mostly invisible. A new customer in Martinez, a supplier setting up your credit account, a lender reviewing your paperwork: each of them sees a free address and has to take it on faith that it's really you. Most won't say anything. Some may just pick the company down the road whose email matches its website.

The scam side is more concrete. Anyone can open a Gmail account in a few minutes, so a crook can set up yourbusiness.evans1@gmail.com or your.business.evans@gmail.com and email your customers asking them to pay a "new" account. You can't stop that, because Google owns gmail.com and you don't. With your own domain you can publish a DMARC record telling mail servers to reject anything that fakes your exact address. That's the main security reason to switch. It won't stop look-alike domains, which our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide covers, but it closes the easiest door.

And there's control. On a business account you're the admin. When you hire someone, you give them an address on your domain, and when they leave, you lock it and keep the mail.

Step 1: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

Both are good, and both cost about the same at the entry level. The short version: if you already live in Gmail and Google Docs, Google Workspace will feel familiar on day one. If you or your bookkeeper need desktop Excel and Word, Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium includes them. Our honest comparison of the two has the plans, the October 2026 prices and what each does better, so I won't repeat it here.

If you're still working out the budget for the whole startup, the UGA Small Business Development Center in Augusta offers free consulting for small businesses and people starting one, and SCORE Greater Aiken (which covers Augusta) offers free mentoring. Neither will pick your email platform for you, but both are good at "what do I actually need in year one."

Step 2: connect your domain

You need the domain first. If you haven't registered it yet, our post on picking a business domain name covers doing that so it stays in your name.

When you sign up, the setup wizard asks you to prove you own the domain, then gives you a short list of DNS records to add wherever the domain is managed (your registrar, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or Cloudflare).

• Microsoft 365: in the admin center, go to Settings > Domains > Add domain. Microsoft verifies ownership with a TXT record, then lists the records to add, including the MX record that routes your mail to Microsoft (Microsoft's steps). Some registrars support Domain Connect, which adds the records for you after you sign in.
• Google Workspace: Google's setup tool and its help articles walk you through verifying the domain, then adding the MX record that routes your mail to Google, smtp.google.com (Google's MX steps).

Create your new mailbox (you@yourbusiness.com) before you move anything into it.

Step 3: what moves over, and how

Your old Gmail account isn't going anywhere. You're copying from it into the new account, so the original stays put until you decide otherwise.

Here's what moves with each platform's own tools, as of October 2026:

Moving into Google Workspace

An admin (that's you) runs Google's data import tool from the Admin console and authorizes access to the old Gmail account. It copies email, so for a personal Gmail account, plan on moving contacts and calendar yourself with the export steps below.

Moving into Microsoft 365

Microsoft copies Gmail through IMAP (the standard way mail apps read a mailbox). Before you start, the Gmail account needs IMAP turned on and an app password, and an app password needs 2-Step Verification on first. Microsoft has the Gmail preparation steps. The edge cases, from Microsoft's IMAP migration page:

• It copies mail only. Contacts, calendar items and tasks don't come across.
• Up to 500,000 items per mailbox, newest first.
• Any single email over 35 MB is skipped.

When you're done, you can revoke the app password in your Google account.

Contacts and calendar (either platform)

• Contacts: in Google Contacts, select all, then More actions > Export (Google's steps). Import that file in the new account's contacts.
• Calendar: in Google Calendar, Settings > Import & export > Export downloads a .zip with one .ics file per calendar (Google's steps). Unzip it and import the .ics file into the new calendar.

Still on Yahoo or another free provider? Same idea. Both platforms can copy mail from any account that supports IMAP, and contacts and calendars move by export and import.

Step 4: SPF, DKIM and DMARC, in plain words

Three short DNS records that tell the world which mail from your domain is real.

• SPF is the guest list: the services allowed to send mail as your domain.
• DKIM is a tamper-proof seal: a signature on every message that only your email service can make.
• DMARC is the instructions: what other mail servers should do with mail that fails the first two, and where to send reports.

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both give you the exact values to paste in. Turn DKIM signing on in the admin center after you publish its record. Start DMARC at monitoring, then tighten it once your invoicing and newsletter tools pass. The full how-to, with record examples you can copy, is in our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide.

Step 5: turn on sign-in codes

A new business account with just a password is a soft target. Turn on two-step sign-in (a code or an app prompt on your phone) before you start using it for real.

• Microsoft 365: new Microsoft 365 setups come with Microsoft's security defaults switched on, which make every user register for sign-in codes. There's a 24-hour grace period after the account is created. To check it, in the Microsoft Entra admin center go to Entra ID > Overview > Properties > Manage security defaults and make sure it says Enabled (Microsoft's page).
• Google Workspace: as the admin, allow and then enforce 2-Step Verification for your users (Google's admin guide).
• The old Gmail account too. It still holds years of mail and it's about to forward to your business. Turn on 2-Step Verification at myaccount.google.com under Security & sign-in (Google's steps).

Step 6: keep the old address forwarding, and tell people

This is the step that stops anything falling through the cracks.

Forward the old address

In the old Gmail on a computer: Settings (gear) > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Add a forwarding address. Gmail sends a confirmation to the new address; click the link in it, go back, choose Forward a copy of incoming mail to your new address, and save (Google's steps). I'd keep a copy in the old inbox, at least at first, so nothing is lost if a setting goes wrong.

How long? Longer than you think. Customers dig up old emails months later. I'd leave forwarding on for a year, and keep the account open after that.

Set an auto-reply on the old address

Settings > See all settings > General > Vacation responder (Google's steps). Pick a start and end date. Something like:

Thanks for your email. We've moved to a new address: you@yourbusiness.com. Your message has been forwarded, so there's no need to resend it, but please update your contacts. Your Name, Your Business

Tell your customers

One short email from the new address, sent to your regular customers and suppliers:

Subject: Our email address has changed

Hi [name], quick note: our email is now you@yourbusiness.com. The old Gmail address still works for now and forwards to us, but please use the new one from here on. Nothing else changes: same phone number, same people. Thanks!

Then update it everywhere it's printed: website, Google Business Profile, invoices, quotes, your email signature, social pages, vehicle signs and business cards.

If you used the Gmail address when you registered the business with the Georgia Secretary of State, or for your Augusta-Richmond County business tax certificate (or with Columbia County's own business license office), update your contact details there through each office's own process. Same for any chamber directory listing, such as the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce or the Aiken Chamber of Commerce. We're members of the Augusta Metro and Aiken chambers ourselves, and those listings are one of the places people check before they call.

Step 7: move your logins, then keep the old account

This is the step people skip. Your bank, payment processor, suppliers' portals, accounting software and social media pages all sign in with, or send resets to, the old address. Change each one to the new address, one at a time, and tick them off a list.

Don't delete the old Gmail account. If you close it, every password reset that still points there goes nowhere, and so does every customer still emailing it.

When to call someone

• You have more than a few people's mail to move, or years of mail you can't afford to lose.
• Your domain already has a website or email set up by someone else and you're not sure what changing the records will break.
• Mail stops arriving after you change the MX record, or your messages start landing in spam.

If you're in the Augusta area and would rather hand it off, our Business Email Setup project covers email on your domain plus the move from Gmail, and we're happy to talk it through.

Related reading

• Google Workspace or Microsoft 365? An Honest Comparison for Small Businesses
• Scammers Sending Email From Your Address? How to Check and Fix SPF, DKIM and DMARC
• The Microsoft 365 Security Settings Small Businesses Never Turn On

Starting a business in Augusta

This post is part of our Saturday series for people starting a business in Augusta, Columbia County, North Augusta and Aiken.

• Starting a Business in Augusta, GA: The Tech Checklist for Your First 30 Days
• Picking a Business Domain Name (and Registering It So It Stays Yours)