u/Upstairs_Report_9170

My sister has been running her solo business from her personal Gmail for the last few years and her inbox is a total mess. She's thinking of getting a business email now but she's worried about all those old client conversations.

Did you folks move everything. Over or did you just keep your old Gmail around and start fresh?

Trying to figure out what the least painful option is.

At what time does paying for email hosting actually become worth it?

Is the main point concerned with appearing more professional through the use of custom domain, or are there any real everyday advantages such as better deliverability, security or reliability?

Want to know what led you to choose the paid one or two go with free option?

I am sending emails only to the users who are my potential clients but I am seeing a noticeable number of my outgoing emails landing in spam.

I have already added SPF, DKIM and DMARC records but I am not sure what else I should be checking in this case.

Could this be related to domain reputation, email content or something in my email setup?

Please suggest some fix!

I am currently using webmail for all my client queries and communications, be it session links, invoices, follow-ups and stuff. But I keep hearing people say that using an email app makes managing work emails way easier, especially with multiple inboxes.

I mean, does using an email app really make a big difference?

I consult new founders on operations and growth, and most of my client communication happens over an email. I'm using Google Workspace right now.

The only part that feels broken is invoicing. Every time I need to send a simple invoice I have to switch to a separate app, then copy client details back and forth between it and my inbox to double-check everything. It makes the whole client workflow harder to manage than it should be.

Has anyone found an integration invoice tool that works well with Google Workspace? Or any alternative email provider which has this feature inbuilt?

I am getting a steady flow of discovery calls, and I am closing a decent number of them, so getting clients isn't really the issue.

The problem starts after I finish the project. Whether it's helping someone with their marketing strategy, sales funnel, or business plan, they leave happy, but most never come back for another service.

They don't book follow up sessions or ongoing consulting l. I feel like I am constantly replacing old clients with new ones instead of building a base of repeat clients.

If you're running a small business, what changed for you? Did you start offering retainers, monthly check ins or anything else that got clients to come back?

I consult businesses online and mostly help small e-commerce and service owners. Earlier, my discovery calls used to be free and they kept turning into full strategy sessions only. I would map out the fixes, the funnel leaks, a rough roadmap and then a chunk of people would just take that and run with it themselves (free consulting, basically). So I decided to add a planning fee for that first call, credited toward the project only if they sign on and this felt fair to me.

But I have got a new problem now. I used to get about 7-8 inquiries a month. But after adding a fee, only a few reached out and the remaining vanished. Many questioned me too but I explained that I cannot keep building custom road maps for free just so people can value hunt me.

Is there any fair way to charge for planning/ strategy part without losing any warm leads?