Google Workspace: The Best Email Solution for Doulas

A surprisingly complex topic that keeps coming up with my doula web design clients is email. How do I create a domain-based email with Google Workspace, or should I just use Gmail? Can I get a free email? How many email accounts can I have? What should my email address be?

Now, I am not an email expert. I have no desire to be an email expert. It is a messy world out there – lots of different platforms and options, and sometimes complicated tech issues around getting those emails to function in the way that you need them to, in whatever platform you use to check your email.

My top recommendation for emails as a doula or holistic business owner? Google Workspace (Gsuite). And to make the most of your new account? Get this awesome $37 course from Dara Sklar to learn how to use your Google Workspace to its full potential – packed full of helpful tips.

What you need to know:

First, it is important to recognize that Google Workspace is a paid email solution. You have to be willing to invest a small amount each month. We all depend on email, right? It’s how clients reach out to us. It’s how we reach out to them, both with personalized emails and automated emails or newsletters. It allows us to answer questions, collaborate, and connect with current, past, and future clients. We can even use our email signature to further market our services and connect people to our social media.

Speaking of which…Have you always wondered how people create those fancy signatures at the bottom of their emails? Here’s my secret! You can create a beautiful customized email signature with Wisestamp in less than 5 minutes, including features such as your photo, social media icons, and even your latest blog post.

Why Choose Google Workspace?

It took me a long time to say yes to Google Workspace. Mostly because I just didn’t feel like dealing with transferring all my inbox over, and I was worried about losing things. What I did was use a free domain-based email address with my Websavers hosting account. And I set that up as a POP3 account in my personal Gmail so that all my business emails could run through it as well. And whenever an email came in, I had to choose which account to send or reply from. Frankly, it got messy, and sometimes personal or business emails simply got missed because there were so many different accounts running out of the same place.

Ultimately, I chose Google Workspace because I think it is truly the best email provider available right now for business owners. It comes with all sorts of other features, such as enhanced Google Drive storage for your business, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and, of course, paid support for your email via their chat tool or phone lines. I do recommend using the Business Standard version. That way, along with email, you get a bunch of different features that help support your practice.

So why not just use a free email provider?

Yes, you could have a free domain-based email through your WebHost. Here a couple of good reasons you should consider a paid account through Google Workspace

First, to be clear, I love my host, Websavers. However, just like any other host, there are key issues with hosting your email there. It’s not a question of which host you use. It’s simply the nature of hosting email alongside your website. Basically, if something goes wrong with your hosting, such as a tech issue, routine maintenance, or a natural disaster impacts their servers, your email goes down along with your website. That means the only way you have to communicate with clients is now through social media until everything is working again. With Google Workspace email, if your website goes down temporarily, your email will keep working.

As well, your doula website site is most likely on a shared server, which means there are lots of different websites living on the same server as our website. If someone else on your server should be identified as a spammer, for example, that IP address could be blacklisted for spam, and it could impact your email as well, making it more likely for you to end up in the spam filter instead of their inbox. With Google Workspace email, you get authenticated outbound emails, which can help improve your email’s rating with other email providers. So when your clients receive emails from you, they come with an extra layer of authentication and validation.

What your Google Workspace email plan includes:

The basic Google Workspace plan at $6/month allows you to have email addresses using your business domain names. So, for example, if you’re a business and your domain name is https://thebestchiropractor.com, your email address could be hello@thebestchiropractor.com, info@, or alignment@, etc. Essentially, Gmail can connect to your registered domain name to create as many specific email addresses using that name as you need. And yes, they can all come into the same inbox, so you don’t get overwhelmed!

The basic account also comes with Google Calendar, which lets you keep your business life fully tracked. You can also integrate it with other accounts’ personal calendars so you can see them all in one place. The basic plans also include a decent amount of storage in Google Drive. Plus, you have access to Google Hangouts, Google Forms, Slides, etc…

If you’ve been running your business for a while now, you likely have already realized how many different tools & support elements are needed to keep everything running smoothly – and to keep your life a bit simpler. Ok, that seems a bit odd to say – more tools to make my business admin simpler?  Yep.  The more automation, the better. The more integration, the better. Each element makes a big difference when you put them all together.

There is also a Business Standard account at $12 / month. You get 2TB of Google Drive storage rather than 30GB, and the ability to save recorded Google Hangout meetings to your drive storage. Most of my clients do just fine with a basic account.

Now you may be thinking, “But I already have a Gmail. Why do I need a business Google account as well? Isn’t that just going to make my life more complicated by having two different inboxes?” Well, they actually have it set up so that you can flip between the two accounts really easily – that way you don’t have to log in and out over and over again.

Frequently Asked Questions about Google Workspace

Ready to make the change to Google Workspace?

Google Workspace offers a free 14-day trial so you can explore what it has to offer. Be sure to also get this awesome $37 course from Dara Sklar to learn how to use your Google Workspace to its full potential – packed full of helpful tips.