FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Email forwarding for small businesses
A small business can use domain email addresses to give customers a clear point of contact for sales, support, billing, and general questions. Decide which addresses you need, who owns each one, and whether incoming mail should route to an existing inbox or a hosted mailbox.
Plan addresses around real work
| Address | Purpose | Ownership question |
|---|---|---|
hello@ or contact@ | General enquiries | Who checks new messages daily? |
sales@ | New customer requests | Who follows up with leads? |
support@ | Customer help | Who owns the response process? |
billing@ | Invoices and payments | Who may access account details? |
careers@ | Job applications | Who manages candidate information? |
Keep the list small at first. Several aliases can route to one inbox in some setups, but a shared destination needs clear ownership so requests are not missed or answered twice.
Choose the right inbox for each address
An address like hello@ may work well with a monitored team inbox. Billing or hiring messages may need a more restricted destination. Consider who needs access, how long messages should be retained, and whether your provider supports shared mailbox features.
Forwarding sends incoming mail to another inbox. It does not create a separate mailbox or configure sending from the custom address by itself. If staff need independent accounts, shared folders, or administrative controls, compare hosted email with forwarding.
Protect existing mail delivery
Before changing DNS, record the current mail setup and review the instructions from your domain and email providers. MX record changes can affect where new messages are delivered. Do not replace existing records unless you understand the impact and have a recovery plan. Start with the domain setup overview and the forwarding versus hosting guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many email addresses does a small business need?
Start with addresses for conversations you actually handle, often general enquiries, sales, support, and billing. Add more when each has a distinct purpose and a clear owner.
Can several business addresses go to one inbox?
Many forwarding providers support routing multiple addresses to one destination, but features and limits differ. Confirm the setup with your provider and test every address.
Should a small business use forwarding or hosted email?
Forwarding may be enough for simple routing to an existing inbox. Hosted email can be a better fit when staff need separate accounts, storage, sending, or team administration features.
CyanDB is a development preview. The mock provider does not deliver live email, provision hosted mailboxes, or make DNS changes.