For small businesses, just like for everyone else, email has become a way of life. You don't always have the time for chit chat when you have to deal with clients and other people in the field so what better way than just shoot them and email. There is, however, some sort of etiquette¹ that should be followed when sending an email, especially if you want to seem like a professional. There are also other mistakes that should be avoided at all costs.

对小企业而言，和任何人一样，电子邮件成为了一种生活方式。你没有时间和顾客、其他人唠嗑，那么还有什么比发邮件更好的方法。不过，当你发邮件时需要一些礼仪，尤其如果你想看上去专业一些。另外，还有一些无论如何都要避免的错误。

When it comes to etiquette, just remember these few things. Don't write while you're angry. You'd be surprised how easy it is to have things get out of control over the internet. Wait, calm down, and have someone else edit² your email for you. Don't use sarcasm³. You may think it's funny and clever, but the person that you're dealing⁴ with won't. DON'T USE UPPERCASE. People don't want to feel like you're shouting at them, and on the internet, uppercase is the equilavent of yelling⁵. Use clear subject lines. People are extremely busy. By being able to scan⁶ the subject lines, it tells them what is important and needs to be addressed first. Keeping your emails short also helps with this. People don't have time to read something that is pages long. Keep it to just a couple of paragraphs at most.

提到礼仪，只要记住几点。不要在生气的时候写信。你也许会惊讶在互联网上让局面失控是多么容易地一件事。等一等、平静心情，让别人为你编辑邮件。不要嘲讽，你也许认为那是“机智”是“幽默”，但是接受方却不会那么认为；(英文)不要用大写。人们不喜欢你对他们大吼，而在互联网上大写就等于在大叫。用明确的主题，人们很忙，通过看主题，告诉他们什么是重要的，需要首先处理。保持邮件内容简短也有助于这一点。因为人们没有时间看长篇大论。

Another mistake that people tend to make is to send an email to the wrong person. Service providers are trying to make it easier for you by creating an address book where one click can send an email to a person, however, this also makes it easier for you to make a mistake. Clicking on the wrong person is extremely common. So just double check to make sure that you have the right recipient⁷.

人们往往会犯下的另一个错误是把电子邮件发错。服务商为了使你方便添加了一个地址簿，只要点击就能把邮件发送给一个人，不过这也让人们更容易犯错误。点错了接受人非常普遍。只要再检查一遍，确保收信人是对的就可以了。

Using one email address for everything that you do. Although you might think this is a good idea, this will make it harder for you in the long run. It's a lot easier to have separate emails for business, personal, even shopping needs. If you only have a few minutes and need to take care of something regarding business, you don't want to have to scan through a lot of personal emails trying to find the one that you're looking for. By keeping it separate it just helps you stay more organized.

用一个邮件地址做任何事情。虽然也许你认为这是一个好主意，长久会让你难办。将邮件分为个人、公司甚至购物三类就容易地多。如果你有几分钟的话，需要处理公事，那么就不会在个人邮件堆里找一封工作电子邮件。分开让你更有组织性。

Sending the email too fast. We know that everyone is busy and that you don't have a lot of time, but if your email is full of mistakes, it will make you look unprofessional to someone that you want to do business with. So just take a couple seconds to skim over everything you've written to see if that's what you want to say.

发邮件太块。我们知道每个人都很忙，没有时间，但是如果邮件中充满错误，这会让你在和你做生意的人眼里看来不专业，所以花片刻扫一眼写过的内容是否是你要表达的。

Also, when you rush, people have been known to forget the attachment⁸. It may sound silly but there have been a number of times that people have sent me things that said "it's all explained in the attachment" when there was no attachment. This leaves me clueless and them looking very unprofessional. So just think about what you're doing and take the time to get it done right the first time.

而且在匆忙之中，你经常出现忘记附件的情况。听上去愚蠢，但有很多时候人们的邮件中称：“附件中有详细解释”，可没附件。这会让我不知所云，而让他们看起来很不专业。所以认真考虑自己在做什么，花时间第一次就把事情办好。