How to Set Up Microsoft 365 for a New Business
- Sam Williams
- Mar 29
- 2 min read
Starting a new business or moving to Microsoft 365 for the first time? There's a lot of options and it's easy to overcomplicate it. Here's the straightforward setup — the stuff that actually matters on day one.
Pick the right plan
For most small businesses, the choice is between Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium.
Business Basic gets you email, Teams, and online-only Office apps. Good if everyone uses their browser.
Business Standard adds desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, etc.) and some extras like Bookings and Forms. This is where most businesses land.
Business Premium adds security — Intune, Defender, Conditional Access. If you handle sensitive data or care about security (you should), this is worth the extra cost.
Connect your domain
Go to admin.microsoft.com → Settings → Domains → Add domain.
Type in your domain name (yourcompany.com.au).
Microsoft will ask you to verify it by adding a TXT record at your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Crazy Domains, VentraIP, etc.). Copy the record, add it, wait a few minutes, and verify.
Then add the MX, CNAME, and TXT records for email and autodiscovery. Microsoft gives you the exact records to add.
Create user accounts
Go to admin.microsoft.com → Users → Active users → Add a user.
Create an account for each person. Use firstname.lastname@yourcompany.com.au as the format.
Assign them a licence. Each person needs their own licence — you can't share them.
Set their password to something temporary and tick 'Require this user to change their password when they first sign in'.
Basic security setup
Do these on day one. They take 15 minutes and prevent 90% of common attacks.
Enable Security Defaults (or Conditional Access if you're on Business Premium) to enforce MFA.
Block legacy authentication — go to Entra ID → Security → Conditional Access or enable via Security Defaults.
Set up a break-glass admin account — a separate admin account with a strong password stored securely offline, in case your primary admin gets locked out.
Turn on unified audit logging in the compliance portal.
Set up email signatures and shared mailboxes
Create shared mailboxes for info@, support@, or accounts@ — see our separate guide on shared mailboxes.
Set up email signatures with your team's contact details. You can do this per-user in Outlook settings or centrally with a transport rule in Exchange admin center.
What to do next
Once the basics are running, think about SharePoint for file storage, Teams for internal communication, and a proper backup solution. Microsoft 365 doesn't back up your data by default — if someone deletes something permanently, it's gone after the retention period.
Don't try to set up everything on day one. Get email, Teams, and basic security sorted first. Build from there.
If you're setting up M365 for the first time and want it done right, we can handle the whole thing. Domain setup, user accounts, security, email — ready to go in a day or two.
