Grant Diggles

Why you should wait on buying the Apple iPad

// March 28th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Personal Views, Technology // Personal Views, Technology

The Apple iPad - Apple's first mystery product

I’d like to preface this blog post by saying that I love Apple products. Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. have been innovative and persistent in bringing a stable and dependable technology platform to millions. I own several Apple products myself and have enjoyed countless hours of trouble free, productive hours using their products. With that said… I’ve got some concerns with the upcoming iPad, here’s why:

Not a MacBook, not an iPhone

So what the hell is it? I could understand the validity of the iPad if it at least did some of the basic features of either the iPhone or the MacBook, but it doesn’t do either very well.  I remember watching Steve Job’s keynote on the iPad and I thought, “if he just made it smaller and more portable, it would be more useful because it would easier to take everywhere with me, oh wait, that’s an iPhone/iTouch” and “if it only came with a stand and maybe an external keyboard so it doesn’t have to be on my lap or laying face up on a table all the time, that would be more convenient, oh wait, that’s a Macbook”. It seems that the iPad is trapped in a “not-good-at-anything” vortex, where Apple decided to take all of their bad ideas and shove them into a glorified iTouch. You have to accessorize the crap out of it to get some conveniences of a laptop, and yet given its size, it will never be convenient to travel with or powerful enough to do much of anything, dooming it to be “that novelty thing” that doesn’t get out of the house much. Based on Apple’s website, here are some of the more notable (or not-so-notable) features of the iPad:

HARD DRIVE

The largest hard drive you can get with the iPad is a measley 64 GB’s of space. Apple specifically emphasizes iPad’s ability to offer a unique, touch based experience in sharing and viewing various types of media. At the largest 64 GB hard drive, you are quite limited in how many pictures you can even keep on the thing, let alone all of the hard drive space your music, applications, books, videos and other media will consume. Enter Apple’s wireless hard drive, Time Capsule. Tack on another $300 and stay within 100 feet of the hard drive and your problems are solved. Of course, now the iPad is more expensive than the MacBook… and significantly less powerful.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Offer a larger hard drive (which they will, but you’ll have to buy another iPad), throw in a complimentary first year .mac/.me account for the 10 GB of hosted hard drive space, offer a discount to purchase one of Apple’s Time Capsules.

WIFI and 3G

Obviously, your internet experience would be quite limited without connectivity to the World Wide Web. Apple gets it right here with the Wifi, and the 3G option is also useful for those of us on the go all the time. Unfortunately, we are forced to link arms (once again) with the infamous AT&T network. If paying AT&T the astronomical fees for the iPhone isn’t bad enough, you can also add another $30 a month for 3G on the iPad. There goes my kid’s college education…

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Existing iPhone subscribers get a significant discount from AT&T for 3G service on the iPad. Kind of a “thank you” for overpaying them all these years. And no, I don’t consider $30/month a discount.

MULTITASKING

What multitasking? Yup, the iPad can only do one thing at a time. I love the AT&T/iPhone commercial where they bash the Google Droid for not being able to make an appointment in the calendar program while talking to someone on the phone at the same time. Very witty… you need 2 Droids to do what an iPhone can do by itself, get it?! But I can’t help but wonder how I am going to listen to music on my iPad while at the same, browse the internet, read a book or view my pictures. Guess I’ll just have to go buy 2 iPads (get it?!)!

What amazes me the most, is that my iPhone and my laptop can multitask just fine, Apple has the technology… but apparently Apple wants me to think that the iPad is a “magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price” (their words, not mine), but NOT allowing me some very basic functionalities. In Apple’s defense, it’s my understanding that you can now listen to music and use the iPad… so that’s good.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: Make the iPad multitask, obviously. Also, apologize to consumers for leaving this feature out in the first place as all it has accomplished is to strike fear in the hearts of Apple lovers everywhere that Apple’s innovative days are over. Seriously though, its like building a car and forgetting to put wheels on it, then expecting people to buy the car and then, later, be willing to buy another car (car 2.0) that finally comes with wheels.

CAMERA

Probably one of the biggest disappointments with the iPad is that it is not equipped with a camera. The ability to video chat on the iPad would’ve been one of the coolest features, allowing people to walk around video conferencing with others (instead of making phone call in some circumstances) like we’re all on Star Trek. So many uses… gone. But don’t worry, I’m sure Apple will be more than happy to put a camera on the next version of the iPad in order to sell up to consumers, forcing us to buy ANOTHER iPad from them even though we already own one (which Apple will expect all of us to do).

NO DATA PORTS

Okay, so let’s pretend that I just took this amazing video footage of my children and I really want to share this footage with a friend on my “magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price” (their words, not mine). Like many of us, we carry things around like FlipCams or some other sort of media capturing device that requires you to upload your media via USB or FireWire. Unfortunately, you’re outta luck with the iPad cause you can’t do any of that on the iPad itself. You have to accessorize the iPad with their “iPad Camera Connection Kit” and/or you have to have ANOTHER product that you can sync with the iPad (similar to the iPhone) to move media over to the iPad. For the cost of the iPad, is it too much to ask for even a single USB port? So far, this isn’t feeling very “magical and revolutionary”.

ACCESSORIES, ACCESSORIES, ACCESSORIES

Since the iPad does so few things so badly, Apple has been good enough to provide us, the consumers, with a disturbing amount of proprietary accessories for the iPad to bring it into the realm of a mildly viable piece of technology. It seems to me that Apple is doing with accessories, what Microsoft did with Operating System versions… confusing us. Here is a listing from their website, with prices:

iPad Keyboard Dock – $69
iPad Dock w/o keyboard – $29
iPad 10W USB Power Adapter – $29 (one is included in the box,. but this one has a longer cable)
iPad Dock Connecter to VGA Adapter – $29
iPad Case – $29
iPad Camera Connection Kit – $29

Now granted, this may not seem like a lot of accessories when you look at them listed out, but imagine carrying these things around with you. If you think your laptop case is bulky, what until you start lugging all of these things little gadgets around. “…I would love to pull those pictures off your camera Stan, but I forgot to bring my iPad Camera Connection Kit, did you happen to bring yours?”

For a company that has been leading the way in providing sleek, no hassle design to all of their products, the iPad is completely counter intuitive to Apple’s reputation with accessory offerings that you “have to have” to actually use the product. I thought accessories were discretionary income items…

THE NEXT GENERATION

I’m not talking about Star Trek here (even though I was earlier in my post), I’m talking about the “next” iPad release. I can’t help but compare Apple to other companies that use proprietary technology and sleazy marketing strategies to weasel every last penny out of the consumer, enter Sony Corporation. Apple WILL probably end up adding a camera to the iPad, they WILL offer bigger hard drives, they WILL probably include a data port, etc, etc. but Apple will offer SOME of these features in different versions of the iPad in the future. What does that mean to you and I? Open up your wallets folks, Steve Jobs just hasn’t made enough money.

If you can exercise any discipline here, I would wait on the iPad until several more versions come out. It seems that the iPad will have too many uses to really be considered a glorified iTouch, but is too limited to really be considered a trimmed down computer. That’s my 2 cents…

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How To Build A Great Website For Less Money

// March 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Business, Insights, Technology // Business, Insights, Technology

The Cummings Group, Home Page Snapshot

Recently, we finished our website for The Cummings Group (VIEW IT HERE). My design ideas were clear and I knew what I wanted, but I just needed a very talented designer or design firm to bring my concepts to life. I began the process of gathering referrals from others that I trusted who I felt knew what was hip and current, and I decided on a boutique web design group in Portland, Oregon. I met with the owners, discussed my vision and we were off.

Now it should be said, I was prepared to spend a goodly amount of money to get my company website done. We were unrolling new products and I wanted to deliver a content rich site that bolstered a clean, uncomplicated design for potential clients. Although I was not necessarily interested in saving money for the build of my site, I did learn some very valuable lessons about how to build this site again and save a ton of money in the future. Let me fill you in on how I would’ve done things differently in building a great website for less money.

1. Hire A Talented Designer or Design Firm

Let’s face it, you get what you pay for. When it comes to the design of your site, this is the one place you don’t want to try to skimp or save. If you don’t have a designer in mind, I recommend looking for sites that you like, as typically you can find the logo of the design firm in the footer (bottom) of the page. If you already have a designer, then finding website examples you like will help explain to the designer what you’re looking for.

I know what you’re thinking, “How am I going to save money hiring a high end design firm to craft my site?”. That’s a great question… keep reading.

2. Content, content, content…

The biggest hold up to any great website is the content. What do you want to say? What pictures are going to be included? How will people navigate you site? These are all questions that are entirely dependent on your content. I believe that the content is the most difficult piece of the puzzle because it requires a clear, well thought out strategy that includes who your target audience is, what you want to say to that target audience and how you will use the content to accomplish your goals. The last thing you want to do is decide to create a website and then figure out what your content is going to be afterward. I guarantee that this approach will blow up your budget and possibly ruin relationships with your design firm.

Once you have your design firm create the wire-framing/design and you have your content ready for population…

3. Finish ONLY the basic framework and infrastructure of the site with your spendy design firm.

Once the initial home page and basic content framework (content) page are designed, stop paying your design firm! You pay them to design, not build out basic pages. By allowing design firms to stay in their area of expertise (designing), you avoid spending a boatload of money on basic content population at expensive design firm prices. Adding more pages and populating them with content is very simple and basic and can be done by an experienced web tech at a much cheaper price. I recommend finding those types of people at places like FREELANCER.COM . My personal Web Tech group is Consulnet, based in Pakistan (or some place like that). You can reach my contact person if you’d like, her name is Shamim Rajani and her email is: shamim.rajani@consulnet.net

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That’s basically it. Of course there are little nuances that go along with this process. If you find that you are still confused or need a little help, feel free to contact me. If you’re question is simple, I can fire back a quick answer. If its really in-depth, I recommend you check out our company site. For a small fee, we can help you with all of the details.

Hope this was helpful!!!

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Social Media Tip #2 – Facebook :: Profile Photo

// March 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Facebook Tips and Tricks, Social Media // Facebook Tips and Tricks, Social Media

Facebook Tip and Tricks

“A picture is worth a thousand words” as the saying goes, but when it comes to Social Media the saying should be “a picture is worth a thousand dollars”.

Part of understanding the power of Facebook is to understand the power of the search tool. As I write this, Facebook has over 400 million active users worldwide, representing a nearly infinite amount of possibilities to find those you know, those you forgot you knew and those that know you.

As you consider your profile make sure people can FIND you in Facebook. This means, include a profile photo of yourself that is clear, current, and relevant.

MAKE IT EASY FOR OTHERS TO IDENTIFY YOU!

Don’t put a picture of your pet up. Don’t put a picture of a landscape up. Don’t put up a group picture where people have to scan the photo to find you, like a cheap “Where’s Waldo” game.

If you intend on using Facebook as a business networking tool, your profile picture can play a large part in turning a potential sale into a fail.

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Who You Intend To Be Is Not Who You Are

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Insights, Personal Views // Insights, Personal Views

An excerpt from Grant’s upcoming book “What I’ve Learned About Real Business, Confessions Of An Entrepreneur.”

People of good intention are the most frustrating kind of people. I say this because they are the type of people who live a life full of intention, resulting in little action. Seemingly, the real concern is that regardless of the fact that these individuals don’t actually do anything about what they intend to do, they still give themselves credit for doing it. “I intended on taking out the garbage” or “I was planning on telling you I loved you” or “I really wanted to have that business report to you by Friday” are types of comments that individuals with good intentions commonly make. Of course when you approach them on these types of issues, they tend to stare at you in disbelief for your ungratefulness at their good intentions. They really wanted to but situations “out of their control” prevented it. The victim card then comes into play and you become the bad guy.

I included this chapter in my book because I used to be one of these people and I’ve known many others since.  Don’t force people to base their opinions of you primarily on your intentions because that’s all you’ve got. Become a person that is personally and professionally dependable.

Quick Tips

• Create accountability for yourself.
• If you fail to follow through, be quick to apologize, make it right, and follow through the next time.  Most people are willing to give second chances if it’s accompanied by humility.
• Know your limits! You can’t do everything so don’t try.  When your focus is quality and not quantity, opportunities you really want will become more available over time.

Social Media Tip #1 – Twitter

// February 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Social Media, Twitter Tips and Tricks // Social Media, Twitter Tips and Tricks

TWEET IN BLOCKS

Group three to six of your tweets together, called a block. Depending on the size of you followers, send out that block three to five times a day, less if your follower is small (under 500 followers), more if your follower is big (over 2000 followers). Include a mix of topics in your block; one funny, one newsworthy, one personal, one professional, etc. Don’t create a block of the same tweet, simply copied three to six times. People won’t like that.

Repeat this process each day. It will save you time and keep the material fresh to your audience.

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Grant Diggles Album Release “You Thought Of Me” 2010

// February 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Media+Grant // Media+Grant

I finally released my first praise and worship album in January of this year. This is the introduction video to the pre-release. The album “You Thought Of Me” is available everywhere.

Grant’s “Rule of Thirds” for Social Media Networking

// February 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Social Media // Social Media

When it comes to Social Media strategy, many of the businesses I consult with come to me with a common question “What do I talk about?” Their question has been very legitimate and I’ve come up with a solution to answer this question called “Grant’s Rule of Thirds” for Social Media. These are listed in order of importance.

1. “Profitable” : The abundance mentality is key to having a successful social media strategy, and is important in building lasting relationships. What can you offer others in social media that is useful to them? What can you give away? How can you help others? In order to get things from others, you must first be willing to give something first.

2. “Personal” : One of the greatest gifts that Social Media offers is the ability to find and grow useful relationships. You’re ability to share specific details about your life that draws others to you is a powerful tool. They take interest, want to know more about you and a relationship is born. Sharing information about yourself is key to finding, keeping and growing with those around you. Don’t be shy.

3. “Professional” : I’ve listed “professional” as the least important of my rule of thirds. In an effort to save you from your ambitious self, don’t be greedy and start marketing to everyone you run into. Its irritating, impersonal and ineffective. Sure, every now and then you’ll close a deal or make a sale, but, when it comes to your time you may be spending a dollar to make a nickel.

In essence, the rule of thirds can be simplified in this way: You want people to like you, leading them to get to know you and finally, they’ll listen to you. The process can seem lengthy, but when building a lasting relationally based network, the efforts are well worth it.

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Facebook Will Not Be Charging Monthly Membership Fees

// February 14th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Social Media // Social Media

There are rumors flying around that Facebook will be implementing a $3.99 to $4.99 monthly fee to its over 400,000,000 users sometime this year. As a Certified Social Media Expert and Presenter, naturally, I was concerned about the validity of this claim and the ramifications it would have on Facebook’s users and the scores of questions I would have to answer in our monthly Social Media Webinars.

In an effort to save everyone a lot of time and to dispel these rumors quickly, I would like to equip you with some important tips before deciding to grab your torch and pitchfork.

1. Snopes.com : Snopes is a great tool in helping to verify or debunk popular rumors on the internet by listing topics on their site that they’ve confirmed are indeed false. CLICK HERE TO READ THIS SNOPES LISTING

2. Ask The Source : Instead of believing everything that comes your way, save yourself some time and ask the source about the rumor. It is in Facebook’s best interest to ensure that rumors that can devastate their network be dispelled as quickly as possible. Unoffical sites such as AllFacebook.com has made several attempts to put this rumor to rest. CLICK HERE TO READ THEIR ARTICLE

3. Pay it forward : In the event you know the truth about certain rumors, take the time to let a few people know about it. Social Media is a two-edged sword that offers powerful opportunities to help out others around quickly and easily. Be part of the solution rather than promote unrest.

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It’s Amazing How Much You Really Don’t Know

// February 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Business, Insights // Business, Insights

An excerpt from Grant’s upcoming book “What I’ve Learned About Real Business, Confessions Of An Entrepreneur.”

Through personal experience over the years in my business, I have found the following statement to be true: if you are really honest with yourself, it is amazing how much you really don’t know.  What’s even more amazing than that, are the slew of people out there who think they know everything, have all the answers and are never wrong.  They are unteachable.  The type of people that look you in the eye, smile and nod their head in agreement while on the inside take mental notes on all the fallacies of your point of view.

As I’ve continued to gain experience and excel in my business, it has become increasingly clear to me that I don’t know as much as I once thought.  I have strong insights and clarity in specific topics where I do consider myself highly competent.  Yet, it can be likened to Swiss cheese; however competent I am in my understanding, there will always be holes to fill.  This mentality is the catalyst in my life for continued growth and understanding.

Since real life always seems to speak to me so much more clearly than anything else let me give a personal example.  Several years ago I was sitting in a board meeting with ten surgeons.  I was there representing the anesthesia company I own.  First, it should be said that I was very new to the medical word and am not a clinician.  Normally I bring a clinical staff member with me but a family emergency had unexpectedly come up and my clinical colleague was unable to attend.  I sat in my chair anxiously as the meeting began.  It was going along fine when a surgeon looked at me,

Grant, what do you think about the NPO protocol in your company’s Policy and Procedure Manual?  How strongly do you feel that patients should be NPO for a full twelve hours?  For the types of procedures we are performing here, I feel that patients only need ot be NPO for eight hours.  Can we make some adjustments?

I stared blankly at the surgeon.  He was extremely mart, I respected him greatly and I did not want to disappoint him.  I was so new to the company, I had no idea what NPO meant, let alone had a strong argument or opinion about it.  I replied,

I don’t know Dr. Smith, but we are here to provide a service that works for you.  Why don’t I take it to our clinicians this Thursday at our General Meeting and I’ll get that information for you.

It was all I could think of to say at the moment.  Dr. Smith looked at me, nodded his head, and we moved on with the meeting.  At the conclusion of which, Dr. Smith gestured to me from across the room.  “I wanted to let you know that you did a great job today,” he said as he moved in to shake my hand.  “I knew you didn’t know the answer to the question I asked you during the meeting.”  I smiled.  “I appreciate that you didn’t try to answer it without your clinician here.  We all know you aren’t a clinician and we don’t expeect you to have the experience or answers yet.  I just wanted to encourage you by letting you know that.”  I looked at him, relieved that I hadn’t shaken his confidence in me or the company.

In times of uncertainty, speak the truth.  Your lack of knowledge may not be as detrimental as you think, so long as you are willing to find the answer.

To go along with my personal thoughts on how little you really know when looking at one’s life honestly, I have a few quick tips:

1. If you don’t know something, be honest and offer a solution.  People seem to be okay with an, “I don’t know, but I will find out,” answer.
2. If you offer a solution, follow through.  People don’t care how much you know if they can’t count on you.
3. It is important to have a network around you that knows different than you.
4. If you don’t have an answer, ask another question.
5. If you don’t have an answer or a question, delegate it to someone more qualified.

I’ve also recognized that most of the decisions I’ve made in business have been based more on my character and personal moral compass than education or theory.  Many venues can offer us knowledge, but what you do with that knowledge is the differentiating factor between the mediocre and the truly exceptional people in this world.

3 Common Pitfalls for Small Business Start-ups

// October 6th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Business // Business

Small business owners are prompted by love of craft and the desire to do things their way. This is not to be confused with an Entrepreneur, which is very very different. Here are a few pitfalls that SBOs run into in their first 3 to 5 years:

1. Underpayment/Devaluation/Underemployment

Many small businesses fail due to underpayment. The mentality of “charging less than the competitor” is a great idea if you’re NOT a small business. Small business owners typically under-charge because they themselves, devalue what they are offering. Excuse qualifiers such as “I’m just getting started and I’m not sure what I’m doing, so I’ll charge less until I figure it out,” is a typical example of the type of “self talk” SBOs feed themselves. This leads to underemployment where the SBO is the lowest paid person on staff (if there is any staff), no benefits, no vacation, etc. At the end of the day, what used to be a great idea slowly turns into a nightmare of scrapping by and working long hours just to pay the bills. Most of these types of SBOs don’t really go out of business, they simply quite due to exhaustion.

2. Lack of Differentiation

This is the lifeblood of small business. If you’re not differentiated, then every day that you’re still in business is a gift from God. It is commonly known that, in business economics, companies operate on 2 of 3 factors; quality, quantity, and price. Wal-Mart, for example, focuses on quantity and price by profiting pennies on the dollar x billions of sales. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart has a bad reputation for putting small businesses under, which in my opinion is only partially true. Small businesses need to respond to large companies like Wal-Mart by NOT competing in the same competitive fields. But rather, focus on quality and pricing, abandoning quantity altogether. Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate. You’re not Wal-Mart, so don’t try to compete with them. What makes you different enough, that someone would want to pay you for that difference?

Take this with a grain of salt, as the dynamics are too lengthy to encapsulate in this short blog.

3. Bad Business

The Thomas G. Jones Small Business Diamond states, “Bad business is always available”. Good clients pay on time, value your services, support your company and are generally ethical. If you have a client like that, you’ll do whatever you have to in order to retain them! Many small business start-ups don’t have the luxury of having many of these types of clients in their portfolio, and, in order to pay the bills, must take immediately available business to keep cash flow going. This type of business is usually… bad business. Client’s that don’t pay on time, give you a million change orders, argue about cost, micromanage, and are just plain rude. Too many bad clients disarm, deflate and discourage the passions of the small business owner. Only hang onto bad business as long as you have to.