1. Visit Google Music
2. Sign into your Google Account
3. Click on Upload Music (top right corner of screen)
4. Download Music Manager (free) and follow the steps to upload all or some of your music to Google Music (very simple)
5. Once completed, download the Android App or 3rd Party App for iPhone (free or paid version)
6. Once you download the App to your device, you just sign in to your google account and enjoy streaming music!

Save your money and enjoy more free storage! For photo storage, try either Dropbox, Egnyte, or iCloud.

Why a Kindle?

The Kindle uses an E Ink technology which basically looks similar to ink on a newspaper. The benefit to this type of technology and the device:

1. It is easy on the eyes compared to a computer or tablet screen.
2. The Kindle weighs less than most books so it is easy to hold in your hand(s).
3. It is so convenient. I personally like having books at my fingertips instead of a huge collection of loose books. I really don’t need to show off a room full of books to all my friends. Plus, I tend to lose books and spent too much time looking for them. I’ve also never been a big bookmark fan. The Kindle helps me get through a book from cover to cover because it keeps track of where I left off reading.
4. The battery life is probably 10-20x longer than any computer tablet. The newer models of the Kindle can last up to two months on normal reading with the wireless settings turned off.
5. Less distracting than other gadgets. We live in a world of distractions more than ever before. When using the Kindle, there isn’t much else to do on them than read. You can search the web using a WIFI connection, but it just isn’t worth it using E Ink technology. A Kindle was made for listening to audiobooks and reading a good book–that’s it.
6. You can still allow other Kindle friends borrow your e-books and even check out books from your local library.

Step By Step

Note: I’m giving you the detailed step by step approach. Advanced users of the iPhone know there are faster ways to access Gmail)

Step 1: Open up Safari and type in m.google.com in your browser

Step 5: Once logged in, touch the Menu button at the top left corner 

Step 6: Then touch the Tool icon at the top right corner 

Step 7: Final step is to tap the button that says, “Enable vacation responder” Choose your dates, add your message and tap APPLY when done (top right hand corner)

Each month, a growing number of consumers turn to two mobile devices, Android or Apple, for their personal and/or business needs. Although I like Android devices, I have given Apple iPhone two thumbs up for being the most business friendly. Two reasons:

1. Apple was first to create the popular downloading of “Apps.” (i.e. App Store). Why is this important? Because developing an App is expensive, and an App on an iPhone does not work on an Android. Therefore, developers typically create an Apple App before they create an Android version. The Android Apps I’ve tried for business are typically more buggy, because Android has a lower standard for allowing Apps; the Android Market is open source, meaning anyone can create an App and post it. Apple has very strict standards and can take an App off their store at anytime. One good example is Facebook’s App for the iPhone and Android. The iPhone App is incredible and has 10x more features than the Android version. A business owner or employee can manage a business page directly from the iPhone App, but not from the Android (yet).
2. It is just a very handy device and fun to use. The Android, to me, as very many cool features, but Apple has less moving parts on the screen. I get less distracted when using the iPhone and find myself playing around too much with the Android features. I stick to business on the iPhone!

Now for the Update on iCloud for Business

In mid October, Apple released what seems to be their biggest software update ever: IOS 5. It truly is remarkable. I wrote a quick summary of my favorite features last week. Because it is such a big jump from version 4 to 5, there are still a few bugs. I’d go ahead and upgrade your iPhones if you have not already, but just know you will encounter a few small bugs. Most of these bugs seem to clear up quickly, either on their own or when you restart. I’m sure their first update 5.1 will fix all these critters.

Now, Apple is claiming their biggest update in IOS 5 is the new iCloud (formerly MobileMe). What I read about iCloud sounded spectacular: updating Apps on multiple devices, taking a photo on your iPhone and it showing up instantly on your work/home computer, file storage, email, calendar syncing and sharing etc. I also realized that Apple sells primarily to consumers and not small business or Corporate America. I had many people ask me what I thought of the new iCloud and if it was a good tool for business. My answer is simple: iCloud is NOT a good business tool. It is meant for individual, personal use. Do I like iCloud? Overall, yes! It is easy to use. But I am very disappointed about a few things:

1. Only one email per account: A family or even a business cannot have multiple email addresses within iCloud. Each person has to create their own iCloud account. The problem with this is…
2. Photo Sharing is for Personal Usage: Because each person needs his or her own iCloud account, the new Photo Stream feature does not allow sharing with other iCloud users. It works with 1 account only. So as a business owner taking photos of a job site or business activity while using Photo Stream, the photos will be uploaded and streamed instantly to his computer, not to his marketing person, admin or another co-worker. That pretty much defeats the purpose.
3. Can’t Delete Photos Easily: Apple offers 5GB of Free Storage. This will add up fast when you turn on Photo Stream. Once you take a photo, it uploads to iCloud. You cannot delete individual photos within iCloud. So if you take 5 quick shots of a job or person, all the bad ones are uploaded with the good ones. Now there are some techie work arounds, but with the first release of iCloud, Photos are there to stay in the clouds. You can delete photos on your phone and computer only. You can also wipe ALL photos off iCloud and start from scratch, but why would anyone want to do that? The idea of iCloud is to help consumers be more mobile and save everything off site to avoid hard drive crashes and provide easy access to info on the go.



4. Calendar and Document Sharing Do Not Exist: The bottom line is iCloud is for a single user, you or me. If you want your co workers or family to share information, you can create 1 iCloud account, but it is not safe and is just not a good idea. iCloud will not replace Egnyte, Dropbox or Google Apps.

What should a business do with IOS 5 and iCloud?

I know some of you are thinking, “Run that by me again, Dave. Why is the iPhone better than the Android?” It is true that Android technology is a Google product, and I like Google. Yet there are too many devices and features to figure out with Android and only 1 with Apple: the iPhone. That’s it. Also, just because iCloud is not business friendly, doesn’t mean you need to ditch the phone. What I did was this:

1) I basically kept everything the same: Synced my Google Apps for Business account (compare with MS Exchange) with my iPhone.

2) I switched from MobileMe to iCloud for personal use. I use my iCloud account for Photo Streaming so I don’t have to download and upload photos to my computer. I then can take those photos on my computer and share the ones I want with others.

3) I continue to use Dropbox and Google Docs for my file storage. In short, the new upgrade is business friendly if you customize it to your liking. I am just not endorsing the iCloud for business, and I think Apple would agree with me that it is meant for personal use. I hope Apple releases an iCloud for Business! At this point they are rolling in the dough selling their new product to individuals. They don’t need to be all things to all people (just yet). It is good marketing. They know their audience!

Your Turn

What do you think of the new iPhone 4S, IOS 5, SIRI, and iCloud? Are you happy with the changes Apple made?

My Favorite Things About iOS 5 For Business Usage
What I like most about the upgrade? The notifications and dropdown menu are similar to the Android devices, which I’ve always liked. It is about time that Apple introduced this. This can save you time in the long run, not having to open up different applications to view emails, to do list, Facebook, Twitter, etc. You can set up your phone to only receive the notifications that are most important to you. From a social media marketing standpoint, this definitely is a nice feature. I can now take a quick peek on some of my networks without logging into each App.

The camera feature is also the latest and greatest upgrade that is noteworthy. Now you can click the “up” volume button to snap a photo and a camera icon is on the Lock Screen menu.

Apple claims there are close to 200 updates for the iPad and iPhone on this new release. If you have an iPad, the upgrade looks almost the same. My favorite upgrade on the iPad was the split keyboard. It works great! In this blog post I won’t explain all the new features as I just mentioned several of my favorite ones! As for my thoughts on iCloud, this too is an incredible new feature, but I don’t see a lot of real value for a business owner. iCloud is still more focused on personal use. For example, you can now take a photo on your iPhone, and it will show up on your other Apple or PC devices that run iCloud. Your music, movies and photos are stored “in the clouds” freeing up space for your devices. So no more plugging in your devices: it is all wireless and automatic. A time saver I’m sure.

The iPhone 4S
I will be testing out the new iPhone 4S soon and give you my feedback on SIRI, the new voice recognition feature. I have never really seen a good voice recognition program to date, so I’m hoping Apple will have released something impressive. The good news is they partnered with the premiere voice recognition company, Nuance. Stay tuned.

Your Turn
Will you be upgrading your phones this year? If you are using a Blackberry or Android, do you plan to switch to the iPhone or are you happy with your current device? Also, those who have an iPhone, will you upgrade to the 4S or wait til Apple releases a new design, iPhone 5?

The design of the user interface (UI) was very impressive. Of all the CRM programs I’ve tested in recent years, Nutshell seems to have the best UI. I found myself wondering if the designers worked for Apple, since every design feature was top-notch. Most CRMs I’ve tested start with some advanced features but not a great UI. Then as they release updates, the designs gradually improve. Nutshell, on the other hand, started with a good UI, so I expect each update to be like updating my iPhone, just more features with a quality design. This observation makes Nutshell noteworthy to me, because they right from the start they have a quality product with good features.

The icing on the cake for me was the native iPhone mobile App that does an instant sync with the desktop version.

Pros

• Google Apps plugin to add new contacts or forward emails into Nutshell’s Contacts (works great)
• User Interface is simple and beautiful
• The native iPhone App is simple yet powerful (two-way sync)
• Android App soon to be released
• CRM is very customizable
• Can be used as a simple or advanced CRM program (lots of features if you want them, or a simple Contact Manager)
• Reporting and Analytics: easy to run reports and view (again…user interface is very good)
• Sales Pipeline is very organized: You can customize all sorts of activities such as when to send an email, a thank you note, follow up, who and when, what day, and much more
• The “deals” (or Opportunities) make it easy to add standardized pricing. So a contractor could have set service prices i.e. Kitchen Remodeling $45,000 (then adjust the price)
• Easy to setup and start using
• Events Sync up nicely with your Google or Outlook Calendar (I only tested Google Calendar and it was instant)
• Importing from other CRMs seems to be easy. I tried it from my CRM, Highrise and it took me a couple minutes. (btw, I still use Highrise and like it…it fits my business style perfectly)
• Captures leads from your website and creates a contact

Cons

• The iPhone App, although is awesome, still has room for improvement. It does not sync with your native iPhone calendar…and I am not sure how well setting events on the app work with Google.
• The Task Manager works well when dealing with a Lead (next steps), but not great dealing with existing clients or projects. I’ve spoken to Nutshell, and they are working on releasing a Task Management section soon. So this “con” may change. Task Management is one of the number one reasons I continue to use Highrise.
• To set a task, you basically have to create an “event.” So the process is not easy. This may sound minor, but for me, I use to-do lists and reminders all day long.
• The program is more geared for sales management than for customer management. This too is a major downside to the cloud-based CRM. The whole purpose of a CRM is to manage the ongoing relationships you have with your customers. It is not a one time deal: sell them, do the job and move on. A good CRM should then take you through the next steps: customer follow up, customer satisfaction, setup monthly email blast, thank you notes, etc. Although there are ways within Nutshell to do some of these tasks, it is not as simple as one would expect. If they improve in this one area, I believe Nutshell will be a major threat to Zoho, Salesforce, Pipeline Deals and others.

Your Thoughts?

This was just a quick, “nutshell” review of Nutshell CRM. Has anyone out there tried Nutshell?  Do you currently use it?

A quick word of caution: don’t quickly switch CRM programs. Although companies online are making switching easier, take the time to evaluate what you want your CRM to do. I would also suggest talking to your staff about it too. Show them the program(s) you are looking at. Ask them to take some time evaluating them and give you feedback. I tend to always want a program to do something better and can easily get discontent. I’ve forced myself to stay with Highrise from 37 signals. It keeps getting better and works for my company.

#1 Grooveshark 

Grooveshark works primarily on a Blackberry or Android platform. It can work on an iPhone, but the iPhone must be “jailbroken.” What does that mean? It is easy to do but complicated to explain in this blog post. If you really want it on your iPhone, shoot me an email and I’ll tell you how to get it on there: it is free and easy to do. Grooveshark lets you choose what songs you want to listen to. Once you select the song, you can create your own playlist. It takes a bit more work using Grooveshark because you have to manual put all the songs you’d like together. I tend to go through phases where I listen to 20 or so songs a hundred times. So for me, Grooveshark is perfect. I have a couple of favorite playlist that I play often. Once I get tired of those songs, I create another playlist. The only downside to Grooveshark is the monthly cost. It is free if you use it on your desktop computer, but if you want it on your phone, it is about $9 a month. Good app, definitely cheaper than just buying individual songs from iTunes, if you really like music!

#2 Jango 

Jango has recently introduced their own mobile apps to the Android and iPhone communities. I have been waiting for this App for about a year. I have not tested this App on the Android but use it on my iPhone. Although I like Grooveshark when selecting individual songs, Jango does an excellent job helping me select a good playlist. How it works: I choose an artist. Jango then gives me a list of similar artist. I then tell it whether I want to play more or less of those artist. Once I’ve built my desired artist, it will begin playing them. I then begin to rate whether I like the song and/or artist (like Pandora). If I don’t like a song, it will tell me it won’t ever play it again and will then ask if I want to continue playing music from that artist. It is pretty intelligent, because sometimes, I don’t like all the artist on a certain “station” that I created. Jango is still new to me, but so far, I really like it. The songs it is playing are pretty much right to my liking. The good part: it is still free!

#3 Pandora

I was a huge fan of Pandora when it was released. I wondered who the heck could ever compete with this company. I would play Pandora at my house, computer and car whenever I could. Grooveshark and Jango have truly done an awesome job in my book moving ahead of Pandora because of the customization features. Pandora is still a great App, simple and easy to use.

The only downside I’ve experienced with it is it is not so customizable. It also tends to play the same songs several times in a short timespan. Do I still use Pandora? Yes but not as much as the other two apps. My wife still is use to Pandora and plays it primarily. That is only because I have not introduced her to Jango!

What do you guys use on the road? Anything I’m missing that should be on the list? I’ve yet to try Rhapsody, though it sounds very similar to Grooveshark and is $9.99 a month.

Hi David,

A quick testimonial: You shared www.youcanbook.me with me last week. I had Javier plug it into the front page of my site right away! While its not pretty we are working on that. Well last Friday I received an e-mail on my phone while on the road for a “booking” for Monday the 16th at 4pm.

How the youcanbook.me lead went:

At first I was concerned because Mark, the prospect’s, e mail’s with me were VERY short. Is the guy not cool? Is this a plant from a competitor?

I arrived today and learn he is a sales rep for sprinkler systems out of CA and he drinks Red Bull, HA! So he is very busy and on a sugar rush, too busy for long e-mails. My calendar on my front page was PERFECT for him.

I measured the interior and handed him our first rate proposal and went over it and his e-mail chimes on his phone. Its my local competitor with their proposal. They come in at 60% of my price! I still closed the job with deposit check in hand !

“Front page youcanbook.me calendar” is 1 for 1 baby!

Thanks for the youcanbook.me calendar tip David!

Steve

www.burnettpainting.com

I am impressed with Steve’s idea to put the calendar right on the home page. Most companies put forms to fill out for someone to contact the prospect. Steve decided to save that step and put the calendar right on the home page, which to be honest, I’ve never seen before. Why? Because it doesn’t really look as pretty and cool. Web designers tend to design for looks rather than conversions. Yet Steve’s idea worked! People searching online are typically in a hurry. They don’t stop to read much these days when looking for a service company. So making it easy for people to schedule an appointment that is convenient for them, saves them time! I applaud Steve to stepping out of the typical design standards, putting the calendar right smack in the middle of his home page and doing something different! Well done, Steve!

Ratepoint is no longer in business. Feel free to read over the article anyways, but no need to hunt for Ratepoint. They got bought out by a competitor and totally changed their services. 

In recent years, another benefit of the technological revolution has been online customer reviews.  Whether they are buying a tractor, a trundle bed, or a toothbrush, people will check out customer reviews on any number of websites.   Today, the majority of homeowners will research your company by searching for reviews by your previous customers before calling to set up an appointment.

This trend was started several years ago by Amazon.com, as well as local restaurants in various locations.  Soon, it spread to sites like Yelp, Google, Angie´s list, Wal-Mart.com, and the BBB online reports.  When a customer has an experience, good or bad, they can go to any number of sites to describe their satisfaction or anger about a product or service.  Now some of the major search engines are beginning to give first place rankings to the companies with the most reviews.

Obviously, this means you want reviews—good ones, and lots of them!  The problem is that your satisfied customers are contentedly quiet, and the ones that make online noise are usually those who are dissatisfied or have a chip on their shoulder.  Also, many of the clients of the companies I work with are busy, wealthy homeowners who have never heard of Google Reviews or Yelp.  They might read some reviews on these sites before hiring a contractor, but afterwards they don´t remember the sites they used.

So what can we do to get our satisfied customers to leave excellent reports about us? Generic emails asking them to write a review won´t work.  A service company has to get a little more creative and personal.  As you conclude a job, talk to the customer by phone or in person and ask them to write a review for you: “Can you do me a favor…” or “Can you help me out with something?”  Briefly explain how it helps you to keep down advertising costs and assists other homeowners in finding you online.  Give them a quick overview of how long it takes and what they need to do.  If they seem willing, then send them an email with detailed instructions, preferably with screenshots.

Besides making it personal, you need to make it easy.  Many customers won’t write a review because they have to register for an account or follow complicated instructions.  To make it easy, I´ve started using a program called Ratepoint.  This is an independent online review program that makes everything a piece of cake, and doesn´t require customers to create an account.  A company can install certain widgets or graphics on their site that will encourage visitors to read recent ratings and testimonials.  It´s like having your own Amazon.com review system right on your site.  Because it is 3rd party, it also has many Search Engine benefits.  For example, Google can discover the reviews and post them on Google Places.  Ratepoint has also made it even easier for customers to share their thoughts on other major review sites: after writing a review (again, without needing an account), customers are invited to share their thoughts further on other major websites.

Another key benefit to Ratepoint is that it can handle your email marketing and any surveys you want to conduct.  It can replace your current email system completely.  I’ve used it for a few clients and I do like it.  However, my favorite email program continues to be MailChimp.  It is just really slick and easy to use.

So remember, personally invite your satisfied clients to write reviews, and tell them how.  Make it easy for them.  Give Ratepoint a try:  Here is a sample of how it looks on a website: Brennan’s Custom Painting

About Pipeline Deals

I’ve been using Pipeline Deals for a number of months now. I like some of the bigger companies, Salesforce and Zoho but found Pipeline to be simple, easy to use and affordable. Another reason I selected Pipeline is the two-way sync with Google Calendar and Contacts, which I use all the time. Their support team is also incredible. Pipeline CRM is a scaled down Customer Relationship Management program built for small to medium size businesses.

Future Request

What I’d love to see in future updates are the following:

• A native App for Smartphones. I really don’t like using the Mobile Web App. It is very buggy.
• Make Contacts easier to look up on every page of Pipeline. Right now, I have to do a couple clicks. I’d like to be able to do a quick find of clients
• Quick view of documents. I upload my notes and documents to Dropbox and have begun keeping a copy in each customer’s “folder.” However, when I click to view a document, it wants me to download it. I don’t want to do that. I’d rather just see a snapshot of the document to review notes: similar to Google Docs or Mac’s Preview
• Integrate with Google Voice, not just Skype
• More integration with forwarding emails automatically
• Better Integration with Google Contacts (Right now each new email I get creates a new contact)
• Update the Calendar functions and Task to make it more user-friendly like (Google Calendar) Right now too many clicks and typing. The task need to have reminders too (Mobile version)