this is "on the money." i'm sharon epperson in for becky quick. how hair salons go social and mobile. is america suffering labor pains? we look at the state of american worker with labor secretary tom perez. a wild week for the stock market. massive swings up and down. should you pay attention to all the noise? and what does it mean for your retirement plan? and we'll take you inside cuba. what's really changed and should you be planning a vacation there anytime soon? "on the money" starts right now.

>> this is "on the money," your mon money, your life, your future. >> what do a jewelry manufacturer, a hair salon and a wine store have in common? they've all jumped on the technology bandwagon to make their traditional brick and mortar businesses more modern, more mobile, more social. their small shops try to keep up with the bigger players in business and that's our cover story this week. three small businesses, three different vat jstrategies to ke with the times in the social media age. >> it's the best thing to happen to small business. you had to get through the gate keepers. now on social media, you can get to them. >> the consumer is educating the retailer most of the time. more and more, clients are saying, why don't you have a system where i can just request the time? >> i'm answering e-mails more than i'm answering phone calls now. >> fourth generation still making jewelry the old fashioned way. by hand. but now using social media to reach her company's target

audience. >> women can relate when you see a picture of a ring on a finger or necklace or earring. this is something we are very, we like to show. in realtime with pictures and they want to try it on. >> this 22-year-old hair salon is making life easier for its clients by providing an online booking system. as well as answers to frequently asked questions on soon to be revamped web site. >> we're now in the process of changing to a cloud-based software, which will allow more convenience to our clients who are expecting that experience on their phone to book an appointment or to read quickly about something. >> and a wine store launch only a year ago business anywhere through a mobile point of sale system allowing it to find new customers. >> 30% of the sales generated outside of the store based on these different events. >> you want to make sure that you can take people's currency anywhere they want to do business with you. you've got to be mobile-ready. you've got to make sure your

customers can find you. you've got to make sure your hours and your address online. make sure when it comes to social media, content is currency. >> does every business need social media part of its business plan and connecting with current customers and getting new ones? dave is ceo of likable local. thank you for joining us. content is currency. how important is social media to a small business and how do you get started? >> social media is essential to small businesses because their customers and prospects are all there, pretty much every consumer at this point is using facebook, twitter, and linked in and small businesses have to join that conversation. >> what is likable local do? how do you help businesses do this? >> likable local has a set of page that makes social media super easy by automating most of the things that take a lot of time for small businesses. the problem is that most small business owners don't have the

time to do social media. they're struggling with coming up with the time to run their own businesses. so our company and our software makes it much easier and faster. >> how can they adapt to social media and how can they know that it's really worth their time? what's the return on investment? >> well, you know, the first return on investment is that you're relevant and still in business. the best way to really optimize social media and to make money off of it is to generate referrals from your existing customer base. you're not necessarily going to get a lot of new customers out of thin air but if you use social media to build relationships with your current customers, with your current clients, they can help spread the word for you and you can get new customers that way. >> we're talking about so many different types of social media though. should i be on twitter, facebook, instagram? what do i do? >> great question. i think the first place you start is by listening and paying attention to where your customers are today. what social network are they on the most? if you're an ecommerce company, you probably want to be on facebook first.

if you're an accountant or a lawyer, you probably want to be on linkedin first. if you're a blog or sports or entertainment related business, you probably want to be on twitter first. start with one social network and then expand from there. >> is this really something that businesses are doing just to capture the purchasing power of millennials or everyone? >> i think it starts with millennials but i think at this point, everyone is on social media. the fastest growing demoe is actually men 50 plus because everyone else is already there. >> good point. dave, thank you so much for joining us. small business or large, the state of the american worker has been in the spotlight lately. labor day is coming up later this week and u.s. labor secretary tom perez just returned from visiting seven states in five days and new perspectives on the american worker. secretary perez, thank you so much for joining us. >> sharon, great to be with you and all of your viewers. >> what is the current state of the american workplace? you talked to a lot of folks and

talked about some hot button issues. what have you found that surprises you? >> i'm always inspired by the resilience of the american worker and the american business owners. i was in nebraska, kansas, missouri, oregon, new jersey, pennsylvania, other states, and everywhere i go, you know, we have the wind at our back. there's no doubt about it. 65 months in a row, private sector job growth, 13 million jobs. i talk to people out of work before, who have a job now and they have a hop in their step. at the same time, the unfinished business is undeniable. i met with fast food workers and i never forget, literally had a few days ago a woman with three children working 30 hours a week at a fast food restaurant and the night before i saw her, she slept in her car with three children. we can do better as a nation. i was out in oregon talking to business owners who are very strong supporters of the new

paid leave bill put in place in oregon because they reblg niezed that when the workers are respected and taken care of, when you have this basic baseline of benefits, what it does is it helps to really bring about a loyal workforce. it reduces attrition. so i see workers and businesses alike coming together understanding that when more people have more, we're a stronger nation and the unfinished business of this recovery is making sure that the wind at our backs string bribrit more shared prosperity. still too many people working 50 hours a week and getting food at the food pantry and that's not who we are as a nation. >> many struggling say many out there don't have a job and are looking for a job, have been unemployed for a long period of time. millions of people like that. where are the new jobs and what's next for the economy? >> there are 5.2 million job

openings right now. that's a bel weather of a very well-functioning economy. in the depths of the recession, roughly seven job seekers for every job opening and now 1.6 job seekers. so again, these are tightening. in terms of where there are openings, there are openings in a number of different areas. the health care sector continues to be a robust area of opportunity. the area where we've seen the most growth in the last year has been business and professional services, which by and large, are very good middle class jobs. >> let's talk about the rise of companies like uber. people finding jobs like that. what types of workers are independent workers and how is that impacting the labor force right now? >> well, the economy is always going to have innovation. and that's the brilliance of our economy. and we obviously have worked

with many businesses and workers. the discussion i've observed in the so-called gig economy, one of the things that i find a little bit troubling and inaccurate is we see these false choices. i hear some people say, well, we either innovate or reregulate. and the best way to help build the ooubers of the world is make sure that there is no regulation. that's just flat wrong. that's a false choice. i see forward-leaning successful companies who are innovating day in and day out. whether it's the new economy or the legacy economy. and they understand that you can innovate side by side with your workers. you look at instacart. one of the emerging start-ups and they've treated their workers as employees because they recognize that if you want to build long-term growth, you've got to make sure that you take care of your workers. >> thank you so much, secretary

perez. >> always a pleasure to be with you. up next, "on the money." bull and unbearable. if the market has your risk, find out how to protect your future. and been a thorn in the side for a half century. now we're talking to cuba. we'll take you to the streets of havana.

now here's a look at what's making news as we head into a new week "on the money." hard if you had money in the stock market. dow plunged a thousand points on monday, recovered slightly and fell 200 points on tuesday. all on concerns about china and the global economy. the nasdaq and the s&p 500 followed suit during the week. all had monster rebounds on wednesday and thursday. stocks were mixed on friday. america's economy grew faster

than most thought last quarter. the second reading of the gross domestic product shows the gdp expanded annual rate of 3.7% better than expected. the gdp the broadest reading of the size and scope of the u.s. economy. if you've been waiting for cheaper airfares, your wait may be over. according to "air weekly requesrequesweekly" but fly during off hours. with frontier. due in part to lower fuel prices and increased capacity. this was a kind of week that made you want to ignore your 401k statement and made you worry about your retirement just a little bit. stock market volatility returned with a vengeance. if you think about your money long-term, what should you do? joining us now, our financial advisors, diane lasus and doug at life and wells planning. thank you for being here. a lot of investors may be in a panic seeing this kind of

volatility especially with what we saw on monday and tuesday. we did see a little bit of a recovery, but still down on the month. what should people think about when they think about their portfolios? >> if you're hearing that you shouldn't panic, that's the right thing. don't panic. if you're investing according to your goals, and this is long-term money, remember, it's just that. it's long-term. you more than likely can ride out volatility. but if you haven't done planning around this, now is the time to take action and speak with a financial professional, educate yourself or empower yourself around these things so you don't have to feel panic when these things happen. >> diane, what kind of history lesson do we need to give people? cycles happen. we see this time and again. we haven't seen it in many years. that's maybe why people need to be reminded. what are you telling clients? >> we're basically telling them to stay the course. if the asset allocation you have is working and it's the right risk profile for you, then there's no reason to make a change. nothing is different.

think about history. think about those people who jumped out of the market during the worst possible time. they're the ones that really felt the pain, not the ones who stayed in the market. >> a lot of people did jump out in 2008. and look what they missed over that period of time. most people have their stocks, their investments in the 401(k), their ira, the retirement plans. are there things they should be doing with these plans at this particular time? >> yeah. well, regardless of the account, like i said before, invest toward your goal. if you're talking about 401(k), iras, you have an association of long-term moneytirement, then i different. millennials have 30 years until retirement if not more. about three or four market cycles you see over that time. >> you'll see this again. 20 or 30 years to retirement, this is just the beginning. >> something like the last few weeks. you'll see probably many times

over. like we talked about earlier, this is something that is pretty normal. we had four amazing years back-to-back. out of seven pretty good years overall. if this didn't happen, we'd both be out of a job. but we could also be in some type of utopia. which would be great, but not our reality. so this is very normal. we think about long-term assets like 401(k)s and retirement money, we can withstand this kind of volatility. if it's shorter term, you need to plan about that. it might not be wise in risky assets. >> can we find a silver lining in all of that? is there anything we can do about it? >> absolutely. the roth conversion. if you're thinking about it, it's a great time to do it when asset values are down. and then you can convert it, watch those assets grow tax free. not just tax deferred. >> right. so that's the beauty taking the tax deferred account.

into retirement. >> don't forget about those tax losses too. if you have some and you took a lot of gains early in the year, which many people did, you could also set those gains and reduce those taxes. >> by filling out those forms early. great advice, thanks, diane and doug. up next, we're "on the money." the embassies open, the flag's been raised. how much is really different in cuba? how is it changing? we'll trake you inside the communist country. and after the break, a look at how the stock market ended the week.

the u.s. embassy opened in havana, cuba, since reestablished communications after more than 50 years. michelle caruso-cabrera was in cuba for a week and joins us now with more on what's changed, what's not, and whether there are signs of capitalism in a communityis i communist country. >> cuban economy is in bad shape and we don't know how bad because the country doesn't publish data regularly or any form recognizable but things appear to be changing in some important ways. amidst the crumbling buildings

and dilapidated streets, most notably, new wi-fi hot spots on january 1st. only 35 in a country of 11 million people, crowded all the tile. expensive, $2.50 an hour and most make $20 a month. the least connected in the world and first time they've been access the internet. most obvious use, speaking with family members overseas on a skype-like app. >> trying to connect via wi-fi with my children. >> reporter: google made big overtures to the cuban government to expand internet availability across the island another low cost to the government. but thus far, the government hasn't accepted the tech company's offer and using chinese equipment like these routers visible on the street. another sign of change, more and more small businesses. three years ago, the government gave permission for cubaens to

leave their government jobs and instead work for themselves but only in 200 very low skilled occupations. ruen left his engineering job at the government agency starting a business making gift bags for parties and events. used to make $30 a month and now he says he pays himself $150 a month and has money left over for savings. his wife more than quinn ttuple her income. cuba is still an unfriendly place to do business. cannot choose employees, cannot decide how much to pay them and in fact, foreign companies don't pay their companies directly. instead, they have to pay the cuban government which keeps most of the money, according to richard fineberg of the bookings institute. >> that in effect pockets the 95% of the payment in hard currency and then pays the poor cuban worker in local cuban

pesos the equivalent of only about 5% of what was actually paid by the corporation. >> that is essentially labor of 5%, the highest in the world. parts of the police state no longer appear to be working. the defense of the revolution that used to make sure people act communist enough, we're told they don't really function anymore. there's still a high level of vigilance and disso dandance bu got the sense people are much more free to express themselves. maybe we should be planning our next winter getaway to havana? >> the executive order makes it much easier to travel to cuba. not super easy, still hurdles. but that being said, cuba is already packed. and they don't have a lot of tourism infrastructure. if you want to go, you are an adventure tourist at this point because you're not going to find

the accommodations you're used to as an american traveler, et cetera. >> that's very interesting. good to know. thank you, michelle, so much. up next "on the money," look at the week ahead. and broke scoring equipment because it did so well.

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more on our show and guests, go to our web site. otm.cnbc.com. and twitter @onthemoney. tuesday, auto sales for the month of august. construction spending numbers for july are also out on tuesday. on wednesday, the fed releases its beige book which tracks economic conditions across the country. also on wednesday, factory orders for the month of july are released. and wednesday marks the 226th anniversary of the treasury department. on friday, the most closely watched number of the week. the unemployment rate for the month of august comes out. consumer reports has tested cars for 79 years. in all that time, no car has ever earned a perfect score. until now. so could this be the best car ever? the tesla model s p 85 d,

electric car scored 100 out of 100 points on ratings system. consumer reports raved about the all wheel drive, braking, acceleration, and handling. one major setback? sticker price of $130,000. wow. that's our show for today. i'm sharon epperson in for becky quick. thanks so much for joining us. becky will be back next week and we'll be talking about improving your credit score. each week, keep it here. we are "on the money." have a great one. see you next weekend. [female announcer] during mattress price wars at sleep train, save up to $400 on beautyrest and posturepedic. get interest-free financing until 2018 on tempur-pedic. plus, helpful advice from the sleep experts. don't miss mattress price wars at sleep train.

sophia vfia vergara's weddi secrets revealed right now on "extra." >> i feel like it will be a party. >> it will be insane. >> the wedding dress, could this be? behind the scenes with the bride to be and her man. >> how anxious are you? >> ava and ryan engaged? >> not a lot of sleep but for the best reason possible. >> the couple may be headed to the