now it's time to remodel their business. webly you the "your business" rescue team to bring this massachusetts based company with a makeover. that's coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy, and american express open is here to 4e. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business." where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. a few months ago we received a youtube video from one of our viewers asking for help. this building contractor in acton, massachusetts, told us how he and his partner had watched the show and needed some advice on how to jump-start their struggling business. we gave them a call and after talking to them about their situation, we knew that our team of experts, led by mike mccalate, would be able to get them back on track. and that's how we decided to give these contractors a "your business" makeover. >> we are in acton, massachusetts, looking for a business called synergy total home. reached out to "your business" needing help and we're here to help them. if i can find them. it is a beautiful day. i'll tell you this, we're walking into a beautiful situation.

the owners are ken and julius. they've been struggling quite awhile and reached out to "your business." let's get to work. hey, guys. >> hey. how you doing? >> hi. >> i'm mike. >> i'm ken. my partner julius. >> good to meet you. >> thank you. >> ken howell and julius dunworth are general contractors who started the company synergy total home here in acton, massachusetts. they fix up houses by remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, finishing basements and building out porches and decks. earlier this year, they sent us this video plea. >> i would love to have my company considered for your small business makeover on your tv show. >> these guys need help. the company's not growing, they're bleeding out money, they're completely overworked. basically, this company needs a makeover. >> for you, what's it like, ups and downs? >> okay. specifically it's mostly downs. i mean, it's stressful. you know.

that month to month, the cash flow is something that's really tricky to manage. >> i have that stack of bills on my desk and i look at who is going to be the least mad if i don't pay them this month. >> so far ken's put in more than $100,000 of his own savings into this company, including his retirement account, leaving him no cushion whatsoever. >> i thought at this age, 46, i'd be much furtherary long, absolutely. there's been a few times in the past six months where i said my spirit is tapped out. i don't have anything left. >> plus i pile on. >> this wasn't how ken and julius envisioned their lives with this company. they want upscale, profitable jobs. they're not getting them. they want to be managers, not workers. instead, they've had to lay people off. it was not supposed to be this hard. >> we're both swinging hammers, and while we do that and julius is exceptional at it, we want to be running projects and having people do it. not us doing projects. >> more of our time should be spent on the management side than on the labor side. so that's sort of my vision.

you know, if that's simple call me a simple guy. >> ken told us he fell into contracting after leaving an unsatisfying day job. he was good at doing handyman work and he really enjoyed it. a few years later he met julius who was an independent carpenter. the two decided to team up and become business partners. >> what's the equity distribution? >> we do 50/50. >> and so it's basically -- >> dba. >> we need to create -- >> in other words -- >> sole proprietorship. >> so we need to create -- >> cost money. >> goal for 2012 is to formalize the partnership, and start an llc. >> do you have a document -- >> we have a spit and a hand shake. >> okay. >> so i think i've heard enough now but i really need to see this stuff in action. do you guys mind taking me for a little tour? >> let's go. >> right this way. >> you lead the way. >> if i fall, catch me. >> terrified.

>> after talking to the guys and checking out their work, mike was impressed. so what was the problem? why aren't these guys getting more work? well, mike talked to one of their clients -- >> the different jobs he's done in our house. >> and checked out their website. their biggest marketing tool. suddenly, things started to become clear. >> so i sat down and spoke with your customers. laura. and i looked at images you like, not consistent with what your customer likes. so one thing we're going to want to do is revamp some of the site. >> in order to project the high-end image they wanted, synergy total home needed a redesign. we asked local photographer robert shane to help out. >> hi. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you. >> robert specializes in taking photos for annual reports. he offered to provide ken and julius with a whole new look. something more managerial. >> put you in a position of management, not the doers anymore. but the managers. >> that's what we want. >> the new photos were simply step one.

when we come back, we tackle the other issues holding synergy total home back. their handshake partnership agreement exposes them to serious liability risks. their website marketing is projecting an image they don't really want to project. and their punishing work schedule has them on a treadmill they cannot escape. mike brings back the "your business" swat team to turn this company around. >> there's absolute hope for these guys. they're on the brink of success. with just a few changes that are significant, they're willing to execute what i'm about to show them, they can make it. if these guys are experiencing is the common entrepreneurs problem, i see stuff all the time. we have to make a few key changes. they have to stick with those changes and it will make a world of difference. >> when you hear the term bootstrapper you generally think of someone who is starting their company without a lot of money. but according to seth godin boot strapping has nothing to do with how much funding you have it's a state of mind and one you absolutely need to have if you're going to make your business successful. seth is the best-selling author of 15 books, the most popular

marketing blog in the world and a successful entrepreneur himself. he's earned the admiration of so many small business people and he's here today to talk to us about some of the lessons learned from his book "the bootstrappers bible." great to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to say first of all that this book is free, right? >> it is now. >> anyone can go get this. >> go to any search engine and you'll find it. >> fantastic. boot strapping to you, it's not starting off with, you know, $20 in your bank account or you know your credit card debt. it is a way of thinking. >> that's right. so, the thought is that what you do as a small business person is you're disrupting the universe. that the universe is going to be different after you show up. that's not the way big companies think. big companies say, we have this engine of commerce, we have a job to do every day. but the bootstrapper comes in and says, what i need to do is connect people who want my product more than they want their money. right? vendors who want my business

more than they need to be paid today. and if i can make those connections happen, i can grow this thing forever. right? because, if the product is worth it, if it's so powerful, and the people need it and they're willing to wait in line for it, then they're willing to pay you up front. you know, we were talking before about tough mudder, a company that runs events that people want to do, obstacle courses in the mud. and it's not cheap. and you have to pay up front, which makes it really easy for those guys to raent the farm where they need to put it on and then there's a profit left. if you can do that over and over and over again the next thing you know you're in 500 cities. >> the thing is when you're bootstrapping you're small and just starting out one of the great things is you don't have a lot to lose, right? so i'm going to be really risk taking with this because if i fail who cares. but once i've been in bris for four years and now i have 10 employees and half of them have kids suddenly it's a little bit harder to take risks. so how do you keep that mentality? >> so what i talk about in the purple cow is a purple cow is something that people are willing to talk about.

but after they talk about it there's time to milk the purple cow and use that cash cow to pay for the next thing you're going to launch. so that's the magic, for example. the book publishing business is the catcher in the reye pays the bills year after year which lets them do fifty shades of grey which is speculative. so this notion that your current business ought to be funding the next innovative thing that you do is part of the bootstrapper mind-set is that the reason you're doing this is not to buy yourself a job, right? not some sandwich franchise where every day you're making the same ham and cheese. that's not the goal. if you want to do that go make ham and cheese sandwiches. the goal is how do you make a ruckus and self-fund so you can make another ruckus tomorrow. >> what's interesting about that is you talk about being an underdog. when you are an underdog you're actually in a position of power because people are rooting for you, right? >> that's right. >> and i thought at first how are you an underdog if you're successful. but you actually can be if you use your success to fund something where you're the underdog. >> exactly. >> every example is apple or

google. google is winning but gmail comes out of nowhere so they're the underdog. apple is winning but the iphone, how could they possibly success against motorola so all the nerds come out for that. so again, when you come out with the new thing, the new notion, your audience, your drive, your followers, are going to be rooting for that new thing to work. because it says something about them, too. it says that they're part of an organization that wants to make interesting things happen. >> someone told me a fact that i thought was really great, too. as you get more successful and you have money and you have contacts, every time you make a big decision that's going to cost a lot of money, say how would i accomplish the same thing without spending any money, if i were just starting out? >> you'll probably do it better. what we do when we have money is try to cover ourselves against the down side. try to paper it over with three levels of stuff. a friend of mine used to work at "saturday night live" and said when they build a kitchen for the set, it costs more to build that kitchen than one in your

house. even though they're only going to use it for five minutes. that gets in the way of saying let's put a kitchen in because you've got to go pay for it. the mind-set is not how do i guarantee it's going to work. it's how do i do it cheap enough that i don't care if it's going to work. that is how you get new ideas. >> it's so great, too. and you're the most creative when you have to be, right, when you don't have these contacts when you don't have this money. so the bootstrapper's bible, everyone can download it for free. >> thank you, j.j. >> come up next are can this business be saved? we go back to massachusetts, as the "your business" makeover team helps this building company construct new ways to market itself, protect itself and find some new clients. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen....

for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. as we saw earlier, building contractors ken and julius are on a punishing treadmill of low profit work. watch as the "your business" team of experts remake their image, refocus their website, and rebuild their pars >> one week later we're back here at synergy total home. i can't wait to see what's going

on. let's look at their business. hey, guys. >> hi. >> good to see you again, julius, ken. >> after a thorough review of the synergy total home business, it was clear ken and julius need help. mike came back a week later with the "your business" rescue team in tow, ready to turn this company inside out. first up, the website. denise is the ceo of s-3 a marketing and branding company based in new jersey. denise came up with three very different logo and branding options to help the guys make the right first impression. >> we decided we need to remake how you present yourselves a little bit. and we went in three different directions. one that's sort of evolves what you have. and then two that are very different. >> right. >> so we'd love to show you. >> the choice is yours. >> we took synergy, and we wanted to make it stronger, bolder, more relevant to what you do now.

i wanted something that was clean and elegant and strong. >> okay. >> what's your first impressions? >> yeah, like it. >> i like that. it is very clean. it is very bold. >> a little more revolutionary, people, you know their names, you're going to their homes, they'd like to know about you. you are your business. so we wanted to be very up front about that. this short of shape here, the diamond shape, it's bright, it's strong, it has the construction feeling, however it's also elegant. >> first impressions of this? >> it's great. it's very simple and sometimes simple is a great way to go. >> it's not sort of a vague sounding company name, maybe. so it really kind of humanizes it. >> this is where we really went to the outer limits. and what we did was want to make something very unique. and again your names are so great we thought why not put them together and get that synergy so it's not using the word synergy, but it's using the

idea of it. wellworth remodelling which has the double entendre which is suggesting it's well worth doing with you. really elegant. really identifiable. and ownable. >> it's bold. >> that's classy. >> i look at this, i think of an expensive hotel. i think of prestige. i think of extreme quality. now you're combining names. one thing i like about this, too. your other one had your full proper names. >> which one are we going with? >> wellworth. we're going to combine that with some of the design elements from one of the other cards and then we've got a great new look. >> i love the howell dunworth look but we love the name wellworth so we're going to combine those. >> another thing we loved was robert chase photography which denise featured prominently on the new website. >> these are the best pictures i've ever had. >> i like that you both immediately liked it as part. >> after they consulted with friends and family, kedo go wit howell and dunworth on the orange diamond background

option. denise and her team then built them a brand-new website along with a facebook page and mobile app to kick off their new identity. it hits the web this week. everyone was excited about the new look and the new name. and then mike raised an important question. >> do you think the new look may turn off any of your customers? >> no, i don't see how it could. if that's going to turn them off, then they're probably a customer we don't want. >> now you're talking my language. love that you're committed. but we've got to do one more thing. just picking words is not enough. i want big action right now. >> here's a big moment we're getting rid of the old name. it's gone. >> with a new name and a new outlook, ken and julius were ready to meet the next member of the rescue team. attorney mitch ekle of the firm ekle morgan and o'connor. with more than 30 years experience in small business and tax law, we tapped mitch with turning that handshake agreement into a legal partnership. >> so mitch, we're going to get the business straightened out

once and for all. get everything legally and properly done. >> you basically have an oral partnership right now. >> right. >> you must have some concern about liability. >> absolutely. >> i mean, i was looking at your project today, saying well, if the banister comes loose and somebody tumbles off of that, how could we protect you? >> how much of a -- if that did happen, what could be the result? >> well, the result you could get sued. we live in a litigious society. and any time anybody suffers some adverse event, somebody's going to think that there's a lawsuit. we ought to have an entity that allows you to protect your personal assets from the business liability. >> if i interject right here, this is where we start getting attorney/client privilege information coming up. i'd like to step out of the room. you guys clearly have a lot of work in front of you, a lot of talking to do. i'll step out. you guys keep tackling this and let's plan to close the day by having a business. all right? >> after mitch got all of the information he needed to write the agreement, mike circled back

to get his take on the situation. now between me and how how precarious is their current situation? >> well, between you and me i'd call it a mess. >> okay. >> because they really are exposed, you never can tell, you know, where liability comes from. >> do we feel comfortable that we can clean this up pretty quickly and get them on the right track? >> i can get them incorporated within a couple hours. >> before we go back to the car what do you guys think? >> i think it's great. certainly this is something that's been hanging overhead. we need to really formalize it from my standpoint from a liability issue made me nervous. >> something we've discussed. something we've had on our wish list too for this year. since we're changing our name, perfect time to formalize our agreement, get it all done. get relevant. >> back at the job site. a surprise awaits. architects bill dickinson, is the last member of the swat team. he has been using ken and julius' services for years. today, bill is going to introduce the guys to his friend

chris. chris is another architect. a partner at acton based design associates. and chris is working on several large residences in a nearby affluent neighborhood. exactly the kind of jobs these guys are after. >> chris, what do you look for when it comes to guys like these? who are the people you need? >> that's a real good question. because i want to be able to call up other professionals, design professionals that you worked with in the past. i get so much value out of that. >> ken and julius got a chance to show off their work. chris was especially interested in their working relationship with designers and architects. >> we really look at the plans pretty much in-depth and we always end up with questions for you guys so we like to have a real give and take and on-site meetings before the project starts and during the project as well. >> we think it's a good give and take. we want to discuss that so we're all on the same page. >> this is all music to my ears. >> everyone seemed to hit it off nicely. so that's when mike stepped in to close the deal. >> let me ask one question, chris, what would be the next step with you to keep the dialogue going? >> the question.

i think maybe we -- maybe come in to my office. >> sure. >> you get a sense of what we do, and if you have a brochure, basically photos of projects you've done. anything of the kind that can show me about how you administer a project let's say. >> okay. >> let's have lunch or something like that. >> yeah, we'd love to do that. >> i heard three magic words. let's have lunch. i think we're done. you guys have lunch, and we'll continue on. >> yeah. >> by the end of the day, ken and julius had a new company name, a whole new look, a formal partnership agreement, and a lunch date with a potential client. all the things they needed to start turning this company around. >> you know, you wrote in a letter saying you needed help. do you think we delivered on what you needed? >> yeah, absolutely. i think we're really going to take a nice turn for the positive here. we're going to change the direction. we're going to have a new perception with the customer because of our new name, our new marketing. yeah, i think we're going to be a different company from today on than we are right now. >> twitter as we all know can be a great resource to help amplify your marketing messages and grow

your business. so here now are five tweet ideas courtesy of biz best dotcom. one offer exclusive discounts. tweet a special code or secret word that customers can mention to get money off when they visit your business. two, go behind the scenes. share videos or photos that give followers access to information they can't get anywhere else. three, prep. let your followers know of any positive news about your business or even your industry in general. include a link, and name the media outlet whenever possible. four, try some q&a. this a frequently asked question in your tweet and answer it yourself with a link to your website or another location. and number five, use photos. think of the words in the tweet as your setup and the photo as the punch line. photos will get clicks and inspire people to retweet your post. in my company, we have a rule, no idea leaves the room without somebody owning it. why? well, look, if nobody takes

responsibility for an idea, then chances are it will get lost and nothing will get done. bruce sellery is a financial journalis journalist. he is here to talk with us about how to develop a culture of accountability. great to see you, bruce. >> great to see you. >> congratulations on the show which starts this week. >> thank you. you say one of the first problems is that people don't have -- >> they don't know -- you're accountable for ensuring that they're satisfied with their experience. what does that mean? i offer something. what does that mean? so that's knowledge. the first thing. when someone's notbehavior. what we as consumers think they're dumb, lazy or trying to annoy us. that's our automatic thought. >> they didn't know that's their

job. >> the first thing that a leader, manager, business owner needs to do is train them. here's what that looks like what you're the one for and the results are that you're accountable for. >> if you're accountable for something, you want to be praised if you're doing it right and constructive criticism if you're not. >> there is volume, revenue and sales and there's time. did you get it done on time? all of those three things count to variying degrees. >> make sure you know what people are accountable for and you talk about feelings. >> i know i have a show on oprah winfrey network, but i talked athis long before that. people are overwhelmed, fearful. >> they already know they should be, but they're not taking ownership. >> they've taken their ball and gone home, metphorically speaking. often managers don't go therein

and business owners don't go in there and address the feeling and say, listen, i get it, you're infuriated because we changed your shift four times. how can we talk this through and what requested do you have of me that i can do differently and they can leap over those feelings and be accountable, again. >> a lot of people get turned off when they hear feelings. it's very important because i could be someone and someone got promoted over me and why do i need to be accountable over this stuff. who cares? >> i know you're annoyed because someone else got promoted over you and here's what we'll do to make sure your career path is clear and itser are you. most of the time you go, it's not happening. we pretend our people don't have feelings and they do. >> what is important is making sure that if you do a good job at this, you just said, career path. let's get to the next one,

excuses. >> we use excuses why we didn't get it. how do we tell what's an excuse and what isn't. the traffic was bad, it really was bad. the circumstance is true, at what point does that tip over into an excuse? the frequency with which you say the traffic was bad. traffic was bad once a month, then it is like, traffic is bad. traffic is bad three times a week, you're not leaving early enough. leave earlier. second, the traffic was late so i'm late, i'm annoyed, so i don't have the project done on time and i have -- you can't use it to explain everything. then the third is your gut. if you're really, really honest with yourself and you say, if i'm accountable, i get no excuses. then is the traffic really, really relevant here? >> all right, well, "million dollar neighborhood" congratulations, again. thanks for coming on the show and i hope to see you soon.

>> gotten great advice from our makeover experts. now, let's get some great ideas from small business owners like you. >> i think the biggest piece of advice is something very simple that i learned early on in my career. that is simply, become the expert in your field. stay up to date, you know, with the news in your industry and just know everything about what you do so that, you know, if anyone asks you a question, you can speak intelligently about it. >> be honest to your clients. if a mistake is made by one of your sales reps, then own up to it. you're the owner of the company, solve the problem and move forward. >> a lot of small business owners have the idea that they cannot negotiate with larger entities because they are significantly smaller than the larger entities. that does not necessarily have to be the case. the situation is, any time any entity is negotiate ailiashatin

because they're sensing value in you. the one thing it behooves you to do in such situations, magnify the idea they have of you and present it at a larger proposition moment. >> i love my junk mail. why? because you get junk mail by so many companies that spend hours and hours of create and creating that message to you or getting that reward program in place or even how their sales people approach you. if you can take that advice and see how you use one or two ideas in my business tomorrow, this is advice that is very, very, something you can do immediately without major investment. if you go on a lot of business trips but don't want to play room roulette with hotels. check out our hotels of the week. room77.com compares prices and gives you the inside scoop of

hotel rooms, the site generates rooms that best match your criteria. the one drawback, to book a specific room, you still need to call the hotel. to learn more about today's show, click on our website. you'll find all of today's segments plus web exclusive content with more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter @msnbc.com. next week, another very special show. we come to you, again, from this year's "new york times" small business summed. we'll talk to attendies about their needs and issues and get advice from branding, funding and applications for social media. it's one of new york's oldest family-owned businesses and one of its most visible. find out the secret of keeping your business afloat from the fourth and fifth generations of

the tug boat owning mccallister family. >> what is it about your family that is able to hold on to this when so many family businesses leave the business after second, third, fourth generation. >> i think it's the irish mentality of tradition. the passion for tradition. they just want to hold on to it. >> till then, i'm j.j. ramberg and, remember, we make your business our business. and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us.