she makes candy, they make matza. how staying the course for business is a success. and is being politically open good for business? that's coming up next on "your business."

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to the start of the seventh season of "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. sbren preyou are ins are faced every day with decisions on how to grow their companies and their own personal changing roles within the organizations. so how do you figure it all out? we met two companies growing by making a conscious decision to stay the same. >> there's a history here that you just can't duplicate any place else. >> you're going to get a product that is very similar to the product you had 50 years on the table. our business decisions are solely based on making a quality

product. >> adam and aaron are literally cut from the same cloth. >> we are in the fourth and fifth generation two. cousins and myself who operate the business on a day-to-day basis. >> this trio is the driving force behind stripes, the new york-based company well-known for its matzo. >> we try to stay focused on the original product and stay pretty true to our roots. >> the family-owned company started by eric streit has been a community staple since opening its doors. >> we have been down on the lower east side since 1925. >> our fathers worked here, we are walking the same halls our grandfathers walked, our great-grandfather walked n one case our great-great grandfather walked. >> you can find a variety of streit's products on the

shelves, but the family still pays close attention to their offering. >> the pink box of matzo on the store shelves to other flavors seen throughout the year. >> in fact, streit's has not changed the way the matzo is made. >> know your product and do it well. >> the machinery has been updated but that's about it. >> from the way we take the dough, we sheet it from the way we put it into the oven and break it outside and package it very similarly to the way it was done in the 20s and' 30s. >> we are using new york city water. people say pizza and bagels taste the best from new york city. we believe matzo tastes the best from new york city as well. >> they are not willing to sacrifice quality. at one point streit's claim close to leaving the company's home. >> we were getting calls twice a day, three times a day from a brokers, from perspective buyers, look, can we purchase

the place. >> we had an engineer design a new factory, we did financial analysis, we did all the things a good businessman would do to try to increase profits and look at production. >> but in the end a mix of creating a quality product and tradition won out. >> there are things that i didn't know we could positively rebruce if we were to move. and that's a gamble i really don't want to take. >> there was also the human element of the operation. >> when the matzo comes out of the oven there's a physical body inspecting it and putting it in racks that weave throughout the factory. >> that may not have existed in a more modern facility. >> there are many times when this will be seen by human eyes and i don't think the machine will be picking up. >> quality control is one of daphne wagner's top priorities as well. >> it's a family recipe, it's a local business and that's the way we like to keep it. >> she's the owner of mrs. w.'s old time candy based in terrell,

north carolina. >> i sell toffee candy, the classic. and i came up with a toffee oatmeal cookie, a peanut butter cup cook key. >> she believes in consistency and quality. wagner says her company's success starts in her industrial kitchen. >> what makes us unique is we are not a mass-produce item. we are handmade. and you don't see that a lot today. and i don't ever want to become a mass-produce item. >> from the very beginning wagner made all of her own products. it's now three years later and she has no plans to change that. she's committed to man tainting the high standard she set. >> a good recipe has to be kept secret. else it's not a good recipe anymore. i don't want other people to know how to produce what we're doing because i don't want the recipe to get out and they can do what we're doing. >> reporter: even though wagner personally delivers mrs. w.'s products to between 70 and 90 clients in two states and takes orders online, she doesn't want to give up her role in the

kitchen. she wants her job to stay the same. >> maybe hiring somebody to take over sales for me, i still want to be in the kitchen supervising the cooking. i will always have my hands in the kitchen. i will never farm that out. >> wagner knows that comes with a price. as demand for her product goes up, her strategy has affected her potential. >> it has probably grown slowly, which is what i want to do. we are doing really good with how we are handling it now just being in local coffee shops, local gift shops, we got into the first grocery store. so we are growing at a slow pace. >> it's a reality wagner is willing to accept. she doesn't want to lose control of her business. >> i have had a couple people knock on my door saying, let's go into partners. maybe i'll take 50%. if i wanted that i would go to work for somebody else. that's no what i want to do. >> allen adler knows how wagner feels. he believes change is not always

necessary. >> more money couldn't compensate to give up what we have here. >> aaron gross agrees. even though streit's is much bigger than the original business of 1955, it has a strong product and has and will continue to pave the way for the company's future success. >> we do have a long-term plan to be here, build this brand, concentrate on our roots and build this brand and expand. we have been around almost 100 years and would like to be around for 100 years more. there should be sixth, seventh and igt generations running this business. i think that is what sets us apart. as business owners we have so many opportunities to change things, so how do you decide when to keep things the same? let's turn to this week's board of directors, norm bradsky is a columnist and brian is working on his latest company, which will launch in a few months from snow. >> a you few months, yeah. >> you are also a successful

entrepreneur. thank you so much for joining us. >> yeah. >> what struck me about this with the streit's is they had the opportunity and talked about moving into this new, more modern factory, which clearly would have increased production, decreased maybe employees, and they said no. >> well, there's a movement afoot. and it started about seven, eight years ago with this book written called "small giants." three weeks ago i was at the national convention in san francisco and there's more company that is you think of that want to be great, not necessarily bigger. and what they have they call mojo, so streit's has moe joe mojo and wants to keep the mojo. >> you think they couldn't keep that if they moved to a big facility? >> i think it would change. companies change when they change the structure of what they have. yeah, i think it would change. >> what's neat about them is people were walking by and grabbing matzo. clearly it's a part of the community.

>> those of us who live in new york city, we walk by it all the time. i remember eating it growing up and still today. that's part of the appeal. in the old days you had to go to the corner store to get that feel, but nowadays there's the whole foods effect where you can have very artisinal, very high-quality local products that very high-end consumers have now acquired a taste for. not just high-end consumers, a lot of things are making their way to mainstream supermarkets as well. >> with the woman who sold the candy, what i thought about her most interesting is her idea that i do not want to leave the kitchen. and for many people, this is a problem as you grow, because somebody needs to run the company. >> yeah, but she has a life plan. and she wants to keep her soul in the business. and what she said was, not necessarily about money, we think entrepreneurs only want to make more money and more money. that's really not true. she's proud of her product, she has mojo in her product and that's what she wants to keep.

>> right. >> this woman obviously values with her heart and soul what the business is about. not just the profits, exactly. and obviously being in that kitchen is what it's about, not promoting herself on social media or buying advertisements or flashy promotions. i have to think that's good for business in many ways, too. >> every time you eat one of her cookies she wants you to think of her being in the kitchen making that cookie. >> both of the companies have that. when you eat their products they want you to think of them, not some big fancy modern factory somewhere else. >> exactly. >> that's right. when i walk by the streit's factory on the lower east side, i do think of the people making the matzos. when i eat a fantastic toffee or cookie, you can imagine it being made in someone's kitchen. they don't do it because they want to project that image, that's because it is authentic and people can tell that now. >> thank you so much, you guys. we get a lot of questions here from small business owners who want to know how to get

funding for their business. it might be the question we get the most. so our next guest has some expert advice about key things you want to consider when asking for money. robert furwine is the co-founder and ceo of cabbage, a group dedicated to helping established online retailers get access to capital. it's great to see you. >> thanks for having me on. >> as i said, this is a question we get the most. and i think a lot of times people don't know how to go about actually doing the asking, what parameters do you set, how do you say something? who do you talk to? i want to go through your suggestions on this. >> sure, absolutely. >> first thing you say is draw the line, in what way? draw what line? >> first, small businesses have to act like a business, they really need to separate out the personal functions from the business functions. that can be hard to do. i took a cab over here, spent $12 doing that. it's important that i submit an expense report for that $12 than just put it on my tax form at the end of the year. you actually, if you're a small

business and you spend that money, submit an expense report to yourself and get paid back by yourself. that's a great way to keep the things separate. folk that is finance you are going to want to see you're taking the steps to keep your business separate. >> it is so easy to throw it on the same credit card, cash, not pay attention, it will work out in the end and it doesn't. >> it never does. it never does. >> beg and borrow but don't steal. i hope that this is intuitive to don't steal. but you don't really mean steal. >> yeah, obviously. don't steal, but the beg part, this is about going out to get cash. you have to be very diligent and persistent to do it. so the first thing, the beg is talk to your family and friends. you've obviously covered that in the past. those are the folks that know you the best, want to help you, have the most faith in you, have seen your progression over the years, they will give you the money if they can. but if you don't have a rich uncle, the next thing you need to do is make sure that you can borrow that money from somebody, like, and one example is trade credit. what i mean by that, if you are

a vendor and buy product from them all the time, the vendor could say, pay me within 15 days when i give you the product. after you establish a relationship with them, go back and say, can you make that 30 days, maybe that 60 days? that's essentially getting credit from that vendor. the other thing is look for alternative financing sources. there are some companies out there that provide financing, including my company, that does that for small businesses. and they often look at factor that is traditional banks will not look at. >> there are tons of non-traditional funding sources out there. this is why we have you on to talk more about them. note your bottom line, most importantly when going to talk to somebody and tell them about your business to get them to give you money. >> if you want cash, get it for the right reason. don't do it to buy a new tv in the office or something like that. >> throw a big party -- >> a lot of people do that and need not do that. they need to focus on getting a return for investment. good example, we often advice

$1,000 of cash to one of our merchants. they take it and within 30 days will buy inventory and turn that into $2,000 and may pay us $30 or $40. that's a real return on investment. spend $40 to get $960. an investment you won't get a return on is buying a new desk. that will take you a long time. if you can manage through that, you should try to manage through that. >> right, okay. then be stubborn. don't take no for an answer, basically? >> don't take no for an answer, but it really is how to not take no, don't be annoying and things like that. every body that invested in my company turned us down at least two times before they said yes. some turned us down five or six times. but what we would do each time is ask them, hey, why are you not investing in the company? if you know them well enough, they say it's because we don't think you'll be able to build a product or we don't think you're going to be able to get other people to invest or things like that. we wrote them down and made sure we did our work, turned that around and went back to them and forced them to give us another

reason why they weren't going to invest or finally they enjoyed the persistence and knew this was somebody to stick to it to make the business a success. >> the key thing is we wrote et down. i have done this for people who turn med down that said, these were their concerns and you had that so the next time you see them you can address them exactly. they probably don't remember it was a concern, but it doesn't come up as a concern again. >> a great thing to do is when you call them back say, hey, you told me to get back in touch with you when i have addressed this issue, they won't remember whether they told you that, but you do it anyway and say, hey, you told me to call you back, so they take your call and will listen to you and have taken a reason off the table. >> right, okay, finally, be scrappy. we say this all the time. sometimes when you stop being scrappy you make the big mistakes regardless of how big you are. >> i have a saying called trailing the expenses. the key is to focus on the revenue. as an entrepreneur, you want the smallest amount of time lapse

between when you start the business and start generating revenue the business. you want to keep that as short as possible. so don't spend money on things that won't generate revenue for the business. always think about how to extend the life of your assets, how you can work a little bit harder before you hire another person, but certainly when you have that time to hire somebody, bring them on so that you can start generating more revenue. >> you were an interesting guest because you have done it from both sides, backage, your company provides money and you also had to get your own money. appreciate you coming on. thanks so much. >> thank you. appreciate your time. what kind of person should you be and what skills do you need to be successful entrepreneurs? here are five timeless trait that is should be in any business bag of tracks. one, networking prowess. connecting with people on facebook or linkedin won't cut it. real networking happens face to face and often with people who aren't their peers.

two, confident negotiator. negotiating skills aren't easy to develop, but confidence gives entrepreneurs and edge in bargaining power. three, knows when to get help. ask questions and seek help when you need it. there's always someone out there who has faced the same challenge successfully. four, a knack for knowing your industry. attend industry events and read blogs and trade magazines because being in the know will help you manage your business. and number five, problem solver. don't wait for other people to take care of complications for you. working through issues that pop up with also help you better tackle problems in the future. coming up, less sons from the fast food industry. chick-fil-a's political stance branded customers while turning others off. so one viewer wanted to know if taking a public position was good or bad for your small business. and want some advice with that shake? the ceo of johnny rocket says

put your name everywhere in this week's learning from the pros. 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. the restaurant chain johnnie

rocket first launched in 1996 with the experience everyone should believe in americana. now it is in 16 countries and the company has ceo john fuller. we caught up with john to learn how important it is to role up your sleeves and learn the art of ketchup art in this week's learning from the pros. ♪ >> one of my guiding principles is i want everyone to be a difference maker versus a caretaker. so i want people to feel they can influence the department they are running or working in. if they are just there being a caretaker and just doing whatever someone did before and just kind of doing the same thing, that means they are not passionate about making it better. they have been in the restaurant, i love to see a manager make a decision on his own, whether it is comping the guest meal because they had a bad experience or giving them a

be our guest card to come back another time. so solving the problems here and now. ♪ >> any small business owner out there, when i was promoted to ceo of the company, one of the things i immediately started doing was having our manager and employees above to spend a week in the restaurant. i think it is absolutely critical you see our business through the eyes of the employees that are out in the restaurants doing the real work. i find it really important to ask questions. if your focus is on how to make their job easier, they will be better because of it. ♪ >> one of the things is when i go into the restaurants, it's amazing how we are always scrambling around looking for pens. it's amazing how it is always the local dentist or chiropractor or hotel chain. one of the things i have done is sent out a box of johnny rockets pens everywhere. if we don't have pens and people

walk away with a pen, they might as well have our brand on it versus somebody else's brand. so we took that and solved that by shipping out every six months we ship out hundreds of pens to each restaurant. as you run your business, never lose sight of the branding elements wlrks it is having your logo on the glass you serve or a specific pen like we have with johnny rockets pens. that's important. you have a lot of chances to make impressions. ♪ >> and the restaurant industry to me, the single most important thing you can have is customer service. the way i judge customer service is my tips for customer service is making eye contact. come up with some way to connect with them and talk to them. once you have the dialogue going, you have connected and won half the battle. if you can do those things, that's 99% of the restaurant business. and it's amazing how forgiving the guest may be if the food is a little late or maybe you get

the order wrong, but if you made that personal connection they will be happy forever. ♪ time now to answer some of your business questions. nor and brian are with us once again. the first one is about the controversy surrounding comments made by the president of chick-fil-a regarding same sex marriage. ryan asked, how smart is it to wear your poll sicks on your sleeve as a small business own her? one of the viewers katherine wrote on our facebook page, i think it is probably better to maintain a separation of business interests and social ideology. i doubt that your customers want to know your beliefs. i know i don't. i think they just want you to be honest, sell a good product and give customer service. what do you think, do you agree with her or no? >> put yourselves in the foot of the consumer. we can vote at the ballot or with our dollars. me, i don't want to give money to that kind of an opinion or an owner expressing those views but you might or you might and that's our decision.

the owner needs to make a decision as to whether he believes this so strongly he needs to say it and it doesn't matter what happens to the business. but if you're going to say it, say something inclusive to attract consumers that's not going to turn them off. >> i think it's more than that. i think the number one and most important in your company is your employees. and by saying what you say could be hurting your employees. if you want to ruin your business or give up a segment of business, that's one thing, but don't forget you employ so many people and their lives are depending on that. so before you open your mouth, just remember you're responsible for a whole bunch of other people. >> well, you're right. if your statement is welcoming and inclusive, that's more acceptable to something that rejects certain kinds of people. >> this is about setting expectations when you're working with contractors. >> at the end of the job i feel like there's a gap between my expectations and the reality of the project.

and i just want to know, what's the best way to bridge the gap? >> this is really interesting. so we do big scopes of work at the end that are as specific as twek get for hiring contractors for my company. how do you make sure everyone has the same expectations? >> well, it's not the end of the job, it's the beginning of the job. you have to lay out the expectations. and along the way you have to make sure they are living up to those expectations. if at the end of the job you are not satisfied, well, the problem happened a long time before that. >> letting it go one step further, you need to make sure your expectations are realistic. there's no contractor in the world that can deliver a hope and a dream to you if it's not possible. so before you hire someone like that, go out and talk to other people in your industry. see if those kinds of results are possible. then once you agree on a realistic outcome, then dig in. and if you have to micromanage, micromanage. >> i think this is the biggest issue about hiring contractors.

just making sure you're getting what you paid for. >> i like to have unrealistic expectations to start with. so what i do is every time i have these unrealistic expectations, i know they are and get as close as possible to those. >> all right. let's move on to the next one. this is a question on getting paid. >> how would you get customers to feel more comfortable transitioning from, let's say a paper check to electronic payment? >> how do you force them, force them into it? >> forcing them is the exact wrong way. people are not listening when a company shouts at you to do something. they listen to their friends when their friends, they see them doing it or it is recommended strongly by friends. that's the real value of social media, i think, is harnessing that to show, especially with something as sensitive as your own wallet and own pocketbook. make sure that you see your friends are comfortable doing it and you'll be much more comfortable doing it. >> the other thing is my wife just went through this, she didn't want to do that so the bank educated her on how to do that. i believe the education process a good thing.

once you do it it will be better for you. so it's a trust issue. >> what about as a small business owner providing a discount just in the beginning to get people introduced to it? >> i don't believe small businesses should ever give things away for nothing or give a discount for somebody to try something. i don't think that works. i think more so education works. and showing the value added when you do it. >> showing how easy it is. all right. finally, one entrepreneur wants to know how to convince small business owners to change their ways. >> i'm in the travel management industry. and we save companies time and money. how do you convince small to medium businesses they need to contract service that is will save them time and money rather than just doing it themselves? >> again, this is all about education, right? >> it is all about education. me for one, it's very difficult for somebody to sell me something that i do myself. >> which travel -- >> exactly, travel in the business. so it has to be an education process and a trust process.

it's not about money and saving time, even though she thinks it is. it's about trust and education. and once she starts thinking in those terms, maybe she can come up with a better way to sell her product. >> well, i think you need a little bit of both. buying things and choosing vendors is still an incredibly emotional issue. even when it makes financial sense to switch to a provider, sometimes people worry they will be criticized or if the relationship backfires they will be in trouble for it. so i think a really good way to do it is to do the heavy lifting for them, show them the numbers and how they will be a hero within the organization by saving money or increasing revenues by adopting this new partner. >> norm and brian, thank you so much for all the answers today. really appreciate it. and if any of you have a question for our experts, go to our we are site. the ad dress is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there just hit the "ask the show" link and submit a question for the panel. again, the website is

openforum.com/yourbusiness. or if you'd rather, e-mail us your questions and comments to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. you need to add staff but don't have time for the hiring process? well, our website of the week may help you. jobon.com is an online service to streamline the process. gone are the days of scheduling dozens of interviews. instead applicants answer a couple questions into their web cams before submitting their profiles. then you can watch virtual interviews on your up time and find the perfect candidate for the open position. the service is free for the first five applicants. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. 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, it's @msnbcyourbiz.

and don't forget to become a fan on facebook, we love getting your feed back. next week, a company makes a mistake so many small business owners make. >> there's so much that i know about our product and service that i want to basically just smil it out in one big voice and tell them every single thing that it's going to do. >> ford shows us how he learned the hard way that when getting the word out about your company less is more. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. and remember, we make your business our business. they have names like idle time books and smash records and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again.