the republicans get ready to convene in tampa as small business takes center stage. small business owners sound off on presidential politics and what it means for them coming up next on "your business." small businesses are reviolationizing the economy, and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.

hi there, everyone. i'm jj ramberg, and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to giving you tips and advice to help your business grow. small business is a big topic in tampa where republicans are gathering for their national convention. the gop and their nominees mitt romney and congressman paul ryan feel the obama administration's policies have hurt the country's small businesses. on the stump, ryan has made it clear that they feel the president's handling of the economy and his health care plan have small businesses crying out for a change. >> more than half our jobs come from these small businesses. and what is the president doing? more regulations, more uncertainty, more borrowing, mar spending, more taxing. >> as the convention gets under

way, we want to continue our series of "small biz sounds off," discussions with people who actually run those small businesses. evelyn anderson is the owner of asheville playgrounds in asheville, north carolina. we first introduced you to evelyn during one of our makeovers. gene marks, small business columnist for "the new york times," and brian cohen, chairman of new york angels and an entrepreneur yourself. thank you for joining me, all of you. >> good to be here. >> evelyn, i'd like to start with you. as we head into the conventions or as we're at the conventions, what are you hoping to hear from the candidates? >> well, i don't know if either party really addresses the needs of very small businesses like our own. i think that, you know, we operate at a small scale, but i really would like to see support for the middle class, the people who buy our products. if people have more disposable

income, i believe that they will be able to purchase more things, and that would support and help small business. >> and so if i'm hearing you correctly, what you want to hear is what is your plan for helping the economy? >> yes, what is your plan for helping to bring the economy back to the way that it used to be in the '50s, '60s and '70s when there was a strong middle class, there was growth, there was real possibility in this country. >> brian, have you heard anything from either side right now that is ringing true to you as a small business owner, this is actually going to help me? >> yeah, it's really interesting. that's a great point. it's not just what the plan is but get the plan out early and stick with it. the big issue right now for small businesses like evelyn's, they don't know what's going to happen. so, you know, there's always politics in everything. and the democrats are going to be democrats. republicans conservatives. we know that. but what's the plan going to be and give my business or give her business time to plan. that's the big issue. we're serving these businesses all the time. it's the uncertainty.

the health care debate is over. i'm just glad it's over. maybe it was good policy. maybe not. but do it early. that's the big issue. >> we talk a lot about uncertainty and people don't know what to do in the face of uncertainty. about what? >> very sophisticated people are running these businesses. 27 million of them. they know if taxes go up, their costs are going to go up. they know if there's health care legislation that applies to their business, their costs will go up. >> it doesn't matter who wins. just let me know what's going to happen? >> well, i would say, look. when you run a company, we're serving these companies all the time. we have a ton of data, as you know. what you're doing, is it going to increase my sales or decrease my costs? it's simple. if it doesn't increase my sales, we hope it doesn't increase my costs. it's not that the policy can be terrible, but i want to know early, that's what all of our survey results express. >> right. you're shaking your head, gene. >> no, no, no. i resist when we talk about uncertainty because i just don't know whenever there was not

uncertainty. so whenever i hear people saying like oh, we don't like president obama and the democrats because there's so much uncertainty around and how can we do our business? i just think to myself, well, wasn't there uncertainty in the '50s, '60s and '70s, too? there's always going to be uncertainty. brian's right about at least knowing what we can expect in the future. i'm really happy that romney chose paul ryan to run with him. why? because he is now really making a statement that they're going to focus on the economy. i'm really happy that president obama then came out and said, i respect paul ryan and think that he's a good man, and he will be able to communicate with romney's policies, but i don't agree with his policies. at least for the next few months hopefully we will be getting the respect of the canned dates to give us both sides of what their plan is so that we can make an informed decision as to who we want to see leading the country in the next four years. >> when you talk about plan, what specifically are you talking about? taxes? reducing the deficit to help small business? >> and again, when we talk about different people have different things that concern them, my biggest concern as a business

owner is, you know, our national debt and our deficit. it's a concern to me to see that kind of thing and what it will do to our children, what it will do to my expenses going forward, my retirement. i have concerns about that. i would like to see a plan like brian, which candidate is going to reduce the deficit over a period of time. no matter what plan they present, i'm not quite sure if they even know if that's going to work or not. >> the only party i belong to is the entrepreneur party. it's not an issue of liberal, republican, it's nothing more than people wanting to be smart about starting new businesses. that's always been the lifeblood of america. so i get really tired of hearing that if we change the tax system, somehow businesses are going to make more money. people change their businesses to make more money, not taxes. the socioeconomic changes that we're going through now are real. they're not easily fixable. you don't snap your fingers and all of a sudden it's going to be great again. a very serious internet-changing issues. we're at the leverage, the profit in the marketplace has

been dragged way, way down. so there are new companies finding new ways to create new businesses every day. obama has signed a jobs act. new financial models for companies to get new money where they couldn't get it before. this company that i'm building now that i started with my son is driven by changing the dynamics for big companies that we're challenging so that they're going to find it hard to succeed because we as a small company are being creative and innovative. so in this economy, which is the creative innovation economy, we all have to learn to adapt and be smarter. >> true, true, but for the person running a bakery, you know, i run a tech company, so i understand what you're saying. i agree, brian. but for a person running the bakery, if you increase their taxes, okay, and you don't tell them early in advance or whatever, that does have a big effect on their cash flow. remember, they've got mortgages, credit cards, so forth. so gene's point as well, you know, i agree with you, there's always been uncertainty. however, the political environment in washington right now historically is at the pits.

and it does make a difference. and it does create uncertainty. it is really different now from 40 years ago or 50 years ago. >> evelyn, is there one candidate right now who speaks to you more? >> well, definitely i'm a supporter of president obama. i hear a lot about cutting taxes on the republican side, but it would not affect my personal taxes, not being in a bracket that would be getting the tax breaks that the romney/ryan plan is proposing. >> so as a small business -- >> what i do see -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. as a small business owner, not on the social policy, but for your business, why does obama speak to you? >> among other things, the health care act that he passed will help us as a business be able to afford, through tax credits to small businesses that have employees and that provide health care insurance for them, that's one of the things that would benefit our bottom line. it would allow us to offer a benefit that would be of value

to our employees when we get to have employees again. and that would also save us some money. i am looking forward to the health care exchanges where as a small business, we'll be able to make purchases that are in line with the costs that very large businesses have. >> brian, you speak to so many businesses across political lines. do you feel like there is a movement towards one side or the other, or no? are small businesses voting as a bloc? >> i don't think so. i really don't. i think it's going to be largely -- not completely -- there's going to be people in the question, no question, but it's largely going to go along political lines philosophy. one thing on gene's point as well, i think it's really outstanding on the uncertainty issue. until we get a handle on the deficit and our debt, we are a debtor nation right now. do not think that people like evelyn don't know it. democrats know it. republicans know it. we need discipline on debt because what it does is it

creates this umbrella effect on we don't have our house in order. and so that's very different as well. and frankly, i don't think either political party, over the past 50 years, has exercised discipline on that. that's a big issue. it really is. >> we had spoken earlier, gene, about this perception that you feel that the perception might be that business -- the business community may react better to an obama presidency. >> i also have to say, jj, i'm still not persuaded that any one president makes a difference in the economy. i still don't know that a president can really change the way the economy is because there's so many factors that impact any economy. but when you talk about perception, i speak to a lot of business owners. we have 600 clients in our company. i write a lot about small business. the overall perception, and it's not fact-based, it's perception based, is that business owners tend to think that governor romney would be, you know, more amenable to the business environment, more pro-business than president obama. and i'm not saying that that's an accurate perception or not or

that's true or not. but president obama has, by some of the rhetoric that he said and some of the things he's done over the past four years, has created that sort of level of uncertainty and that level of sort of fear in the business community. i just get the perception that if romney was president, the business community would react more favorably to him than obama. whether that makes a difference over the next four years, i'm not really sure, but that's what i'm seeing. >> brian, you've got the last word. >> it's just that the issue of uncertainty has never been greater now than ever before in this nation's history. i mean, obama inherited so much of that uncertainty that no one knew how to react to. so getting how many -- 28, 29 months of increased growth, getting all of these new jobs acts passed. 18 tax cuts so far as i remember, i'm told. i think he's doing extraordinary job you shouunder the circumsta. >> we will all be watching carefully to see if we get concrete plans coming out of these conventions and over the next few months. i thank all of you for joining me so much and we will talk to

you many more times over the next couple months. thanks so much. >> thank you. this is a problem a lot of us founders tend to make. we get so excited about our company that when we're talking to potential customers or partners or funders, it's like we can't stop talking. their eyes may glaze over, but we're in our own founder trance talking about every detail. well, today we meet someone who learned the hard way that when trying to market your business, bring your cliff notes, not your novel. ♪ did you get my message ♪ ooh >> reporter: it wasn't long after he launched his company, zingle, that blakley knew he had gotten his messaging all wrong. >> it broke my heart. it really did. i sat here and i was, like, how can somebody not understand what this product is about? and i kept myself, what is it about our materials that people are not understanding? >> reporter: what zingle does is simple.

it created a texting technology that allows people to message their orders into restaurants and let garages know they're ready to pick up their car. the companies then print the text and have everything ready and waiting once the customer arrives. easy, right? well, the way the marketing material described it, it seemed anything but. this was the first piece of material you had in subway, right? >> correct. >> it's confusing. i don't even read -- that font is so small. who would get to that point? >> i look at it now, and it's somewhat embarrassing. >> reporter: that was one of the first flyers he put in restaurants to get people to use zingle. the one he used to entice companies to install the zingle in the first place was even more confusing. >> i put so much time into all this wording that's underneath each one of these bullet points that i was so excited that they were going to sit here and read it. like a sidney sheldon novel, is and they didn't. >> reporter: ford made the mistake so many other founders make. >> as a founder, you're completely in love with your idea. you think everything you do is

the greatest. so there's so much that i know about our products and service that i want to basically just spill it out in one big voice and tell them every single thing that it's going to do. >> reporter: the problem is giving a lot of information is akin to giving no information. >> it basically dilutes the whssage and you're not winning the y. you're not getti your point avoss. >> reporter: jeff drucker is the owner of this subway. here's what he thought of those first posters and flyers. >> busy, a lot of information. i think the focus was more on how to do it than what the message was. >> reporter: that focus on how instead of what was ford's second mistake. his early flyers highlighted the idea that you can text your order in. ford thought that clearly explained the service. but it didn't. >> when you talk to people that are seeing it for the first time, they didn't know what texting order really meant for they didn't knowhey didn't hao wan line, that they could do it from their cell phone without paying a fee. >> reporter: so ford changed the message to lead with the benefit

of the service. ♪ keep it simple >> reporter: and this is what you have now. avoid the wait. >> yep. >> reporter: and so now when you walk in and you see people see the sign that says "avoid the wait," what do you see? >> they respond to it. it basically fills that need in what they're thinking about. they're thinking about, what is it that i'm annoyed with right now? am i looking for a sign that says "text your order"? no. they're looking for a line that explains i don't have to wait. i instantly get it. i want to learn more about it. >> reporter: that one little change had big results. case in point, julie grouper is a current zingle user. she walked by the zingle signs for a year before she started using the service. >> i guess they had been here a while, but whatever they had just didn't really register. and then it was on the flat screen. and it just said, you know, something like, you don't have to wait anymore, and that kind of caught my eye because that was always my frustration with this location is because it's so

busy. >> reporter: now simplifying the message has become so core to zingle that ford and his team have coined a new phrase. what does zingle it mean? >> zingle it means to bring it down to its very basic form and communicate as simple a message as possible. >> reporter: and they use it all the time. i sat through a staff meeting, and it wasn't long until i heard the term used as ford was talking about training some new sales reps. >> if you give these sales reps too much information on the technology, they're going to gobble it up and make the same mistake. from a technology side, zingle it. from a marketing side, let's simplify that process. >> reporter: and they have posters around the office reminding themselves to keep things, as they call it, zimple. and even a special one for ford to remind him not to fall off the simplicity wagon. >> i definitely get charged up with ideas, and i think as i noticed early on, you sometimes get carried away. and this team here does a phenomenal job of staying focused on the big mission for

zingle. >> reporter: how hard is it to make something simple? >> the toughest part of it is seeing it from the perspective that you want it to be viewed from. you have to think of it from i've never seen this before and how many i going to perceive it as a customer? and that's a hard thing to kind of step out of your role. >> reporter: ford says this focus on simplicity is most easily illustrated by zingle's marketing materials. it really pervades everything they do, how they talk to each other and how they speak to clients. in the end, he says, less really is more. >> our model is simplicity through and through. ♪ how could it be so simple is it sometimes a struggle to get through your work day without constant interruptions? if so, here are five tasks you should try to eliminate from your daily routine courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, stop overloading your to-do list. don't make an impossible list of daily tasks.

instead, just write down the things you can actually finish on a given day. and save the rest for later. two, stop eating lunch at your desk. a short break away from your office will help you clear your mind and boost productivity. three, stop making piles. eliminating clutter can help you stay on task. organize papers using a systematic filing system instead of just stacking them on your desk. four, stop making regular visits to the post office. instead, schedule mail pickups from your business or home office. and number five, stop signing every check. you can have your signature preprinted to avoid signing each one. designating a specific time to write out checks will ensure your work flow isn't constantly interrupted. when we come back, the future of on-shoring. and how do you get people to return your phone calls in a timely fashion? plus, an elevator pitch for a product that's causing quite the racket on the tennis court. ♪ hit me with your best shot

♪ why don't you hit me with your best shot ♪ 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 u.s. open is coming up, and you know how all those players got there, right? practice, practice, practice. well, today's "elevator pitch"

has a tool to improve your swing that tennis players should love. ♪ anyone for tennis ♪ wouldn't that be nice >> hello. my name is j.l. calderon, the founder and ceo of knowtennis.com. i specialize in teaching tennis without the use of tennis courts. this is a task memory. a tennis player can learn to do a forehand, backhand and serve. in fact, he can learn to do any stroke in tennis anywhere in the world. over the years i have sold some 3,000 memory boards. my teaching methodology has been featured on cnn, new york one, abc news and the tennis channel. i am looking for $1.1 million. my goal, to sell 1 million memory boards over the next five to seven years. the memory board is a fantastic tool for tennis players to learn to play tennis becautllow plais awhere in the world.>>know, having played a terrible game of tennis the

other day, i couldn't get my eyes off of this. i missed a lot of the pitch, but hopefully you guys listened. all right. gene, you've done a lot of these. what do you think? >> first of all, i'm a squash player, not a tennis player. i can see the way xavier's hitting the ball, it's a great product, right? >> thank you. >> i think you need a partner is what you need. i mean, you are out like 1 in a million people out there looking for money trying to grow your business. if it was me acting all alone, i'd be looking to talk to the big manufacturers in the tennis industry, anybody that might have a name or some credibility, you might have to give up some equi equity, but it would get some more attention for you, it really might help you raise some money. that's what i think i'd be doing. >> all right. brian. what do you think? >> i actually started in graduate school by creating "the new england tennis journal." i spent a lot of time on tennis courts. i know this is something i would use. i'm interested in playing with it and trying it. the issue i have is that is it a gadget that i'm investing in or is it a business i'm investing in?

what are the broad range other products and technologies that you're going to be innovating that are going to come after this? >> i want to know, xavier, did you learn on this or did you learn on a court? >> i learned exactly how you see it. >> really? wow! it will be interesting to see if they can take another meeting and you guys can chat afterwards. would you take another meeting? >> yeah. >> very much so. >> great. thank you so much. good luck with everything. good luck with your game. thanks for being our model out there. and if any of you guys out there have a product or a service and you want feedback from our "elevator pitch" panel on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is end us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. please include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money. you never know. somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. gene and brian are back with us again to help out. the first one is a question

about the future of outsourcing. >> as an on-shore outsourcing company, of course, i'm very interested to learn more about what you think the future of on-shore outsourcing is as compared to offshore. >> as far as i hear, a lot of people are bringing stuff back to the united states right now. >> they are. >> i mean, i can speak from personal experience that i outsource a lot. like i am an outsourceaholic. >> overseas. >> wherever i can find good skilled people at an affordable price, i don't care if they're from the u.s. or not. having said that, we've been doing a little more overseas than domestic mainly because we outsource development work. it seems like every guy and his cousin do it affordably. there's so many tools to manage them, it makes it easier to do. as far as the future of outsourcing, i think as the world becomes flatter, it becomes easier to reach out to people with technology today. i don't really care where they are as long as they're skilled.

>> i certainly care about the skills, but the cultural issues are important to me, and the proximity. i need to hug the people i actually work with, people i actually can have a conversation with. i want to be able to sort of look into their eyes. so i started a new company, and i've outsourced is it to long island which is that other sort of continent on the other side of manhattan. and i find that being able to be with them and talk to them and hang with them is a critical component of getting things done the right way the first time. >> but brian, you've never seen some of the developers i work with. you wouldn't want to be hugging these guys. >> but you work with a lot of companies, though, brian. do you find a lot of them who are outsourcing are doing it domestically? >> yes, much more than ever before because they've tried that already. and that was just a trend. >> and it didn't work for them. this is from an entrepreneur who wants to know how do get people to call you back. >> does the panel have any advice or assistance in encouraging people to return their phone calls in a more timely manner? >> that's a good question.

can you say something in a message to get someone to call you back faster? >> from my vantage point if i have a benefit to call them back, i'll do it. if there's something that's going to give me something of added value, i want to call them back. certainly a friendly voice unto itself rather than sort of an antagonistic one would make me want to reach out to this unknown stranger that's calling me. i try my best, but we're all overe-mailed and overcalled so it's pretty difficult to define which ones you will call and won't. >> i can't put a gun to somebody's head and say do this. people will do it based on their desire to do it. it's our job -- it's his job, it's all of our jobs as business owners to make sure we're at least touching the people. our prospects, our customers, our community often enough so that when it comes time for people to reach back out to us, they're thinking of us first. >> so you are a hugger. >> no, no, no, just touching electronically. >> this one from vince. "i have a provisional patent for a new auto sunshade product.

i have hit a stone wall trying to develop it into a commercial product. i don't want to use the investor help companies who advertise online. i am frustrated and wonder what my next step should be." this is a great question. i just went through this with my 12-year-old nephew. you have a great idea. what do you you with it? how can you turn an idea into a company? >> from where i live in philadelphia, i would immediately reach out to the academic institutions in our area. for example, the university of pennsylvania has a small business development center that's there, and they're well tied in with the ben franklin technology center. it's one incest with us community of investors and investors. if i had that idea, i'd probably be reaching out locally in the area and say i've got this idea. i'd like to work with somebody to get a little funding and get somebody to help me develop this including legal help for filing patents, whatever requirements there are. that's one of the first steps that i would take. >> the best answer is actually though it's right in front of you, talk to the lawyers who are

actually in the patent business. they're the ones who literally have the ecosystem around them that knows all about these products, who to go to, who to talk to so that you don't waste your time trying to go through what may be a menagerie of people who really don't have clarity about what that product is all about. >> exactly right. you're finding even in the vc community, there are people that do this. >> find the right people. >> the other thing is you can license your own idea. if you're not the guy to create a whole business around this, you can go, create a presentation, it's hard, you have to knock on a lot of doors. you have to get someone to call you back and to listen to you. but then license your idea out to a company. >> but jj, remember, you're not in the business of doing this. this is probably not what you know. i think the key thing is to find somebody in the business of doing this like a really good attorney or somebody in the community. be aware, some attorneys, if they like the idea, they might want to take a little equity. be prepared for that. >> gene and brian, thank you so much for everything. i really appreciate having you guys around. and if any of you have a question for our experts, just go to our website. the address is

openforum.com/yourbusiness. there hit the "ask the show" link to submit a question for our panel. again, the website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. or if you'd rather e-mail us your questions, we like to hear your comments, too. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. want to keep track of employees and stay on top of what's going on in your company? then check out our website of the week. 15five.com generates reports that take your employees less than 15 minutes to complete and 5 minutes for you to read. every week employees fill out information on everything from their current project to office morale. managers then read and comment on those reports before passing them all the way up to the top. questions can be customized to be as general or as specific as needed. and the site automatically e-mails employees a direct link to the online forum every week. 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 @msnbc.yourbiz. we love getting your feedback. next week, how do you move on when sales from your business go from $3 million a year to a tenth of that? that's the challenge this entrepreneur faced. she knew she needed to make a change. but did she succeed? we'll tell you. until then, i'm jj 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...