can you jump through a hula hoop while riding on a unicycle, eat the most skidles in a minute? one man's obsession inspires him to create a company so anyone can set one. that's coming up next on "your business."

hi, there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. since he was a kid, dan roman wanted to set a world record but he couldn't. he didn't have the longest finger nails, he wasn't the tallest guy in the world. basely, he couldn't win any of the world record categories. then, the internet came along. it changed everything. he is founder of record setter.com, creating the opportunity for him and so many others to achieve their dreams of becoming world record hold eggs. along the way, he built a great company too.

>> in early april, in south beach, miami, 197 people got together to form the world's largest roller-skating conga line. >> a brand new world record! >> this record was confirmed, not by the guinness book of world records but by dan roman, ceo of record setter.com. >> we would like to congratulate all the people that participated in setting a record for the longest roller-skating conga line. 197 people participated. >> record setter is, as dan explains it, like wikipedia to the guinness book of world records ensign cloe paid ya. >> i just thought there was an opportunity to take this idea of democratic, crowd source world records and document them with video and make a web company

that the world could participate in. >> here is how it works. anyone can submit any record they want to the record-setter site. they take a video and send it in. the team at record setter confirms it is, indeed, a record. >> we love giving people the opportunity to dream up and create their own world records. we try to never subject ifl judge categories. we have open rules as long as your records are quantifiable and breakable and you have media evidence, we welcome it on to our site. >> which is why they have some really out-there records on the site. one of the most competitive categories. the most time smiling while listens to the song "beat it." and the tallest pizza tower jumped over. and the day i went to visit the company, two records were set in their office. sean mcdaniel did the most bear knuckle push-ups in one minute with 100 pounds on his back.

and kyle peterson created the record for the most catches while juggling three clubs, hula hoop willing and riding a unicycle. since it is a crowd source site, if record setter gets something wrong, they hear it. last year, they mistakenly confirmed the world's largest pie fight. within a day, somebody had left a comment that said, here is a link to a youtube video that shows a larger pie fight. we reached out to the larger group and we changed our ruling. >> record setter started as simply a fun activity, not a company. something dan created at the outdoor festival burning mail. >> it was a fun hobby my friends and i were doing once a year but the project was sticky. people seemed to love this open challenge we gave them to invent their own world records. >> after a few years, dan quit his full-time job in advertising and started pouring all of the money he earned from freelance

jobs into turning this hobby into a business. his partner, corey, did the same. >> as soon as we had the site launched, we went out and found a couple of angel investors who allowed us the transition of quitting our day jobs. >> the angels and a capital invest company invested because they saul income generating potential. >> my background is in advertising. i saw from the very beginning an opportunity to integrate brands into what we were building in a unique manner. >> he was inspired by one of the early records posted to the site. >> one of the first records that we saw come up on to our website was a record for the fastest time to open a bag of skittles and sort them by color. people in our community found interest in that category and were competing against one another. my advertising mind said, that's really interesting. that's a very powerful way to engage people. >> so, now, they call and pay record-setter to come up with

fun ways to help get the words out about their products, brands like toyota prius. >> we came up with 200 toyota prius related world record challenges. >> the fastest time to sit in every sit of the prius and the fastest time to do a hand stand around the car. >> they did work with stride gum. >> their campaign is about long lasting flavor. they wanted to come up with a pile of long lasting world record challenges. the longest time for your dog to lick your face and the longest time for two people to head butt balloons back and forth. >> the congo line in florida was an event for the bottled water company, he haevian. they chose record setter. >> we decided to go with record setter because we liked their fun, entrepreneur on the way and they were very great partners pre-event. they helped us in engaging the public in very many ways.

>> so far, there are 13,000 records set on the site from 65,000 companies. every day, someone somewhere is doing something new and crazy that is winning them the title of the world's fastest or longest or best something. so i did not set my world record yet but i absolutely plan to. let's turn to this week's board of directors to see what they are going to do. belinda emerson, better known as small biz lady is the host of small business chat and publisher of succeed at your own box.com, where her mission is to end small business failure. michael simmons is the co-founder of the extreme entrepreneurship tour. they bring the top entrepreneurs to places around the country for conferences. great to see both of you guys. >> thanks for having us. >> i loved this story, afrmth"a because it is so fun to see all the people doing world records. "b" is, there was the guinness

book of world records and he had the idea to take them on. >> the world is waiting for a better mousetrap every day. the guinness folks let their brand get older, steal. there is a younger, prettier model out. record setter is cool and hip. brands that want to be associated, particularly targeting young people willing to do crazy things, this is a no-brainer to be using this company. >> it feels very modern to me, that company. >> i think with today's day and age about mobile changes in social media, there will be new opportunities in every industry. they looked at an old industry in a unique way from the ground and they have created a compelling model. >> comparison really struck me. we are the wikipedia to the guinness book of world records, insee cloe pea ya britainic ka. there are probably a lot of opportunities around. he has this idea, he came up with it at burning man but then he immediately figured out how

to montize it. how important is that? >> it is everything. great ideas are a dime a dozen. to take an idea from making it profitable and then sustainable as a long-term business, that's what everybody hopes for, right? >> i think everybody is looking for media or their 50 seconds of fame. i think companies. i was thinking as we were watching, how could we set a world record and get. we certainly pay for media. i think it is a very montizable model. >> the reason i say, how important is that, when the obvious question should be, incredibly important. so many companies in silicon valley get bought for lots of money and haven't figured out how to monetize their product yet. this seems to do a little bit of both, a way to get a lot of people, a lot of followers and they have already found the path towards revenue, which i think is really fantastic. >> it is going to make them very, very sellable on the market. should they go into an exit strategy in a couple years to get their investors back their

money. >> they boot-strapped it. what's kind of fun about their offices, a guy that came from madison avenue. he worked for a lot of really big ad agencies and worked in really fancy offices and now he works on a third floor walkup and he is really kind of cool, retro offices. they are really doing it. he bootstrapped it for a while. he got these angel investors in venture capitalizing. how many companies find they have got something and go out and find funding but they don't actually set out knowing that this is going to be something huge? >> i think a lot of people think their biggest challenge is getting funding when at the end of the day, the biggest challenge is getting customers. we say your best funder initially is going to be your customer. your customer is going to give you money and incredible feedback to it ter rate. the reality is, once you have enough momentum from bootstrapping it will be so much

easier to get investors. >> i love your mission, melinda, stopping small business failure. >> i'm tired of people going out of business. i rarely hear bad business ideas but i see poor business execution in the streets. it is like a plague. i want to give people helpful information that helps them start and grow a sustainable small business. >> it looks like dan has at least the beginnings of that. it looks like it is going well so far. formal business partnerships aren't the only type of relationships that will help your business grow. here are five informal partnerships that are worth nurturing. local and national associations, the people you meet can serve as a broader network to tap into when you need professional advice, two, professional partners. your law firm, banker and real estate broker can give great advice. three, businesses with similar target markets connecting with companies that serve your car

market helps legitimize your business and build up your reputation with your client base. four, customers. a lead from a loyal customer typically translates into outstanding future customers. so, encourage customer referrals. number five, unconverted prospects. potential customers who for one reason or another didn't officially sign on but understand what your business provides, can be valuable partners down the road. this week here in new york, the edison awards were given out. now, in its 25th year, they honor inknnovative new products. the company i founded, good search, was one of the winners. now, let's meet some of my fellow winners. i am going to start with frazier hall, the chairman of recon instruments. as a skier, i looked at your product and immediately thought it was so cool. >> sure. thank you, j.j. this is a heads up display part. recon makes heads-up display

systems. our first one is a ski and snowboard goggle. it provides heads-up display data for while you are on the hill, speed, time, temperatures, altud, jump air time. >> you put your goggles on and down there at the bottom, you can see how fast you are going, how high you jumped. >> with a glance down, out of your normal field of view but in your full field of view. it is a user choice. you look down when you feel it is safe and you can be connected to, the world is infinite. you can be on social media, connect to your smart phone to third-party cameras, to heart rate monitors. there are already apps being developed. >> one thing you said earlier that i thought was so cool. once you jump, depending on how high, you set your limits, it immediately posts to facebook. >> you can set a trigger so you can share with the world your achievements. >> i love the automatic trigger. if you didn't do that well, it doesn't go anywhere. >> set your thresholds high.

>> and it has gps. >> we have buddy tracking. you can track any of your friends with the mobile app. >> so cool. let's move on now. a light bulb. >> yes, a light bulb. this is tracy bilbo and the name of your company is. >> switch lighting. >> you have this incredible light bulb which what does it do? >> the lighting industry is going to go through a massive transition from incandescent and fluorescent to leds, more energy efficient and longer life. a special schal leng for the industry to create the replacement for the traditional "a" lamp that we are most familiar with. with our liquid coaling, thermal management have uniquely created a no compromise replacement for the incandescent bulb. you can use this in any orientation or fixture that you can use an incandescent bulb because we manage the thermals with our liquid approach so much more effectively. it creates the exact lighting

experience, same color temperature, same room-filling light. >> we have it here. the same as what we're used to. >> in any type of light fixture you put it in, you would get that exact experience. >> what's so neat about this is right now we think of light bulbs as disposable. you go to the store and buy it and throw it out. >> 25-year life in residential use. 6-8 years in commerce use. it will become a consumable durable. when you move, you will take with you. >> how much time went into developing this? >> four years to bring this to market, a tremendous technical challenge. that's one of the reasons why the edison awards recognized us. >> you started selling this month? >> it is going terrific. we have month are demand than supply. >> better than the opposite. doug snyder, the lip ton buddy. >> it is a mobile lifting device that saves user's backs. it takes the heavy out of heavy lifting and it reduces worker

injury and increases the company's bottom line by saving on workman's compensation. >> how is that different than what's out there now? what makes this an edison award winner? >> what's out there now has been around for 100 years. it is a static device. you load things on it, take it to where they need to go and take them off. a lot of times, where they need to go isn't at floor level or you need to offload the material. so this has a secondary tow adding technology to the traditional hand truck that raises and lowers to proper ergonomic height. >> how much research wept into developing this, how many years? >> about a year, about a year. >> congratulations to all of you. >> thank you. >> this is amazing. it is a big honor given how much work that you put into these devices. it is cool. the edison awards, you are recognized for innovation. what's more important than that. thanks, you guys. >> thank you, j.j. when we come back, the owner

of an online furniture store wonders whether he should open a brick-and-mortar showroom. >> our elevator pitcher is looking for support for her unusual bra pocket holder. we've all had those moments. when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership.

ladies, are you looking for a way to carry your essentials around without dragging a bag with you. today's elevator pitcher has an idea. >> hi. i'm marla schultz. i'm one of the inventtors of the rat trap, an undetectable bra pocket that holds a woman's essentials, money, credit cards, cash, i.d., right inside your bra pocket. it fits safely in your bra for women of all ages, all sizes. women from young girls, college age girls, to moms on the run, women in uniform absolutely love the rack trap. it is very inexpensive to make. it provides a huge return on investments. we are looking for $200,000 to do our own direct response television commercial, do all of the merchandising, hire a media buying company and all of the fulfillment. we expect a huge return on your

investment because every time we appear on television, be it the "today" show, wendy williams, "the doctors," "the view." the phone rings off the hook and women from all over the country love the rat trap. >> you can't even see it there. >> stop looking. >> melinda, let's start with you. how did you think the pitch went? >> i think it went well but $200,000 doesn't sound like enough money. you also didn't explain what percentage of your company you would give up for that kind of money. if you are going to do this pitch again, tighten those things up and make sure you give all those value-added points. >> i want to know when it is going to be available for men. i thought the pitch was really powerful. i connected. i really think the media part is really powerful. the more you can get on tv. i was wondering if you could leverage the media more rather than going right to direct response advertising. >> would you guys take another

meeting, melinda? >> i would. i think this is a great product. i think the catchyness, the fun in it, i think that it also makes it sellable as well. >> michael? >> yes. >> you would. congratulations. good luck with everything. >> thank you, guys, for your advice on this. if any of you out there have a product or a service and you want feedback from our elevator feedback on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an e-mail. the address is, your business@msnbc.com. please include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you are trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money? somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. >> time now to answer some of your business questions. melinda and michael are here with us once again to help out. the first question is about investors and their involvement within your business. >> we have a lot of investors coming in. it's difficult to integrate them into the corporate culture of the business. i was wondering if anybody had

any ideas of how to do that pretty rapidly? >> i love that question. one of the things is, do you want to integrate them, right? >> no. i don't think you do. unless they are coming in to work in your business, i don't think the investors should be integrated into the culture of your business but just understand lots of investors sounds like a spaghetti mess. you really want to make sure that your money is really worth taking on that number of personalities and frankly demands. >> that's something that you could limit at the time of taking their money. basically saying, i'm taking your money. you will get a return, hopefully but stay out of my business. >> i think setting the expectations up front is key and having really clear communication. i agree with melinda, if you don't have the right investor and they are giving you advice that doesn't jive with what you know works and what the customer knows works, it can get kind of hairy. >> if you have a lot of investors that are strategic, we did a story on a woman that

developed dvds for kids, she got a lot of mom investors because she wanted their advice. they weren't involved with the day to day running of the company. she had advisory meetings they would come to. >> it depends on what kind of investors you get. if they give you a certain amount of money, they will take financial control and you won't have the option to tell them no. you have to define roles clearly up front so it doesn't become a bigger headache than your cash flow problem was. >> a nice thing about your investors, by them giving you money, they have more buy into the business. they are somebody that their advice could be a good fit. >> expectation is the most important thing this is from mark. he writes. i have an online store. but so many new customers come with inquiries about my furniture or asking if i had a showroom. would a brick-and-mortar showroom with all the added expenses help sales? >> this is a tricky one. it depends on where the largest amount of his current customers come from. if they are in a real geographic

area to where his business is located, sure, open a storefront. if his business customers are across the country or across the world -- >> who cares? >> it is just not suitable. it doesn't make sense. it is really going to be a huge expense that might not really pay off. >> besides doing the analysis, i always think about if we don't know something, how can you test it as cheaply as possible? i definitely wouldn't jump into something at least for multiple years. i would try to get it for a short amount of time. >> a pop-up store and see if people are coming. if it gets them to buy anything more. >> exactly. >> let's move to the next one. this is an e-mail from bruce. he writes, how do i develop a focus group to get feedback and ideas on my business? >> social media, social media, social media. that's the answer to this. if he is active on facebook, look, people are willing to do lots of things for food. he just needs to get some folks together, maybe existing customers, maybe friends and family.

offer some food and that's a great way to get a focus group together. >> once you get them together, thoerks it . once he get them together, it is really important to understand how you are answering the questions. it is important to do research. >> it's an idea. i'm excited about it. part of you wants to confirm the idea. when i'm getting advice, i almost try to as much as i can set the expectation that they can get bad advice. we have not bought into this. it won't hurt our feelings, really create an environment where they are as open and as honest as possible. at the end of the day, with focus groups, i always am aware that whatever people say, that's a huge difference between what they actually do. >> if you have any way of testing their actual actions. put the product up on the site as if it is for sale and see how many people click on it. finally, we have this question from maggie. this is a situation that many small business owners have faced. one of our key employees isn't getting along with everyone else in the business. what should we do? this is hard. it seems like it would be easy.

it might be the hardest question we have asked today. >> there is nothing more important than your employees ending the day and your customers with the success of the business. i would take this very seriously even though you might want to hope it gets better. i would facilitate as much conversation as possible between the two people and all the groups of people and try to solve it or make tough decisions as soon as possible. you don't want it to be wait until you have to make a decision, because people are going to quit. >> i would say try to coach this person that's the problem personality through it. even perhaps consider hiring a coach to coach them through it, because a lot of times, it's soft skills issues. it's like, i don't know how they spoke to this person. if you can coach them through it, great. if you can't, get rid of them, because one monkey doesn't stop the show. >> it is very hard, though. i think the interesting part of this is my key employee. so you are allowing that person to get away with stuff that you would never let anyone else get

away with. you can't every let any one employee become more important than the whole business. it doesn't matter what they do. you can get someone else to do it. do not feel handicapped. a lot of small business owners feel like, oh, gosh, i can't get rid of this person. yes, you can. don't be afraid. you can get someone else. >> i would agree. every time i've felt handicapped. every time we have made the tough decision, with he get somebody ten times better. you have to create the space. >> you are talking about the culture of your whole company. if you let one person get away with something, suddenly, it feels okay for everyone to get away with it. in small businesses, you don't have any room for that kind of thing. >> i know these h.r. issues are so incredibly tricky and yet almost black and white if you just have the muster to deal with them. >> i would say it is never worth compromising. you just want the "a" plus people on your team. >> thank you for all of this advice, very helpful all day today. thank you. >> if any of you out there have a question for our exports, all

you have to do is go to our website. the address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. there, just hit the ask the show link to submit a question for our panel. again, the website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. if you would rather, e-mail us your questions. that address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. melinda and michael have some really helpful advice about how to improve your business. now, let's get some great ideas from small business owners like you. >> my advice is to other entrepreneurs, to cross-train your employees to do not just one activity but do several activities so when slow times come around, you can take advantage of them and keep good employees working. overall, the employees appreciate that. >> for latinos, they have to forget about their country, keep it in your heart but you have to adjust to the different environment and the american culture.

>> you run your own business. the first problem is, you are running your own business. stop that. let someone else take care of the little things. push off as much as you can to someone else, not the important things and nothing about money. you do want to focus on where your money is going. >> hiring a graphic designer to produce professional looking catalogs can be a pretty costly move. if you are looking to save some money, our website of the week may be able to help you. linesheetmaker.com is a great company. you can easily crop and edit photos and descriptions on your line sheet. you can make as many line sheets as you need and you can share your finished product using the provided link or mdf file. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website. it is open forum.com/your business. you will find all of today's segments plus web exclusive content with more information to help your business grow. you can follow us on twitter.

it's @msnbcyourbusiness. we love getting your feedback next week, we go to the boardwalk to find out how employers whose stats are mostly part-time teenagers manage to keep up with the next generation workforce. >> you need to make sure, one, that you are using all the digital things, that you are texting information, that your schedules are on the internet and online and you have an employee website that's open 24/7. learn what tricks the old dogs are learning from the young pickups. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business! we've all had those moments. when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost.