ben affleck may not get a oscar, but his fish tank will. how does this entrepreneur get his employees to trust him as much as they trust him. that plus how the walk the red carpet coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. american express open is here to help. that is 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 small business grow. as ben affleck walks the red carpet at the academy awards, will he be thinking will my fish be okay? well, probably not because we will speak to man whose services are in high demand. but to grow his business he has to master the art of delegating and getting the clients to trust his employees as much as they trust him. ♪ i got a fish in my dish >> i can put any fish tank in my house, but i wanted a piece of art. >> justin mere is founder and owner of fish aquariums in new

york. he has been in business since 1998. >> i have done cc sabathia's, and ben affleck and harry morton and hedge funders and billionaires as well. >> it is justin's original designs that keep city aquariums in high demand. >> every single one of the projects is unique, whether the fish are different or the shape of the tank or change the shape of the aquarium or whatever it is, because i don't like any of my work to be duplicated. >> but creating a work of art comes at a price. each art requires his personal touch, so justin can only take on a limited number of clients. >> most of my clients really need a lot of attention. we are not a large company, but a boutique company so i only take on the clients that i am able to deal with at the moment. >> with a hefty price tag and high-profile clientele, the expectations are high. >> whether you are dealing with somebody who is building you an aquarium, there is a level of

trust that has to be there that you will get serviced and get what you pay for. >> that can mean when nemo is feeling sick, justin is on the end of a late night 911 call. >> fish can be sick at 4:00 in the morning or 7:00 a.m. or on the weekends. i have to make myself available and respond to e-mails within 30 seconds. >> like many small business owners, justin started out as a jack of all trades. >> in 2001, it was just me. i was founder of the company, the designer and i did my own drawings and i serviced all of my own aquariums. after a while, it became too mu much. >> he soon realized that in order to grow the business, he needed to hire help and delegate some of the work. so his first hires were qualified people who could help maintain the aquariums. >> i really have to be able to let my service company take on the service, and not worry about

client calling me for every sick fish or algae that was not cleaned in the tank. >> but finding quall the ti workers who jus ttin can trust keep up the integrity of the brand is not easy. >> i have gone through ten years of learning how to interview people, and learning to find what works and what doesn't work for a service individual. >> and even if justin is not doing the servicing himself, he still needs to make sure that the work done is at the level his clients have come to expect from city aquarium. >> it has always p been a struggle for me to let somebody else clean my clients' fish tanks, just because i can always do it better. so i always request e-mails and photos of before and after each cleaning so i am still very much hands on even though i am not there servicing the aquariums myself. >> and justin hired a general manager to help him stay on top of everything on the office side of the business. >> i handle the financial side of the business and including the invoices and the regular maintenance and managing the

guys in field, justin can design on designing new tanks and new quotes for opotential clients. >> and bringing brian in, clients had to get used to the idea that not all questions required justin's personal attention. >> i have had a hard time letting the clients know that calling me is the not the best thing to call me or when you have a leak or issue, because you have to call the service person or the 800-hotline number. >> but there are certain calls that justin always handles himself. >> it is almost like being an aquatic vet and i'm a biologist and some of the staff are very, very good but there are questions that they cannot answer, and that is where i step in, in those moments. >> besides allowing him to take on more clients delegating has freed up justin's time for side projects. >> we did a lot of movie sets actually. we did "men in black iii" and

also the recent "wall street." when it comes to movie sets, those are my projects and i will spearhead those, and you can't have martin scorcese dealing with dead fish, so it is a lot of money they put into the aquariums so nothing can go wrong. >> but justin knows at the core the connection of the clients is one he is not willing to sacrifice for the sake of growth. >> i think that every aquarium is a relationship and a lifelong relationship, and i is important to establish really close relationships with my clients. >> the golden rule is to hire the right people and make sure that the clients have faith in not only your judgment but their judgment as well. david earnhoff is a partner with fly partners and kimberly is the

editor and co-founder of "one thing new" a media startup fresh approach to women content. and great to see you both. this piece was big picture, and so he had a hard time doing it himself and he got new people, and it worked out fine, but finding people to replace you when the clients are so used to working with you is hard, right? so how do you make that transition? >> you know, i think that part of it in his case comes from setting expectations. right? he is meeting the people who have a lot of money and sometimes they are famous, and he meets them in the beginning and he sets the ek p pextation that he is going to be there for him. if you go to the website under staff, it has him and one other person. he should list everybody. and he should do it alphabetically so that people don't have the idea of right from to get-go that he is going to always be there. >> and probably a lot of the referrals and the business comes from the referral and probably a lot comes from now they say that he gives stellar customer service.

and he is such an amazing guy and i like talking to him, and he healed my fish. >> yes. >> and so, you know, does he bring someone along with him and introduce them or what kind of process can he go through? >> well, he has to first figure out if he really wants to delegat delegate. it is not clear from the conversation that it is something that he wants to do. there is a spectrum from being loose with the team and letting them run, or being a micromanager and without knowing him, one would assume base pd on that piece that he micromanages and he does it because of all things that make reasons to a founder. you want to kcontrol the qualif ti and discriminating clients who are not accommodating if there are mistakes, but it speaks to whether he wants to scale the business or not. if e he wants to scale it, he has to figure out how the hire great people. >> right. that is one of the issues here, hiring. if you are hiring someone to service a fish tank, you are sending the person out on their own and how do you know they are

going to be good? >> well, he has people sending back e-mail of the tanks being cleaned, but it seems someone other than him who is reviewing those. it seems like that is something that can be pushed down the chain a little bit. and yes, he should go with them the first few times, and in the end, he maybe needs the look at his hiring and see if he can bring it up a step. >> or maybe think about some sort of training regimen that l allows, you know, consistent set of expectations that kimmer eb said before to be set, but the service manager, the guy who runs the business and sells the business and works the clients is the head of the service for this kind of business. >> well, a good piece and nice conversation. thank you, both. >> some small business owners will be watching the festivities on the oscar red carpet to see if a nominee is carrying or wearing their product. if you are in the business of selling high fashion items like handbags, nothing quite beats a celebrity photographed with your creation. getting to the headliners can seem like an impossible task, but there are ways to catch a

rising star. >> welcome to hollywood, baby. >> let's not talk about it. >> let e's do it. >> jessica alba, fergie, cameron diaz, britney spears, mini driver. >> and in is a own over a manufacture of a handbag, and cara kurtz says that seeing a hollywood clutch your bag is far more than any advertising. >> any time we got spike not only ten new stores, but sell 55 to 100 bags on the internet within 48 hours. >> while kara has bagged an impressive lineup of stars to wear her bags, what is more impressive the p.r. budget she used to get the press. >> my public relations budget when i started was zero.

no money. there was no budget. it was me, which i didn't pay myself. so there was no money. >> well, that is not exactly true. at first, kara spent thousands making a costly mistake which taught her that she was better off not spending any money. >> wit was a $3,000 lesson. i don't want to have any more lessons that cost me $3,000. >> the mistake was hiring a big time p.r. firm which promised to use the clout to contact celebrities like demi moore and give them bags each with a handwritten note from kara. >> i would write dear demi moore, and i would give away all of the bags and we waited and waited and waited and weeks went by and months went by and no pictures or buzz or anything. >> and so kara decided to focus on the celeb assistants and the

ones who managed the schedules rather than the a-listers themselves. >> i gave the assistant a bag and if your client or boss wants to wear this bag, she keeps i. >> the success of the strategy came with no warning. >> i open up "people" magazine and there is cameron diaz with my bag. and huge picture. and so those are the hot new handbag for hollywood. >> that is the start of it. >> she cold called me one day and said i have a fabulous purse and i want it on your show. i said, what is your purse? >> that is hollywood wardrobe stylist claire hammonds and she says that kara found her name in the credits on the "oc" when she was working there, and kara kept call calling. >> the girls needed a cute cocktail purse and at the time she was doing cocktail purses and clutches, and it worked. >> since then kara say ths thate

cornerstone of the marketing can be found in the drugstore fan magazines. >> what i look for is each celebrity's style, and i look for the stores. if you pay attention in the magazine magazines, there's always some tidbit about some little store that will be in the middle of new orleans. >> even a tiny scrap of information like that is plenty to get kara dialling the phone. >> i look for the store and look it up online and call them and say, hey, why don't you take a look at this. >> when her company first launched she has had revenues of over $1 million than fox the resourceful attitude. perhaps more than the money, it is the sizzle of hollywood glamour that gets her going each day. >> there is nothing as amazing as seeing your product on that person when you open up a magazine, because you are like, wow, they chose to wear my bag. ♪ hollywood h ♪ hollywood swinger >> when we come back, some quick travel tips for those traveling to los angeles on business.

and we'll answer your small business questions including one about finding and hiring talented employees. plus, we will tell you why into graphics are an important marketing tool for your company and how you can make them yourself. ♪ i want to scream and shout and let it all out ♪ ♪ and scream and shout 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.

lax is a world class travel hub and it can be a world class pain getting into and out of because of all of the traffic. want to save hours of travel ti time? look for regional airports. if your meetings are in burbank or long beach or santa ana, maybe you can fly there directly and skip the chaos of lax completely. if you are doing business out of the hotel room and you need to print something out, consider e-mailing it to the front desk and ask them to print it out for you, and just call ahead to ask for permission. are you looking for a fresh approach to explain a complicated top nick a fun and easy way? well, then maybe you need to think about into graphics in the age of big data and short attention spans, into graphics can help make facts and figurs s

easily readable. joining us is a man who oversees the brand and digital strategies. thanks for joining us, michael. for people who don't know what an into graphf -- info graphic, it is about. >> well, about legos and i have kids and you have kids and the concept of making it identifiable in your daily life, and even if you don't know what it is called, you have digested one and seen it and makes it easy to go on to find out more information about the product. >> what is an example? >> yes, this is a topic close to your heart h and we took five tips about your book about hiring and retaining employees and a lightweight way to go through and even if you lookt ta tips you might leave with something like this and say, i learned something and now hopefully somebody is more compelled to pick up the entire group. >> so basically, you are a taking a complicated big picture

thing and saying, here are the bullet points. >> yes. >> and then using pictures to tell the story as well. >> here is the reason why and you said it in the upfront, because of the time span. if you look at the youtube video and you look at the bar of whether you want to consume that video or content, same thing. people don't have time to skn a lot of information so you want to get someone intrigued and then they will spend a few minutes looking through the info graphic, and they are immersed. >> tell me about the james bond example. >> yes, this is a great one. i am a bond fan and everybody says who is the most popular james bond of all time? so this is a fun exampleple to say, this is adjusted for inflation who grossed the most and then go down to look at the price of a martini as it went over time and this one got me going, and suddenly i was five minutes into it, and i didn't realize i would look into the topic. >> you could have that same information in bullet points,

but this is going to catch your point. >> yes. >> you are an agent and -- agency, and you can do this for somebody and they would pay you a lot of money. >> yes. >> but if you are a small business and somebody has information to get out there and they want to get it out, but they don't have the money for a big agency, what can you do? >> we put together an info graphic to tell you how to put together a info graphic. this is the a high level process, but it is understanding the topic that you are trying the do and go out to get the supporting facts and data sources for it, and at the end of the day, we try to ask ourselves and the customers a simple question, would you read it? you can throw a lot of the data at people, but if you don't consume it and have the action that they want, why do it? so you ask about picking the topic and credible facts. you don't want to put something out there that is not credible and reference the resources for it. that is the big part of it. a lot of information on the web

and yes, of course, you can hire a professional firm and the quality is there, but there is a lot of do it yourself tools out there. info gram and pictogram. and you can draw it and make it come to life. and the last thing that we talk about is how do you get the s r story out? so you want to think of ways to put it up on the website or the blog, but be creative about how you use it. you could use it at a trade show booth or exhibit or client presentation and tell stories about the business and it is about creating an info graphic that leaves people with flavor and personality about your business. >> that may be the most important thing about creating is what story are you telling? >> exactly that story. example, maybe you are a business about reclaiming used waste or you are a green business, so if you keep track of that stat, you can create an info graphic at the end of the year to send to the customers

thanks to you and your efforts, we have done this. so with that story, you want to share it. >> so much more meaningful, and because of you, we saved using 10,000 plastic bags, and it is so much more meaningful if you see a picture of 10,000 plastic bags with an x in the info graphic, and thank you so much for sharing this, and a great way to get the word out in a way that resonates with people. so appreciate your coming on to share with us. >> thanks for having me on. it was great. are you looking to take your business to the international marketplace? well, here are five tips for doing business globally courtesy of, inc.com. one, study the department. the department of commerce website is a good place to start. the more you are familiar with the country's local demographics, the easier it will be to determine your market and figure out how to promote your brand. two, with be smart about traveling. you will be racking up the frequent flyer miles so use a

reward pros gram that gives you the flexibility to reinvest the miles towards future e trips. three, hire a guide. when visiting a country for the first time, having someone who knows the language and the cu culture and showing you the ropes will open up doors for you. four, learn the customs and study up on local styles of dress, salutation, and hospitality and understanding the culture value system will be key to the success of your b business. and five, check in often and use the online videoconferencing to keep in constant communication with the overseas staff. it is time now to answer some of your business questions. david and kimmer by wi eme ememe with us again. the first one is about capital. >> do you see the financial institutions lending more, and will we be able to get low interest rates for growth for small business? >> what do you think? have you noticed that it is easier to get a loan now,

kimberly? >> well, it depends how much she is looking for. because what we are seeing is that sort of in the $10 million range, the banks are actually quite ingaggressive in trying t find the borrowers who have high credit quality, and the baseline is that you have to have very good credit, but if you want a larger amount around the $10 million range, yes, absolutely. in the $250,000 to $3 million range, it is really, really rough, and much better off with a small bank than a big one in terms of the chances to get approved. >> when people get to you, at what level do you invest? >> at the earliest stages, the seed stage and the first institutional round. >> got it. have you seen people going to the bank to try to get a loan and can't get a loan and come to you? >> well, the attempt and particularly if you are trying to raise $300 or $400,000, it is m modest amount, but difficult for the banks to open up with no history of credit.

one of the nice things that is happen ing with the jobs act, and the crowd funding might help someone who is wanting to take out a traditional loan to get equity capital from nontraditional sources. >> and should be being the operative word and we are all waiting for the s.e.c. to come up with regulations for the jobs act. and this is the next question about recruiting employees. >> my business having grown very fast and trying to find the young and talented employee. i am very curious, how to recruit the young talented employee to the company. >> so what is interesting is that we did a poll out to a lot of people that we talk to and asked them what are the biggest problems right now, and i expected to hear funding, and you know, cash is an issue, but what i heard from so many is finding talented people. i thought that in this job market, you having are -- you are having trouble finding talented people. so what is going on?

>> well, the problem is finding the people where they are and reaching them as opposed to traditional job boards or things of that sort. so the kind of business that you have demands you to think about market ing t marketing the business and seeking the job seekers in different ways alone. craigslist is not good enough if you are trying to find people with a specialty or at a certain age group. >> maybe you use linkedin. >> well, if you are looking for young people, and it sounds old fashioned, but you should be active on college campuses, and good intern program and using the social media aggressively to get the employees to help you recruit, and young people, college campuses. >> and have the company that people want to work at. so much talk about what the millennials are interested in out of a job versus we who are not millennials are. >> and this is where a small

company can play the advantage and give people an opportunity to try their hand at a lot of different things, where as at a large company, you are locked into a narrower job description. >> yes. >> and a question for the future of an ophthalmology practice that is trying to stay true to the small business roots. >> we are wondering how we can perform most effectively as a small business and maintain our autonomy with all of this big business becoming the norm around us. >> yeah. and in health care it is especially rough, because they have all of the requirements that they have to deal with administratively that they didn't used to have before, and electronic medical records and pay for per fformance, and whene ask the fast growing service companies no matter the sector they are in why they have succeeded, and they always, always say customer service. it is the one thing that ties them together and for any kind

of doctor, that is beyond your professional skills and your bedside manner, and that is how well the office is run, and that is how difficult it is to find parking, and how good is the signage, and what do you do when people refer somebody to you? >> do you have to wait an hour when you get there? >> yeah, absolutely. >> and another aspect is really trying to figure out what the community wants. in this case, the idea of a local business, and a series of local businesses with individ l individualed attention and going to the doctor as opposed to a corporation, and finding a way to market that within the boundaries that the health care act requires is important there. is probably a way to do it. >> thank you so much for answering these questions, guys. if any of you have a question for the experts, all you have to do is to go to the website. the address is openforum pnts com/yourbusiness and hit the link that is ask the panel. if you'd rather, you can e-mail

us the questions and the comments to the address yourbusiness@msnbc.com. let e's check in on some of the latest small business trends, and for that, we turn to twitter to find out what hot topics entrepreneurs are talking about. one of the favorite marketing experts jeffrey hazlett said never to compromise on creativity when you know it is right thing to do for your brand and customers. and another one is the essential practices of the new sales professional market iing directg is the key to hiring trait. and this one by dave anderson is the objective of business isn't to be the best in your category, but it's to with be the best in your customer