cyber attacks against small businesses are on the rise. what can you do to protect yourself? and how a cool and attractive work place can increase employee morale and bring in new customers. it's time to make money up next on "your business."

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business" where we have a lot of really great information and advice today to help make your small business profitable. unfortunately, for many of us, that success is being threatened by cyber criminals. two new surveys out there are cause for alarm for all of us. they show that small businesses are being targeted for scyber crime. a verizon study found that half of reported data breaches in 2012 happened to companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. another study showed a 31% increase in cyber crime targeted at small businesses with fewer than 250 employees. so how do you protect yourself? rich mogel runs down what you

need to do asap. right now if you're on, say, an older investigation of windows, like windows xp, it's almost impossible to defend that from the attackers and that's where the bad guys focus because it's such easy pickings. so if you update yourself to windows, the latest version or if you're on a mac, you're on the latest version. you're going to be in a lot better shape and harder for the bad guys to get you. it's $100, maybe are more, depending on what version you have. but it will make a very big difference. ♪ the way the bad guys are attacking now they're taking over your computer and then sniffing your bank account information as you log in for online banking. one of the best things you can do, whatever computer you use for your online banking, don't get e-mail on it, don't browse the web with it. don't let your employees use it on their lunch breaks. have one dedicated computer that all you do is use that to handle your financial accounts.

so a lot of businesses, particularly if you're in a retail operation, you're going to have a network where you're going to have your financial systems on that, your office computer, maybe stuff for your customers or for your employees to work on. you want to make sure anything financial is just fully separated out. you bring in an i.t. specialist, they can set this up for you and make sure that network isn't connected to the network that, again, people are browsing the web or doing other things on it. for business that is have websites, this is really important, vulnerability scanning service, these are organizations you go out and you can pay them and they'll scan your online presence to make sure that there's no vulnerabilities, the attackers are taking advantage of, and then they can give you information when they do find things and, trust me, they will find things. you have to do a little bit of shopping around. basically my usual advice is don't buy the most expensive one. get something in the middle. but there's a lot of online

reviews or you can even go to our -- talk to experts who have used these things, talk to other business that is have used them. you have to buy hardware and put in front of servers you are probably not using anyway. so there's a couple of those out there. if you look for cloud based web application firewall, if you do a google search, you'll find those companies. there's actually things you can do to help protect yourself on those. go ahead and use what's known as a virtual private network and there's some services you can pay for if you don't want to set one up yourself. it takes about two minutes to set it up on your computer and that encrypts all your communications going out to the network. so i'm going to the airport as soon as we finish this, no one will be able to sniff my

connection at the starbucks cafe or anywhere else. every startup struggles with standing out in the crowd. so how do you attract be and then keep people's attention? we head to venice, california, to meet two entrepreneurs who are getting customers by making an up forgettable first impression wherever they go. for these two, image is everything. >> it is always show ready. everyone walks in and asks if if it's a gallery. >> this is their office in the heart of venice, california, home to artists, musicians, and thousands of others looking for a creative outlet. it's here that they create the paper products at the core of their company, wrapped. ry had lan came up with the eida watching his father, the well-another artist. >> i had this idea floating around because i'd seen my dad wrap presents and saw people's reaction that they really loved

and it was unique and we decided to build a company out of that one small idea. >> that small eidea for a line f designer wrapping paper has now expa expanded to encompass other products like journals and gift tags. their design aesthetic is their x competitive advantage. it influences every product choice. but beyond the products, sam and ryland understand their aesthetic needs to direct every decision they make. and so even their office was designed to represent their brand. they know that they may only get one chance to make an impression. >> you never know when someone is going to come in that you want to be able to communicate your ideas to. and because it's elegantly displayed and we have a clear, cohesive message, they end up being drawn in and wanting to see what we're doing. >> that's exactly what happened when scott flora, founder of blik, a wall decal can company that calls venice home, first stopped by their offices. >> so scott came into the studio and instantly flipped out. we showed him our aesthetic.

it sparked his creativity. he fed back into us and said i would like to give you the tools to print wall decals on vinyl and set up a licensing deal quickly so it didn't cost us any overhead to do. >> to be honest not that many people happen to be just walking by. more happens when sam and ryland take their products on the road. and they learned early on that no matter where they were, they had to keep the same attention to detail. >> so our first trade show was in new orleans. we had a 10x10 cubicle with cloth walls and we set it up and showed our ten designs of wrapping paper and they were pinned to the walls and everything. we didn't sell all that much. >> why not? well, trade shows are crowded with tons of people and companies vying for the attention of buyers. jen billick, founder of the stationery company, knock-knock has been a mentor and she says

that to get anyone's attention you need to stand out from the crowd. >> a little bit like a peacock. the reason the peacock, you know, throws its tail out is, you know, to make itself look bigger and more beautiful. you want a peacock at the shows and there's so many booths and miles of aisles that if you're doing things that everybody else is doing, there's a bit of a sense of, like, why would i set up a new account with you when i'm already buying from here and how does this look different? >> at their next show, the wrap team pulled out all the stops. every inch of their booth screamed out their design perspective and shared the full range of what the brand has to offer, the result? they signed deals with brands like barnes & noble and anthropology. >> there are so many different types of buyers at the trade shows and so different things appeal to different people. and so the people who are interested in, say, cheetah print, sometimes are not remotely interested in the abstract art.

so by adding all these different designs and having all these different products up in the trade show booth, we were able to appeal to a lot of buyers. >> because of their success, ryland and sam have to move to accommodate their growing business and this offers them yet another opportunity to design an office that showcases their way of thinking. >> there are already plans for the new space. it's a really beautiful showroom. it's only a couple blocks from here. we take it seriously to continue the level of quality and the level of innovation and really make wraps unique. one of the other things is that a lot of people i talked to that are my age want to start a tech company or something and sell it. the idea from the get-go is to get rid of the company. and we're trying to do something different here. i'm trying to build something i'm proud of, that i want to own for the rest of my life. it's pretty common to start a business while keeping your day job. i mean, after all, it's a way to

reduce your risk and keep a paycheck while you test if your idea is even going to make it. then how do you know when it's time to quit your job and dedicate yourself entirely to your company? andrew is the co-owner of moneycrashers.com, a personal finance website dedicated to educating its readers with about better ways to save, spend, and invest their money. great to see you. >> thanks for having me, j.j. >> we hear this all of the time. you have your job here, you have a great idea. because of technology it's relatively easy to start some ideas at night and work on it on the weekends. so let's go through your check list of what you need to have in order to quit that job and go full time. the first thing you say is make sure you are not in debt. >> right. that's an important place to start. you don't want to begin your venture already behind the proverbial eight ball. so you want to start off by clearing out all of your credit card balances. you don't want to be making unnecessary monthly payments and you want to reduce any outstanding loans as much as possible. and the reason here is you want

to relieve yourself of much of the psych lological and financi pressures that come with starting a venture and can often lead to you making bad decisions that can cripple your company's potential for success. >> that's when tough reality creeps in. i have this great idea but it makes sense. reduce your monthly expenses. again, it's psychological as much as anything else, right? >> this is on the same note here and i think the trick i recommend to people is to try to differentiate between your wants and your needs. so, for example, that starbucks coffee every morning or the unlimited data plan on your cell phone or premium channels on your cable bill are wants that can be either completely or at least partially eliminated from your monthly expenseses, save you hundreds of dollars per month which can be used to not only pay off your personal expenses but further invest and expand your business. >> that's a neat way to get your seven in the mindset of being scrappy and using this money and caring so much about growing your business. okay. then create a goal. do you mean a goal at which

point, okay, i know when i reach it, i can go full time? >> right. so that's a big question that people have. i highly recommend to work a full time job while you start your venture. you want to have a financial cushion, a stable income coming in every month that you can use to pay off expenses, but also further invest in your company. and then, as you mentioned, the question becomes when can i quit that job and start working on the venture full time? and here the key is to hone in on your company's cash flow. and you want to reach the point where that cash flow is enough to pay off your personal living expenses and still leave you with a little wiggle room to pay off any unexpected expenses as well as further invest in your company and make sure you're not missing out on any further expansion opportunities. >> so this is all about mitigating risk for yourself. >> exactly. >> and then outsource essential operations. this is about time really, right? >> and i think this is a mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make.

they try to take all the responsibilities and handle it all themselves as a way to reduce expenses and while this is a good goal. it can often stagnate your company's growth. it can minimum maze the chance for expansion. you need to pinpoint the areas that you can best outsource. so, for example, maybe that's bringing in someone to handle cu customer service calls or customer service e-mails. in my case we brought on a social media guru to handle facebook and twitter channels. this will free you up to focus on your strengths and also focus on the areas that will most help your business grow and expand. >> and, frankly, if you're holding a full-time job at the same time you may not have the time to do all of that at the same time. okay. and then finally, i mean, this works for whether you are doing it while you have a full-time job or not, have a working business model. don't just jump ship for an idea. jump ship for something that's working. >> exactly. and this is he especially import if you're trying to raise outside funds. investors are looking for profitable companies so you need to showcase income or profit.

so obviously you want to maximize your revenues, minimize expenses and by doing this show your company's profitability, attract a wider array of investors and give up the smallest amount of equity for those key funds you are looking to raise. >> all right. andrew, thank you. you did this yourself, full-time job, start add company and jumped ship. you are doing well. we appreciate your advice. thanks. >> thanks, j.j. when we come back we'll talk about the possible impact that an internet sales tax could have on small businesses. plus, five tools to help you make a splash in any presentation. and today's elevator pitcher wants to you grab some milk and climb aboard his cookie wagon. 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. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. les mckeown is president of a company and a best-selling author. it's great to see both of you guys. and your company has grown to more than 200 people. that's amazing. >> yeah can. we put on some weight. >> well, congratulations. okay. so i'm interested -- and i'm going to start with you, adam. you actually sell stuff over the

internet. there's been a lot of talk this week going through washington, the senate voted to look at the idea of charging sales tax when you're an internet company and you are selling to other states. >> yeah. i mean, i think what's really interesting about the conversation is there is sales tax now. it's not that it is not being charged. it's a question of actually putting that charging on the merchant rather than asking people to send in their taxes -- >> if i buy something from north carolina, i am supposed to keep track of it and pay -- >> and pay new york. >> which nobody does. >> of course not. it's an interesting conversation because nobody -- everybody is saying they're levying a new x tax. >> but do you as one of the controversies is it's going to be hard for you as a small business to then pay -- collect and pay taxes to all of these other states. >> i think -- what is it, 10,000 or 7,000 different, like, rates of taxation depending on where you are. it's not just state by state. it's a real nightmare. >> what's your opinion on it,

les? >> as a consumer, i loathe it. i buy a lot on the internet. i don't want to pay more. i don't think there's any way it's not going to happen. it's too easy a target. it's too straightforward. look at the vote that we had this week. compare that to the vote on other things that people haven't been able to get through. >> what's interesting, too, depending on what kind a of small business you are, you would be for or against it, right? you're an online business, there are plenty of small businesses who are brick and mortar who are being hurt by there not being a tax. >> the discussion i'm having with people, it's not that it doesn't matter whether you're for or against it, what you have to do is build a strategy to cope with it. i can remember when vat hit in the uk where i live, and that's essentially what this is, value added tax on a national level. it was to a degree a seven-day wonder. there was a huge outcry and three months later the only people making money was an additional process that they could charge you for. >> okay. well, we'll see what happens. there's questions of whether

this would even pass in the house either, to your point. let's move on to the next question. this is about expanding your company's products or services. >> i'm starting off with one product, but i do plan on intro dawesing other product lines and services. at what point once you've mastered one product what is the most appropriate time to add on new lines to your existing product line? >> good question because it could be a distraction. on the other hand you want to grow your business. so how do you know? >> i would say just before you feel like you have enough bandwidth for it. you have to stay ahead of it. >> that's what you have done basically. >> absolutely. >> what about you, les? >> as soon as you know you have a profitable, sustainable markets. don't do something because four people said it would be great if you did such and such. that doesn't mean there's a market out there. >> moving on to the next question, this is about one potential pitfall of expansion. >> we're starting to grow globally. we're getting a lot of international a interest in our products and what i'm curious about as we ship internationally

how do we maintain the same level of customer service? >> les, i mean, you are international. so it's hard, right, because a friend of mine actually sells a lot internationally. she doesn't even nope the salespeople who are selling her product. >> and the answer to the question is you can't. there's risk and reward in everything and the reward of selling internationally as you grow your business and get a bit of a portfolio effect. the risk is you're not right there at the point whenever the cu customer is finally consuming your product so you can't. what you can do is find some trusted partners. i would start really small, start with somebody who i find a way to get a lot of references through personal introduction. >> and a lot of travel or no? >> it depends on the product or the service. if it's a product i would want to get out there and see what they're doing with it on the ground. >> on the flip side this question comes at a great time for us. our apparel platform just started shipping to the uk and canada. we've actually found that the feedback has been fantastic

because these are markets that don't get that kind of a shopping club experience like we're accustomed to in the united states. >> what do you do? what if there's a problem, they're in the uk and you're here? do you expand did you to help them? >> chat has always been a big part of it. it is a good way to keep the consistent level of service. but shipping times are longer. i think that what offsets that is that there's -- less saturated market. >> got it. okay. maybe honesty. shipping times are longer. as long as people expect it they expect it. okay. now to a question about the value of a likes on social media. >> we spend a lot of money on building our community. outsource to new york to a company that does this for us. how does it translate to market value? >> this is an interesting question. i was speaking to a company that had hundreds of thousands of lights but it wasn't doing anything with them and didn't know what to do with them. how do you know if it is worth your time to gather them. >> depends on what kind of business you own.

if you are a media getting a lot of likes, that's getting eyeballs out there, out to the site. monetizing through ads. that makes a big difference if you are -- you know, if you are a car company. likes are probably mott going november the needle in the same way. >> i'm still not at a point yet where i feel comfortable talking about monetizing anything on social media. i feel comfortable talking about taking volume and driving it to wherever you are and making money. getting people into your store or your core website. whatever it is. monetizing directly, you know, mum of twitter followers have you, likes you have, facebook, i am just not -- i don't feel that i would be comfortable with anybody telling me my facebook account is worth anything. >> sit worth it for this guy to spend allel this money hiring a company to increase his presence on social media? >> more out of his bailiwick than mine. i wouldn't. >> it is what you do next. >> okay. thank you, guys, very much for this advice. if any of out there have a question for our experts, go to our website.

openforum.com/yo openforum.com/yourbusiness. if you would like you can e-mail us your questions or comments. your business@msnbc.com. thank you for all of that advice. it was great. in addition to getting people like you on the panel we also go out and talk to entrepreneurs to get great ideas. let's hear about them. >> my tips to other entrepreneurs and business people in general is always follow up on a lead that could be by a friend, business colleague, your neighbor, postman. whomever. just never know where a lead might take you to. >> at cerno, customer service is very for to us and we want to connect with them. unfortunately we can't meet every one of them. we found video is for to connect with them. they connection experience our

facility. >> i think that one of the most for things that i learned about my business is understanding and recognizing my strengths and weaknesses and hiring out when i'm -- what i'm trying to do something that i'm not very strong at. i can waste a lot of time and energy doing something myself and doing a poor job at it when i can hire someone to do a really great job. >> one of the meet things i have been seeing when people give presentations they are a lot more casual than it used to be. the flip side there are so many tricks and gadgets that you can use that actually help your presentation along even if you don't have an exact power point like someone might have or business plan. what i would love to show you in today's top five are five tools that will help you add a little bit of wow to your presentation. courtesy of all business.com. >> one, presence. instead of going back and forth between slides your display looks more like a big canvas

where you can zoom inenstial details. two, timeline js. if your goal to showcase a timeline, this may be the right solution. easily add dates, texts, videos, and pictures. three, bunker does the organizing for you. collect the materials you want to work with and save to your bunker folders and bunker will assemble the information and put it into presentation form for you. four, this tool will help you visualize the main elements of your business plan and add notes to each element. and five, tinderbox. create a password protected proposal within your account for every client. your client can easily browse through your proposal and ask questions and instantly decline or accept it. >> okay. who lass a big card -- pifl business cards? either of you? >> i throw mine out what about you? >> i have a big pile.

i will never touch it. it is huge. >> okay. then listen to this app of the week. i use this one and it is great. called card much. free app that transforms business cards into virtual contacts. this is how it works. you take a photo of someone's physical business card and then all the data from the photo is pulled and stored as a mobile contact that can be easily saved and shared. you created a tasty new food product that people love. but how do you get it into the hands of more people? today's elevator pitch came up with a nontraditional way do that. instead of waiting around for people to come to him, he takes his cookies to where the hungry people are. >> hello, gentlemen. thank you very much. my name is dexter myers. i'm the owner of dexter myers cookies p.m. we are a mobile gourmet cookie company. we deliver fresh cookieses to customers' homes, office events and do large-scale private

events. i was a touring musician who gave out fresh cookies at the end of every performance. demand from my music fans likes me in the business. i created a cookie wagon to engage my customers wherever and whenever they want cookies. and we have done about 200,000 in annual sales. mostly in atlanta. we are looking for an investment of $3 million and we plan to use that money to increase our fleet of cookie wagons to upgrade our facility, to accommodate growth and expansion of operations and we will use it for working capital and as well as additional staffing. and we -- also like to offer you guys a 20% return on investment. if you act now. >> bifs to say these guys have will power. look at them. >> all right. good job. let's hear what they think. then we will give you a chance to taste the cookies. >> i guess my question -- i think that the mobile thing has

a lot of upside and especially being able to cater to specific events and target opportunities to get the cookies out there. but -- it is a tough scale play. if that's the only way you are getting -- your only channel to get things out there because it is like one truck has that capacity to do twice that capacity, twice the trucks. not really an economy of scale as you use that to get things out there. >> i want to hear about what more he is doing besides that which i'm sure there is. >> well, one thing i want to be clear about, first of all, love the look of these, fantastic. i have heard a lot of cookie, cupcake and macaroon pitches in the last year. a lot of it is going on. i take a second meeting but i would want to you come back with a competitive advantage that goes beyond just proximity to the customer. if you are doing that celebrity work, i hate to athis because sometimes it is the lowest form of competitive advantage. if you could up front and get somebody to come emdors what you are doing that would help a lot in getting you the pitches you need. >> i agree with that. even if it is sort of a obvious

move, it is a total legit. >> you say you would take another meeting. what about you? >> i would. >> awesome. >> dig in. dexter, thank you so much. >> thank you very much love having you on the program. as you are eating, thank you for your advice. you are free to go chao now. if any of have you any product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, all have you do is send us an e-mail. address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you are trying to raise. what you intend do with that money. you never know, somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. to learn more about today's show just click on our website. openforum.com/yourbusiness. you will 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.

@msn @msnbcyourbiz. we will tell why you one company is lending its name and coffee beans to products made by other companies. >> whatever we are co-branding on we want it to be successful. we like to push it, talk bit and promote it in our stores and wholesale customers. >> we will ex-plar co-branding and why some small business owners are in the business of helping promote each other. we make your business our business. 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. good morning from new york. i'm steve kornacki. rescue operations continue in bangladesh where nine more survivors have been pulled from the collapse. the u.s. terrorism official confirms to nbc news that the mother of the alleged boston marathon bombers was put on a u.s. terrorism database in the fall of 2011. more on boston in just a moment. i'm joined by jordan fabian, political editor at "fusion." lorella praeli, director of advocacy and policy for united we dream. ryan enos, political sti