on october 29, floodwaters were up to here at this bagel shop in rockaway beach, new york. while the storm may have destroyed this property, it did not destroy the owner's resolve. and we're here to help them reopen with a "your business" makeover. that's coming up next on "your business."

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business." today is a milestone for our program. it is our 300th episode. and so i want to thank all of you for welcoming us into your homes every single week. this has been a really amazing job for me. i've got tone meet so maen to m entrepreneurs, people i could learn from and represelicate th success. we had the opportunity to meet one of the most amazing and heartwarming stories ever done on this special makeover show. it's a comeback story. scott edwards and tim keen are two of new york city's bravest, firefighters who put all of their savings into a seaside bagel shop in order to make more

money to support their families. they almost lost it all in hurricane sandy. see how a little help from our makeover team and some very generous others turned their luck around. a couple of years ago scott edwards and tim keen, two new york city firemen with a hankering to be entrepreneurs, risked everything they had to open a bagel shop in rock system away beach, new york. >> we felt it would be a good spot to have a breakfast type place. and tim being from this this neighborhood, he really felt it would fill a void here. >> rockaway is a very unique community. we love the beach. we have an old saying, you know, once you get the sand in your shoes, you can never get it out. >> soon after opening, the economy took a nose dive and the business struggled as people dra m matcally changed their spending habits. >> be and that certainly affected people in the area and

affected our business. but all in all, you know, eb through those hard economic times, we were able to, you know, keep it going. >> after weathering the economic storm of the last few years, things were looking up. but another storm was on the horizon. on the morning of monday, october 29th, surf side bagels opened its doors to serve customers before hurricane sandy would hit the area. >> sandy churning up the seas over the last several days, sitting out in the atlantic. now instead of making that northeastward move it's the northwestern turn. >> it was busy, a lot of people on the move obviously. we felt if the storm is not that bad, we'll open up the next morning, things will be back to normal. >> as city crews set up their seaside barriers, residents on the other side of the man made walls stock up on storm supplies. >> they closed early and expected some minor damage. but nothing prepared them for what would happen next. >> we had security cameras here

in the bagel store. i turned them on and i could see the water was in the store. and i was like, this is bad. >> that night the atlantic ocean and jamaica bay met. every car, home and business on the rockaway peninsula was under several feet of water. neither scott nor tim were able to get to the store when scott received an ominous text from a friend. >> it just said, i just passed your are store. i'm sorry. >> so when the storm hit and things were being washed out to sea, you, in essence, were seeing your life savings go out there as well? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. when i came into the store, i just couldn't believe what i saw. everything in here was wrecked. everything was -- had water damage. the appliances and the equipment was thrown around the store. it looked like it was ransacked. it was that whole investment, all that time, money, all that energy in an instant was just gone. >> while scott and tim filled out paperwork and searched for a way to reopen, the news went from bad to worse. their insurance wouldn't cover flood damage, and the spa's promise for a speedy disaster

loan dragged on. so you had a struggling business that then was hit by a storm and you have to invest all this money into it again on top of what you already invested and it was already struggling. how do you make that decision? >> it wasn't easy. but we felt the original investment was just too large to walk away from. so we made the decision that it would be better to try to reopen and work towards making the business better which weigh knew we could do. we just needed help doing it. >> and help came from a totally unexpected place. a long island-based facilities firm called front street was looking for a way to support a small business in this hard-hit area that would buoy not only the business but the community it served as well. they took on the daunting task of rebuilding the space from ripping out and replacing walls to rewiring electrical and installing a new floor. all for free. >> we really just got into the

story. they're firefighters, running into a burning building when everyone else is running out. what better way to give back to the community than to support them? >> when "your business" learned about their struggle to rebuild, we knew we had found our next makeover. so we assembled a rescue team to make recommendations to help shore up the business as they got ready to reopen. scott and tim, i know you've had an incredibly tough year but i think good things are ahead and to help you with that i will introduce you to the "your business" makeover team, the ceo of s3 agency, market iing guru. mike, author of "the pumpkin plan," a business strategist extraordinaire. i can't wait to see what you do together and i will leave it to you. mike and denise immediately sat down and started delving into the details of the business. the first problem? scott and tim weren't taking a salary. >> we had to struggle week to week to cover our bills, you know, and at times we were able to take a small salary but at other times we had to forego

that in order to keep the lights on. >> there's one lesson i learned i want to impart with you gays, being firefighters, you have to throw on that protection before you go into a burning building. business is the same way. you have to protect the owners first if you're going to keep the company going. i see it all too often that companies go out and they try to pay the employees, try to pay everyone and pay themselves last and then they go down and the whole business goes out. >> issue number two, food delivery. >> tell me about the food delivery. i understand you are going out and getting food -- tell me how it works. >> in an effort to cut costs we chose to do the shopping ourselves. and it was good because we did save money but the amount of time we were out of the store and the wear and tear on us and our vehicles, it just, in my opinion, even though it was cheaper it wasn't cost effective. >> a lot of business owners don't realize the two most expensive employees are sitting here. you are the key employees and

you're taking yourself out of the office, away from interfacing with the customer and spending time on the road, stuck in traffic, getting food. the most important employ yae should be here. i think we'll find a way to get here without anyone going out. let's talk about this menu up there. yeah, it's huge. is that the old menu? >> that's the old menu. that's not even complete. >> so the analysis paralysis and not only does a big menu cost you more, it takes more energy for consumers to pick something. sometimes they won't even buy something, they see so much, i'll decide later and they leave. the less you have available as options, the more people buy. >> the next area needing attention, marketing. with an outdated website and specials that were still being sent out via fax before the storm, scott and tim had little time to focus on their primary customer, the commuter. denise presented a bunch of ideas to focus their marketing message and cater to the busy bus stop right outside their door. >> the first thing we did was add a little bit to your

granding. so we create this had stamp, surf side bagels, homemade with love. you can take something like this, it's not expensive. it's actually a stamp. take, put it on things, and then you can write on there what it is. you can identify that. this cheese bagel belongs to -- write their name on it. if starbucks can make their employees do that, a community run business that serves the community can do that. >> we talked about having printed bags and it was so expensive at the time, we didn't do it. this is a great idea. >> next up in denise's eidea of improvements for surf side, loyalty cards. >> consumers love loyalty programs especially if they're commuters coming every day or at least five days a week to you. so let's give them a loyalty program where they get punches or stamps so that they get a certain amount back from you, that you are literally giving back to them. >> and there is something extremely l cool you can do with loyalty cards. when there's a little bit of

progress, consumers buy faster so instead of a blank set, give them 12 spots, two punched out. >> the last big item on the marketing to-do list, a revamp of the website and social media. >> we're redoing your website and a word press template very easy to take over. you don't need to be a programmer or designer. you can just pick up what we've done here, make changes as you need to. we've created this image of the bagel rising in the sun rise. we translate that look over to social media. every day type in what your specials are. anytime you change those specials, that will go right to your website, populate directly in here. >> mike and denise had one last trick up their sleeve to cater to the commuter. a recommendation to have self-serve coffee in the front of the store. >> you're selling comfort and trust. having a station up by the door that has coffee and keeps and an honor system, people put $2 in the box, we made this coffee with love for them. you expect they're going to give

you some love back and put the money in. will everybody do it? no. will a lot of people do it? we think so. >> this is the commuter special, so people come in and out fast. you have your box here, you have your $2 slid in and because there's a mirror behind it, people see themselves comply with the rules. >> kevin from the food distributors j. kings. scott and tim had recently tested out the food delivery service, but weren't sure if they could afford the added cost. >> before the storm you had it set up as a c.o.d. when we came. we're going to extend your terms to 21 days, help you get back on your feet and we worked on your pricing. that was an issue. what i've done was take the contracted price that we had for a large group of bagel stores and copied those contracts into your order guide so you'll enjoy their buying power. but in your own place.

>> that's unbelievable. >> in preparation for the grand opening, kevin arranged for their first food delivery that afternoon. another benefit of consolidating their shopping order through j. kings is the added value they offer to busy food service entrepreneurs. instead of running to the store, scott and tim can now order online, consult with culinary team for help with food selection, and gain access to their independent university to learn more about food service management, finance, and hospitality. >> we do recognize that the independent store owners, restauranteurs have a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to competing with national chains out there. so we put this together so we have professionals from the community coming in and teaching the independent guys, this is what you should be doing. >> all right, guys, so your first day is coming to an end. what's your thoughts?

>> it's been an unbelievable experience and we've only just begun. >> yeah. i'm a little overwhelmed, honestly. but i like every idea. every comment made, everybody was right on. >> good. i don't want to add to it but here are three homework assignments. the first thing is the menu. you need to cut that down to the bare bones. the second thing is we've identified the commuters as the best people to sell to. i want one more idea from you guys. and the third thing i want you guys to take care of yourselves. you're firefighters. you know you need to protect yourself. when you work on that menu, when you work on everything here, think about yourself first. how do you get more money to you? got your homework assignments? gentlemen, i'll see you in a few weeks. >> so many new yorkers, we were so thrilled to lend them a helping hand getting their business back on its feet.

now it's the community's turn. when we come back, we'll go behind-the-scenes at surf side bagel's grand reopening and see if if our advice helps to bring back much-needed customers. ♪ i' 'm a hard, hard ♪ worker every day. ♪ i' ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪ ♪ if i ever get some money put away, ♪ ♪ i'm going to take it all out and celebrate. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker... ♪ membership rallied millions of us on small business saturday to make shopping small, huge. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

after many months of rebuilding, surf side bagels was finally ready to open their doors for their first breakfast since hurricane sandy. would the customers in the hard hit rockaway beach area come out for the occasion? our makeover team assemble d on last time to support scott and tim and to find out if they would be taking our advice. so today is the day. it's the grand reopening of surf side bagels. denise snuck out of here earlier and put this sign for free bagels and coffee out and people have been going in and out all morning long. the whole team is inside celebrating. let's see how it's going. >> good morning, everybody, and welcome back to surf side bagels after hurricane sandy. [ applause ] >> somebody who lives in the area, every store that opens.

[ applause ] is such a wonderful thing. it gives everybody an uplift. >> three months after hurricane sandy devastated the rockaways surf side bagels became a small beacon of hope in a community where so little has changed since the storm. >> i ran into them yesterday waiting for the bus. are you guys open? we're opening tomorrow and i got all excited. it feels like it's getting back to normal and it's been a while since we had that. >> oh, bagels and cream cheese, yes. >> mike, denise and i were on hand to help and finally got a chance to taste those famous bagels. >> that's good. >> adding to the euphoria of the day, a grant check from the city of new york for $5,000 was personally delivered by commissioner robert walsh to help them pay for equipment that was lost during the storm. >> a $5,000 check for you to have. >> thank you so much. >> don't spend it all in one

place. >> after the excitement of the grand opening that morning, mike and denise checked in with scott and tim. >> all right, so you had three homework assignments. the first was to condense down the menu. how did you do? >> we stripped it down, narrowed it down to just a small five or six different items, sandwiches, salads, some meatloaf, fish, and co comfort food that people down here really need and we're really excited about it. >> fantastic. i noticed at the grand opening tons of commuters coming in here. you had one homework assignment, what woo would we do for the community over the top? >> we talked about having a television screen that used one of our cameras outside that shows the street going up the block so when the commuters are getting breakfast they can see the bus coming down the street and don't have to be nervous missing the next bus. we weren't able to incorporate it in for today but it's in the works and we'll get it. >> i love it. it takes the rush out of the rush. the third thing was pricing. what did you do?

>> right now for the grand rae opening we held the pricing the same. however, with the new menu, we pushed forward with new pricing. we followed the same price point as our old menu. we did buff them up a bit because we saw the need to try to bring in more money. >> good. tim, do you think you'll be taking a salary now for real? >> i hope so. >> good, good. tell me about the marketing? i saw the mirrors in place. denise is back. how did the marketing go up to this point? >> and did you think any more about putting the honesty box with $2 for coffee up front? >> we were skeptical on how it would work but we purchased the mirror and installed it. it's been good so far. i think it will work out well. it will be something that we watch but i think we'll be okay. >> if anything else you'll get a lot more coffee moving because commuters have to run, get coffee right there, run back out. >> with the loyalty cards in use, the new menu created and the honor system coffee in

place, our job was done. emotionally where are you right now? nervous? from nervous to optimistic? >> i would say very optimistic. the nerves, that part of it is over. it's been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of months. i think for me the nerves have subsided a bit and it's more optimism than anything. we're just thankful for you helping us out. >> good things happen to good people, and you deserve it. everything you've done for your employees, for the neighborhood. as i told you when you cut that ribbon, i couldn't stop crying, so i was surprised you had dry eyes. i need to give you a hug. i'm sorry. good job, you guys. >> thank you very much. that grand opening was a great day for scott and tim and really for all of us there to share it with them. here now are two members of our makeover team, mike, the ceo and

deni denise, you did a great job. that was such a nice story. i'm so happy that i got to be a part of it and you did so much to help them. >> it was an absolute blast. so good to see you guys did a great job. >> it was such a blast to see people do well. >> you were there at the grand opening. will they be successful, do you think? >> i think they will. they have loads of buses dropping off right at their door, they've done a lot to their marketing front, they've narrowed down their menu, and let's face it, everyone loves bagels. >> hurricane hit, store was closed. they racked up debt paying their employees. they dug a hole for themselves. a lot of people wouldn't do that, many business people would say you shouldn't do that, but they're really good-hearted people. >> those guys are firefighters through and through. they were saving other people,

and at the time they were struggling, they were saving employees. >> some of the psychological things you brought up in there, which i love. put up a mirror, and it's proven when the mirror is up there, people aren't going to cheat you as much, right? >> test yourself. if you're sitting there watching us right now, go to the mirror. you don't do bad behavior in a mirror. >> and the loyalty card, thing, too. sneaky, but it works, sflright? >> scott punched out, too, and the woman was like, thank you so much. it makes appreciation come about. >> they were having a hard time beforehand. have things changed enough for them so that it will be a little smoother now? >> i think they're fortunate to be one of the first businesses coming back to life in that area, and everybody loves to hear that kind of story, and locally they're going to support it. i think once the summer comes around, they'll have even more opportunity. >> building on that, they were 95% successful beforehand. they were living check by check,

barely making it. this is the 5% difference that's going to make them profitable, so i'm very confident they'll make up the difference. >> i think it was $100,000 worth of work for free. that was outstanding and i couldn't imagine a more worthwhile business to give it to. they're great guys in the community. >> thank you from me, but on behalf of them. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. it's tax season again, and you should know that receipts are your audit protection. here now are five ways to keep receipts organized for tax time, courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, take notes. write comments on your receipts about their business purpose, especially for your dining and entertainment expenses. two, scan receipts. the irs can audit you up to six years back in some cases, so keep an electronic version. three, take a picture. find an app that can help you

better track your expenses so that no receipt is unaccounted for. four, keep a business journal. use your outlook or google calendar to keep a detailed schedule of your business activities each day. this way if a deduction is ever questioned, you can quickly look up the day to vouch for your claim. and number 5, stay away from cash. it's easy to spend, and nearly impossible to reconcile with receipts. stick to debit and credit cards in order to better track your expenses. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. our makeover team mike and denise are here with us. the first one is about how to market your brand. >> i would like someone to explain the difference between marketing and public relations and how they are interconnected. >> all right, denise, right up your alley. how do you answer her is this. >> sure, we get that question a

lot. the commercials? that's advertising. someone is paying, the message is getting through, it's going to be there no matter what. public relations is what feeds the story that's going to be covered on an actual tv show or a news show like this, or newspaper when you read articles or things like that. >> i like when you say marketing is guaranteed. public relations is kind of a crap shoot. >> exactly, but the thing about public reegslations, when you g that coverage, it's third party sort of stuff from a trusted source, so it's very, very valuable, and the mix is the ideal thing. you want a budget where you have a definite message going out for your brand awareness and the public relations where you get the third-party endorsement that makes people go, you know what, i'm going to consider trying that. >> there is a difference in public relations or how the public relates to you. it can be managed and influenced, advertising can be directed. >> okay. this next one is about scaling up your business. >> we've had a lot of interest

from larger companies, and we didn't know the next step to take, so we wanted to know whether we should look into hiring people for production, sales or marketing. >> i've heard a couple of these questions recently from people who did not expect their company to be a success or grow as quickly. you get people who are interested, but if it's not definite, how do you know if you have the money to scale up if you need to? >> if you asked me a few years ago, i would say sales and marketing, sales and marketing. i've changed my tune. production build up your company, and without it, you can't sustain. it's people who have a product that gets word of mouth going. everything points to production. >> so you think it's a good investment that even if the big companies don't pull through and some potential deals fall through? >> better at making stuff more efficiently and making the end product even better. that markets itself. >> there's nothing worse than going out and selling something

you can't deliver. >> right. >> it's better to not do that at all than wait until you're ready. >> this is about building bonds with your clients. >> when you're building a brand, it's really important to establish an intimate customer collection, experience and brand identity. however, as you grow, you ultimately distance yourself from that. how do we stay connected to our customer? >> we did a story just last week about a guy who built a great aquarium company. his clients really trusted him. he was one of a kind, and he had trouble first growing because his clients wanted him. they didn't necessarily want the people working for him. and a lot of companies deal with that as they grow. how do you maintain that kind of small business keeping in touchness as you grow? >> well, that's the great thing about social media. you can still have your entrepreneurial spirit going out any time you want to, your audience as big as it gets. but it's also important to

start. if you intend to be a one-person shop, you need to, but if you want to have more employees, you feed to hire at the beginning of the stage. you want to make sure you have that internal spirit going on so people know culturally how to continue growing your company like you would. >> even if it's just not you, when you're starting out, all you want to do is talk to your clients. it's the best thing. as they get bigger, they call suddenly, you or someone who works for you has five minutes. >> stephanie helped my company do this. as i build my brand, i have only a certain amount of time. what she did for us is make the community talk among themselves. set up a platform where your customers can talk. it takes relief from you doing the work. >> that's a great idea. social media? >> right. >> mike and denise, thank you so much for answering all these questions. and if any of you out there have a question for our experts, all

you have to do is go to our website. www.openforum.com/yourbusiness. or if you'd rather, you can e-mail us your questions. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. are you looking for a tool to help manage the contract signing process? then check out our app of the week. d ourks docusign is an app that lets you upload documents and send them to anyone. your client can sign and then send it back to you electronically. you can also track the status in realtime. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on

twitter. it's@msnbcyourbiz. also don't forget to be a fan on facebook. next week, one business owner doesn't cut his way to profitability. instead, he decides to expand. >> even though we had a centralized location from the factory, i said, we really need another location to try to stimulate sales. >> we'll explain why the owner of a mattress making business refused to lie down and take it in the face of economic adversity. till then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. ♪ i' 'm a hard, hard ♪ worker every day. ♪ i' ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪ ♪ if i ever get some money put away, ♪ ♪ i'm going to take it all out and celebrate. ♪

♪ i'm a hard, hard worker... ♪ membership rallied millions of us on small business saturday to make shopping small, huge. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. good morning from new york. i'm steve kornacki. the new york star ledger reported last night that the woman who came in to fix rutgers university after a coaching abuse scandal was herself accused of verbally abusing players as the women's basketball coach at university of tennessee 16 years ago. and the long, long a waited new season of "arrested development" debuted on netflix early this morning, which means hard-core fans right now are on episode 11