a baby-sitting company whose employees are all artists. small business lessons from the creators of daily candy and where's the money. alternative funding sources. we'll have that and more coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business." creating a really strong company culture does not happen haphazardly. it takes a lot of thought, a lot of effort, and a lot of time. i recently visited a baby-sitting company here in new york city whose founder has developed one of the clearest and strongest company cultures that i've ever come across. and, it's paying off. kristina wilson has more than 100 contract employees. there's an opera singer, an actor, a musician. so what kind of company does kristina run? a talent agency, perhaps? nope. a baby-sitting service. >> groundhog was not the kind of groundhog who liked to hibernate. >> we're a child care agency,

exclusively staffs artists as our baby-sitters. >> reporter: she started sitter studio in 2005. an artist herself, who had a hard time working a full-time job and practicing her craft, she saw an opportunity to create a company that would cater to the lifestyle of people working in the arts. and fill a need for parents looking for college-educated, creative caregivers. >> our mission statement, which we have on the wall, is supporting the artists of today, and developing the leaders of tomorrow. >> to those on the outside, that statement is written in a surprising order. one might guess the mission statement might read more along the lines of providing the best childcare possible. but no. christina says that great child care is almost a by-product of what they do. >> people talk a lot about your client, your client, your client. and our clients obviously are super important. but in a lot of ways i think that our sitters are just equally important, if not more important. i mean, without great caregivers, i can't provide anything to my clients to begin with. >> reporter: so kristina spends

a large portion of her time focusing on her caregivers themselves. their needs, their desires and their world. her company's top priority is to be a supportive part of the artists community. >> i firmly believe that if you have people who know that they're supported, and for those people that support is believing in the arts, and believing in their community, then the by-product is amazing child care. >> this kind of support does not come cheap. in a city where real estate is at a premium, kristina rents an office double the size she needs to offer space to her baby-sitters. >> so the room we're in here right now, you have just for your artists to come and practice in or hang out in. what do people do in here? >> we've got a lot of things that are going on in all of our rooms at any given time. one of the biggest things people do is work on shows that they're performing. do read thrus. >> baby-sitter jessica french uses the space to practice her singing. ♪ she says being a part of sitter

studio is much more than just a paycheck to her. and if another baby-sitting company offered her a job, they'd have no chance at getting her. >> i've actually had that happen already and i've turned it down. because the benefits of working here, are just everything that it promotes, supporting artists, is -- it outweighs any monetary value. >> supporting artists also means supporting their schedules. >> i've been able to go on tour with my band for five weeks on the west coast, and i can come back and still have an amazing job waiting for me. >> if you got people who did this a little bit more full-time or were more dependable in their schedule your life might be easier. so why do you do it this way? >> you know, we are here to find the best people and this is the way to find the best people. you know, as a parent, i'm sure you know, you would love to have somebody like this as a full-time caregiver. you don't want to be a full-time caregiver. they're pursuing their dreams. it's the achilles heel, of course but it's also the secret sauce. >> robby and jenny spencer use

studio sitter baby-sitters to watch their two kids and it's those dreams that make the spencers choose sitter studio over any other service. >> the sitters have these incredible talents and bring it into our children's lives. >> which could be anything from teaching them ukulele to building a geodesic dome out of rolled up newspaper. >> we go out there and we represent a company that really wants to promote the arts. it's important for us to just go out there and be our artistic selves, and pass that on to other kids. >> every single person at sitter studio is involved in the arts. and that's the glue that keeps this company together. robby sandler, head of customer relations is a musical theater writer. >> i wake up happier to go to my job every day because i know that i'm going to see people that i'm happy to see. >> kristina's support of the arts is not just lip service. the company has museum outings, lectures on things like grant writing. ted talk tuesday lunches and a $300 experience fund for employees to try something they've never tried before.

megan is director of human resources. >> i've always wanted to go to art basel in miami and because of the experience fund i was able to pay for it. >> kristina says doing all of this takes a lot of work. and a lot of money. but, she says, she would not still be in business if she did it any other way. >> yes, it's costly. and yes, that part is difficult, sometimes, and there are months in which, you know, certainly a 20 foot by 10 foot office would have been a better choice when that rent bill comes. but, in the end, i think it's all worth it. >> daily candy was one of the web's early big hits. it sent out daily e-mails to subscribers recommending products, and services, and it shut down the websites of so many of the companies it featured because the e-mail was so successful, and so popular. well, we recently met up with two daily candy veterans who are now building a new travel website using lessons they

learned early on. lessons they generously shared with us. >> i'm passionate about travel because for me it's really important to be a witness. >> being in a place and smelling things i've never seen or tasted before, that's the real payoff of travel. >> the internet's amazing at selling you the cheapest possible plane ticket from london to beirut. what it stinks at is telling you which hotel you should stay in in beirut and where you go once you're there. that got me to start thinking how could this be done better? what would i want in a travel website? >> in 2010 pavia rosati and jeralyn gerba had an idea for a new kind of travel site. as members of the original team that developed the daily candy website, they had some success under their belt. so, they applied the lessons they learned there to start up their own site called fathom. >> when pavia and i decided to

launch a new endeavor, and leave our wonderful jobs at daily candy, we took with us a few guide posts, and then a few key principles that we came up with, and that we established over the years at daily candy have sort of just become the universal rules about how i work. >> i think i've said this 40,000 times over the last decade, the microscopic is universal. which means telling a story with as many details and personal tidbits as possible to really make it feel you're hitting home with the person. >> the more precise you get about your recommendations, and this isn't just for travel, this is for anything, the more precise you get, the more compelling you are. >> you can teach writing. you can't teach taste. >> somebody who has an interesting experience to tell, an interesting experience to share, you can't teach that.

>> i would say that for any business, you'd want to surround yourself with people with good taste, and then find a good editor who can help them craft and hone that story in an authentic and authoritative way. i can't even remember a time in the years i was there that i really ever mentioned a celebrity except to make a joke. >> they're richer. they have planes. yeah, there's a compelling narrative there but in terms of because a celebrity did it it's worthwhile i think that's an incredibly boring narrative. >> celebrity can be broader term. experts in a field, sure. people who are well regarded for a certain craft? sure. ask them about their craft. >> i care about where a chef that i respect is eating dinner, not where a movie star is eating dinner. >> okay. let's ban the cliche. really, there's always a better

way to say something than a reused, recycled phrase. >> when i was at daily candy if you ever wrote, you go, girl. or, kick off your manolos, or oh, no, no, no, the worst, you deserve it, go ahead. indulge, you deserve it. oh, my god. really? that's the worst, the worst! it's so hackneyed. it's so cheap. >> i think sometimes when you hear something so often, it really doesn't even have meaning. but if the sentence is crafted really well, you don't need to say, trust me. because they trust you. they just read that sentence and it was awesome. >> good service is a big factor in whether or not your customers decide to become repeat customers. so check out our website of the week to make sure the interactions they're having with your company represent your brand well. log my calls dotcom helps business owners analyze conversations with real customers. the service transcribes telephone calls between your

employees and the customers they're talking to, and then provides a comprehensive report so that you can figure out what's working and what's not. technology is changing so fast it can be hard to keep up. we all know that. so here now are five technology driven trends to watch for this year, courtesy of wff magazine. one, wearable technologies. from smart watches to google glass, more and more companies are creating tech accessories to fill the demand. two, the rise of 3-d printers. cheaper models and easier to use scanners will disrupt a lot of industries. three, connected gadgets. from fitness monitors to smart home applications it's only a matter of time before your mobile device can do everything for you. four, biometric possibilities. many tablets and phones are already fitted with the ability to keep your confidential information protected using a fingerprint scan. expect future computers to use

biometrics, as well. and five, location-based mobile commerce. customers don't like long lines. now, companies like apple are giving them the option to check out using their phones. generally when people think about an institutional loan, they think banks. but there are a number of alternatives out there, which is good news since banks turn down the majority of requests. know yeah breslow is the ceo of on deck, a technology company providing small business owners access to capital. great to see you, noah. >> thanks for having us. >> i love this conversation because so many times people come up to me or us on the show and say, went to a bank, they turned me down, now what do i do? is there a grant out there? the question i get the most, is there a grant out there. and that is hard to find. friends and family may be hard to find. there are a lot of places out there that you can go. and so you're going to list some of them for us. when you say when you go to an alternative lender like yourself on deck you have to think about the way you are asking for money

just as you would at a bank, right? >> that's right. i think the surprising thing for most business owners is that the majority of businesses do get turned down by traditional commercial banks there so there are community based lenders that are helpful. i think there's emerging category that businesses can now turn to for loans. as you mentioned, it's very important when you approach one of these alternative lenders, if you will, to think about it as if you were going to the bank for a loan. so there's a bunch of tips that we sort of have for folks to be ready, if you will, for that process. >> so presentation matters. you're not meeting someone in person, right? this is all done through technology. >> that's right. we never actually walk in to our customers' premises nor do they walk into a bank branch that on deck has. but presentation still matters. it's important to have your documents organized whether it's your most recent bank statements, last year's tax return, whatever it is. you want to be prepared and ready and organized and even alternative lenders can see the difference when you are and when you aren't. >> okay. and then be honest. >> yeah. exactly. >> we both kind of stopped at

that one. but because people probably want to exaggerate how their company is doing. >> i think that's right. maybe it's a little bit of human nature. if you have a business that's growing and you're very optimistic you might say our business is really a $2 million revenue business but in reality when you actually look at the finances it's more of a $1 million revenue business and sometimes people think if i'm optimistic, if i'm pointed in the right direction on this application the lender is going to view me in a different way. and that's just not the case. what lenders do is they triangulate, they validate all the information that you're telling them through other data sources and so it's important thats data they actually collect lines up with what you're telling them in the first place. >> so it actually may be shooting yourself in the foot to be too optimistic, then, right, because then suddenly they say, this person's not reliable. >> that's right. we want to see someone who is really pragmatic and practical, if you will, about how they're going to used proceeds and where their business is and where they can take it. >> next tip, give references a heads up, does it happen very often that someone will call a reference and they don't even know what you're calling for? >> more often than you think. most lenders, both traditional and alternative ones might call your landlord to make sure

you're in good standing on your rent. or one of our suppliers or trade references. really important to give them a heads up. here's what i'm doing. here's why i'm applying for this loan. here's who you can expect to be calling you. give people a heads up. make them aware of what you're doing. >> and finally your bank account is key. have your own personal ducks in order? >> that's right. your bank account really is one of your best credit references and lenders both traditional and alternative lenders look at a number of things in that account. how often do you bounce a check for example? are you able to keep good amounts of cash sitting in that account to run your business. what are the trends in deposits and withdrawals going on in that account. very, very important as a business owner to try and funnel all your revenue into that account and manage it in a tight way. >> before i let you go, i want to quickly ask you a question about on deck. i am a small business owner i've been turned down by a bank i can't get money anywhere else but i do think i have a great opportunity. what is the process for applying? >> really easy and simple. go to www.ondeck.com,

o-n-d-e-c-k dotcom and apply for a loan in minutes. very, very fast, easy, convenient for business owners and funding in 24 hours. >> and why is it that you are able to give loans that banks might turn down? >> at heart we're a technology company. we built really algorithms, and collected a lot of data on small businesses all around the country now our credit model is in its fourth generation and we really think we have the alternative if it's the fico zor for people when they apply for personal credit we developed the on deck score which allows us to understand the credit of a main street business. >> great to see you. >> thanks so much, j.j. >> and when we come back, now that you've gotten that funding, how do you convince your employees that doesn't mean they can spend money frivolously? and today's elevator pitcher is going to try and get our panel interested in her new wig lynn. if i can impart one lesson to a

new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. building your personal brand right now is the true gold rush land grab opportunity for most small businesses out there. i mean whether you're a lawyer, or in landscaping or have a flower shop, not creating content around your personal brand is a huge missed opportunity. >> time now to answer some of your business questions. let's get our board of directors

in here to help. heather thomson is the creator of the shape wear line yummie by heather thomson and also one of the real housewives of new york city which you can see on bravo. and maria simon is the choeth of co-founder of yapp, a company that makes it easy for anyone to create their own mobile app. great to see both of you guys. it's more than just shape wear now, too. >> absolutely. we are expanding beyond shape wear. >> let's get right in to the first question. it is from a business owner who wants to hire top notch candidates. >> we have a very attractive company to work for, offering a full-time w-2 position working from home. so my question is, we're getting 8,000 or 9,000 resumes a year. how do we go through those resumes and make sure we have the best-qualified people. >> 8,000 to 9,000 resumes. that's a lot to go through. how do you narrow it down so you're only spending time on the good ones? >> i think it's a great question. one key thing i heard him say is work from home. one factor i would definitely

look for is are these candidates self-starters. i'd give them a task. that's what we do at yapp. are you looking for a marketing person? have them write a blog. are you looking for an engineer? have them decode some bug for you or some code. that way you can see who's really passionate about getting this job rather than just easily hitting the submit button with the resume. >> how do you do that quickly so it's culled down so you don't even get the 9,000. >> i think that's great advice. one step we could take prior to that a big questionnaire like 25, 27, 32 questions. with, you know, so that really takes them time to thoroughly answer the questions. you can weed out those that are not, you know, that are interested in the job and not just hitting send on the resume that are really the right applicants for you. >> isn't it amazing when you put a job out how many resumes and letters you get back that don't even mention your company? >> absolutely. or sometimes i've seen they mention the wrong company. that's a real no-no. >> even worse. >> to send a form letter and not

know what you did. >> searching, and not searching for the right position. >> the next question is about maintaining brand identity. as you apply to other companies. >> we manufacture heavy duty shipping cases for all applications. over the years we've acquired many companies, our brands are calzone, anvil and ascot. the question is how do we support each of these brands so that they have been maintained their own brand identity under common ownership? >> that is a great question. how do these people remain independent, own cultures, own brands but still be a part of your big team? >> personality canry main separate under the same umbrella brand. shipping computer systems branding like pepsi, goater'd, frito-lay, brands like tropicana owned by pepsico.

they keep the brand separate but they use the umbrella for efficiency. >> with one set of goals. and one working to the. how you face the market when your target >> this it particular brand based on their personality. >> be and where are the synergies? what are those and how do you capital i capitalize on them while keeping the marketing focused. >> next question. this is about how to curb your

staff's spending habits. >> what is the best way to explain that by raising millions of dollars in funding doesn't mean that you can go and spend money left and right? >> i love this question because it remind me 1998, right? i worked in the dot-com boom. we raised millions of dollars and we wasted, all of us wasted a lot of money. so how do you keep that he ethos we're still a startup even when you have this money behind you? >> i think this comes down to one thing, which is treat your employees like owners. because i think healther would know as an owner you know that the golden rule is a dollar spent today is the most expensive dollar rather than a dollar spent tomorrow where you've grown and increase the value of your company. so if employees really understand that and are owners and made to feel like owners. they will start having behaviors that are really good for your company and capital preservation. >> 100%, you create a budget and you empower your employees to

then stick to that budget. yes, they say you have to spend money to make money, but you also have to spend your money wisely to make money. and now you're accountable. money doesn't just come for free. investing comes at a cost. and now you're accountable for your spending and you're accountable for your dollars. it doesn't mean you can leave every light on now that you've got an investment. you are account bible. it has to come from the top down and some of the smaller startups that's a team that has it to create the budget and empower them to stick to them. >> once you get that money and you're launching something new or have a new ad campaign, take your team aside and say, okay, let's take five minutes and think how would we do this if we didn't have a big budget? >> right. >> and you might come up with some great ideas. more creative ideas. >> or another example buying hardware, new computers, instead of say iing to people, you know buy whatever computer you want, you have a budget. we're going to give you this much money to buy whatever

equipment you want and you get to keep the rest. it puts people into the mindset of how can i really be efficient with capital? >> both of you, thank you. it's so great to pick your brains. you both have been so successful in starting and running your own companies. appreciate your advice. >> happy to be here. we are always checking on twitter to see what people are talking about. david scott tweets web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment the buyer needs it. small business consultant ty goodwin with a tip, use your blog post to record a youtube video. and venture capitalist ben horowitz says it's easier to teach an innovator how to be a ceo. some women wear wigs for fashion a reins. some for medical reasons. today's elevator pitcher hopes to serve both with her unique

line. hi. i'm crystal hughes, the founder and ceo of wig capital llc, a unique online wig retail business where everyday wig wear ers can gain a 25%% tax reduction by shopping with us. a large percentage are sold to 75% of the population of women and a percentage of those are transgenders, transsexuals and cross dressers. wig capital has been in existence since 2009 and we went international in 2013 selling to nigeria and sales were $10,000. the large percentage of wigs, which are the most popular wigs, synthetic wigs, we sell for $20 to $200. human hair wigs sell for $300 and some $2,000 to $8,000 in the usa. i'm asking for $250,000 for 25%

equity in our company with a two-year return. the money will go to pr, investment -- i messed up. >> no, you did a great job and you look very different than when you came in this morning. okay, guys. i'm going to give you each this had. i'll trade you the wigs and on a score of 1-10 how intrigued are you? i'm going to just give you one second. you look great and you did a very good job. you made it all the way through. you have it down. heather, i'm going to start with you. score of one to ten. >> i gave her a seven. >> great. okay. >> i also gave her a seven. lucky seven. >> i'm going to give you each a chance. something she did right and something she needs to improve on. >> she talked about what she needs, how much she needs, what that investment will mean in the business and what she wants to do with it. i think i want to hear more about the back end of your business, how you manufacture the wigs, what is your infrastructure looks like, a

little bit more about who you are, i think is important to your pitch. >> maria? >> so what i really loved going in the door, i love that you have a business that has great purpose in the world, and trying to make a profit. i just love the idea that you're helping people. you're real clear with that. what needed some work, you can do in a real pitch, two things, one was why you? what about you is authentic to this wig opportunity. i wanted to know your personal story. i wanted to can connect with you on a personal level given how personal this business i can imagine really is. and i wanted to hear about your distribution and marketing. how do people know about wig capital? how would you know to go to you to find a wig? >> all right. and that is good. a seven from two women who both have built successful businesses. so congratulations. thank you so much for coming on the program and good luck with everything. >> good luck. >> and thank you guys. and if any of you out there have a product or a service and you want feedback from our elevator

pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness @ yourbusiness @msnbc.com. thank you so much for joining us tod today. to learn more about today's show just go to our website. it is openforum.com/yourbusin s openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus some web exclusive content with a lot more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbis and wei are n face back, too. a very special edition from the interactive festival in texas. entrepreneurs, investors, and industry lead eers will be meetg to talk and learn about the latest trends in had technology and the digital world. we'll look at tech trends driving small business particularly the importance of going mobile. for one fashion entrepreneur that turned out to be essential.

>> we have modeled our traffic. mobile visits were about 10% of overall traffic and in january of 2013 we saw they were 25%. and every week we would see that number creep up. we really saw that we had to get ahad head of this as quickly as possible. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something.

no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. the electoral impact of gay marriage coming to red state america. good morning. if you've managed to join us at 8:00 a.m. sharp this sunday morning despite the clocks leaping forward here in the u.s. in the wee hours over-the-night, we're especially grateful to have you. a lot of news this morning. first, however, we want to update you briefly on the search and a investigation in a that missing malaysia airlines plane. rescue teams have widened their search area for the missing boeing jet. indications that it may have turned back before disappearing from