she expected her security guard business to grow by 5%. to her surprise, revenues skyrocketed by more than 600%. how simply changing her perspective changed everything. 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. welcome to your business. growing your company has a lot to do with your skills, and those of your employees. bit it has just as much to do with attitude. i recently met the owner of a security guard company who showed me that a simple change in her perspective turned her slow-growing company into a fast-growing one. to jessica johnson, who grew up in the bronx, new york, there was no question that when her father died, she had to take over johnson security bureau. the security guard company his parents, and then he, had run for more than 50 years. >> the bronx has one of the highest unemployment rates for the entire state of new york. and some of the highest unemployment rates across the country. it was incumbent upon me and my

brother to make a contribution back to the community that had helped us. >> her mission was clear from day one. but her sights, well, they weren't set very high. at the time the company had 16 guards. and she put together what she thought was an optimistic projection. 5% growth each year for five years. >> i didn't have the scope right. and i think that's what stops a lot of small businesses, or at least keeps a lot of small businesses and entrepreneurs where they are, is they don't realize the size of the opportunity that's out there. it's all about perspective. >> her perspective was way off. today, she has 150 employees. and her revenue has increased more than 600 times. a far cry from that 5%. so, what changed? wally has been with the company since jessica's early days and here's how he describes it. >> we went from a narrow vision to a very large vision. >> basically, an adviser asked

jessica what she would do if money were not an issue. >> and at that point a light bulb went off, so now since i would say since about 2010 we've been working on all cylinders, because we had that realization that it's much bigger than we think it is. >> they started bidding on jobs they didn't think they'd get. >> even when we didn't know what we were doing, we were talking like we did. you know, they say fake it until you make it. we faked it for a long time. and then after awhile we weren't faking it. >> early on, when you guys were pitching big clients, and you hadn't had very many big clients, or any before, were you just sitting around a conference table thinking oh, my god, what are we doing? >> no, we didn't have a conference table. we had some -- we had a card table and some folding chairs. so it wasn't that complicated. but we figured what did we have to lose? the worst they could do was tell us no. >> it was hard. it was tough. there were a lot of late nights. there was some crying. there was a little laughing. but we stuck to it and we did it. and we figured if we could do the service, why not try and go after that business.

>> soon, someone didn't say no. and that was the beginning of this nonstop growth. >> they called us, i believe, it was on a wednesday and said that they wanted us to start the following monday. so we had to hire people, have them trained, have them certified with the site-specific training and have them ready to work for that following monday. >> johnson security bureau went from 16 employees to 36 employees overnight. they expanded their services, providing both armed and unarmed guards. >> she went out and got the necessary certifications for johnson security here in new york state as well as in other states for us to partner with other security firms. >> but all these changes meant they had to look hard at the way things were being done internally. >> lots of things had to change. i mean, i have a friend who has a saying, if you can't change the people, change the people. so there are people that started with us that are no longer on this ride, because they didn't

have the vision. >> we're constantly evolving from the employee hand book, policies and procedures, and just come in with new ideas that better service our client. >> jessica and her teach are still out there pitching and when i asked her how big the company can be. she told me this. >> i think this company can rival some of the largest security companies in the world. >> you are telling me right now i think this company can be as big as the biggest security companies in the world when you got here you said, i think we could have 5% growth. that is a big change in attitude. >> it is a big change in attitude. but i've seen big things happen and i've seen big things happen in a small amount of time. so, why not? why not? >> as we just saw, jessica johnson's company is doing well because she has figured out how to grow it. but growing is not always the right answer. one cincinnati family-run jewelry store is alive and well after 100 years in business, thanks to their decision to do the exact opposite and scale back.

♪ barbara jo foreman, better known as b.j., says that her customized jewelry store is her own creation. boris litwin jewelers was founded in 1913 by her grandfather boris litwin. his institution was run by her father and then her brother before foreman took over. >> it seemed to me that there were enough jewelers out there who did platinum, gold, ruby, sapphire, diamond. i was in the arts, and i wanted something a little different. >> foreman gave it a try with her mother's emotional and financial support. no one had expected the business to last after her brother's death. >> he had pretty much prepared the business to close after he died. he never guessed that i would run it. >> so, what did foreman do? >> we changed everything. >> foreman's daughter liz, who works in the family business, says the timing was right for her mother to introduce rings, pendants, necklaces, and

bracelets that people might not find anywhere else. >> when you think of a brand, no matter what industry, it's always evolving and always changing, and this is a great example of a business that has really evolved. >> to make the turn foreman followed her heart. she didn't want to follow what she calls the industry standard. >> i didn't feel like going in to millions and millions and billions of dollars and being on that level. i didn't want to do it. >> what she did want to do was create a scaled-down, yet more personal operation. >> we do a lot of custom work. we repair. we restring pearls. we change people's jewelry so that it's wearable. and we sell them jewelry. >> foreman knew the way litwins had done business needed to evolve. >> i wanted to hire people who knew what they were doing, or i could train them to do what they were doing, that they should do for me and then they would just

go do it. >> and foreman knew how to warm up her space to better suit her personality and welcome her clients. something else you'll notice about litwins is that it's on the second floor. while the decision to move up has deterred foot traffic, customers actively seek out the business now. >> you could pop in and pop out really quickly, and you could still do that. but most people don't really want to do that when they come here now. they want to -- they want to sit down. they want to talk. they want to see what's happening. >> the space is smaller than former litwin's locations. but employee sarah says the setting is actually more inviting, and customers spend more time looking. >> this is a business about relationships. it's not just about, you know, jewelry. >> with the move to the second floor, litwin's adapted a more web centric marketing strategy. blog posts, facebook updates, and an e-newsletter drive customers to come check out the selection. >> customers that came here decades ago are still coming, and the new customers really,

they're coming because some of them are coming because of the social media and networking, and because of the things that they see on facebook. >> foreman even cut her hours and started taking appointments. she's only open four days a week. foreman says she has no plans to grow any further. even when taking into account litwin's success. she's scaled down for now and she's liking it. >> i just wanted to be small, and be nimble. i think you have to be find your own niche. the big boys are so big, and they have such deep pockets, how can you butt heads with them? who wants to, even? >> every year angel investors deliver billions of dollars to start-ups nationwide. some of the most successful companies were funded by angels. for example, ford, aol and amazon.com. here now with three secrets for winning over angels is david s. rose. he is the chairman and ceo of gust, which operates a

collaborative platform for early stage equity investing and he is a founder of new york angels, he's also the author of the new book "angel investing: the gust guide to making money and having fun investing in start-ups." what more could you want, making money and having fun at the same time. >> that's the goal. >> you've been doing this for a long thyme. you've seen so many pitches and there's something about the successful ones that pique your interest that a lot of other ones don't have. so let's get to your tips. know everything about your business. isn't this a given? you say a lot of people don't know everything about their business? >> you would think it's a given. but you would also be amazed to see how many companies come in and can't answer the simplest questions about their competitors. about their costs. about their margins. about their projections. about their products. about their supply lines. about their employees. about their growth path. you really have to know absolutely everything. investors are betting on you, and your ability to lead this company. and so you cannot possibly be overprepared. >> right. and then if you don't know the answer, they lose confidence in

you. >> they -- if you don't know it it's all right to say i don't know and i'll get back to you. but do that more than once or twice or on issues they think are really important like what are your margins and you'll be in real trouble. >> right, got it. get to the next one. have a business with goldilocks projected financials? >> yes, remember goldilocks and the three bears? the business that you are presenting to angels for funding, when you do your projections and show how much revenue you're likely to get over time if you show too much, in other words if you're saying we'll do $50 million in revenue this year from a standing start nobody's going to leave you. >> right. >> if you do too little and say after ten years of working really hard we'll do $50,000 a year for revenue. >> this porridge is too cold. >> the goldilocks predictions are just right. now that doesn't mean you fake your projections to meet the goldilocks number. it means the business has to be rational and for a business to be investable by angels it has to be something where there is a significant upside. >> okay. and then finally, don't reinvent the wheel. i cannot say how important this

is. lots of this stuff has already been done. >> absolutely. everything has been done. >> right. >> there are very few new things under the sun. and so if you come in to an angel investor with a very strange capital structure, or you're looking for weird notes or terms, or you've done strange deals with friends and family, it's just going to screw it up. >> yeah. and it looks weird. it looks questionable, right? what's the point? >> there are ways of doing this and so don't reinvent the wheel. use existing standard kind of term sheets and deal structures. >> okay, great. thank you so much for giving us insight. i know a lot of people are out there looking for money. one quick way, how do you find good angels? >> you can find good angels on gust.com or going to your local angel group. there are hundreds of angel groups in every state in the u.s., and virtually every country in the world. and that's -- those are angels who are pro-actively looking for new businesses like yours. >> okay. great. thanks, david, great to see you. >> thank you. >> we all depend heavily on the opinion of others when we make our purchases. in today's crowded app store

you'll meet lots of positive reviews in order to give your app the ranking boost it needs. here are five things you can do to help stay on top courtesy of entrepreneur magazine. one, use a review plug in. one makes it easy to prompts user to review your app. two, incentivize users. reward them if they choose to leave a review. a good way to do this is by providing points or credits. three, offer exceptional customer service. a good experience is a sure way to get a positive review. consider integrating help ship which allows you to communicate directly with your users through a two-way instant messaging window. four, time the prompt. wait to ask for a review until after the user has accomplished something within your app. or has finished with his or her intended task. asking them to leave a review when the app first loads can often annoy people. and make it less likely that they'll do it.

and five, run a contest. give out prizes to randomly selected users who leave a review. when we come back, we'll talk more about growing your business as we answer your questions about expanding from a local. to a national one. plus, how to deal with posts on social media that could be causing some upset. and our experts decide whether today's elevator pitch for a magnetic pocket to wear while jogging will have a good run. 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. you need to put away your pride. you have to be willing to really put your neck out there at every single turn. i remember after one event where i was pitched as speaking at this glamorous fashion show and i thought this is great, it's a good marketing opportunity. it was an incredibly rainy, disgusting day in the basement of a hotel, four people turned out. you have to put your pride away because there are bone crushing humiliating moments in being an entrepreneur. >> time now to answer some of your business questions. let's get our board of directors in here to help. les mckeown is the president and ceo of predictable success, an incubation consulting company. he is also author of the new book "do lead: share your vision, inspire others, achieve

the impossible." jim blasingame is the creator and host of the weekday radio program the small business advocate show. he is also author of the new book "the age of the customer: prepare for the moment of relevance." >> hi, j.j. >> some of my guests who have been here since the very beginning and new books for both of you. so congratulations. okay let's get to the questions. the first one is about social media. >> my question would be how to deal with social media, and the platform that is giving employees, independent contractors, even consumers, when they go out and they become emotionally upset. >> interesting, right? because you want to empower your employees to talk. but you kind of want to control what they say. so how do you do that? >> don't. people can smell it a mile away when you try to artificially jig that stuff and my view about social media not just in terms of what employees are going to say, but what customers, clients say, is just do good work. just do good work. it will work itself out in the end. i see so many people chasing

down rabbits that we've got a little local coffee shop, and the folks that own that spent forever chasing down two bad reviews. and they had something like 780 really good positive reviews. just do good work. nobody cares about, you know, small stuff like that. >> but you have to have a policy for your employees, though? >> here's what i find most business owners do. they invoke that type of a clause because they don't want to hear bad news. to me, if i was running a business where an employee went and put something negative online, that's a massive wake-up call. and i'm the one who has to go and fix something. not the employee. >> but that's where you want them to come to you about that. you do not want -- employees, it's not new yorkable. employees don't get to put negative things up about the company. but the customers, the way you solve that is you have plenty of -- you have to make a lot of good deposits in your social media bank. so if there is a negative one it's overpowered by the good ones. >> but neither of you guys are saying i think this is interesting that you should have

a talk with your employees about here are our guidelines for the way to use social media. >> that's what i said. i mean talk to your employees. >> but your guideline is don't do it, right? >> well, that's the first thing. nonnegotiable. you don't go post things about the company that are negative and then you have a conversation about what they have to say. if you have something to say about my company, you have something to say about the product, then let's talk about that in-house. if you're taking my paycheck, you're on my side. >> all right. >> otherwise -- >> can i get a job with you, jim? >> yes. but some things are nonnegotiable. >> okay let's move on to the next question. this one is about expanding your brand reach. >> i'd like to know some more information about how to expand our business from a state business to a regional or national business. we really have been in one area, and we'd like to grow, and see how we can constructively move into other areas without overwhelming ourselves. >> good question. >> well, first you have to understand, you have to determine whether your business is ready to grow or not.

whether your organization is ready to grow or not. just because you want to grow doesn't mean you're ready to grow. you have to have the capital. you have to have the people. you have to have the right reasons to grow. so let's say that you're at that point. you said okay we're ready for all those reasons then you have to decide okay do i want to capitalize that growth? or do i want someone else to capitalize that growth? and that's where you have the fork in the road where you go and you get investors you borrow money and you grow that when you manage all the operations. the other option is, franchise. >> all right. okay and let's just say money is not an issue. they want to do it internally. how do they start? you have to find a good manager somewhere else. find good sales people. do you go yourself and move to a different state for instance for a few months and set it up? >> i like to have two principles in mind. one is try as much as possible to use the ripple effect. just keep pushing your boundaries. and the second thing is make sure that the market is telling you, i mean the market is clever beast in the capitalistic world that we live in. and when the market's telling you you should open in chicago, open in chicago. what tends to happen with small business owners is this.

we meet somebody we really like and say hey, you could work with us, couldn't you? and they say sure and we start something up and six months later, seven months later we're trying to nip this thing to the. a away from them being of any utility in getting new customers. i think that's dead. i think we're spitting against the wind. i like the way anna put it. becoming one more of those things that you scroll through your inmail list, delete,

delete, delete. what i believe they've moved into is being really good at building loyalty in customers, building up sales, keeping in touch. because those people have put their hand up. they like your stuff. >> and you were talking so much about customers a minute ago. ask your customers, is this information viable. >> they tell you by the way they respond to your newsletter, right? one thing i would like to point out to the young lady there is don't send your newsletter to people who didn't ask for it. >> you're not allowed to. >> that's how you become one of those irritating people. don't do that make sure you're sending it to the people who have asked for it and make sure your content is good. which is what your readers want to see. >> it's all about content. >> i open the newsletters i know are going to have interesting things in there. you guys stick around because we need you the elevator in a

little bit. if any of you have questions for our experts, go to our website, the address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. hit the ask the show link to submit a question. or if you'd rather, send us an email. if you have sensitive material that you want to keep private? if you want to complete control over who sees your files. check out our website of the week. distrux.com lets you set timers on any files you share. recipients are not able to print, save or even screen capture them. if the file is forwarded, you can control if any other people can view it the site also tracks how many times your file is viewed and by whom. millions of online websites and mobile apps promise to help you be efficient with your time and money.

but which ones are helpful? we asked our viewers to share with us what online tools and apps they're using to help them. >> one of my favorite online tool is love to use is zero, an online accounting tool. that helps you manage your incoming and outgoing expenditures as well as your income. it's a great product for doing invoices, it's inexpensive, a monthly fee. great for small businesses who are just starting out. >> we use a free app called cloud app. it allows us to send attachments to our clients and make it easy within an email to access that content or that attachment without using an attachment. >> one of my apps i use is called text expander. it allows you to type a few characters and expands it into something larger. inextend of typing my phone number. i type apa and it expands into my phone number. instead of typing the same email response over and over, i can

type a few letters and it pops out my whole template and it goes out. >> the app i use is evernote, it allows me as i start to get idea that come in my head. i've got notebooks organized by how i organize my life. ky get them out mif head into and application. so i don't have to try to remember everything in my head, and i can come pack and check it and it's organized. >> rescue time. the basic version is free. rescue time is fantastic for helping you figure out your most productive hours are and your biggest time-waster are, you use your most productive hours to get the most important things done and everything not critical, you can outsource and push on somebody else's plate. optimizing your time. >> the app or website we use is called time trade. i was struggling with emailing people to schedule phone calls and meetings together. we'd spend half the time to connect on a time. using time trade, it syncs with

my calendar and they can schedule the meeting right away. >> high favorite app is called work flowy, i use it every day. it's an amazing app. it just simplifies your thinking and eliminates the distractions by helping you create a list you can move around easily. just the other day i went on a long run and had no place to put my keys and i.d. if only i had seen this elevator pitch before then. the product solves a problem. but does it solve it well? and will that make a good business? let's see what our panel thinks. >> hi, i'm brenda creator of the rue sport. >> i'm roll, her husband and business partner. >> i'm a marathon runner that was desperate for pocket running ware, to keep my things so i don't have to wear a fanny pack. this is a lightweight pocket with two strong magnets, so it can snap over any waist band. it allows me to carry my cell

phone, i.d., credit cards, it won't bounce, rub or chafe. can you wear it for hiking, biking, running, walking and shopping and we have found a market in the travel industry. >> the running apparel industry is a billion-dollar industry, we've been reaching marathoners by attending expos, such as the boston marathon and marine corps marathon. we've sold 50,000 units and and have gathered 20,000 emails. we would like to find $250,000 to help us go into retail stores, as well as be able to develop a new line of coloring pockets. you can reach us as the roo sport.com. >> congratulations on your success so far. thank you, i'm going to hand these two each of you. scale of 1-10, how well do you think they did on their pitch. you know, when i saw it great product. i didn't think of it for your passport. a great idea. >> very popular. >> because it's so slim. >> okay, let's see what these

guys think of the business, les, let's start with you. >> i gave it a european 7. >> okay. >> one thing they did well, one thing they did well, one thing to work on. >> they explained the product very, very well. the thing they could work on is i think they should pitch to somebody who is much more their target demographic. i think the product is a great idea. i would like to sew it more tactile. it felt a little flimsy to me, i'd like to feel it a little more solidity. >> okay. jim. >> i gave did an 8.5. >> our first .5 on the show. >> you know me. i like the fact that it's what you're passionate about. what you like. you guys use this stuff and you use your product. so people are attracted to that. i'm concerned about the money. if you're going to do what you want to do, you're going to be undercapitalized for $250,000. if you're going to go after money. you need to grow smaller and grow your way into it or go

bigger. anybody who is going to give you that money. if they know what they're doing, is concerned athat you're going to be undercapitalized. don't give your company away for $250,000. >> you think she should be going after more? >> more if they're going after investors. but otherwise, i liked it. >> fantastic. you guys, congratulations on all of your success, again, i wish i had it last week and good luck with everything you guys are doing in the future. thank you, guys, for everything today. appreciate it. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website, it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments, plus some web-exclusive content with information to help your business grow. you can follow us on twitter, it's @msnbcyourbiz. we take you to the community of stuart, florida, next week. stit has not one, but two main streets.

>> we want to bring everyone into our area. because it's the city of stuart. i don't think we're at that point yet where we're saying, there's too much of anything. >> we'll tell you why no one is giving up on the double main street concept. even though one has been a lot more successful than the other. this is all part of our continuing series -- main street usa. until then, i'm jj ramberg, and remember, we make your business, our business.

an american soldier is released by the taliban after five years in captivity. but did do the u.s. negotiate with terrorists? >> draw down that will leave fewer than 1,000 u.s. forces in that country by the end of 2016. this morning, a week lay later an army sergend named bow bowe bergdahl, the seoole