they learned what life on the road is like as a gospel singers group. they turned that into a luxury bus group. how their music experience made them transportation entrepreneurs. that's coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to help.

hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to your business. brothers trent and joey hemphill knew a thing or two as buses. growing up as part of the gospel group, "the hemphills," they traveled millions of miles on their family bus which was perfect training for launching a luxury coach company when they left their music careers. pioneers in the music bus community, their commitment to exceeding expectations on every tour every time has resulted in a clients list that is a who's who of music, actors and politicians. if you've ever wondered how lady gaga, justin timber blake, brianna, britney spears,

aerosmith, cher or even the president get from point "a" to point "b" when they are on tour. talk to these guys. >> you have to stay focused on what you're about. that's what we do. it's just the our customers happen to be famous. >> what they are really about is going the extra mile, literally, getting people where they need to go in style and comfort without having to worry about the details. >> you have 90 buses and 10-12 people on each vehicle. at night, you may have 1,000 people moving by the time you golay your head down. you have to know that you have done everything you can to give them a safe and comfortable experience. >> when you walk around the offices, you will see the walls covered with many of their celebrity clients. clients that relied on their service, because they did one simple thing right. they delivered on what they promised. in the topsy-turvy world of

touring, they rely on hemphill for being a stable force in an unstable world. it is a world that trent and joey hemphill know firsthand. with a history steeped in music, the two brothers grew up in a sort of part trinlg family style bus singing with their family band, the hemp hills. >> i traveled 2 million miles on a bus singing gospel music. it was a very interesting way to be raised. >> usually, in one town, you set up your gear. you perform. you tear down your gear and then you go to bed and wake up in the next town. >> with an intimate knowledge of what life is like on the road, the brothers knew a thing or two about what someone needs to have a relaxing and trouble-free trip. they decided to start their bus leasing company in 1980. >> we know that feeling of being on a bus, riding down the road or being on stage. so i think that was valuable time for us in a training ground for me and my brother for what

we do now. >> pioneers in the luxury coach industry, the brothers scraped enough money together to buy two old buses to get their start. they transformed them on the inside and out so they looked brand new, doing most of the work themselves. >> these buses were 15 years old when we bought them. they already had over 1 million miles on them. so each time when we would book a tour, they would be the last buses to leave nashville and the first ones to come home. sometimes they would come home on a wrecker but we learned a lot. we were able to learn the business end of the bus business and just learn to survive even with older equipment. >> they didn't have a lot of money but they had a ton of experience and learned early on to underpromise and overdeliver. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they did whatever it took to keep their buses rolling, support the drivers and keep their clients happy. they started doing small, local tours at first.

their big break came two years after starting the business when van halen called. >> i'll never forget the day they were in nashville. they needed to add a bus to their tour. it just so happened we had a bus available and took the bus down there with a driver and got to meet the management. obviously, we did a good job, because 30 years later, we did the whole, van halen tour, 2012. >> being prepared for that first big job led to many more and the ability to start phasing out their old buses and buying and customizing new ones to fit the needs of their high-profile clients. as the company grew, they poured all of their resources into bringing every aspect of building their customized buses in house. from the custom woodwork to the upholstery and painting. if a bus is ordered for tour and supposed to be delivered on a certain date, it is.

after all, if justin timber blake 2020 experience tour starts on a thursday in cleveland. then justin's star bus and all of his support buses for the musician, the crew an everyone, need to be there. >> you might have an artist that has a special artist or arntivity that likes all white, white leather furniture, white carpet, white drapes. so we'll take an existing bus and we'll make it white for that tour. there are families that travel together that have new babies. they want those gribs wicribs w monitors. we have put tanning beds in buses. sometimes we will set up a recording studio in a bus and that way, they can go down the road and record their latest hit. >> with careful and measured growth, hemphill brothers expanded their fleet slowly, only doing so when they could adequately increase their driver pool and support staff in nashville with the right people. with less than 5% turnover,

trent and joey have cultivated, trained and built an extremely loyal and productive team of employees, starting with the day to day phase of the company, their drivers. >> we went out there and hired the best of the best for our company. even when we really felt like we couldn't afford to do that. we couldn't afford not to. so we had to have the best drivers that we could possibly find. that built company pride. being able to go out on a tour and do it successfully and know that when the tour was over, that client said, i want you guys back next year. >> mark larson started as a driver and now schedules the fleet of almost 100 buses. he often has to face the painful reality that they sometimes have to turn away long-time clients because of scheduling conflicts. if they don't have the best drivers, mechanics and equipment ready to roll on a tour, they simply won't take the gig. >> i look at our business like a

chain that you're string is your weak es link. it is very important that everybody you've got out there driving your buses is top-notch. all of your equipment is in really good condition. getting a call from air force one, you know, booking buses for the president, getting a text from george strait saying, i want you to build me a new bus or getting a call from the oprah show saying, we want to use your buses for her show, it is always something new and it is never boring around here. when you first sign up for an e-mail list, you usually think it is a good idea. hundreds of junk mail later, you might find that our website of the week is just what your inbox needs. unroll.me is a free service that helps you unsubscribe from the messages you don't want. the system analyzes what list serves you signed up for. you get the choice to subscribe,

unsubscribe or have that sender added to your rollup. it combines all the content into one simal to read e maple. the web may be a great place to find your next big business idea. here are five sites you should check out to get inspiration for a new product or service courtesy of business news daily.com. one stroll through stumbleupon. it recommends websites to check out and can be a good way to get inspired by content you wouldn't have necessarily found through other channels. two, reddit is a place to start if you are on the prowl for a tech-related service idea. users submit content others can vote up or down. the ask me can help you learn what potential customers want and need. three, pin terrest is one of the best ways to see what products are trending now. comments are open to everyone. you can get a first-hand look at what people think about different images on the site. four, search twitter questions.

don't just follow trending tweets or hashtags. scour through questions people are asking for new idea. five, visit nearby networks and apps. seek out social media sites that would attract your clientele. knowing your audience, helps you better serve their needs. the roll of websites has changed since social media came on to the scene. since your website and your social media platforms serve entirely different purposes, they shouldn't be twins. but, branding the two should be kept front and center. here now with some quick tips to help tailor your content for the right audience and experience is denise. she is a founding partner and ceo of the s-3 agency, an ad agency with a special focus on social media. great to see you. >> great to be here. thank you. >> you have done this so much for so many of the makeovers we have had on this show. it is great to have you talk to our whole audience about ways to sthi abo think about your website and

social media. let's start with the idea have o community experience. which one is a community experience? if they both are, in what ways? >> by default, social media gives it away. that's the community. it used to be the website was everything. then, social media he. >> merged. websites aren't really the primary engagement platform anymore. that's where individuals go. they go for specific purposes, looking to find out about your product or service, where it can be bought, how to contact you if they are annoyed or they want to send you a nice compliment. maybe to find out how to find your social media. that's a big thing that people go to brand websites now for. all that stuff should be easily found but also have you allow the individual to determine which information they want. you have an example for 8:00. >> 8:00 coffee is one of our clients. we recent will i redid their website and look at what it was people were allowing to do and created paths for each individual to fintd what they nt waed as easily as they could. social media, if you look at

facebook, facebook is where you can have that quick, little int action, where you can give them a little surprise and define, we're going to define the experience for you. people can go on your facebook page and dig down deep. most likely, it is the most recent thing that you posted that they are going to interact with. you are creating that control and then the community is responding to it and often responding to each other, which is really nice. >> there is predictable, which i'm guessing is the website, versus surprising. >> it is not that you can never have a surprise on your website. the focus is, giving people what they want when they want it. if i'm a zoo, people are probably going to see, what is the most recent exhibit that's important for me to know about. >> i know i'm coming there to see what the exhibit is, where the contact information is, what are the hours. >> i'm a mom, busy. i want to see it easily on mobile or wherever i'm looking at it from. that's turtle back zoo. also, on their social media, on

the other hand, you can sort of throw something surprising out there. you have the information on the website site and you can inspire with social. so, as everybody knows, february 2nd is groundhog day. so our ground hot at turtle back zoo may not be as famous as punxsutawney phil but he is very accurate, more accurate than phil and he takes over twitter for the entire month of february. he predicts way more than winner, super bowl winners accurately, who is going to be on american idol and do well, who is going to have a fashion trend, what lottery number mace or may not be. he is not always 100% but it is something fun. >> i have heard you talk about this groundhog before. finally, focus on seo of engagement. the website, obviously, sechlt o, you want to come up high on the search engine results. >> you do. that has a lot to do with the experience you are creating on the website, making sure you are writing correctly, not in a

secret way trying to trap the web crawlers. as long as you write properly about the things you want people to find and thinking about the terms they will be searching to find you, organically, that will start happening. social media, you are not really doing that. you want engagement and those quick, pify little statements, something that has a great picture. pictures aren't going to do anything for your seo. on facebook, people have a great response emotionally to that picture. >> it goes back to predictable versus surprising. on the website, to have good seo, you want good content that people are looking for and expecting. it all wraps together. also, surprising, an engagement fits together on the social media. >> they shouldn't be twins but your website and social media should be related. you don't want to feel like it is an entirely different brand when you go from one to another. sometimes there are things that can be shared. of course, there are. things that can be thought of

with a different head so you are giving that visit and experience. >> that's an easy way to think about this. thank you so much. >> you too. as small business owners, we are inundated with pitches for new tools and services. the best way to know what works is to find out what other people are using. we recently asked or "your business" viewers to share their favorite small business web tools. >> we use an app called over, it is $1.99. we use it to be able to put website as well as any branding message across any photo we use. so when we share it through social media and it gets hashtaged, the viewer immediately can tell it is from curtis eyewear. we found it helpful. >> it is samepage.o. it is free for ten or fewer employees in your company. it is a collaboration app. we use it to see if things stick. when we are done, we take the output and put it into our

official packages. >> one of my favorite websites is scoop.it. if you are an entrepreneur and you are looking for content, this is a great site for you to go to. what you will find is that there are a bunch of bloggers and writers that are aggregating the information. you can go in and scoop it and share it with your community. >> text message does not build my database for e-mails. i found a service called virtual merchant mobile. it is a great website, application. they allow me to swipe their card at a good rate that's better than square or other products. it allows me to gather an e-mail address. we gather that from work at expos or shows that if we had used another source, we would not have had. i use what's up, simply, because i love it because i have people working overseas. it allows us very sim mply to connect and communicate.

the e-mail, what's happening is people don't necessarily go on the e-mail but they always have their what's up blinking and coming up. usually, it goes faster. >> my favorite app i have been using for five years or so is called checklist. it is an online shareable service. it is quick, easy. it works by using key strokes to capture information, make a note, crab a url from the web and all of this information could be archived. one i have been using lately is swiftly. they do little design fixing fast. you want to put a santa hat on your logo. they will turn it around in a logo and it is really inexpensive and great ben ha from the cheeseburger network and jay goemds from "the new york times" saens your question on buy/sell agreements and whether or not it is possible to be too innovative. where better to learn about the fine art of negotiating than from the hag letters at new

york's famous fulton fish market. there are cameras,, police, guards...ds us. but who looks after us online, where we spend more than 200 billion dollars a year. american express can help protect you. with intelligent security that learns your spending patterns, and can alert you instantly to an unusual charge. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

negligent yoeshating can be tricky. bargaining can be uncomfortable. we have had a lot of experts tell us how to do this. we received no better advice about haggling than from joey "tuna" at noshew york's central fish market. >> i'm coming in here. i admittedly know very little about fish. >> right. >> i'm here with a mission, because i have to buy some fish. what woould i do? >> there are four things. number one, you must know your product, whether it is fish or stocks, you have to know the kind of commodity that you are dealing in. in this case, you have to know the quality, the size, the species. you can't look at a red snapper and say how much is that

bluefish? that is not a good thing. >> because they will take you for someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. >> somebody that just fell off a banana boat and you have no time for that. >> so do your research. >> the second thing is, you have to know yourself. you have to exude confidence. you have to be firm when you can and not firm when you need to be. >> that's a good negotiator. >> the third thing you have to do is know the person you are buying from. you have to know if he has a lot of product, he has a little product. if he is sitting on a lot, and you know he is sitting on a lot, he is probably going to give you a lower price than somebody else. >> you said know the person you are negotiating with and you are talking about knowing their supply, supply and demand. what about knowing them as a person, is that helpful? >> with any business, you know the person, you know the guy because he likes you. do you have a number, i am

willing to pay or sell at "x." >> you don't want to lose money. at all costs, you want to make as much money for your company as possible. you are going to try to maintain a certain number. >> how do you you decide whether to be tough and when to be nice. you you bat those hazel eyes at me, you're going to get away with it once, twice, maybe. three times it is not going to work. you got to depend on knowledge. >> that has to do with availability, how much product is around and how many people want it. it is supply and demand. if there is a lot of supply and everybody wants it, it will stay moderate. if not, that price is going to stay high. there is a fourth thing i didn't mention yet. >> which is?

>> one second. >> you got to try and fit in. you are not going to get anywhere dressed like that. >> much better. >> clipboard. no one can be a purchaser without a clipboard, all right? hold it close to you like this so nobody can actually see your business. >> is there anything on this clipboard? >> absolutely not. and a pencil. you have to have a pencil. know the seller. these guys are big met fans, so i brought you a met hat. makes you fit in. they're going to like you right off the bat. >> all right. hey there. >> bobby. nice to meet you. >> know your product. >> how much? >> jumbo for $5.50 and the large are $4.50. jersey or long island? >> those are from jersey.

>> know yourself. >> is this your best price? >> that's my best price for the best quality. i have less quality for cheaper. >> i'm not interested in less quality. >> know how high or low you can go. >> one box for my best box of fish is $4.50 is the best i can do. >> it's my first time here. i'm going to be coming back here a lot so let's just make a deal. first time, beginning of doing business, not the end. >> in good faith i'll charge you $4.40 and hopefully i'll trust you to come back. >> i'm actually looking for more like $4. >> $4, i can't do it. cannot do it. >> what if we split the difference there? between $4 and $4.40? >> you got a deal. and hopefully i will see you next week. >> it's time now to answer some of your business questions. let's get our board of directors in here to help us out. jay goltz is the head of the

goltz group. he's a lead business blogger for "the new york times" and ben ha is the founder of cheeseburger a neatwork of websites dedicated to delivering funny content to 20 million unique users. so great to see both of you. >> thanks for having us. >> two serial entrepreneurs. let's dive right into the first question. it is about the possible perils of being inventive. >> how do you know when you're too innovative, when you are stretching beyond what your customers really can handle? you see that. you see they have the problem you can solve, and yet the innovation you have is just not quite within their reach of understanding. >> ben, you are in a world where innovation is a buzz word, and everyone is trying to be innovative, but is there a time when you're being too innovative? >> yeah, there's absolutely a time when this happens. many businesses fall into this trap. they're doing research that may be working out instead of doing business, and business is about

doing something, generating revenue, giving people what they want and need in order to actually solve their practical problems. so if you're doing research, that's great, maybe you should go get a grant to do the research, but if you want to make a business out of it, you have got to create it into something more practical you can lead the customers just a little to help them get there. >> that's the key, leading the customers. what i liked about him is he said i see the problem, i have a solution, but they're not understanding it, i'm being too innovative for them. is it a communication or marketing issue this guy is having? >> the issue is you could go either way. there are a couple words i found interesting. he has a solution. i think you have to add the words i think i have the solution. can you really be sure if you're not the person running the business? do you really know enough about the business? the first half is innovation isn't necessarily work. it depends whether it fits into the business as it is and then as far as them understanding it, maybe they do understand it. maybe they understand it better than you do because they're

running their business. so it's possible that that solution is not a great solution and you have haven't accepted that or it's certainly possible that the company doesn't have the resources or the cash flow or the margins or maybe just the corporate culture, they can't think that differently and it's the job of the consultant coming in to really understand the business and to figure out what the restraints in that business are. i would say it could go either way. maybe the consultant is too far out there and it's not going to work or maybe the business really isn't putting enough energy into figuring it out. >> good point. let's move to the next question. it's about small business partnerships. >> my business partner and i are wondering at what point should we put a buy/sell agreement in place to protect each other and our loved ones in the event that something happens? >> i just received this question from a good friend of mine, and i said now. put it in now. so what do you think, jay? do you do that at the beginning or do you wait a little while? >> you should do it before -- you should do it before the

beginning for sure, and i think the bigger issue is the chances of something happening, quote, unquote, to one of the partners is far, far less than the partners deciding they don't want to work together anymore for all kinds of reasons. they've got different motivations, one feels they're carrying more load than the other. the fact is many, many partnerships fail, and you absolutely should have something figured out that if things don't go the way we think they're going to go, how are we going to take this apart. it depends on the business, if there's no assets, maybe you just part company and you figure out what to do with the phone number or if it's a business with fixed assets, who is going to buy out the thing and what it's going to cost but you should absolutely do that before you start the business. >> i find so many partners just come together, we have a great idea, we're getting along really well, and they just don't think about this, what happens if it doesn't work out or what happens if, god forbid, something happens to one of us and suddenly your spouse owns it. >> sometimes a lot of

entrepreneurs choose partners like they're going out drinking for the evening. when the morning comes and you're like you don't like the part partner you're working with what happens to the assets. you have limited time. a lot of people decide not to do it because they think it's too hard. the reason it's too hard is because people are overthinking the problem. you really don't have much. keep it simple. agree to revise it about a year down the road when you have some assets so you don't spend $10,000 on a lawyer trying to figure out how to split up a business when there's nothing to be divided. >> i like the idea of agreeing on a time table. let's do it in one year. ben and jay, so great to see you. thank you for letting us pick your brain. hopefully we'll see you back here soon. and thank all of you so much for joining us today. if you missed anything, all you have to do is go to the website. it is openforum.com/yourbusiness. you will find all of today's segments plus web exclusive

content with a lot more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. on our next show, with he meet a woman from los angeles who started an innovative baby seat cleaning business. find out how she partners with brands moms already know and love to build awareness and credibility. a win/win situation for everyone. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. it doesn't operate out of basements or back alleys. it grows more sophisticated every day. if it were a business, it would be a fortune 500 company. fraud has evolved. american express intelligent security gives you tools to fight fraud

and a global service network that never stops working. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. the next stage of the battle for and about iraq. good morning and thanks for getting up with us for this last sunday in the month of june 2014. the beginning of the current crisis in iraq appeared eto be lopsided. this weekend it could be remembered as the moment when government forces started fighting back. they are battling in tikrit, saddam hussein's hometown. one of the two major cities taken by militants earlier this month. just yesterday iraqi