they learned what life on the road was like as members of a gospel singing group. they've turned that experience into a luxury tour bus company that pop stars are going ga-ga over. how their musical experience made them transportation entrepreneurs. that's coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.

hi, everyone, i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business." brothers trent and joey hemphill knew a thing or two about 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 bus company when they left their careers. their commitment to exceeding expectations on every tour every time has resulted in a client list that's a who's who of musicians, actors and politicians. if you've ever wondered how lady gaga, justin timberlake, rihanna, britney spears, cher or

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

for being a stable force in an often unstable world ♪ it's a world trent and joey hemphill know firsthand with a history steeped in music, the two brothers grew up in a partridge family style bus, singing with their family band, the hemphills. >> i traveled 2 miles on a bus singing gospel music. it was a very interesting way to be raised. >> in one town you set up your gear, you perform, 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. so they decided to start their bus leasing company in 1980. >> we know that feeling of being on the bus, riding down the road or being on stage. so i think that was a valuable time for us and a training

ground for me and my brother. >> pioneers in the luxury coach industry, the brothers scraped enough money together to buy two old buss 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. so they already had over a 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 and we were able to learn the business end of the bus business and 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, 7 days a week. they did whatever it took to keep their buses rolling, support the drivers and keep their client 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 and they needed to add a bus to their tour. and just so happened we had a bus available, took the bus down there with a driver and got to meet the management and obviously we did a good job, because 30 years later, we did the whole van halen tour 2012. >> being prepared to are that first big call 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 to the woodwork to the painting and upholstery. after all, if justin

timberlake's 2020 experience tour starts on a thursday in cleveland, then justin's star bus and all the support buses for the musicians, the crew and everyone need to be there. >> you may have an artist that has a special mattress. we may have an artist that likes all white. white ledather furniture, white carpet or white drapes. 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 cribs with the monitors. we put tanning beds in buses. sometimes we'll 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 face 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. and 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 as strong as

your weakest lu esest link. so it's very important that everybody you've got out there driving your buss is top notch and all of your equipment is in really good condition. getting a call from air force one 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's always something new. and it's never boring around here. when you first sign up for an e-mail list you usually think a good idea. hundreds of junk mails later, you might find our website of the week is just what your inbox needs. unroll.me is is a free service that helps you unsubscribe instantly from the messages you do not want. you get the choice to stay subscribed, unsubscribe or have that sender's e-mail added to

your rollup, that's a daily digest that combines all that content into one simple to read e-mail. the web may be a great place to find your next big business idea. here now 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 stumble upon. the site recommends websites to check out and can be a good way to get inspired by content you wouldn't have necessarily found through other chans. two, read it is a good place to start. users submit con ten that the others can vote up or down. the ask me anything feature can help you learn what potential customers want and need. three, pinterest is one of the best ways to see what products are trending now and comments are open to everyone. so you can get a firsthand look at what people think about different images on the site. four, search twitter questions.

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

let's start with the idea of community experience. which one is a community experience? >> by default, social media gives it away. that's the community. >> right. >> it used to be the website was everything and social media emerged. websites aren't the primary engagement platform. individuals go there for a specific purpose, they're looking to fine out about a product or service, where it can be bought, how to contact you or maybe they want to send you a compliment. or maybe how to find out your social media. that's a big thing people go to brand websites. all that stuff should be easily found and allow the individual to determine which information they want. >> you have an example for 8:00. >> 8:00 coffee is one of our clients and we recently redid their website. and really looked at what it was that people were looking to do and created paths to allow each individual to find what they wanted as easily as they could. very important. on the other hand, social media, look at facebook, we have

something here from 8:00 coffee to show the difference. facebook is where you can have a quick interaction, you can give them a little surprise, say we're going to dae fine the experience for you. sure, people can go on your facebook page and dig down deep. most likely it's the most recent thing you posted that they'll interact with. you created that control and the community is responding to it and often responding to each other, which is nice. >> there's predictable, the website versus surprising. >> right. it's not that you can never have a surprise on your website. there are easter eggs 0 are fun things you can throw in. but the focus is giving people what they want when you want it. if i'm a zoo, people are going to see what the most recent exhibit that's important for me to know about. >> the sea lion. i know i'm coming there to see the exhibit, what are the contact information, what are the hours? >> i'm a mom, i'm busy. i want to see it easily. that's turtleback zoo. also on their social media on the other hand, again, you can

sort of throw something surprising out there. you have the information on the website and you can inspire with social. as everybody knows, february 2nd is groundhog day. our groundhog at turtleback zoo may not be as famous as punxsutawney phil. he's very accurate. he predicts super bowl winners, accurately. he predicts who's going to be on "american idol" and do well, who's going to have a fashion trend. what the lottery numbers may or may not be. he's not always 100%. i have to tell you. it's something fun people engage with. >> i've heard you talk about this groundhog before. this is not the first time i've heard about this groundhog. finally, focus on seo or engagement. the website, you want to come up high on the search engine results. >> you do. that's experience. that has a lot to do with the experience you're creating on the website.

make sure you're writing the correct way. as long as you write properly about the things you want people to find in thinking about the terms they'll be searching to find you, organically that will start happening. whereas, social media, you're not doing that. you want engagement, you want quick statements, something that has a great picture. pictures aren't really going to do anything seo but on facebook, for example, people have a great response emotionally to that picture and a quick little thing. >> it's interesting. it goes back to predictable versus surprise. on the website, to have good seo, you want to have good constant. it all wraps together. and also surprising and engagement fits together on the social media. >> it does. they shouldn't be twins but your website and social media should be related. you don't want to feel it's an entirely brand going from one to another. sometimes there are things to be shared, of course there are.

but think of them each with a different head so you can give the customer the experience. >> thank you so much. as small business owners were 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 our "your business" viewers to share their favorite small business web tools. >> we use an app called over. it's $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 this through social media and it gets hash tagged, the viewer immediately can tell it's from curtis eyewear. we found that to be very helpful. >> samepage.io. we use this app. it's free for ten or fewer employees in your company. it's a collaboration app. we use it to throw things at the wall to see if they stick, edit, chop, hack, when we're done, we take the output and put it into

our official package we use for our customers. >> one of my favorite websites is scoop it. if you're a entrepreneur or small business and looking for content, this is a great site for you to go to. what you'll find is that there are a bunch of bloggers and writers that are aggregating the information. scoop it and share it with your commune. >> the text messages do not build my database for e-mails. therefore, i found a service called virtual merchant mobile. it is a great website because not only does it allow me to swipe their card at a rate that's much better than square or other products out there, it allows me to gather an e-mail address. in the last year we've gathered 22,000 customers' e-mail addresses from working at expots and shows. >> i use whatsupp. i have people working overseas. it allows me to connect simply

and easily. the e-mail, people don't necessarily go on the e-mail but they always have the what'supp blinking. >> my favorite app is check this, an online shareable checklist outlining service. it's quick, it's easy. it works, for example, by using keystrokes to capture information, make a note, grab a url from the web and all of this information can be ar kifd. >> one i've been using lately is swiftly. they do little design fixes fast. it's christmas and you want to put a santa hat on your logo. they'll do that. it's inexpensive and great. >> still to come, we answer your questions on buy/sell agreements and whether or not it's possible to be too innovative. and where better to learn about the fine art of negotiating than from the hagglers at new york's famous

fulton fish market? 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.

we build this to make it better. negotiating can be tricky. for some small business owners, bargaining can be uncomfortable and things can get contentious. we've had experts on the show tell us how to do this, including academics and negotiating consultants. we receive no better advice about haggling then joey "tuna" centrone at new york's fulton fish market. >> 1185. >> i'm coming in here, i admittedly know very little about fish. >> right. >> i'm here with a mission because i have to buy fish. what would do i? >> four things. number one, you must know your product. whether it's fish or stocks, you have to know the kind of commodity you're dealing in. in this case, you'd have to know the quality, the size, the species. you can't look at a red snapper and say how much is that bl

bluefish? that's not a good thing. >> they'll take you for somebody who doesn't know what they're talking about. >> you have to know yourself, exude confidence. be firm when you can and not firm when you need to be. >> that's a good negotiator. >> the third thing is know the person you're buying from. you have to know if he has a lot of product, he has a little product. if he's sitting on a lot, and you know he's sitting on a lot, he's probably going to be lower priced than somebody else. >> know the person you're negotiating with. >> yes. >> and you're talking about knowing their supply, supply and demand. what about knowing them as a person, is that helpful? >> with any person you know the person, the guy on a daily basis, you'll probably get a better price than somebody else because he likes you. >> when you go into a negotiation, do you have a number in the back of your mind saying i am willing to pay or sell at "x"? >> yes, most times.

>> i'm not willing to go over or under. >> most times. you don't want to lose money. at all costs you want to make as much money for your company as possible. >> how do you decide when to be tough and when to be nice? >> you bat those hazel eyes at me. you'll get away with it once. twice, maybe. three times it's not going to work. you have to depend on knowledge. you really have to depend on knowledge. >> but nice. i wasn't referred to flirting. by nice i'm saying how do you know when you should be sort of drive a hard bargain? >> that has to do with availability, how much product is around. and how much people want it. it's supply and demand. there's a lot of supply and everybody wants it. the price will stay moderate. if there's not a lot of fly and everybody wants it, the price is going to stay high. and there's a fourth thing that i didn't mention yet. >> which is? >> one second.

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

>> those are from jersey. >> know your sell. >> is this your best price? >> that's my best price for the best quality. i have less quality for cheaper. >> no, no, no, i'm not interested in any 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'll be coming back here a lot. let's make a deal. first time, beginning of doing business, not the end. >> in good faith i'll charge you 440 and hopefully i'll trust you to come back. >> i'm 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 have a deal. hopefully i'll 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 gultz is the head of the goltz group. he's a lead business blogger for "the new york times" and ben ha is the founder and ceo of cheese burger, a network of websites dedicated to delivering funny content to about 20 million unique monthly visitors. it's great to see both of you guys. >> thanks for having us. >> two serial entrepreneurs. let's dive into the first question. it's about the possible perils of being inventive. >> how do you know when you're too innovative, 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. everyone is trying to be innovative. is there a time when you're being too innovative? >> there's absolutely a time when this happens. many businesses fall in this trap. they're doing research that may be working out somewhere in the future instead of doing

business. business is about doing something, generating revenue, giving people what they want and need in order to actually solve their practical problems. if you're doing research, that's great. maybe you should get a grant to do the research. if you want to make a business out of it, make it something more practical where you can lead the customers so you can help them get there. >> that's the key, leading the customers. jay, what i like about him, i see the problem, i have a solution but they're not understanding it. i'm being too innovative for them. is this a communicating or marketing issue this guy is having. >> there's a couple of words i found interesting. he has a solution. i think you have to add the word i think i have the solution. because 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 on whether it fits into the business as it is and 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. it's possible that solution is not a great solution and you 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 a 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 restraint in this business are. it can go either way. it may be the consultants too far out there and it's not going to work or maybe the business isn't putting enough energy into figuring it out. >> let's move on to the next question. it's about small business partnerships. >> my business partner an 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 something happens? >> i just received this question from a good friend of mine and i said now. i said put it in now. what do you think, jay, do that at the gng or wait a little while? >> you should do it before the

beginning for sure. >> yep. >> 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 mote vagus, 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 and it's a consulting business, maybe you part company and you figure out what to do with the phone number. if it's a business with fixed assets, who will buy out, how much is it going to cost. do that before you start the business. >> i find so many partners, ben, come together, we have a great idea, we're getting along really well and they 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 now suddenly your spouse owns it. >> sometimes we -- a lot of

entrepreneurs choose partners like they're going out drinking for the evening. that's a problem. when the morning comes and you don't like the partner you're working with, what happens to the assets and value you created. when you start out, you'll have limited resources and time. a lot of people decide not to use their time to create a buy/sell agreement. when you're starting out you really don't have much. don't spend too much time into this. keep it simple, agree to revise it about a year down the road when you have assets don't spend $10,000 on a lawyer trying to figure out how to sell a business or split it up. >> i like the idea of agreeing on a timetable. let's do this, in one year we'll revisit it. >> that's right. >> thank you both. hopefully we'll see you back here soon. >> thank you. thank you for joining us. if you missed anything from today's show, go to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's

segments plus web exclusive content with more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter @msnbcyourbiz. follow us on facebook and instagr instagram, too. find out how a woman partners with brands moms know and love to build credibility. a win/win situation for everyone. until then, i'm jj 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. welcome, harry. diane alley. >> introduced in print. brought to life in film. and now made real at the wizarding world of harry potter diagon alley. >> really, really enchanting. >> there isn't a scare inch that hasn't been meticulously thought of. >> it's been years in the making. >> i would come out when i was younger and wish that world could be real and that i could be part of it. >> and tonight we go behind the scenes to bring this fantastic world to life. >>