she saw a gaping hole in the health care industry. so created an app connecting people with health coaches. and magic johnson's wife cookie on the lessons she learned starting a jeans line for women of all sizes. tackling the issues that affect your small business 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." we often talk about focus on this program. zero in on your strengths and play on those. don't be too taken by the shiny objects. those opportunities that seem they could be great but will ultimately just distract you from your goals. but i recently met the founder of the new app vida health who has a somewhat contrarian view on focus when it comes to marketing her product. and her strategy seems to be working. >> he stephanie launched her company vida health she made a decision that she wasn't going

to depend on just one strategy to find her customers. >> we're live on our website direct to consumer and then we have employers that are live where we're working with their employees. and then we have irb studies that we're doing. >> vida san app that is filling what stephanie sees as a gaping hole in the health care market. >> vida health is a 24/7 on-demand service. where you get access to a health coach. you get daily support, very specific personalized guidance for what you need. >> here's how it works. you sign up and answer a few questions about your goals. for example. do you have diabetes? do you want to lower your cholesterol? are you just looking to get fit? and then what kind of coach do you want? a cheerleader, a drill sergeant? once you put in all this information, the app connects you with a health coach. >> so tell me what's been going on since i talked to you last time? >> well, i've been on track with my goals. >> heather has been using the app since september. >> my health coach, she helps me

just make nutritional choices, and exercise choices like what's the best exercise to do for the area that i want to work on. >> heather found out about vida through word of mouth. a friend suggested she download it. and that's exactly what stephanie was hoping for with vida's business to consumer strategy. >> we're live in the app store and people start to download it and talk about your product, and share it. >> but vida is just one leg of this three-legged stool. part two is getting employers to sign up with vida. >> employers will market the product, they'll pay us but they market the product to employees directly. and they see it as a service. >> once you get an employer to work with you you suddenly have access to all of their employees. so one call gets you many. >> right. >> versus consumer which is one-to-one. >> right. >> so why not focus all your attention on working with employers? >> sometimes when employers market to their employees people don't pay attention. they go oh, that's my employer. right? but if their friend you know uses the app in the app store

then they tell them about it and then their employer tells them about it they go i really need to do this. >> and then there is the third leg. working with big names in health care. >> we're doing clinical research studies with duke around cancer and heart disease. i mean these are both areas where we just don't have a lot of ways to support patients. what we do is we provide a service, and a technology model to really provide that day-to-day care in a way that's really affordable. >> to do all three of these things at the same time meant stephanie had to put together the right team. connie chen the company's chief medical officer is a practicing physician. >> i do think it makes it easier for us to have conversations with medical institutions because we're building from you know on the ground experiences with having -- >> how important is it for consumers to see that you guys actually work with these very well-known brands in the medical world? >> i think it's incredibly

important for consumers to see that everything we do is evidence based. >> stephanie admits that simultaneously going after three targets is hard. >> you're just starting out. you have a team but it is not an enormous team. and so some people would say, you are being schizophrenic by going after these three different channels at the same time. how do you divide your time? >> i realize it is somewhat contrarian but i've seen companies spend three years going after one provider relationship and learning very slowly and we want to learn fast. learning fast benefits all the channels at the same time. >> there is one key strategy that makes this all work, though. and that is that for all the different channels she's providing the exact same product. >> if we had to build separate products it wouldn't work. of course that would be defocusing. we want have an advantage to do that. >> at this point there's no customization of the app for different channels. stephanie says that works because no matter how she gets to them the end user is the same in all three cases.

>> they're all consumers. right? at the end of the day the consumer is the customer. and so we get the same requests whether they're coming from their provider their employer, or direct to the app. the same product requests. >> for now, stephanie is keeping with her plans. basically, because it's working. but like any good ceo, she is constantly looking at her data and talking to her customers, to see if things change. >> if one channel becomes -- just blows out, of course you will move energy in that direction. but right now, they're all working and so we're -- you know, we're scaling them as fast as we can and learning as fast as we can. >> appearance matters. it is why entrepreneurs often find themselves spending months discussing and planning even the smallest changes to their website or logo. but while some strategies are timeless designs that resonated with customers five years ago will not necessarily work today. here now are five trends you should consider for your next website revamp courtesy of

entrepreneur.com. one, huge and beautiful images. thanks to three unique photo sites and faster broadband speeds you can use bigger and better elements on your website. two, semiflat designs. microsoft and apple pioneered the flat composition look. expect to see variations where flat-ish items are combined with real world enhancements. three, better typography. websites and logos are incorporating unique fonts in their layout. four, hand drawn illustrations. with larger imagery, strong fonts and pleasing colors becoming standard designers will look to differentiate with layouts that add a personal touch. and five, background video. moving images running on the site can help show the soul of your company. there are an overwhelming number of websites and apps out there that can help make your business life easier but it is incredibly hard to sort through them all.

nothing is more helpful than knowing what works for other people in your position. so we asked our audience for their favorite tools. >> a great website that i have found useful is indeed i 234679 d-e-e-d. you can find professionals to work on projects where you cannot have to bring on staff. you don't have to worry about insurances or benefits but get qualified people to work on projects or something you might want to do for your business. >> one of the web pages that i use is about.me. it's free to use. i use it for my company. to express what i do. it's a quick bio, and you're able to use it to grow your company, as well. >> i use shopify. it's a full service website. provides templates so that no matter what industry you're in you can set something up. it also allows you to do e-commerce, and i found that

it's one of the best sites around for setting up a website and maintaining it. >> my favorite website in the last two months is callandly.com. i send it to the groups that are want to have meetings with. it really -- a lot of time to see what is the best time to call. >> one of my favorite apps is called picks monkey. it's a website where you can edit your photos you can create colleges, you can add text on your photos. and it's very helpful if you are in blogging because in a couple of seconds you can create a whole new product without spending tons of money on photo shop. >> one great website for

e-commerce sellers is suredone.com. i just started using it. and it -- what it does is it pulls your e-commerce with things like for me it's 1500 listings from ebay in just a couple of clicks i'm able to create my own store front, still have my stuff on ebay i can then send all of that information, my listings my pictures over to amazon to etsy, it's an amazing tool. >> it could be because of the current economy, a reaction to the changes in health care laws or new technology which makes it easier to track. but increasingly small businesses are hiring freelancers rather than full-time employees. as cnbc's sharon epperson tells us freelancing is actually being embraced by both employees and employers. >> kyle davidson has been on many adventures but one that's been most meaningful came after he left living social an online marketplace that features local

deals for its subscribers. >> i decided to refocus the core business, refocus sort of their strategy a little bit. and decided as a result to shut down the adventures division nationwide. >> davidson had worked on that team crafting deals on snowboard snowboarding, skiing, rafting, wine tours and other trips. when his job came to an end he embarked on a new adventure. launching his own business. giving an online marketplace that's designed specifically for consumers seeking active excursions. and he hired a bunch of freelancers to work with him. mostly members of his old team. >> so, rehired a lot of my part-time staff from living social, we employ 23 freelancers. we call them group leaders. they're our guides on our trips and yeah every single one is a freelancer. >> there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people working for themselves over the past decade. about 53 million americans are doing freelance work today. that's about one-third of the entire u.s. workforce.

according to a recent study commissioned by the freelancer's union. >> the landscape is changing. the market i can get great freelancers so if i can have access to that from anywhere why wouldn't he work with freelancers? it only makes sense for a ceo or anybody running a company to do that. >> for davidson having a freelance staff is essential for his business. >> it's much easier to have a larger staff, because you have some more flexibility in terms of scheduling. the more people we have the more options there are for -- >> hiring freelancers provides more options for businesses, large and small. >> it's going to change the way the corporate america works, that the small business landscape operates because you have access to different kinds of peep. on shorter-term assignments. the work environment is changing from thinking about long-term careers, which is what sort of we used to do in the past to thinking about work on a project basis. >> the freelance economy changing the way americans work and the way companies hire. >> when we come back we'll answer your business questions

on funding and what you need to set up a consultancy. and magic johnson's wife cookie tells us the secret of her success with her new line of jeans for women of all sizes. 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.

today's your biz selfie comes from the owner of paper camilla scrapbook kit in pasadena, california surrounded by what looks like jewelry boxes for scrapbooking. we would love to see your photo next so please send a selfie of you and your business and add the #yourbizselfie. tweet it to us @msnbcyourbiz or e-mail it to your business @msnbc.com. please don't forget to tell us your name your city and the name of your company. you've certainly heard of magic johnson. nba legend turned entrepreneur. but the business sense in the family did not stop with him. his wife cookie recently tested her chops at a venture of her own. a premium jeans line filling a void in the market for curvy women and the company's making some noise. >> cookie johnson has always been obsessed with fashion. in college, she studied clothing and textiles and later went on

to have a career as a buyer. then came a high profile marriage to nba superstar magic johnson. >> i was at a point in my life where i was looking for something to do. because the kids were older. >> her biggest frustration with fashion since taking a break to raise her family finding designer jeans that fit her curvy body. >> i thought, hey, you know i'm not 9 only one out here like this. i'm not the only curvy girl in the world. if i design a jean to fit a woman with a real feminine body i think that it would be very successful, and i think there are a lot of women who would want this jean. and so you know i just started working on it. didn't think anything would come of it but here we are. >> instead of having her husband invest and support the start-up cookie decided to launch the business on her own. >> i've always been kind of independent, you know, before i got married. and i always had goals for myself. so for me to be able to create the and do this on my own was

very important. >> with an eye to creating on trend jeans that were fitted properly for the curvy woman she approached a clothing manufacturer already experienced in designer jeans. >> i knew the retail side but i didn't know the wholesale side so that's why i partnered. you know i found someone who was in the business you know knew it really well and then we created the product from there. it's a little easier on you. because they already have the infrastructure. >> jeans by c.j. was born and one of their first customers was oprah. >> we sent some jeans to oprah, hoping that she would, you know wear them on her magazine. i found out later that she tried them on for a photo shoot, loved them so much she took them home. she wore them every day over that weekend. they were so comfortable. and so we were very lucky to get her seal approval. >> the jeans have names like faith, joy and peace. cookie's goal is the came as when she started. to make women feel good about

themselves, and their bodies. >> we say that these jeans are woven with a little bit of self-esteem. and i think it's empowering for women. and it sounds silly to say that a jean can empower a woman but if you thought about women who go and shop and they look for certain things and they just can't find them it can become very depressing. so to make women happy, and feel good about themselves, you know it was a great plus. >> it's time now to answer some of your business questions so let's get our board of directors in here to help us out. alicia syrett is the founder and ceo of pantegrion capital focused on seed and early stage investments and steve strauss is the senior columnist at "usa today" small business and he is the founder and ceo of the self-employed dotcom. so good to see both of you guys. all right let's go to the first question. it came in an e-mail and it

says i am in the second trimester of my business. i need financing for marketing and advertising. at this stage which would be best, crowd funding, a microloan or a private bank loan. where do you think they should start? >> i think if you have a sense of a direct relationship with your marketing spend and the revenues it generates then loans could be a really good thing, because you have some confidence that you could easily pay those loans back and you don't have to give up equity. however, if you don't have that sense of that causal relationship, then crowd funding could probably be a better outlet for you. because, the campaign itself is really an exercise in marketing and advertising. the one caveat i would say to that is that it takes a hell of a lot of work and if you don't meet your funding goals then you will have to return all the money. so if you do engage in crowd funding make sure that you can pick those goals. >> people think crowd funding is so great. you put it up there and you get

the money and that's not the case at all. >> that's right. >> steve i think alicia has a really good point which is marketing. i mean unless you directly know your roi, return on investment on your marketing you don't know if it's going to if anything's going to come of it. >> absolutely. marketing is really important because of how new people learn about your business. and i would say in this case know if the business is in the second trimester, right, starting to show. it's starting to kick. that means, you know, maturing a little bit. in that case i do think a conventional loan or small business association, fda loans is probably the way to go. that means separating it if you haven't done already your business credit from your personal credit. getting an employee i.d. number from the federal government and getting a number from dunn and brad street credibility and setting up separate bank accounts and going out with your business credit getting a business loan and i have to agree with what alicia was

saying about kraut funding. there is some magical thinking that goes on that if you put up a kid yo on kick starter or indy go go strangers are going to fund your business. as you mentioned that's notbusiness. that's not the way it works. a more mature business will probably go in a different direction and establish credit and use that to grow their business later on. >> if you're going to get a bank loan, they'll ask you how are you going to pay this back. if you can show there's direct marketing, i spend x number of and i get x number of dollars back than saying i will throw this out there and see what happens. >> let's move on to the next question, the importance of getting social. >> you hear so much about it there's so much out there, what is the real value of social media for marketing your company? >> this is such a good question. i was on a panel with someone the other day. he said i don't use social media. i use e-mail. almost like crowd funding,

people have this impression that go on facebook twitter, instagram and people are flocking. but there is a value. >> it is the $64,000 question for a lot of business people. we all hear so much about social media, social media marketing, should you do it? in my "usa today" column about five years ago, maybe six years ago, i wrote a column about twitter. should you tweet? i said no! it was blasphemous. but what was interesting was it became the most popular thing for all the wrong reasons that i ever wrote. what happened was the twitter people got ahold it. they brought started tweeting, this strauss guy is an idiot. it went viral. that's when the light went on for me. oh, there is something to it. i think for most small businesses t can help you brand your business if you do it consistently. again and again and again. you have to make a commitment to

it as you would with any of your marketing. the second is this is what i learned from a woman named ginny dietrich. she said social media is also social networking. you can meet people you would not otherwise normally meet and make relationships that you would not otherwise make and get new business that you would not otherwise get. that's a great proposition for social media. >> i think social media is helpful if you're using it in the way your target customers are using it. or else you're just throwing it out to the wind. >> arethere are two big benefits. the first is quantifiable media. you can say i will spend this amount of money on a facebook ad. that could be a huge benefit, like steve said -- >> that's different. that is using social media platforms to advertise. >> absolutely.

which is different than putting out my own facebook posts and tweeting. it's important to remember the one you're talking about. >> so you could potentially engage with customers there. if you are posting things on instagram, facebook twitter, you are engaging with your customers on a constant basis. that's important because you are building goodwill with them reaching them where they're putting their eyeballs. you have to keep in mind a customer is so much more valuable to you, you can sell and cross-sell products to them. it's so much harder to get a new customer. if you're maintaining that relationship with them on a regular basis with social media, meeting them where they are spending their time that can be incredibly valuable for your brand. >> the real issue is are you creating content that they want to read and engage with? that's tricky. >> i think what you are both saying you have to pick the social media platform not the one that you like but the

customers tend to use the most. >> the next question this is for all of the consultants out there. >> as a consultant what are the must-have legal documents? by the way so many people are a consultant. >> some of the big documents are an operating agreement, articles of incorporation, any specific licenses or permits that you might need for that specific business. and you want to make sure you have your tax i.d. documented. my caveat to this my dad who is a lawyer would kill me if i didn't say this you should always make sure you get great legal counsel. the legal documents you may need could vary depending on what corporation iyou set up what state you're in. >> how do you find the right person to help you figure out what documents you need?

>> well i agree, you do need to speak with a lawyer. there are times you can do it yourself, there are times not do it yourself. when getting started, trying to set the foundation of your business up is not the time to do it yourself. you have to incorporate, so you need articles of incorporation, maybe an employee or employment agreement with people you're working with. make sure they're at-will employees. and especially for a consultant a nondisclosure agreement, nda may be an important document to have as well. >> thank you guys so much for answering these questions very very helpful. if any of you out there have a question for our experts, we answer them every week on the show. send it in. our address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once there, hit the ask the show link. you can submit your question. if it's easier for you, e-mail us your questions and comments to yourbusiness@msnbc.com.

so today ends you guys week three of the jj challenge, where we have gone out to really successful entrepreneurs and asked them what is something you do. we'll try to do it for a week also. last week's came from the founder of indiegogo. she challenged us to have one of our employees give us a review. you guys ever done this? >> sometimes. >> steve, have you? >> yep. >> it's hard. of all the challenges we've done we got the least feedback from this, i think it's because you guys were scared to do it. it's hard. for those of you who chose to opt out, i encourage you to do this sometime in the future. i did it last week. i followed the challenge. i asked my employee for specific feedback, one employee on certain yeahs. i made it so she felt comfortable. i came out with some good feedback that will help me in the future. this week's challenge, you guys

came on a good week this week's challenge is a bit easier and more fun. this comes from stuart weitzman. when he was in his 20s he designed his first pair of shoes for his father's company, called mr. seymour. those shows were a success, so wizeman joined the family business. he took it over and changed the name when his father passed away. today the brand is known for its red carpet creations and the shoes are sold in more than 0 countries around the world. his challenge to us is participate in one cultural activity this week. he says if we do that we'll get the benefit of having a happier life learning to be more organized with our team and may get inspired as an entrepreneur in ways we do not expect. easy for you guys this week. >> i like that one a lot. over the holidays i actually went to a local play with some people i do some work with. it was a great event to go to a

cultural event together. it got everyone out of their comfort zone it was like seeing the teacher outside of school. we saw each other in a different context. that's fun and valuable. >> i think it can inspire you. i expect both of you do this and all of you to do this. send photos let us know how you were inspired and post it on the msn bshgs krshgs msnbc msnbc your business facebook page. have fun with this everyone. >> thanks so much for joining us today. to learn more about the show head over to our website, it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. and we have posted a bunch more content to help your company grow. we are also on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. facebook and instagram.

next week one orthodontist found everyone in think practice doing what they're able to do best. >> we were able to focus more on patient care than clerical things. we make it about the systems, not the owner. >> we'll see how consolidating overhead and detailed analytics has this small business braced for greater growth in the future. 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. from the scandal to the showdown. good morning to everyone out there. thanks for getting up with us on this chilly first day in february. super sunday. winter's looking more like winter with every passing minute. the latest details on this week's big storm in a moment. another big storm, i know. as i just hinted if you could possibly have forgotten, today is super bowl sunday. a big day every year. after the fortnight we had, the entire season the nfl just ha