this designer has a booming business creating high-end sheds without full-time employees or costly overhead. how does he do it? and new innovative workplaces allowing entrepreneurs to ditch the desk and the traditional office setup. new ways to run your small business coming up next on "your business." ♪ >> announcer: 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 everyone. i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business." the show dedicated to helping grow your small business. how does running a business with no employees and zero overhead sound to you? we met one entrepreneur who has figured it out. this seattle-based designer wanted to make outdoor sheds but didn't want to resort to old school construction business models. the result was a high-quality but cost-efficient product. meet ryan smith. he's an architect, designer and the owner of seattle-based modern sheds. his company manufactures and

sells distinctive looking sheds based on his designs, like this prototype that he keeps at the studio in his backyard. his company also distinguishes in the unusual way he runs things. >> we don't have a payroll, no. >> and modern shed really has no employees. >> nor do they have the legal authority to treat me an as employee. >> we are all independent contractors. >> there is no location. we have been a virtual company for a long time. >> we are paperless. >> no headquarters. >> we try and carry zero inventory. we don't order anything until everything is signed off and a down payment has been collected. >> we don't even have a desk with files in it. we do virtual with everything because everyone is all over. >> with no factories, no warehouse and how employees, that means there's no inventory, no rent no benefits and almost no overhead. >> we just figured those are all costly it didn't make sense. >> if this doesn't quite make

sense to you, then you'll have to start by talking to sam beck he's the general manager for modern shed. >> he does all our processing our cost sheets our contracts, and handling all our contractors in different ways. >> you will need to first drive nearly two hours south of ryan's place in seattle to find him at his home which is where he works. >> i'm the general manager of modern shed. although i'm self-employed. >> that's right. tim is the general manager for the company but he's not an employee of the company. he's an independent consultant and modern shed is his primary client. >> i have three or four other clients. but the majority of my time is with the med. >> if you want to see where the sheds are made talk to eric johnston. he's located three hours north of tim. >> eric does our drawings and head of the fabrication. >> my head is johnson contract connecticuting services.

>> eric works full-time and pays the rent on this building he pays the workers, he pays their insurance and he pays the taxes. and modern shed they simply buy the finished products. >> now i have to carry insurance policy to cover my manufacturing process. and as soon as you have employees and you have overhead you have space, you create liabilities. modern shed as it is now, the entity that it is there's not much liability. >> with all of these costs and liabilities, you might wonder why they wouldn't prefer a weekly paycheck. >> i want to control my own life. i want to control my own time. and i'll work with you guys we'll work with each other, but in the end we really just want to be independent. >> i prefer to be a contractor the way i am. to maintain the individuality and bring in the jobs i would like to build, the things that make my blood flow. >> myself i would not be interested in being a corporate employee ever again. >> to find out how this system

as independent contractors works, drive another two hours to speak with mike groda. he's the director of sales for modern sheds. >> we are all taking care of ourselves and we realize that we can continue to grow the company as well as our own ventures and self-interests by continuing to work hard and put the time in. myself, i won't be successful unless modern shed is successful. >> so what's ryan secret? how has he persuaded all the independent vendors to serve a common goal and help him grow his company? >> as a vendor you're going to do all you can do to keep your customer happy, right? >> and here at modern shed each of these managers are both customers and vendors to each other. and they say that keeps them working harder to please each other than if they were merely coworkers employed by the same boss. >> the independent vendors are

more moteivated than employees. our business is in our head all the time, it is constant really. because we are working on our own business and in this case we have a common model, which is modern shed. >> everyone in this process has a sense of ownership. without being technically owners, you have to be to take pride in the product you're creating. >> ryan says there are both advantages and disadvantages to this kind of virtual system. but for him, it works better than what he calls the in-house system. >> the in-house model has advantages that are it is very flexible. and then on the other model, i would say this advantage is the fact that people are further away, but the advantages are the fact that you really do have a modern business model. and people can do whatever they need in their own schedules these days. i think it really adapts to how we are living more now. millenial entrepreneurs are

on the cutting edge of figuring out how to start companies with low overhead. instead of working out of a traditional office setup. many have a grafvitated to new entrepreneurial spaces that offer location mentorship and community. now even big businesses want to get into the act, having small offices located within these spaces to keep their organizations fresh and tapped into these high-energy innovative environments. >> we are really standing on the brink of really the largest shift in workplace dynamics that we have seen in 100 years. this is the industrial revolution of our time. >> and that revolution is happening all across the country. most notably behind the walls of a new generation of cutting edge co working spaces where entrepreneurs are creating launching and running their companies. >> the way we work is

dramatically changing. across the next ten years, more than half of the american workforce will be independent workers. >> that shift in the way we work is leaving more and more entrepreneurs to ditch the desk and abandon the traditional office setup. instead of locking themselves behind closed doors, they're setting up shop in places that foster collaboration. and innovation. the alley in new york city is one of these new types of work spaces. at any given time the place is buzzing with activity from mostly 20-somethings who are working on their ideas. this is a whole different way of looking at work. >> right. >> right. you're not -- it's not your company in your offices, you are purposefully setting yourself up next to a whole bunch of other companies. >> right, right, right. you are, because collaboration we find leads to innovation. >> here people are not assigned an office or even a desk. you just come in and work

wherever you want. for a $450 monthly fee. you say membership not rent. what does that mean? >> right. it is not just an office space, it's much more of a community. it works like a gym membership and you work wherever you want to work. instead of using the treadmill, you have access to venture capital hours or our events. >> christian anderson who co-founded the speak easy in indianapolis, another co working space, says this is how ideas happen. >> cities around the country are trying to figure out how to attract more start-ups, create an infrastructure that promotes the development of more start-ups. at the end of the day the best way to do that is create an environment where the concerns and collisions can happen between smart people. >> which is why he opened up the speak easy a place in the start-up scene he now calls home. >> it's nice to get perspective on scaling, legal issues art issues coding issues you have

somebody around that is an expert in everything. >> the alley and the speakeasy are two-co working spaces. there's also tony shay's contain container park in las vegas and the grind in new york city and developertown is taking the creative office space to a new level clustered inside a giant indianapolis warehouse is a neighborhood of small unique houses filled with developers and entrepreneurs. >> i saw pixar headquarters had little houses for the creatives and thought that's a cool office theme and thought, man, i can put those on wheels and you own that space as a developer for the whole time you're at developertown. >> every coworker space has its own vibe and attracts a certain type of person. at the grind in new york this space is clean and simple. the atmosphere is chill and the carefully curated community is ma sure. >> we got to the level where we could afford an office but we didn't want to be stuck in a room staring at ourselves and wanted to be part of a larger

community. i walked into a network of people that weren't competitors for me. they were all potential collaborators. >> bigger companies are now trying to tap into this collaborative mindset by relocating in some of these co working spaces. even if just for a i day. the bottom line in all of these co working spaces is that you're not going at it alone. can you give me an example of something that's happened here that might not have if some of the companies weren't here. >> the truth of the matter is every day something happens here. adventure capital walks in here and meets a start-up and an event happens later where they meet their co-founder so every day something happens that changes the direction of the company it's about to go with. staying connected with your customer is crucial to the success of your business. if you want an easy way to communicate with them check out our website of the week. livechat gives your visitors a

means to have their questions answered easily. they can use the site for troubleshooting before they buy or for care after the purchase. you can customize the chat box to fit your brand's look and use the built-in analytics to keep track of overall satisfaction with your small business service. racking up soub scribers to your blog is a great way to build awareness for your start-up, but doing so requires more work than just hosting content here and there. here are five ways to grow the number of people opting in courtesy of ink.com. one, provide a killer offer. make signing up for your blog an attractive deal by offering an ebook, free report or exclusive tips. two, add an opt-in option to your about page. this is the top three most visited pages. take advantage of the extra eyeballs. three, don't make people fill in lots of fields. use the fewest number possible to keep your visitors from ditching the sign-up process in

the middle. three or fewer is good to aim for. four, popup or slide-in form. keep it front and center a constant reminder to sign up could be just what visitors need to join. and five a/b testing. continually check headlines, calls to action and button copy on your e-mail forms so you have a realistic gauge of what is working and what's not. successful entrepreneurs know how to pitch. sometimes you only get one chance to ask for what you want or tell somebody about your company, so here to talk about how to make the most of those opportunities by crafting a persuasive and engaging case for your business is jillian strout she's the founder of strout media communications where she advised clients on all aspects of presenting. so good to see you, jillian. number one, follow the rule of three c's. >> be concise, captivate and

connect. so whether you're talking to an investor, at a cocktail party or giving your elevator pitch, you have to keep it concise because people have short attention spans. then you want to captivate. if you don't grab them in the first ten seconds, they are really not going to listen to the rest of the pitch. finally, you want to connect and engage that person who is listening to your pitch. so maybe you start with a question. >> articulate a problem your business solved. this might be the most important thing in the pitch. >> you have to articulate that problem. it's got to be clear from the get-go. to a company that i have worked with way back in our infancy, they have this great, you know problem that they solve of women who want to wear a designer dress to a special event but can't afford it. so they can rent it similar to the way you rent netflix. problem, solution easily conveyed. that's the kind of thing you want to leave with in a pitch. >> and depending on who you are pitching to you might be solving a different problem, radio right? you in may pitch differently to

a partner. >> exactly. you want to pay attention to who the audience is. i work with female entrepreneurs all the time and the customer base is often female but they find themselves in meetings all the time pitching to investors, which a lot of times unfortunately are male. so they have to tweak that pitch so even a male investor is going to get the value of this beauty product or a pair of high heels. >> got it. okay. share your company's story or mission. it's sometimes hard to do that in a quick pitch, so you have to really get it down to just a couple sentences. >> you do. you want to share -- you want to share a story, because sharing a story, again is going to engage captivate that person listening to the pitch. so a company like of mercer they design fashionable workwear for women. they tell the story on their website and i'm sure they tell it in their investor pitches as well. that when they met, they showed up at an event wearing a dress. it really spoke to them about this problem, that there are so

few choices. but conveying that story, it's a cute story. it makes you think, wow, i understand that. i've been there. experienced it. >> it's a shortcut to telling people there's a problem out there. it illustrates there's a problem instead of just telling people there's a problem out there. >> show them not tell them. >> okay. then finally, think about the questions that are going to be asked so and someday, i may even use

it on the moon. it's a marvelous thing! oh! haha! so you can replace plane tickets, traveler's cheques, a lost card. really? that worked? american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here.

this week your biz selfie is from kathie and diane from bmpt-shirts from edison new jersey. we love these pictures and so do our viewer so let's see your selfie. send it to yourbusiness or tweet it to us. and don't forget to hash tag it #yourbizselfie. remember the days when a talking toy meant pulling the string on the back of a doll? well, we are living in a digital age now. in today's elevator pitch they have combined children's love of dinosaurs with today's interactive technology. let's see if our panel thinks the idea is distinct or should be extinct. jen gruber is an entrepreneur and cory lasner is co-founder of anthrotronics. >> what is the world's tallest

building? >> hi we are the founders of cognitive toys. we believe we have the first cognitive smart toy that can learn and grow from the experiences of a child. it's dialogue based as you can see. you can ask it any type of question and go into any stories as well as knock-knock jokes and exercises and spelling. >> we just launched cognitive toys, our first predict. we just entered a successful kick-starter campaign in which we sold $275,000 of preorders in 30 days. the first toy will be available this holiday season and we plan to go into retail next year. we are raising $5,000 to build our core team and really push the technology forward to maintain the image. >> i know three children who would love that dinosaur. all right. i'm going to give this to you guys. i want two scores, one to ten on the product and one on the

pitch. and i don't know if this is helpful or not, but you are pitching to two people who have children so they may understand the market as well. do you guys have kids? >> no. >> i am a giant child though. >> okay. cory, are you ready? >> no. >> jen, let's start with you and see what your scores are. the product on the pitch, 9 and 9, great. why so high? >> well, i loved the product. i loved the accessibility a child has to learn and grow with it. and i like that it can actually teach them. so the parent feels like they are investing their time and money wisely. through that child's play. i love the way it looks. i love the way that you designed it so it is really fun and looks warm. and the only question i have in the pitch, which is why i gave it a nine which is i wanted to know a little bit more on how you were spending the dollars toward marketing because it is a such industry to break into and be a new recognized name. >> all right. but it piqued her interests, that's great.

cory? >> product, 6. pitch, 5. >> okay how come? >> tell with i think -- i see a lot of interactive toys come and go. so i think that is what -- i needed you to get to a higher bar in order to break through all the failures out there. i would have liked to on the pitch side hear a little bit more about what is the differentiate or price point. on the product side i'm concerned that it's going to be a novelty that won't last more than a day or two days. so again, that interactivity, how are you going to keep the interests? >> those are great questions because i'm assuming you have thought through some of this stuff, so this is great advice that if you have get that in the pitch so that you can work with somebody like cory who might have these questions. all right, well congratulations, you guys we look forward to seeing this coming up this holiday season, right? well, good luck with everything. and you guys thank you so much for your advice.

>> thank you very much. if any of you have a product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an e-mail. the ad dress is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. don't forget to include a summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you're going to do with that money. you never know somebody out there watching the show might be interested in helping you. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. jen and cory are back with us. the first one is an e-mail from daria who writes i work with clients who are entering joint ventures and various partnerships as a means for increasing brand awareness and ingenuity. what should i be advising them in regards to things they should be caution about when entering these kinds of partnerships in jen, i'm starting with you because we talked about this earlier today. >> i like the joint ventures when the goals align. so the thing i find most important to discuss is most people want to start over and

get into more of the technical logistics. the most important thing is to say who is doing what and be very clear about that. i always put up front, here's what i'm really good at and here's what i'm not good at or don't like doing. a lot of people feel too vulnerable to say that but it's good to have a good working relationship so that the expectations are really clear up front. that this is what you're going to do. and this is what i'm going to do. and ultimately the integrity of both companies has to be in alignment, sharing the same goals, sharing the same values this is really important. >> what about liking the person or not, cory? >> i was just going to say you have to listen to your gut. if you have a little feeling that something is not right, try to identify it. is it a personality issue or something you're just not comfortable with. on the flip side if you love the person and want to jump right in take a step back and think about what could go wrong and how can you mitigate those risks as well. >> yeah i remember a long time ago when i was working for this

internet start-up and we were making a deal with someone and it just felt wrong but i felt really pressured to make this deal happen because we needed it. >> right. >> and we signed it. and in the end, it was a headache. let's move on to the next question, the value of social media. >> with the ever-changing landscape of social media, what is a really good resource to understand and educate myself as well as potentially new business starters understanding the importance of social media? >> yeah, particularly things are changing so quickly, right? how can you just keep up-to-date? >> well, so many marketing firms are up-to-date on social media. so i think it's worth the investment to at least have or get some sort soft strategy relevant for your business. and if it's not core to your business, maybe find someone from within your company to keep it current. so that's what we have done because we are not, we don't see social media as our core but know we need to stay current and we found a great person within our company who loves it.

>> so social media is a core thing to me to pay attention to. so i think that authenticity is the number one thing you need to know about social media. there are so many workshops you can invest in. there's a lot of great books coming on the market every single day. and i also think it is really important to identify the people who would be role models to you. and they don't necessarily have to be in your vertical but somebody you feel has a great social media presence great engagement and follow what they are doing. use them as a role model and example. what i wouldn't do is just hire a marketing firm or social media expert unless you really researched their level of transactions. their reach. because many social experts now have very little reach of their own, which is confusing to me. so you really want to understand, do they have reach or are they just calling themselves an expert? do they have a track record to show the conversion worthwhile investment for whoever was investing in that. >> and also if you do a search and spend some time just reaching a bunch of articles

you'll better understand what pinterest is used for, instagram, snapchat, facebook, you have to start with a basic understanding of where your audience is. >> right. gary who is a regular guest has an incredible book to break down every one of the social media platforms and what they are best used for. >> great advice. finally, we have a question from josh who writes how do you reach market segments that are transitioning from one technology to another? any ideas here? >> well, i think staying on top of technology as a business owner is important. the most important thing for going back to social media is even if you're not going to activate it as a business owner yourself you need to understand what is relevant and what it is being used for. so transitioning from something that was relevant to you could happen literally in this day and age within months. so having that mindset and agile

within your company to accelerate your business is really important. >> and not just hopping on every new thing but understanding where it fits into your business, where it fits into the market? >> right. as a technology company for us it's very important to stay ahead of the curve. so really trying to figure out what is coming. and anticipate and look at how our business model fits with the new technology and what is going to be more relevant for us. >> the most simple advice of innovation, what innovation is or how to adopt it or understand it is to stay open minded. that's where a lot of people become very focused and closed-minded are missing the opportunity and innovation in front of them. >> thank you, guys. really appreciate you giving us your insight. and we answer questions every single week here on the show so if you have a question let us know. the address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there, hit the ask the show link to submit a question for the panel or send a

quick e-mail to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we are always on twitter to see what other pieces of entrepreneurial advice we can find from small business openers. entrepreneur and sales expert harvey mckay tweet, listen to your customers or they'll start talking to someone else. learn to leave, president dave anderson says. if someone is considering you versus your competitor what is your tie-breaker? if it is price or experience you may be a commodity. and fran tarkenton tweets i've always hired based on the belief that skills can be taught but attitude is inherited and i'm not alone. to learn more on today's show go to openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus web-exclusive content to help your business grow. and follow us on twitter @msnbcyourbiz. and we are on facebook and

instagram as well. next week we profile a business going after a very specific kind of customer. >> modern gentleman sort of seamlessly traverses work family friends, different social settings and appreciates the finer things in life, whether that's food and wine spirits and cigars beautiful cars nice time pieces. >> how this san francisco-based company wing tip is targeting the modern gentlemen and some ladies, too. until then i'm jj ramberg. and remember, we make your business our business. american express for travel and entertainment worldwide. just show them this - the american express card. don't leave home without it! and someday, i may even use it on the moon. it's a marvelous thing! oh! haha! so you can replace plane tickets, traveler's cheques, a lost card. really? that worked?

american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here. in the summer of 1999 the president of the united states and his family decided they would spend their summer vacation at the home of some people they had never met. and they spent the summer vacation in a town that is harder to pronounce and spell than almost any other town in the country. and certainly than any other town in the state in which they vacationed. this is the town name. how would you pronounce that? sound it out. if you guessed skaneateles, you are not alone, but you would be deeply deeply wrong. the way you say t