national small business week kicks off as community small businesses and their struggles make headlines. sba administrator speaks on what the government can do to help. plus the owner of six restaurants finds efficiency and another revenue stream by establishing his own supply chain. all of that coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to

help. that's why we're proud to present "your business" on msnbc. hi everyone. i'm j.j. welcome to your business. the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. we've seen with recent events the important role small businesses play in a community and how cities and towns can suffer economically when small businesses suffer. major events will be held around the country from may 4-8 as a part of national small business week. this year the small business administration will hold gathering in cities including miami, san antonio, new york and washington, d.c., to recognize the contributions of small businesses. small business administration head maria joins us to talk

about the celebration plans and so much more. administrator, it's great to see you. >> like wise. good to see you. i'm delighted to see you lifting small businesses across the country. >> thank you. that's what we try to do here. before we talk about the celebration. i'm excited to talk about it. i want to ask you about what is going on in baltimore. when i see thing like this my mind goes first to the small business owners. these people who are losing business because of looting, fires, curfew. maybe for a big business a day or week did unmatter. but small business it can be the matter of life and death for your business. what kind of safety net is there? >> we have a special office the office of disaster assistance. we structured it for the reason you outlined. when a governor deems a state emergency, they notify me and we can go in and provide laws. we've done it across the country

whenever there was a sudden or economic disaster. we can come in with economic disaster relief for home and business loss. we do direct lending. it's an important office. it's been used over and over in instances like katrina, you described baltimore. i experienced the los angeles riots and sba is there as a strong partner to help people get back on their feet focussed on small business. >> and, you know, i know in the past these loans there have been a lot of red tape who were complaining the loans were there but it took a long time to get there. have you been working on stream lining the process? >> i instituted three new initiatives. first, we have one cue. we separated the cue the home loans from the business. we have experts that know how to process them. as opposed to mixing them and not knowing. we're doing more of them online. and third is the way we mail

out more proactively. we have stations there on the ground talking to people every day. encouraging them to apply. as a result we've seen so much more e fresh si and effectiveness in deploying those small business disaster assistance loans. >> let's talk about the celebration. small business week i've been amazed to see how this event has grown since we've been doing this show. and how it's gotten so much more attention and you guys seem to be doing more. what is small business week all about? >> well, j.j. let me thank you. you have been there for us and you've been a strong partner. thank you for what you're doing. that's right. i think the celebration has to be two-fold. first, it's an important time for us to honor, to remember the role of small business. you know as you just aptly pointed. even talks about their corporation. indeed they're important players and in terms of the marketplace, we need the corporations to

thrive and succeed. but today it's the small the small businesses creating two out of every three new jobs. so we have to recognize the important role they're playing in our job creation strategy. creating 61 months of consecutive job growth. something we have never seen in our country before. again, driven by the small business. so that's it. first a celebration and second we have to promise the small businesses that whether it's in a disaster situation or just every day that we will make every effort to always shop local shops, shop small in our communities, to make sure we're lifting our families that risk everything to provide us something that is unique from them uniquely, you know local to our community, and what makes our communities more interesting for tourists. >> do you have a favorite small business you are going to be honoring in one of the cities? >> oh my goodness i have favorites in every one. i enjoy three things. seeing the growth accelerators.

place where millennial's and encore entrepreneurs get together at the growth accelerator and innovating new businesses. i try to salute those. they're trying to grow their business. i also go in to visit, again, i think we forget sometimes about the importance of stopping and shopping at our local restaurants. and i like to visit another craft or something like that. so i've got mine all picked out across the country as go from miami to los angeles over to new york san antonio, and washington, d.c. on friday. >> i think one of the neat things, you know, when i've been to your events is a lot of the small businesses that get a lot of press and honored are the fast growing tech companies. right. that everyone is sort of fascinated how they started small and grew. so many small businesses are the people that, you know start these coffee houses or when i was there it was a woman who made blacknkets.

the small businesses that are a little bit less sexy than the fast growing tech companies that you take the opportunity to honor and show what they're doing for the economy. >> yeah. i think you're spot on. we have the main stream businesses i described that we have to honor. i think even when bewe innovate it doesn't have to be high-tech. it can be simple. sba had success in all walks of life. we helped a woman who was a veteran come in and start a simulator training program for her fellow men and women in uniform. we have seen people come in. i recently saw a spoon for people who tremble so they can get the peas and get them in and eat with dignity. really beautiful technology. and yet, of course you know we helped start under armor. we helped start several companies that are part of the mars rover curiosity that are exploring mars. we have to celebrate all of

them. the local es tigs to the person sending things out to the ecosystem. >> have a great time. we'll be watching to see whose eyes are honoring. >> wait until you see the winners. you'll be pleased with the kind of accommodation we have. a veteran somebody in clean technology and somebody that creates garments. i hope your listeners will follow us. >> all right. that sounds great. great to see you. thanks again. a force to be reckoned with when it comings to his small business. he's not shy about sharing his past failures or recent successes. his excitement now is implimenting a supply chain. it might help your small business. we went to nevada to see how he's doing it.

the story of one reno, nevada chef opened six restaurants in three years and took control of his supply chain. >> sometimes a little bit of knowledge is dangerous, right. i hear the word vertical integration. i look it up online and there it is. i read it and have it posted in my office. it's like vertical integration becoming one's own supply chain. >> this was mark's aha moment. if he could implement a supply chain for his restaurant, he would be setting them up for long-term success. something that had eluded him in the past. >> i had a bunch of failures and i was like what can we do wrong? i know we can do great service and food and energetic and passionate about what we do. >> that attitude has been the driving force ever since his first restaurant didn't make it. after eight years of blood, sweat, and tears and rave reviews and a packed house almost every night, the business

just couldn't turn a profit. >> it was a hard lesson to learn. if you're not watching the cash flow and the bottom line, if you don't have the systems in place you're i not going to be around too long. you can't fix it sometimes. you have to start over. >> when he did start over, he decided the business side of running a restaurant was equally as important as great food and service. >> for myself looking at rebooting and getting honest it was like what i needed to do. i needed to pay attention to system and numbers. >> this time around he got it right. his newfound obsession with running a business by the numbers worked. the infectious enthusiasm for reno, good local food and hard work lead to rapid expansion and success. opening six restaurants in the reno area in rapid succession. >> let's talk about the new menu. >> vertical integration wasn't a new idea. henry ford famously took control

of his supply chain by producing the components he needed for his own cars instead of buying them from a third party. >> i'm going to make a leather company and have a rubber plant. he's going supply his own tires. then he said since i'm doing that -- here is the part i love i might as well sell it to pontiac. >> with the fate of moody's in the back of his mind he quickly realized his restaurant portfolio including his restaurants could benefit from the system since they had overlapping needs like bread, meat, pasta, and dessert. >> why don't we create reno provisions to put it under one facility to produce from there. we'll create a store. and we'll create white labelling and selling it ourselves and our restaurants and other restaurants. so we have these three levels of three areas that we vertically integrate coming from the hub of

the kitchen down stairs. >> it may sound simple but the move to control his supply chain was risky. not only did he have to find financing to build a facility but he also had to figure out the logistics of making things he previously purchased. or made on site at each individual restaurant. >> this is big undertaking that has different facets to it that come together under one room. >> like a smallish whole foods supermarket. reno provisions has commercial bakery butcher, and kitchen that opens the lower level, and restaurant, bar, and market that is open to the public on the street level. martin was so intrigued by the idea he took a 50% pay cut as a head pastry chef at a local casino to be part of it. >> we do centralized production here. we have people specialized at pastry and bread. you have a good tight control on the product of your

businesses. it's more efficient than having individual pastry crews. >> we followed some of the products made and saw firsthand the supply chain in action. as the orders came in the food was prepped and the delivery truck went out. >> our best customer our highest volume customer is burger me. we're doing 800 to 1200 pounds a week of ground beef. for pork products he relies on girl farm a few miles outside reno for high quality pasture raised maelt edd meat. >> i fell in love with the pig. it's an amazing experience and then you come along with the chef like mark who honors the animal. that's what he does. he doesn't just call me and i side need ten pork loins. he said i need a pig. >> the local pork is delivered to reno provisions where it gets turned into several products

including their first white label food. a maple sage sausage, for a new breakfast place in reno called two chicks restaurant. >> we're thinks about the concept of two chicks he was thinking about reno provisions. we had a conversation about doing the sausage. he makes a special maple sage sausage for us. it's easier and faster and local with local pork and doing apple sin moll swirl bread for us. >> they were our first white label customer. and they could have called it their own homemade sausage because it is but they choice to put reno provision on the label. >> mark is still actively tweaking the concept. and as always his healthy regard for the numbers has him a little nervous because they aren't where he would like them to be. not yet. >> and everyone knows where we need to make it up. everyone is building toward that. slowly but surely every week we're short less.

we're short less. we're short less. eventually that's how we'll get our cash flow going with the proper direction. online video can be a powerful way to market your small business. so if you're looking to produce high quality and effective videos, check out our website of the week. it's a professional video hosting site that provides analytics that attracttrack who is watching your videos and how long. you can find out exactly what point in the video a viewer loses interest. this information can help make sure that every video you make captures your market with every click. finding great employees to hire can sometimes feel like finding a need until a haystack. there are ways to keep a look out for talented new hires. here are five ways you can make your company a top destination

for talent. one, make your job listing stand out. paint a picture for the applicant. be clear and point out unique perks and benefits. two, highlight your company values. if they are as strongly defined part of your culture, be sure to include them. this can simplify the process of finding like-minded employees. three, post or sponsor a local meet up. the events shouldn't take a lot of money or time they can be a way to engage with the community to recruit potential employees. four encourage employees to use glass door. the it includes reviews of companies, ceos office environments, and more. because the site is a safe place for your team to speak candidly about your business, it can be a powerful resource for potential new hires. five, promote from within. this will help boost morale and engender a stronger sense of loyalty among current employees. when we come back how much

should you share with the public when telling the story of your business? plus how to overcome the fear of taking definitive action. and play along at home as we judge the elevator picture presentation for a line of plant-based table ware. 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.

this week your business selfie from amber barton who owns so cal baby clothing. take a selfie of you and your business. send it to us at your business at msnbc.com or tweet itit it @msnbcyourbiz. forget to use the hashtag. there's a lot of focus on companies developing sustainable products. today's elevator picture came up with the idea of making plates. michael is the creator of the book yourself solid marketing and selling approach and eric and nicole, the founder and ceo of young, fabulous and self-employed magazine. >> hi, how are you? >> good. >> nice meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> i'm the founder of echo

planet ware. durable plant-based table ware. actually, what you end up with is a product that has all the durableability of plastic but is compostble when you throw it away and will decompose within two years. i had the idea when i was working as a food and bench manager at a hotel. i'm a bit of a design nut. i figured what better way to champion sustainable living than something we do three times a day and that's eat. we're currently running a crowd funding kpap on kick starter.com. i'm excited to say we hit our goal. i'm seeking another $100,000 which i would like to devote to staffing and help me run the day-to-day businesses of the operation so i can focus on the things i need to branding, marketing, continuing to expand the product line. >> randall, that was a good pitch. i love. these are beautiful. >> thank you. >> i'm going to give these to you guys.

i want two scores from you from one to ten. first, the product. what do you think of the product? second, the pitch. what do you think of the pitch. these come in both the colors? is this the entire set of what you sell? >> they come in both of these colors and actually four more. we use organic vegetable dyes to color. >> congratulations on kick starter for getting your goal. that's awesome. you still have more time. 23 days we remaining. we hope we continue to make progress. >> michael, the product and then you can show us. seven for the product. seven for the pitch. >> no. for four for the pitch. >> let's go to the pitch then since i feel like you have a lot of improvement. >> sure. you were nervous which makes sense. you're on tv. but if you're going to be pitching, you got to the get to the point where you're not nervous where. you're not passionate about this that the nerves become irrelevant. they're secondary. they go away. that's number one.

i don't know i should choose you. ultimately i'm investing in you. i didn't get that. >> yeah. it's great advice too. there's so much here. it's such a story that could come out in your presentation. >> okay. erica? >> i think you did an excellent job. i'm giving you an eight for the product and the reason because your green business model is huge. i think it's a unique value proposition. however, also, on the pitch i gave you an eight because i would love to see a little bit more numbers, traction you did say you met your kick starter goal which i think is fantastic. all right. great. >> thank you so much for coming on the program. again, i think your product is beautiful. and so we'll work on your pitch

and get it up there. thank you for your advice on this. it's helpful. if any of you have a product or service and want feedback and your chances of getting interested send us an e-mail. we look forward to reading your pitches and see you on the show. it's now time to answer some of your business questions. let's get michael and erica in here. the first is about sharing your story with customers. >> my question is has to do with marketing and when my clients are sharing about themselves and their story. what is that right balance of how much do they share with their community? >> i'm starting with you michael. you help people tell their story. >> i don't want to know if you're too busy or frustrated or your political believes.

the two most popular posts on facebook i made one when i shaved my head. and when my grandma turned 102 years old. she's still 102 years old. people are interested in you. building a business erica, you shared with us you have an automotive company. >> that residence nalts. and, too with, keeping in mind about your audience. what is in it for me and value creation. any time you're it for me. if you're showing it through your online brand, think of what's in it for me.

and how am i creating value by sharing this piece with my customers? >> how do you make it real? everyone says authentic right now. how do you make it authentic? it is annoying now. and how do you make it so you're not just talking about yourself. >> what she said is so important. how is it relevant. i love boating and i share my boating lifestyle but if i share too much it becomes completely irrelevant for the people that i serve. what is the story we're trying to tell and how do parts of our life tell that story? there are some part that don't. that's the question. we are always playing a role. and the question is what role are we playing in front of our customers? what do we want them to know about us? and that's what we share. >> put yourself in their shoes. how will this be received by them? let's move on to getting your name out there. >> i have a small business that helps the community as it relates to health insurance and

what's the best way to go out and get customers? would bit a church? would it be a church or an event or maybe you have a different suggestion? >> something is going on in the universe right now. i have been asked a version of this question a lot within the past month. i have a great product. it's tested. i know it's good. i know there's a market. how do i get people to know about it? >> exactly. make sure that she needs to have an acquisition model in place. as we know i think on average it takes six to seven more times to actually acquire a customer versus looking at the ones you have and mining that data and looking at ways you can retain and possibly use referrals. you have customers locked in. continue to market to them to build smart revenue. when you have enough you can build out and branch out. >> here's the problem. she said how do i sell to my community? community is not a target market. it is a big group of people. who is she serving?

she needs a target market for three reasons. number two so that they know she is dead kaddicated to them, not everybody. >> find your target person first and then find where they are. >> and she can mine that data to find out where her current customers came from. >> otherwise you're putting your business card up on the bulletin board on the dry cleaner. >> and next is a question about

motivating small business owners. >> what do you advise people to do when they are paralyzed and not able to take effective action? >> usually it's a lack of systems and processes. so i would definitely tell her to start to invest in productivity tools there are great things out there in the market. a lot of good tools to help you wrap your head around all the different things you have to do in your business. most of the time when entrepreneurs are stuck it's because they don't know what wr to go next how to prioritize. >> the money is in the systems. it's how we do business is where the money is. the other question i ask is which is stronger? your fear or your desire? until your desire is bigger or stronger is more real to you than your fear you're going be stuck in that fear place of overwhelmed. we screw up all the time. maybe you don't.

you probably don't. >> i do. >> i know i do. so the question is are you scared of screwing up or are you excited about what you can do? >> right. >> until the desire is stronger than the fear it's a tough place to be in. >> thank you so much. it's a really fun conversation. great to see you both. if any of you out there have a question for our experts, you know we answer them every single week so here is your chance to get great advice. just send us an e-mail. the answer is your business@msnbc.com. and we are a on facebook and instagram as well. next week how the founder of a jewelry company found her number one employee, her mom.

>> could you have ever guessed that this would happen? that you would get a job and be working for your daughter? >> never in a million years. >> and i think maybe that's why it works well. it just happened so naturally. >> we look at how this mother daughter duo has turned a hobby into a growing business on a very special mother's day family show. remember, we make your business our business.

chris christie scrambling to survive. and good morning to you. thanks for getting up with us this sunday morning as we juggle the two big stories dominating the news this weekend. how the weekend is unfolding in baltimore in the wake of friday's charges against six police officers there in the death of freddie gray. much more on that in just a moment. also friday's indictments in new jersey's bridge-gate scandals. new details about how chris