we've traveled to the mile high city of denver, colorado to help one cupcake business in trouble. after construction and a rediagnosis of cancer. this business owner needs some help. we assembled a your business s.w.a.t. team to lend some emergency support. >> part of the store i do so horrible at because i don't understand it. it's coming up next on a special edition of "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. ramburg. welcome to "your business." we give you information and advice to help your small business grow and survive. today we're going to help a real survivor. recently a viewer wrote us about her neighborhood bake shop. the company started while the owner was undergoing cancer treatment and now in trouble. so much trouble she feared the business was on the brink of failure. we got our "your business" make over team together and headed out to try to help save the

business. i'm here in denver at the "your business" make over team to answer a call for help from a viewer. her neighborhood bakery has been making cupcakes for more than seven years. now she says they need our help. let's give this business a make over! you must be kathleen. >> hi! you must be j.j. >> i am. >> so nice to meet you. kathleen is the owner of big fat cupcakes in the cherry creek section of denver. this is where it happens. yes. >> we do all of our baking here. >> she and her team makes some of the most beautiful and delicious cupcakes i've ever tasted! mm! right here in the back of their store, she says she opened the business because of a personal crisis. >> i actually started because i was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and i needed a job.

i was making cupcakes in a kitchen and it helped me get through treatment. >> it seems like it would be incredibly hard to find out you're diagnosed with cancer and start a company at the same time. >> it was a way to deal with stress of that diagnosis. it was. it was a way to do something to make people happy and it made me feel good. >> not it to scare mention -- to mention the country was in a growing love affair with cupcake cupcakes that kathleen noticed in new york city. >> i was in new york in 2007 and saw a line out and my entrepreneurial dna went o.m.g.! things were going well until last april when a company went into a free fall. the reason she said several buildings and construction set up roadblocks and detours. turning the area into an almost impassable obstacle course for her customers.

>> people didn't want to be bothered with the traffic. there's no place to park and our business plummeted and all of a sudden things started going down, down down. >> you stopped paying your rent. >> you did. because i was too sick to work. by not paying rent i was able to pay my staff and keep the store open. >> with her health failing, her customers vanishing, and bills mounding. kathleen's business was in serious trouble. >> we were closing our doors in december. i got a frightening phone call from somebody i owed money to and i thought i can't be optimistic about this. we're not going make it. we were closing our doors. >> that's when she turned to the crowd funding site gofundme. >> we had $15,000 in donations happen almost in a week. i thought that will get us through by december we're going bounce back. we never bounced back. it's gotten us out of the hole

but it wasn't nearly enough. >> the company got a lifeline but now it needs a make over. time to introduce kathleen to the team. ♪ ♪ >> smell good? >> it does. >> i want to introduce you to the first member of our team chris meyers. >> hi. nice to meet you. >> chris is the ceo of a financial management tool for small business and chris is going to dive into your business to the numbers and what you're doing right and a few things you should be doing better. >> that sounds awesome. >> should be. >> looking forward to getting started. >> me, too. >> he use his software to connect her bank account information, tax returns, and other financial data to get the financial picture what is happening. >> in a reasonable month you do about 7800 cupcakes, give or take. that's about $37,000. that seems kind of correct from what a gut check. >> yes.

>> the interesting thing, though is your average -- you're returning about 6800 cupcakes. the difference between how many cupcakes you have to sell to stay open and how many you're selling on a good month is actually relatively small. >> chris and kathleen agreed. foot traffic wasn't going to make up the deficit. >> good morning kathleen. >> and that's founders of the kitchen stepped in to help. they brought a plan to sell in burlg. bulk. >> you focus on the in store business just some ideas of maybe creating more of a wholesale business. >> i realize after going through this this might be i'm putting all my eggs in one basket. it's not going get me where i need to be. >> yeah. >> we're going host a tasting at the kitchen denver today.

>> awesome! you'll get a great opportunity to get to event planners and a bunch of press are coming. we heard this morning that 9 news the nbc channel for denver is going to be there. it is great exposure. meeting with the event planners. >> i'm touched. thank you. i guess i need to make some cupcakes. >> yes. >> while her staff got started baking cupcakes web marketing expert came by. >> hi. >> mark noticed there is no way to place orders directly on kathleen's website and if she wants to get the big orders she needs a smooth online ordering process. >> we want to make it easy for them to make that connection of i'm interested now what do i do next to get this actually done. if that is not absolutely seamless and fluid, you lose people. they go elsewhere.

they get a different idea. >> mark redesigned her website and presented her with three new design options. >> so this is concept number one. as you can see, we have this whole idea of the cupcakes are good for the soul. once someone, you know, is interested in interestinged in the cupcakes we want it to be a fun beautiful experience ordering. everything is really easy. then there's these teasers where they can start looking right on the same page of all the other cupcakes. >> it's bringing tears to my eyes. it looks so good. it really does. this is a part of the store i do so horrible at because i don't understand it. and it's overwhelming and this looks so amazing. if that is any indication, it looks really great. and clean! >> that's the reaction we want. if you're having that reaction we want customers to have that same reaction. >> it looks so great.

and what a weight off our shoulders to try to catch phone calls and keep up with everything. >> yep. >> it is so hard and then i feel horrible when we miss -- we actually miss something. right. >> and you care about the orders. >> i do. i care about our customers and they are celebrating something and they're choosing us. >> the s.w.a.t. team set up two short term plan farce rapid sales boost. it set the stage for our next advisor advisor. lisa donahue. lisa is a national branlding expert who brought long-term advice for extending the brand. >> i know you're looking at a partnership with the ice cream. maybe thinking about bundt cakes, three-layer chocolate cakes. doing a whole al mode to bring people into the shop. >> cake and ice cream. >> yeah. >> with a short term plan in place and a long-term growth

plan to think about it is time to get ready for the big fat cupcake's tasting party. ♪ ♪ and the event planners arrived! >> hi i'm kathleen. >> i'm heather. nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> kimble of the kitchen introduced kathleen. >> i would like to introduce you to kathleen. she owns big fat cupcakes. >> kathleen offered the samples. >> these were baked this morning and i'll cut them up. but, you know, i eat cupcakes out of my hand. i say just go for it! >> the event planner sampled the samplers. >> it does taste like oreo. >> oh, my gosh. it is good. >> and local media covered the event. >> big fat cupcake has struggled to stay open. now it is getting a make over through a show on msnbc. our sister network on cable. >> throughout the afternoon kathleen made valuable contacts. >> that would be another great venue we can put something together. >> that would be wonderful. >> red velvet and oreos are my

favorites. >> a nice balance between fluffily fluffily. >> when the planners left and the media was gone, kathleen took a moment to reflect. >> i didn't have a whole lot of hope in what was going to happen. i was going through i think at my fourth chemo. i was really sick. i wasn't sure how it was going to play out. it restored my faith in people and letting people help you and we're going to be okay. ♪ ♪ >> kathleen has now finished her chemotherapy and feeling much stronger. chris has been keeping close track of her financing and he said that things may be turning around. kathleen reduced her staff to one other person and doing all the baking herself. and she's taken lisa's suggestion and added full-sized cakes and the response has been fantastic. c.a.tkathleen got a bump in sales from the news. and we'll continue to follow her and wish her the best of luck. spring is around the corner

which means it is time tofor spring cleaning. let's roll up our sleeves and look at five ways you can make sure your e commerce site is in tiptop shape. >> open multiple browsers. do a direct comparison of your site against your competitors and see how they perform similar functions so you know what you can improve. two, gathering the devices. survey your team to find owners of various tablets and smartphones. have them participate in user testing to see where your site can be optimized. sign up to receive e-mail messages and create an account on your site. determine if there are ways to stream line the user experience. four, search. type in extremely questioner in generic terms. opt-out. locate all the areas on your site where subscribers can

modify. take the time to explore how to use the sections to prevent people from rejecting your updates. no matter how great your company is it is going to fail if you don't capture the attention of your perspective customers. that is easier said than done. how do you get people to first notice your company and then engage with it? ben par is the the cofounder of dominate fund an early stage venture fund and author of the new book "book. >> the cover of your book you have captivated my attention. it is funny so you do what you say. it has worked for you so far. this is hard. lots of people have great ideas but they don't go anywhere because nobody noticed them. >> i mean, people don't understand that attention is this fundamental currency that is necessary for doing any kind of business. you know, teachers need to get the attention of students.

entrepreneurs need to get the attention of users. local small businesses need to get the attention of customers. yet we don't understand that much about how attention works. that was kind of the impetus for writing this book. i went through all the research and interviewed dumps sinterviewed dozens of ph.d.s to understand what is attention. >> when you talk about leveraging your credibility, is it a saying something quickly so people trust you so they hear more? >> the research shows we have a huge amount of deference toward experts. we pay attention to experts. we trust experts among any other types of spokes people. there's a couple of ways to leverage that. one is leading with your kre deshlts if you have them already. whether you're a ph.d. or an expert. make sure you build out the expertise through blog posts, social media, or another method to establish expertise. and the last is leveraging other experts outside experts for your product or idea.

that's a huge bonus in terms of attention. >> i mean, you need to teach people don't be modest. you got to tell someone first this is what i'm good at so they listen more? >> that's a balance. you don't want to go overboard. you're doing it matter ly factually. this is what i've done. this is why i'm an expert in the area. you start off with that early and people pay more attention to you. >> okay. let's move to the next one. high contrast bright colors. >> one of the triggers in my book -- i have a series of triggers that capture attention is colors. the thing about colors we have the unconscious and subconscious associations. we are also gravitating toward high contrast. that's why, for example, you see companies like amazon use yellow and orange buttons because those have the highest contrast. orange is not a great color, for example, you're going into a business meeting. it has the lowest correlation with competition. >> got it.

good to know. we need to learn more about the colors. next use post action rewards. this gets people's attention. so i do this and you reward me for it? >> most loyalty programs use incentives. do this and i'll give you this. it's the least effective of the ways you can give somebody a reward. you not even knows you're getting an a reward. you take a action and suddenly you get a surprise. the research shows that surprises really capture attention and give us joy. so if you're like having somebody they get a high score and suddenly without knowing it maybe they get a free gift or virtual yule current currency. >> instead of a loyalty card it is on the third time that you buy a coffee they surprise you and said here is a gift card for a free coffee. >> exactly! >> and it makes people happier and makes them come back. it is a mystery to them. >> and it feels like a gift. surprise! it's the same thing but it feels

more generous. >> gifting is another powerful way. >> create a cliff hanger. give me an example. >> so i think about with cliff hangers things like what j.j. did for the lost camp for lost and cloverfield. when they put cloverfield out you didn't see the first trailer this is j.j. or what the name is. it created a lot of speculation. we have a thing called compulsion for completion. we need to complete a story line and when we don't have the completion we keep paying attention. we kept paying attention cloverfield was a top movie. >> you have to be creative enough to create a cliff hanger that people care about. >> absolutely. you have to have what people care about. >> and finally, bake validation into your products. ex ex explain that. >> we pay attention to the people that acknowledge us

orvilleor or validate us. facebook and twitter do it great through likes, tweets retweets. you get a little high that little high whenever you get a like. having that capability from the product or friends is a powerful tool for capturing attention within a product and in general. >> thank you very much. it was great to see you. >> thank you for having me. when we come back maid in the usa is great but how do you remain competitive from a pricing standpoint? and her bags are all the rage with some celebrities. let's see if her elevator pitch has our panel seeing stars in their eyes. 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's selfie comes from jane who makes tastefully done venison marinaded in wanesville missouri. if your business is deer -- get it -- to your heart. send us your selfie or tweet us at msnbc. and please do not forget to use the #yourbizselfie. i can't wait to see them! it is time to answer some of

your business questions. let's get our board of directors in here. jenny is a partner at freestyle capital, capital which invests in companies. she also co-founded weddingchannel.com. so good to see you guys. the first one is about keeping your manufacturing local. >> i want to keep producing my product locally to keep on giving jobs to local people but, on the other hand i'm not quite as competitive with my prices because of that. do you have any suggestions? >> it's a good question and a tough one because unless people are willing to pay for that you're going to fail. what do you think? >> i think that customers want to do more than just buy goods. it's a decision-driving marketing works really well. if she can make her customers understand that she's supporting

local jobs people don't mind paying a little more and offering a solution. >> and that takes a lot of thought to get it in really quickly. >> there's plenty of reasons these days to go local. you know wage control. it's actually getting a lot more expensive to produce overseas. quality controls. you don't have as many rip-offs of your products. we even have better transportation costs. you know it's not as hard. >> so should she put something in the packaging, maybe a story? >> absolutely. tom shoes have done it so well. you feel good when you're buying it, you're not just getting shoes, you're helping the world. >> yeah. >> so i think she can do that and people can feel really good. i'm paying more but also helping

others. >> i think if she wants to become a commodity, go overseas. but with a slightly smaller business with a few less headaches, i would go local. >> less headaches. >> yes. >> let's move on to the next question from a business consultant who works with retailers. >> how do i best show potential clients that my services are an investment and not an expense? like how do i show them return on investment calculations? >> it's a great question because it's all in the way you present your service. >> well i am a huge fan of case studies. i think they are excellent but to get a case study tough start with a consumer and that's hard because you have to start at a baseline and set a goal and there can be things that happen in between those two dates, a big pr hit or something that can change the metrics. if you can just get them to agree, we're here we're going

to go here. if we reach a goal krour going to do a case study for me that would be great. they are great sales tools. >> i totally agree with that. if she can prove the data she can say, this is what i have done and this is what you can expect. >> and i think it's also the way you talk about it. here's the problem and it's going to fix it using your case studies. >> totally. >> the last question is about getting getting international attention. >> i would like to know what is the best way to network on an international level? >> i would say it's similar to

the local level. there's so much you can do without having to be face-to-face. whatever do you domestically do it internationally. ask for introductions. google hangout with them and then maybe if it makes sense, make the trip on overseas to meet a lot of people at once find the right networking event. >> that makes sense. ipos are great. i like global. i think the people are fascinating. also, if you're looking to start in a particular region reaching out to the chamber of commerce or the consulate, they can tell you where the action is. they might be older school models but they have all of the data. it's just getting the data on where everyone is. >> genevieve and jenny, thank you so much. there are women entrepreneurs but still not enough. great to have a panel of two of you guys.

thank you so much. if any of you out there have a question for our experts, send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. the difference between success and failure for an entrepreneur can often ride on the power of their pitch. >> hi i'm a founder and designer of handbags and accessories. i can't afford to have a new bag every season just to have it go out of style. i'm sure you have the same experience. >> uh-huh. >> these are affordably priced leather, high quality and we use the same shape season after season so they never go out of style. >> these women feel like they are shopping right now. how much money are you looking for? >> we're looking to raise $100,000. >> and you've been featured

in -- >> glamour magazine people style watch and "instyle". >> how long have you been around? >> four or five years. >> i want you guys -- i want from 1 to 10 the product, 1 to 10 the pitch. i'm going to give you a chance to say one other thing about your company if we missed anything. genevieve? i'm going to tell a quick story about genevieve and got no no no a thousand times. >> oh, gosh. >> and now is an incredibly successful business owner. okay. genevieve? >> okay. i gave you a 10 for product. i love it. in fact i find that most of my purses are often killed by sippy cups or diapers or something. i need something a little lower quality that -- well that's high quality but at a lower price. so i really love the product idea. i think it's brilliant. i gave you an 8 on the pitch.

i thought you were great. but i would say is i prefer pitches to start with a sense of the market. so i am bombarded as a woman all the time with ads for coach bags and obviously there's a lot of money in the high end. i think there's some market share there that you can redirect. i want to know what is the overall size of the market beneath this high-profile consumer and what can you turn towards your product. i want to get a sense of the road map. >> all right. and jenny? >> i gave you a 9 on your product. i think your bag and wallet are beautiful and i gave you 7.5 on the pitch. i thought you did a great job explaining about this gap in the market and how you were addressing it. as an investor, i want to understand by taking in this incremental money, what kind of growth or revenue will you see from it. >> okay. thank you so much. >> great. well, thank you very much for

coming on the program. good luck with everything five years in. seems like you're doing well. >> yes. >> and thank you for being here. >> i'm going to buy a bag. i'm loving it. all right. any of you out there have a product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. employees please include a short summary of what your company does and what you intend to do with that money. we look forward to rating your pitches and seeing some of you here on the show. thanks everyone so much for joining us today. if you want to learn more about the show click on our website. it's openforum.com/business. you'll find today's segments and content with a lot more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. coming up next week we see

how a boston-based business is reimagining the nail salon. >> we are doing to the nail industry what starbucks did to the coffee industry. we're convincing customers to trade up for a better experience. part of that trading up voofsinvolves paying more. >> from the way we order a coffee to the way we experience a manicure. 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. is the nsa entering shutdown mode? all right. good morning, everyone out there. thanks for getting up with us this sunday morning, a holiday weekend sunday morning. this is of course memorial day weekend 2015. maybe a national holiday weekend but there's still a lot going on out there. in cleveland, more than a dozen arrests during largely peaceful protests after a police officer was cleared of all charges related to the killing. we'l