the company is called quirky which also describes some of the products the company makes. find out how this is helping inventors get their inventions to market. and the importance of your brand translating on line. that's all 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. ramburg and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to giving you advice to help your business grow and succeed. his team calls him the world's least important ceo, but do not let that label fool you. ben kaufman is disrupting not only how the world invents new products, but also the way you cultivate an innovative culture that befits the company's name, quirky. it's thursday night in new york city, and ben kaufman, the dynamic 28-year-old founder and ceo of quirky has invited me to be a panelist judging new

product ideas as are thepart of the company's weekly ritual. >> you're watching for eproduct evaluation. our special guest panelist tonight is j.j. ramburg. give it up for j.j. ramburg. >> quirky describes itself as a company making invention accessible. every week the company sifts through thousands of product ideas submitted by the company's community. they then select the best ones to bring to eval to see if the new concept has merit. if it makes it to eval the idea goes to the quirky community for a healthy debate and vote. the evening fueled by pizza and beer is fun, fast and more than a little irrev very rent. >> j.j. what do you say? >> it comes down to price. i think there's a market for having cakes that look like this. all of these people are into martha stewart and can't get it themselves. they would buy this but at the

right price. once it's given the green light, they figure out the viability of making the product, create a prototype, and then bring the concept back to the community to help fine tune the idea. >> you'll notice on every quirky product, a photo of the investor, the number of people that help the inventor is on the back of the box. >> what do you mean the number of people? >> pig who figure out the color, how much weight it needs to cold. >> from your community? >> yeah all of these people are making different contributions which make it better. when one unit is a different target home depot, one unit of it sells all in this case 559 people get paid based upon the impact they've had. so we share a royalty outlook. >> kaufman may make it sound easy but, believe me it's not. the culture at quirky is intense, focused and competitive. starting with kaufman himself, who, at the time of our chat hadn't slept in three days. >> are you demanding of your

employees? >> yes. >> in what way? >> probably all of them. i mean i expect that stuff happens quickly. speed is a big part of quirky. we can say that quirky time is our weapon. we are faster than any company in the world. in order to do that you need to work hard and break down barriers every day. >> the break neck case has products brought to market with unbelievably short turn around times. their record 29 days from idea submission to short shelves. >> what does a week look like for your employees? >> everyone goes at a different pace. it's the pace that works for them. it's a creative business and creative people get burned out continue 3ikically. we want to prevent that. >> there is no doubt that he wants his staff to work hard but he doesn't want them to burn out so he's figured out a way for them to avoid it with something he calls blackouts. >> we shut down the business.

when you take a vacation you're worried what's going on in the office. to eliminate that how about if everyone in the office takes off time in the same moment. >> i went sky diving. >> i adopted a shepherd. >> we shut down the business three weeks a year. we tell people go relax, learn something new, see their family. >> rochelle says she practices radical hr. she builds companies with a entrepreneurial mind set. >> we have a work hard play hard ethos here at quirky. the blackout period is a way for people to recover from you know, our sprints. it's a unique practice. i don't know that many other companies do it. >> and not many companies have an ethos like quirky where they hire, fire and live by six values. getting things done impatience embracing conflict agility, being selfless and looking to the future. >> the dynamic within the core

values is for every ying there's yang. with impatience you have futurists. we want you to move now and quick but think about the laughter. you embrace conflict. want you to fight with everyone at the company but we want you to not fight for yourself. we want you to fight for your r and d. >> what drives the culture is the fact that everyone is measured by this yard stick every day, not just when review time rolls around. >> what's really interesting and important about quirky's culture was that the blueprint was set early. ben's been very very clear about what's important here. it really vibrates through the company every day. people who are successful here do embody those values. getting things done being agile. these things are alive here and if people are out of step with those values they actually don't succeed here.

>> kaufman sets the bar hit and hitting it. >> it's always under promise over deliver. we definitely don't do that we try to over promise and over deliver. the very structure of our business is tell the world what you're going to do and very quickly implement. most companies do it the other way around. do it and then tell the world about it. that provides the strength. when we tell the world we're going to ship this on this date guess what has to happen? it has to ship that day. >> it's that sort of attitude that brought this nimble entrepreneurial and disruptive company to the attention of ge. a corporate bow heem myth that needed to reincorporate. >> we built the light bulb in 100 days. they've been building them in close to 100 years. you would think they were better at it. they are. the corporate structure doesn't allow it. we were able to do this whole thing in 100 days and build a light bulb that would have taken them many years.

it's a great partnership. when eileen fisher started her clothing line in 1984 she had zero sewing experience and four samples in her hand. now with stores all over the world, her designs are a favorite with people who gravitate towards her simple style and comfortable fabrics. we sat down with her during a visit to the company's headquarters in new york city and she talked about the importance of capturing her brand's essence online and why you need to diversify. >> i'm a really shy person and sort of by default i became a listener, rather than a speaker. then listening becomes a huge advantage for me in that i realize by listening other people help me to even see my idea more clearly or add to the idea. i wait to kind of express my own

thoughts until i've heard from most other people and then i filter what i've heard through my own kind of inner sort of sensibility and then i give my opinion. what's important about an internet business is just that you try to capture the essence of the brand, and for us it was about feelings. we wanted to be able to feel the clothes, but i think for us it's having great photos. you can really see it up close, all around. one of my first fabrics was french terry, textured cotton knit. everyone loved it. i sort of became known as the french terry lady. what happened is i got a delivery of the fabric and the supplier had substituted a yarn. it performed differently.

i had to stop production. i was getting clothes back from customers and i really thought i was going to lose the business. i had to diversify so i started developing the styles in all different fabrics. my whole line just exploded. and then i was seen as not just the french terry lady but somebody who you know did these simple clothes in all kinds of beautiful fabrics. you know to just stop and take a few minutes and however we do it, i journal and sit in my purpose chair and stop and think what's important every day. it's so easy to be distracted and so just if we stop before the day begins and, you know sit down and just take stock of ourselves, what we care about, what matters, then we're more likely to stay on track. getting feedback from your

target audience is an important step when launching a new product or service. if you're looking for an affordable way to survey opinion panel, check out our website of the week guttcheck.com is a market research tool that allows you to conduct 30-minute online interviews with members of the consumer panel. it has more than 3.5 million people in the pool so you can target people based on criteria and age and income. whether you are just getting started or are a seasoned tweeter, you should build an engaged audience. here is how you can tap into your audience courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, get inspired by influences. use a media monitoring tool like mention to identify people who are thought leaders in your industry and see what content is getting the most shares using busumo.com. two, be personal while being

professional. sharing your personal hobbies and interests will attract like-minded followers. your twitter biois a great place to test this out. three track unfollows. use stats like unfollow.com to see who decides to opt out of your updates. four, find topics that engage the most. monitor the effectiveness of your tweets so you can make sure your twitter activity is as productive as possible. five, pay attention to your audience's activities. what, when where they're saying thing is extremely important to discovering what hashtag and other key terms your potential community is using and who is leading these conversations. we've talked about crowd funding a whole bunch on this show, and it is important to remember that there are different kinds of crowd funding. there are companies like indy go go and kick starter which allow you to donate to somebody's venture and you get some prize. that should not be confused with equity crowd funding.

that's wherein vestors receive equity for investment in your company. vincent bradley is here to talk about how this works and who can use it. he's a serial developer and he is the ceo and co-founders of flash funders. no cost equity platform open for small businesses at tech entrepreneurs. so great to see you. >> thank you, j.j. >> i think this is so intriguing. there is so much focus because of the jobs act which says that eventually anyone can invest in a company for equity. we're not there yet. >> we're not there yet. congress -- excuse me the sec kicked in a little bit more on that. right now flash funders is allowing credited investors to purchase direct equity or equity through s 3pds. you must be an accredited investor to invest. >> let's say i'm starting this amazing company. i have some people who are

interested but i'm also looking for other funders. how does that work? how do i work with an equity crowd funding platform? >> at its core equity flash funding is a broker. we provide entrepreneurs the tools to raise capital efficiently. when they have their own money, own investors, family and friends that want to invest in the company, we will allow them to do it at no cost very efficiently. because of our marketplace that we built around our utility platform investors from around the world can come in and access deals. we've had investors come in from montana montana, switzerland, australia. >> a lot of times when people hear crowd funding. think think it's a panacea. i put my company up there. all of these strangers are going to see what i'm doing and want to give me money when in reality what crowd funding, these sites like yours do is they provide a tool to make it happen

efficiently. you still have to go out and find funders and pitch your business? >> yeah. it's an empowerment tool but the first thing i tell entrepreneurs is we're not going to change the psychology of raising a check. you need to go out there and you need to hustle. i consider myself a hustler. i'm in the position i am in today because i hit the streets, i meet with people and i make relationships. that's how you raise capital. you need to get out, you need to hustle. you've seen with kick starter, the people that are successful they put in a ton of prep work before they launch their campaigns. raising equity capital. getting somebody to write you 25 50 $100,000 check requires work. >> but what companies like yours do and in your space do is they make it easy. i can put my whole pitch online so peek can easily access it and the back end of funding it is easier. >> absolutely. an investor can come on and discover a view and he can

diligence the deal and he can reach out to the company and engage in a conversation and what we're seeing is those conversations will start on the platform and they'll be taken offline. >> right. >> if he decides to invest he can invest in the company in under 15 minutes. that means that he's going through banking compliance he's going through accreditation, he's signing his documents in the platform linking the bank account, transferring money. this is all stuff that used to be done by a securities lawyer and by a paralegal that would cost $250 an hour for a good paralegal and five $500 an hour for a good securities lawer. >> this can be done at a fraction of the cost. you had to spend a lot of money and time so congratulations. >> yeah. thank you. it's not a lot of time to deal with fnra but it's fun. >> thanks so much for coming on and talking to us. >> thank you for having me, j.j. it's been awesome.

still to come the small business question people keep asking. how do you monetize social media? and we know bill murray likes them but will our panel? our elevator pitcher shows us his feathered bow ties. 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.

i redesigned my website recently, and it is so hard to compete with all the big retailers and all the big online beautiful stores out there, so instead of hiring an incredibly expensive photographer which i couldn't afford and going and hiring a big studio which i also couldn't afford my friend recommended that i go to the corner kiddy photo shop in the mall with my model and shoot all the photos for my redesign and i think it was a brilliant idea. i saved a ton of money. the site looks amazing. >> this week's yourbiz selfie from the owners at healing trail harness. looks like a great place for a massage. we would like to see your selfie. send us one of you and your business to your business business @msnbc.com or tweet us @msnbcyourbiz.

don't forget to hashtag it #yourbizselfie. today's elevator pitch has gotten the attention of some hollywood stars. let's see what our panel thinks. tanya yukie is the founder of social media and then we have modelist. it allows you to get your business into ecommerce and specialty shops. >> hi. my name is jeff botner and i'm the co-founder of brackish. we specialize in bow ties hand crafted with natural feathers. the idea started eight years ago when my co-founder and good friend ben ross came up with the first turkey feather bow tie for his wedding. we came together 5 1/2 years later and forming brakish. we have 20 employees and 100

retailers around the world. since then we've gained significant press coverage in celebrities such as bill murray jack nicholson and ringo stars have been seen with our tice. we have a strong mix of sales combined with ecommerce, retailers. we're seeking a $300,000 investment in order to keep up with investment and keep up with orders. we'd like to upgrade our facility and expand distribution. based on our current growth rate investors should expect 30% return on business in the next five years. >> these products are beautiful and congratulations. so two scores today. the first one, on the left-hand side score the product from 1 to 10. the second one, score the pitch from 1 to 10. you guys have done some really amazing work. 20 employees so far. how many retailers did you say? >> in over 100 retailers. >> awesome. allow me to start with you, jill. you have a lot of knowledge about the fashion world. let's do the product first.

>> the product a 10. i love it. it's an amazing product. >> the pitch a 9. amazing job with your marketing and traction so far, but i'd love to hear more about the market opportunity. how big is it and which verticals are you hitting. red carpet. weddings is where you're hitting. i'd love to hear where else. >> tanya? >> i'm giving the product an 8. it looks really cool. i see the appeal. it's not for me personally but you've gotten great traction and it looks beautiful. i'm giving the pitch a 6, but here's why. i see that there's a high amount of detail that goes into creating the product. what i'm wondering about is how are you going to scale that when you broaden your operations? how are you going to keep that quality consistent so it still feels special and not mass produced and it continues to attract the celebrities. >> you have a good story. you could practice into an amazing pitch.

you're on your way there. >> thank you. >> congratulations with everything so far. we expect to see a lot of these on the red carpet. >> thank you for your advice. it was really fantastic. if any of you out there want the chance to pitch your idea in the elevator here on the show please let us know. you can send us an e-mail to your business @msnbc.com. in that e-mail include a short summary of what your company does, how much you're trying to raise and of course what you intend to do with that money. i cannot wait to read what you guys have been working on. i look forward to seeing some of you here in the elevator. it is time now to answer some of your business questions. jill and tanya are here on the set with the first one comes from al and he writes how would you recommend a company that is up and coming to get more media time? let's start with you, jill. it's hard right? so you've got something great but you want some attention. >> sure. so first i would recommend becoming a thought leader in your industry. stand strong.

find a way to position yourself so you are the go-to person for people that understand more about whatever your industry is. >> how do you do that? how do you get people to think of you? >> look to the press and see what's going on, you know, out there in the world and start to contribute articles or pieces on your blog and tweet at reporters who are actually coming up with them, with the press, so they know to come to you and you get wider distribution in social media. >> what do you think, tanya? >> two pieces of advice. one is the temptation is going to be to talk about your widget or your services. you're so excited about it. really you want to focus on what's going on in the news what's going on in the world right now that may be something that your company does can drive the conversation. jump on to something that's already trending. the second thing is if there's a way you can partner with an established company or an established brand and somehow have some of their halo shine on

to you it will be easier to get noticed and cut through that clutter of up and coming companies trying to get attention. >> i ask companies what's your goal, right? if it's customer acquisition, then media, press may not be the best way to get it. it might be. depends what your product or service is but you may want to do something more direct. if it's branding media might be really important for you. >> that's exactly correct, particularly if you do get lucky enough to have the media time trying to avoid that temptation to sell too, because it's not about selling, it's about building the brand and building trust. >> and becoming a thought leader. >> exactly. let's move onto the next one, it's about turning your social strategy into cash. >> how can i actually make great roi with social media, not talking about brand awareness or visibility but how can i actually get paid business as a result of social media? >> it is a good question and

what's the answer? what do you think? >> firstly, i would say please reconsider what you're thinking about social media roi. a big reason why people are there on social is to build the brand. particularly as an up and coming company, you really want to get that out there. you want to make sure that the reason people choose your company is not just down to price, it's because they know you and trust you. but when this comes to driving specific clicks back to your site for purchase you want to craft your social content a little differently. for example, typically when you craft a facebook post or a tweet, it's really about making that content in itself that people can enjoy on the social network. if you're trying to hook them to go somewhere else you have to give them just enough to keep them interested but have the promise of deeper content back on your website so they have the inclination to take that click. >> the beauty is she can test right? oftentimes i've heard over and over from companies is that when you have some interesting

conversation you get a lot of shares, retweets likes, what have you. when you try to sell something, it falls flat. >> exactly. i would say question what you're trying to gain out of it. is it lead generation or actual sales on that platform. if it's lead generation make sure you include the link to your site. if it's sales to the platform, look for other companies that have been successful and learn from them. a great example of sales for facebook is loly wally do. you can measure through google analytics so you can measure your roi. >> let's move onto the last question. it's an e-mail about how to structure your company. my domestic assistants business is an s corp. i now also have a natural products business. should i change to an llc or keep both as s corps. >> you may not have the answer but where should they go? >> i don't pretend to have the answer. i think that's a great question.

i would reach out to my networks to find the answer. i would look at a list serve or group that has had similar questions and ask for their advice. not only their advice but once you find the right person who's been leading the way, ask them for contacts lawers their contact information. often there's initial conversations with lawyers as free legal advice before they can get you in. definitely reach out to your networks and make sure you're able to drive in many more conversations around the same topic. >> tanya, how did you think about the decision? >> both an s corp and llc have a lot of similarities. you get the same tax benefits. you get the same benefit of protecting yourself from personal liability. the biggest difference comes down to the kind of business and the kind of scale you're anticipating initially. if you're going to be paying yourself a salary and have all of these excess profits that you're anticipating an s corp will be a better decision.

it will be more expensive and complications with state level taxes. if you're getting started and building it up and you're happy for that to be a pass through on your tax then an llc is a lot easier. you can do it online and you don't have to worry about the additional information. >> thank you so much for stopping by today. really appreciate all of your advice. hope to see you back soon. as you all know we get all of these questions from our audience, so send in yours and we will give you some answers. send us an e-mail to your business@msnbc.com. thanks, everyone so much for joining us today. if you want to learn more about the show just head on over to our website. it is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there you'll find all of today's segments plus a lot more content with more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. we are on facebook and instagram as well. next week how do you attract enough customers to make sure that your product or

service isn't just a passing trend? >> we gave people what they were looking for and then we kept it fresh, we kept it new. with competition it really keeps us on our toes. it keeps us coming up with new ideas. really it just makes sure you're on your gaim and giving the best experience out there. >> we'll tell you why constant innovation, giving customers plenty of options and a glass of wine or two have ensured a colorful future for one company. until then i'm j.j. ramburg 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. the morning that the u.s. house of representatives voted yes to impeach bill clinton because of his extramarital affair it was that same morning in the house that the man to become speaker of the house resigned. that same morning. the day of the impeachment vote. he resigned in a surprise announcement on the floor of the house on the day of the bill clinton impeachment vote and we now know that the reason that happened was because of this man. larry flint. the publisher of hustler magazine. larry flint ran this ad in the "washington post" a few weeks