recurring revenue and income sound good? subscription based models are changing businesses. that's coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. we're proud to bring you "your business" on msnbc.

>> hi there, everyone. welcome to "your business." subscription businesses are hot whether it is zip car, netflix or birch box, consumers are fuelling the word of a subscription business revolution. is it a trend or is it here to stay in we take a closer look at the growth of subscription commerce and how a subscriber can be more valuable than a customer. >> it is alled unboxes and the excitement associated where this motion when you open a subscription box. >> every month there is a new

delightful experience. from birch box to stitch fix, the subscription box trend is going strong. >> there has been a a boom in subscription businesses. >> think about your daily newspap newspaper, magazines on your coffee table. >> our great grandparents would subscribe to cole delivery. >> thevaluebuildersystem.com says subscribers are better than customers. >> subscribers sell from you,

and customers are one and done. they buy from you and may may come back and they may not. >> the cofounder of bark box second us out a package of toys and treats to spoil your dog. she says selling it swuns a lot easier than doing it over and other again. >> you don't have to find new customers every month, people just stay in the cycle. >> that makes a subscription based company a nearly perfect business model. john says every business can reap rewards from having automatic customers. >> a subscription business model where you have a nice,

consistent recurring revenue whether you're a hardware store or flower store or elevator company, if you have that service contract, that recurring revenue, you can get through the toughest recession. >> while the businesses love the extra protection from the ups and downs of the economy, customers love the auto pilot simplicity. it is there when you need it at the agreed upon price at the agreed upon time. >> i think people want to discover stuff. they want convenience. it is something being delivered to them every month. they want value. those are the types of things that box companies can provide. sometimes it is a combination of a few of those or one of those and i think that is why nay have been successful. >> and that successful

translates to more money if and when you decide to sell your company. >> the recurring business adds value to your business. >> amazon, walmart, and target are getting into the subscription business. microsoft office is now a subscription. adobe is, everything we offer is and that's because it is so powerful. >> it led austin to start a business called cratejoy it a platform that makes it easy for entrepreneurs to start their own box business. >> we take everything that should not be on their plait and take it away from them and they spend their time on acquiring

products, acquiring customers, delighting customers. >> one of crate joy's first companies was annie lynn. after leaving a job in new york city as a fashion designer. >> what inspired me was finding a solution where i could utilize my passion and skill set in design and cater to a industry that i believe in which is kids. so the subscription business model really was so intriguing to me. >> annie also expanded her business so you can buy her products online and her new retail shop. >> my subscription business is my core of how i started, but that's not to say that things are not evolving as a small business. we have so much in the pipeline. >> all of which will bundle a little brand recognition that may come in handy one day if the

subscription box trend slows down. >> the subscription business model is taking over other sectors and it is certainly here to stay. poor customer support is one of the top reasons that small businesses lose customers. how do you know if you're providing good assistance? here is five signs your service could use a overhaul. >> one, fewer customer complaints. studies say for every one complaint there have is 26 unhappy customers that never speak up at all. a fall of frequency could mean that they have taken business elsewhere. declined average time spent on support calls. that means you could be rushing and not listening to unmet needs. three, discounts and special

offers go unnoticed. when they ignore your promotional messages, there's a clear seen they lost interest. four, fewer referrals. a business with happy clients should be growing. fooi five, loss of long-term customers. a shopper is four times more likely to buy from a competitor if they're having problems with your customer service. the small business administration 7a program is back up and running. they reached their $18 billion loan limit and the president quickly signed the bill into law. we are joined now from washington.

congratulations on getting that app signed to quickly, is $23.5 billion enough? if there was more money there, could you be giving out more loans? is demand high enough? >> i'm committed to making sure that every business that needs capital has access to it.bankers to come online. with our guarantee we stand in as uncle sam to make sure that people get to yes with their bank. so what is to bring more lenders on that recognize the value of spa guarantees. second we set fees at zero for loans under $150,000. and we're putting in technology like link. this can connect people looking for loans by just going to our

websi website, clicking on that website, and putting the borrower in the driver's seat. >> there are so many men and women coming back into society and we want today help them. we have a program we zero our fees up to $350,000 for veterans. and this puts it it into perpetuity. now the congress has given us statutory endorsement of that program to make sure it is an enduring one. i think that is a great message to the men and women we serve. they get counselling, access to federal government contracts, and fees from zero to $350,000.

i'm going to ask a question that i asked all of your predecessors. one of the problems i hear about is that there is a lot of red tape, have you done anything try to streamline that? >> i think that is right. one of my frustrations is that there is a lot of red tape at every process. we put up a new program we call start up in a day. i'm challenging municipalities, cities across the country. so take this challenge. we're giving out $50,000 prizes to city that's will butt software online to when an entrepreneur goes to their city to settle and start a business, they can get all of the applications they need and submit them in a day. the winner will get $250,000 if it is software we can share with other cities. >> this is the 62nd birthday of the sba.

is the job where you want it to be? >> i think we need have a borderless marketplace. small businesses across the country say they know that 95% of the world's consumers are outside out of the united states. sba put the future for the next 62 years has to think about connecting entreprenrs with others domestically and around the world. we think we can lower the threshold for our businesses to capture that market before other countries take advantage of our gap of not being there. we're excited about taking entrepreneurs to local markets. we have raised the guarantee level up to 90%. so god forbid if something happens and you default on that loan, the government stands in as a guarantor of 90% of that loan. it is a great day for us to

celebrate the small business administration's anniversary. entrepreneurship is now a career of choice. as a result of so many entrepreneurs innovating, we're changing the world from uber to facebook o under armour. all of these new companies that sba helped to start are changing the world. thank you, i know you had a busy weekend, thank you for coming in to talk to us. >> j.j. you have always been such a great supporter and champion of small businesses, you're grateful you help us amplify this voice. >> thank you so much. the first african-american woman to own a billion dollar business, and she spent 40 years helping others find work. janice bryant could fill a book

with all of her entrepreneur advice. >> make sure you're prepared. two understand what the goal is. three understand what that all of those around you, particularly your family, are part of the success. and four, always always find a moment for gratitude. >> four principals that jan nice has been following since starting act 1. it is a multibillion business that has offices in 75 cities and works on a global scale. >> i never imagined this, i always imagined success though. >> how has the company grown in the last 30 years? >> you see the evolution in technology. you see the transparency that the world offers, but the fundamental things that we built

the business from have stayed the same. >> now there are more than nine million women owned businesses. very different. >> do you feel like the climate has changed for women and minority women. >> the client has changed but it's not sunny weather. women still have a lot of need for change. >> do you remember hearing no? or did you block it out. >> i did, but my parents helped me block it out. i have a very pleasant and happy memory of my childhood. that's more because of who my parents were. but our parents were so nurturing and the community was so nurturing that we worked more toward the potential and the possibility than we did the

threat or denial of opportunities. >> would you say your parents were your greatest mentors? absolutely, and not mother or father, mother and father. >> she grew up in as one of 11 children. >> i love to sit here and sound pretty about it. and i'm not pulling out the violin strings for folks to cry about how i grew up. it was harsh, ugly, and it should never have been that way. >> but her parents taught her to rise above it. my mother used to tell us that in order to be outstanding you'll have to stand out. so i grew from a root of really working forward, not being held back. >> an attitude she hopes she instilled in her own children. both of whom work with her at act one. >> i would say she is passionate, hands on, and has a

right balance of helping people. >> do you feel like you're still growing every day. >> i feel newer and fresher than i did back when i first started by company. i believe that is because the more you learn, the more you want have. >> when we come back, how to export your product and vendors making unauthorized charge backs on invoices. and mow mindfulness can help you run your small business more effectively. 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 biz selfie is from cottage lain kitchen. she makes condiments and relishes from recipes from her grate grandmother. take a picture of you at your business and send it to us or tweet us with it. please use the #yourbizselfie. we have michael goldberg with us. he is the cofounder of the

bridge investment fund, and steve preston, who is now the ceo of livingstone international brokerage firm. let's get to the first question about expanding internationally. >> what do i need to know to export my product to other countries? >> steve, let's start with you. if not five, then give us a couple. >> i can give you a rapid fire response here. get educated. there are terrific resources out there online and in person. the spa, the department of commerce, export.gov. there is a lot of help to be had. secondly understand the compliance piece. it is the hardest part of getting your goods to where they go are getting them across the border. you need to understand what it takes to get them across the

border. in that process you need to understand what we call the total landed cost. map out every step to get them there and what each component will cost. you need good partners. i recommend going to a customs broke tore get help, and obviously you need to find buyers for your goods, great trade shows, organizations, and other places to find buyers to sell to overseas. >> he makes a great point, thank you, steve, about getting educated. there are so many things and sometimes when you start you don't even know what you don't know. you don't know the questions to ask. >> international is a huge opportunity, but where do you start. a lot of times it's like building relationships. you may be from a part of a world and you have family and friends, it starts with who is in the america. i think the comment about the

department of commerce, relatively inexpensive, a $350 investment for the program and they can help with that match making and distribution. maybe start where you know, but take advantage of other resources. >> and maybe find someone not competitive to you who is doing the same thing and ask them what they have done. >> now the next question is about charge backs. >> how do you deal with distributers that take unauthorized charge backs. >> can you explain what a charge back is? >> basically the distributor who is getting a product sounds like there is a relationship issue here where they're asking for a refund on that product. and it sounds like the entrepreneur asking this question, there is something deeper going on there that i'm struck by. it's not just about the charge

back itself that he is saying is unauthorized, but who is your distribuuto distributor. i think you need the right relationship with that distributor. i think what he is getting back is something broader than an unauthorized charge back. >> it looks like it is getting down to trust, right, steve? >> i agree, these people are your face to your clients. you need to understand why the clark backs are happening. maybe you have a quality issue or a different issue. i would say first of all, make sure you understand the pricing terms of your contract very well. i would talk to other people in the industry or potentially other clients of this distributor to see if they're having similar issues. and sit down at the table with

that distributor, armed with knowledge to work to a solution. >> a loft these issues, rips with marketers, even your cofounder, have a conversation, right? have a conversation and understand where they're coming from. >> they can become adversarial very quickly and you don't want to let that happen. >> exactly. especially if there is an easy solution or explanation. so good to see both of you, thank you for stopping by today. >> if any of you have a question for our experts, we answer them every week here on the show. use us for advice. go to our website at op openforum.com/yourbusiness. over the past few years i noticed that a lot of people are talking about mindfulness. a lot of entrepreneurs and small

business owners are explaining to me that they're trying to be more mind informal running their business. for some it centers around meditation. for others it's about something else. i wanted to dig in and figure out what it means. i sat down with harvard professor allen langer who has been researching and publishing on this topics for years. >> have you ever mindlessly started your car and started the same route as always. >> have you signed a credit card receipt to realize you never looked at the charge. >> i have been studying this for close to 40 years and what i'm confident of is how mindless most of us are virtually all of

the time. >> yes, exactly. i get calls for donations and i will say to the person and say if you stop right now i'll give you $500 and they don't stop. they keep going through their script. >> according to ellen langer, a professor of psychology, many of us run our companies pretty mindlessly. duo things that worked in the past without asking if they're still relevant. >> business owners have to give their pitch over and over and over again. and you sound like a robot, you almost can't help it. >> but you can help it. if you make it new in subtle ways. how do you make it new? part of the way is not to think that you got only this way of

doing it. >> so keep changing it up? >> yes, and the changes don't need to be big, they just need to be subtle so that you're present. >> what exercise would you tell someone to do. i'm giving a pitch to someone -- >> you want to pay attention to your audience and you want to change what you're doing to meet the needs of the respective audience. >> what is mindfulness? >> it is the process of noticing new things. that's all it is. when you notice new things that puts you in the present. >> one area where mindfulness can have a huge payoff is recognizing the talents offered by your employees. >> if i'm mindful, i might realize that from your perspecti perspective, i might realize that you're trying to be a

stable employee. no matter what way you're describing people there is an a termtive way to describing it so you have more respect for the people that you're working with. they feel that respect, they work harder. >> as an employer, it would seem then that you have to hire the right people who you trust to be mindful. >> i would argue with that. i think that everybody can be mindful. and that what the employer needs to do is look at the policies in place that force your mindlessly. >> mindfulness or lack of it can have real world consequences. like when a public comment is made without considering the audience. >> the former ceo of british petroleum talking about cleaning

up the 2010 deep water horizon in the gulf of mexico. >> i am sorry for inconveniencing him. >> yesterday, heyward posted this apology for the hurtful comment. >> had he been more mindful he would not have needed to apologize for his comment. >> that thing you thought you new is now something different. >> there are no absolutes. >> if you're mindful there are no absolutes? >> absolutely. thank you for joining us today. if you want to learn more about the show, go to our website. we'll have all of today's segments posted an web exclusive pieces. also follow us on twitter, facebook, and instagram as well.

next time we kick off our tenth season of "your business" as go to the u.s./mexican border for our main street usa series. when we got there we discovered a big surprise. >> physically we're in the united states, economically we're in mexico. >> small businesses are making big connections and turning main street into an international trade zone. 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 daily show may be fake news but makes a real impact. >> oppression. just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change. >> it's fresh and new and original and smart every night. >> for a decade and a half the force behind the machine was jon stewart. >> he became rock jon stewart. >> you're getting to a bad place. >> he will be revered as someone who learned the lines between news and comedy. >> how the hell did we end up here, mr. kramer? >> and became the conscience of a