this gets people up close to the underwater creature she loves funding her conservation work. swim with the sharks of hawaii on this special edition of "your business." >> small business, revitalizing the economy and american express

open is here to help, that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business" the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. talk about heading into the shark tank. small business owner with he met in hawaii does that every single day, though there's no tank, and when she says sharks she's not talking about investors. she's talking about real sharks. few years ago conservationist ocean ramsey had an idea to introduce people to the animals she loves and today she's got a thriving business. the idea of getting this close to a shark might be a might nair for most people but for ocean

ramsey, the co-founder of one ocean driving in hawaii it's a dream come true. >> the first time i ever saw a shark i was really young and i remember seeing it and thinking wow, this animal is so beautiful and so graceful and actually ended up following after it. i think i've been in love with them ever since. >> ocean is a conservationist focused on sharks. she's been called the shark whisperer, she's been called crazy. that's ocean swimming with a great white. what makes you love this animal that so many other people fear? >> i get to see them on a day-to-day basis. i get to see the reality of them, how incredible they are. it's really inspired me to speak up for them. >> a world class researcher, ocean and her partner juan oliphant created a nonprofit called water inspired to study sharks. they learned they needed to do more so they came up with a plan, start another company, a for-profit venture which takes people like me and my fellow

adventurers swimming with the sharks. notice there are no cages. unlike most shark swimming tours, with this one you are up close and personal. it's crazy because you're on the boat and seen the iconic picture of the fin, of that dorsal fin and you think instead of running away from this, i'm about to dive into this which goes against every single thing anyone has told me to do. >> exactly. >> ocean and juan think giving people this experience and coming away with all their limbs intact could change their feelings. do you feel different than you went down there? >> yes, i didn't get eaten so yes. >> how can you not want to try to do something to help save them? i see that change in people every single day, the switch from fear to fascination. >> a fear that hollywood has fueled. ? generally portrays sharks as

similar to the blockbuster "ju quz which is all teeth and demonized. i think one drop of blood in the water, the sharks will come after me. >> what's what they're trying to fell. i've been in the water with over 200 charts and my leg has been bleeding. >> shark attacks are real. two kids were recently bit off the coast of north carolina and so session spends the entire boat ride out to the site explaining the rules. she says if you follow her instructions, the sharks will not bother you. and that most shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity, where sharks believe you're prey because of you this they see you in the water. >> the ocean is the shark's environme environment. >> ocean and juan use funds from one ocean diving to for for their work. >> there's no way we could found

all the week that we want to do without having that business kind of help, you know, fuel the conservation work. >> i love the business model of it actually, being able to, you have to go out there and get our data anyways. >> as much as they feel is ocean driving keeps the others in, too. >> they utilize and draw of sharks to generate the wuz dom. the passion that drives me into the ocean to if hard every single day is the help to benefit the animals. >> reporter: ocean and juan have been savvy about the way they've gotten the word out of the company. marketing expenses today. >> we don't have another other girl in our conservation medf meaningful. >> reporter: when you're diving you get photos, too, and ocean

enkurnlz people to share them. >> you get the people to utilize their social media? >> we asked them if they'd post photos or individual he yos. would you guys mind saying something good about sharks? they need all the good media they can have. >> even our business card has hashhags on them. >> it's how they get most of their business. right now, too much business to keep up with. >> juan and i broke york seven days a week and we get maybe four or five hours of sleep. i'm currently 250 texts behind, not voice mail or e-mail, that's not egg else. it's go, go, go, go. >> reporter: like aniey entreprene entrepreneurs, ocean and juan try to balance the part of the job they love with the parts that are less run. >> challenging stuff is

paperwork. >> ugh, paperwork. >> reporter: as they grow they hope to expand their team. for now they feel everything we have to do is worth it just to be out there. >> i could go up late at night. it's my way to give back and successful because we're so passionate enle to work hard or it it's my life. it doesn't feel that way when you love what you do. for a lot of owners the sharks taking a bite out of their business is their competition and the great white sharks are often in the corporate rip corporate world. challenge can be daunting in a small community, one like aspen, colorado. once a small rural enclave, now a glamorous ski resort with a booming luxury moorkt. for some of the small

independent real estate companies there was only one way to compete against the biggies of the industry, join forces. 40 years ago, aspen, colorado, was a hard-to-reach backlier, far away from the world of sleek business and international tourism. >> it was much smaller, much more intimate. the businesses were small, the shops were small. it had wonderful scaling feeling. >> that's when bill sterling first arrived and end up his own independent real estate business called sterling homes incorporated. >> i started with a borrowed loan from the bank of about 500,000 and that's how it began in 1978. >> reporter: b.j. adams another aspen based real estate company owner. >> i thought i'm going to strike out, i was young enough, naive enough to think i could do this and i started off on my own. >> gail came to ask about the ski slopes and sold property on the side more than three decades ago. >> it's evolved and become a

luxury market. now we're sealing people luckeurious homes like that. >> reporter: she loves the small town world of aspen real estate. these are amazing houses and you can see the gond lain the background. what do you think this costs? >> which one? the one we're in would probably sell for 9 million, 10 million. across the street, 15 million to 20 million. >> reporter: with millions of dollars at strike and a agreeing international client el its there ano surprise big companies took notice. b.j.'s b.j. adams and company and dale's peak properties of aspen now face stiff competition from big-time brokers like sotheby's and kald wall banker. how do they compete?

>> did i tell you i got the price reduction? >> reporter: for dale darnet and dale shea, the answer was to form a committee. >> it was time. >> i think we needed to figure out ways where we could operate with a critical scale that saved us money and by merging my have naubled us. >> today they share office leads and share leads on buyers and houses and together they're doing much better than they did alone. >> being big in my mind isn't better and the biggest problem in my opinion, culture changes when you're big. >> b.j. has owned her own agency for nearly 20 years and with 13 employees, she says there's not much mystery to how to stay

ahead of the big guys. while b.j. says flexibility to the reactive mark changes, one of the natural danlz that comes withing with brawl. she says there's a second rang, the knowledge that comes from interest being a prong time member of the community. >> the buyer before they leave to go home, i only have the opportunity to show him six or ten prit orts, and properties on the market or the fire will get disturninged with the process, nevermy opinion. >> she closes more deals and waits less time than the bill guys. that keeps her in the game, ta a strategy some ways is shared by dale and bill. >> you don't get started off to some sequence. bill is there for the beginning, for all the showings and research that's the reason we decided we want to work with every one of our clients.

business travel can get expensive and complicated, and checking out a number of different sites to do a price or time comparison can get everyming. our website of the week helps make this easier. in.com, pit prices and routes without navigating between a bunch of different websites. are you trying to attract more b2b customers? here are five online marketing ideas proven effective for reaching other businesses courtesy of entrepreneurth com. updates on linkedin. target company size, seniority levels, job titles and employees of xesk companies. promote your own articles or blog post to average your business page and two, banner kds, what is your ideal group

reporting on line and ad advertise in those pages. three, premotor google happeningouts. you can show them on youtube or contribute to online magazines. publishing outstanding content on the right way is a costly way to leave your mark. and five,izing how-to videos on youtube. video ads are time consuming. consider producing content that provides helpful information and showing the usefulness of your property or sr. >> between inkedin, twitter and facebook, this leads to grabrations with people we never met in person. like a marketing partner on the other side of the country. our next guest has a checklist for you to use in order to protect yourself when forming working relationships with people over social media.

maria ross is chief brand strategist and creator of bread slice. she's also author of the book "brabding basics for small business: how to create an irresistible brand on any budget." good to see you, maria. >> thanks for having me. >> let's talk about the idea of this. i go to linked in all the time when i'm trying to meet people, see who we know in common. does it happen often in your experience that somebody meets someone owe social media, kaekts a rimp with them and then something goes awry? >> i have heard success stories myself and heard cautionary tales. i hope to share how to protect yourself and make sure you're doing business with people so you get more of the success stories. >> the first thing you talk about is social immediate work. you met them online and now do a little research. >> check out their social media profiles, footprink, look at

facebook and tweets. are people interacting with them, are they saying anything controversial? make sure you know they're active because its if it's a legitimate business they should be acting in social media the way they present themselves to you. >> and their website as well. ? >> yes, scour their website, even though that's the one of the things to fake, do your due diligence. is it up and running. does it look good? does it look professional, all of the inches are working and see if you could find reference and test points. >> while you may have met informally, make the relationship formal. >> for sure. i've worked with a lot of web designers, copyrighters, people i've never met in person. it's not about being nice it's

about protecting yourself. put the terms in righting, it is a great screener if you get hess tabt to put anything in writing. >> protect your ip when working with someone else? >> absolutely. lot of times people are asked by people who never met to speak at a webinar or event and you're going to be presenting your trade secrets or ip. make sure you have copyright notices on anything you send them and send your tools and materials the way you can truss them. use gotomeeting or joinme to show you your desk stop, it will not stop clever people but make it harder for them. >> you have to really understand their organization and see if you want to be associated with

them. >> for sure, all about protecting your brand. you want to align with brands that will elevate you, not bring you down. what are they doing out in social media out on their website? that wha kinds of things are they saying? what kinds of people are they attracting. you want to make sure this partner aligns with your values and your brand. >> we talk about ip. if you have somebody do some work for you particularly on the creative side, make sure that you own the ip, if they're do can it for your product that you own the spot, not them. >> absolutely, a clouz in the pan strakt says they're doing everything for hire. >> maria, great to see you. thanks a lot for the tips. >> thanks so much for having me. still to come, more on partnerships, a viewer asks how to know when it's time to end one. and today's elevator pitch, a competitive kick boxer has some sweet all-american deserts.

selling 18 homes? easy. building them all in four and a half months? now that was a leap. i was calling in every favor i could, to track down enough lumber to get the job done. and i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. there are always going to be unknowns. you just have to be ready for them. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com this week's your biz selfie from kevin kimmel from wichita, kansas. the company he owns slug, bug and rug, a dream cleaning rug cleaning and pest control company. he's wearing a few hats over there. we would like to see yours, too.

take a selfie of you and your business and send it to yourbusiness@msnbc.com or share it with more than just us, tweet ittous, it's @msnbcyourbiz, use hashtag yourbizselfie. today's elevator pitcher was a competitive kick box we are a strict diet regiment but still wants to enjoy herself. peggy, and rod, consultant and media strategist. >> hi, i am a chef and we specialize in making healthy, delicious desserts. would you like to try some? >> dessert for breakfast. >> yes. so everything is raw, vegan, gluten free, no refined sugar added and that's why our

desserts are a guilt free treat. if you started from kick boxing i double up recipes for a healthy dessert. we gain the majority of customers from amounts started from the community and spread out to events, restaurants and with social media playing a big role. we have sales around $50,000 and we have the ability to expand our capacity and higher marketing. we believe we can be profitable in two years. >> congratulations on the pitch. let hee give you these so i can try

>> i really love the product. it's delicious. >> thank you. >> i think you're on the trend of healthy foods. that's great. for the pitch, i gave you a seven because i think that it's very succinct what you do. i would love to hear more about the market overall. how big is this market? who are the major players in it? how fast is the overall market going? overall i thought it was pretty good. >> thank you. >> i put both on one side. for the product i give it a seven. it's tasty, which helps. a lot of pitches and companies in consumer product and don't bring samples of whatever it is. it's great to have that. i think it's a healthy dessert is something i haven't seen. there's a lot on the shelf these

days, as i'm shoor you know. the product definitely has promise and we can get to the pitch next. >> go ahead. >> i thought it was a six. you knew your stuff. the problem is that you crammed a lot in there. this is a quick ride in the elevator. you have to highlight something i advise companies on, taking on the two or three most engaging, most interesting things. i heard in this pitch that you're trying to create a healthy dessert, how much money you need, what the market looks like, rate of return. it's a little overwhelming. hook us in first with the food. all you want to do in an elevator pitch to pique our interest to want to know more. >> great advice. i'm going to give your product a ten. i've been eating while you guys are talking. no -- what is this one? >> berry bombs. >> it is so good. >> congratulations on that. it is so good. good luck with your company. >> leave those behind for us. >> exactly. >> yes. >> thank you. if any of you out there have

a company and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, include a summary of what your company does, how much you need to raise and what you intend to do with that money. being a small business that's starting to grow, i've been doing everything. i know that parts of my business, i need to stop doing and i need to discern which parts of my business are scaleable. my question is, how do i make that decision? >> first outside money, you probably see this problem all the time. >> all the time. so hard to transition from a jack of all trades to a manager who delegates.

very hard. one, think about what really makes you happiest in the company, right? if you're able to direct your time more towards that and then hire someone that takes on things that you least like, it's easier to give up control. the second question is where can you add the most value? that could be in driving sales or it could be in relieving bottle necks in areas of operations or helping the culture in hr. if you think about what makes you happy sbest hiest and how y drive the growth of your business, it's easier to bring people in. >> the other thing is because you are so involved you have to make sure you're getting someone who is on the same page as you -- who knows more than you, right, who is better at this function but -- >> that's tough to admit for their entrepreneurs. it's their baby, they've been there from the beginning. i'm a huge fan of post-it notes. i live and die by them. take four of them and put a list

of things you're good at, things you love, things you're bad at and things you hate. you'll start to see overlap on these lists that there's something that you love to do that you're not so good at. once you find the commonalities on this list you're almost putting together the job description for that person. that's something that really entrepreneur that's looking to scale their business, must have a conversation with themselves. >> i that process. or just a piece of paper. >> or the white board. >> or maybe even the xur. right? >> i'm dating myself now. next up, a viewer who wants to know about going into business with others. >> one question i have is about partnerships and how to navigate it when you have really different personalities with someone that you own a business with. how do you navigate that and potentially when do you decide that you need to step away, maybe do something on your own and end the relationship even though you've put a lot into it? >> i want to divide this question up into two parts. number one, how do you navigate it in the beginning, right?

what kind of things do you need to talk about? and number two, assuming you have that in place, how do you navigate the day-to-day? >> so many things in business are like dating. the partnership is probably the best example. you're looking for a complimentary skill set. someone you get along with personally. you can have different personalities and be good at different things. i would encourage that but you have to have that chemistry of good times and bad times early on to see how you react to it. it sounds like she might be a little further into it, which gets pretty tricky. >> what does she do now? sounds like she's interesting problems. >> yep. i completely wholeheartedly agree. partner s partnerships are like marriages. it's important to have communication. have we made all the effort we need to in these in-depth relationships to communicate with each other, what our grievances are and are we showing mutual respect?

if that has been done and it's still not working, the real question is, are we in an environment where every day it's toxic and the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts? if, instead, you feel like it's better off on your own it's time to have that conversation because you're all holding each other back from something better if it's a toxic environment every day. >> i feel this is one of those cases, too, where it's easier said than done. many people in partnerships where a good friend of mine is in a partnership and she is mad at her partner every single day but she fears not being with her because she brings something to the table that the woman i know doesn't have. >> you can't bottle it up. it's better to speak more quickly and address something. you know, one thing we should mention about early on as well is sometimes a lot of times people start companies with friends or family and it may seem like we're growing the business so quickly. we're so excited. get that partnership agreement. talk to a lawyer. it's like a prenup, to bring it

back to the dating and marriage analogy. you'll be happy you did it. get the bases covered, get it over with. it's a reality of doing business. >> your four post-it notes, what does this person bring to the table? if they weren't there, how could i fill in those holes? then it becomes less scary, sfliet you have something concrete saying i think i can do this on my own. >> i know plenty of partners who are complete opposites who make it work. >> great advice. thank you very much. if any of you have a question for our experts, we answer it every week on our show. send us an e-mail. send it to yourbusiness @msnbc.com. thanks, everyone, so much for joining us today. if you want to learn more about the show head over to our website, open open forum/your business. once you get there, you will find all of today's segments plus web exclusive pieces with information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on

twitter @msnbcyourbiz. we are on facebook and instagram, too. next time, one business just wasn't enough for two entrepreneurs. they now own five different companies that operate under one roof. >> i would say that they all work together and they all feed off each other. >> each business is able to give back and forth in ways that are beneficial to all of the businesses involved. >> join us for a special episode where we devote the entire show to the challenges of running multiple small businesses. till then i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. we thought we'd be ready. but demand for our cocktail bitters was huge. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding. fast. our amex helped us fill the orders.

just like that. you can't predict it, but you can be ready. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com. the journey to reach a better life. i'm jonathan capehart. steve kornacki has the morning off. thousands of refugees make it to germany after a long and dangerous journey with thousands more behind them. the latest on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in europe in a moment. also this weekend marks 20 careers since hillary clinton's landmark speech in beijing, declaring that women'sig