>> they couldn't get investors interested which turns t shirts into quilts. how did they use discounting to make their business successful. how you can use the app to market and promote your small business that and more coming up next on "your business." >> small businesses 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 jj ramberg and welcome to "your business", the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. finding funding for your business is often listed as one of the hardest parts of starting a company. so i wanted to tell the story of two successful entrepreneurs who couldn't find it. hard as they tried no investors willing to take a chance on their company. a few years in they count themselves as lucky that they were rejected so many times. >> when nathan and ross gave their first presentation on their company project repat to

potential investors at a program they were sure they were going to get funded. >> we gave what they thought was a great pitch. >> turns out they were the only ones who thought that. >> after the pitch nobody was interested in us. nobody gave us any funding. >> they started in 2012 after learning that the average american throws away more than 80 pounds of the textiles a year. >> what was a way to preserve your t-shirt memories and keep them out of the trash. >> the solution they came up with, turning the old t-shirts into a quilt. and they had a hunch there were people out there who would pay for this service. people like aleen who surprised her daughter after finding out about project repat. >> marney had gazillion t-shirts, i didn't want to get rid of them because they meant a lot to her and to her dad. this is santana. and steve miller band and journey. >> investors were not as confident as nathan and ross that there were enough out there

to support a successful business. ross and nathan went to investor after investor, pitch competition after pitch competition. and they kept hearing the same thing. no thanks. >> i think it's a letdown that many entrepreneurs go through. >> they had to come up with plan b. >> we turned to a group to say let's see if the market will respond in a different way maybe invest terse. >> many warned them setting a price precedent that was not sustainable the co-founders looked at this opportunity through a different lens. >> a lot of people say oh, you know, you can't do groupon it ruins my margins, we say what's the alternative, having nobody come and nobody find out about you. >> most start-ups go out of business not because it's a bad idea but nobody knows about them. and we didn't want to go down that route. so, you know, we said to ourselves well, if we try groupon and living social and no one buys we'll move on to the next thing. >> they didn't have to think about the next thing because the

week after launching their deal they sold 2,000 quilts. enough to prove to themselves that they were onto something. but still, not enough to prove to investors. >> investors like well, there's not the demand for this product and if they didn't say that, well, once people see how popular it is, some big company will come in and eat you up. >> at that point they had only one option. >> made us very scrappy because we only had you know, we only have $1,000 to spend on this advertising campaign or only $1,000 here, so we had to be really smart about how we're going to get more people to our website. >> they tried a kick starter campaign but it didn't work out. >> kick starter you really just learn whether your friends and family like you or not. for us that was partly true. >> what they really needed to do was get new people to the site. people who would buy a quilt and then tell their friends. so they did more flash sales and got smart about what they showed people when they landed on the website.

>> we have a pop-up that pops up and says put your e-mail in for a discount code. so we collect hundreds of e-mails from customers we know are interested but maybe aren't ready to buy. >> then they retarget on facebook and other websites. >> an ad will remind them about our product. that works really well. so it's really about getting people into the sales funnel, people you know are interested in your product and maybe just aren't ready to buy right away. >> they created a low cost tv commercial. >> got you a going away present. >> well, you know, we're spending x number of dollars to acquire customer on facebook so maybe if we do tv it would be less to acquire that customer. >> customer by customer the strategy started to pay off. but those first years were not easy. >> bootstrapping was definitely a grind. it was tough work. it's scary too. it's not the easy way.

raising money is difficult but not having a cushion of money is a scary thing. at any moment you can go out of business. >> that is no longer their fear. this year project repat is on track to do $3.5 million in revenue. and the best part according to the founders, is that today they only have themselves to answer to. >> we created a business that we love and know that we're really comfortable running and now as a bootstrap business we don't have investors telling us what to do, saying well, you should cut your costs or pay workers less or whatever it is. because we run our own business and we kept control of most of our business. so we get to make the decision what is we want to do. >> as we saw in that piece, being forced to bootstrap makes you think about decisions. you have to be a lot smarter about where you spend your money when you don't have money to burn. and for those entrepreneurs it really worked out. in south carolina we met the owner of a mattress company who

had to think hard where to use his limited capital. he took a gamble on expanding to another location even though it was a very risky decision. >> it was a big risk. it was a financial risk. thank goodness it paid off so far. we could have stayed at the one location but there was a limit to how much we could grow there. >> it was an expansion that was more than 80 years in the making. but he says even in a down economy, he and his sister linda decided to grow their company, best mattress, from one location to two. >> we're a small custom mattress factory, we manufacture and sell to the public our hand crafted mattresses. >> the mattress making company which buddy's father and grandmother started in west columbia, south carolina, with a showroom and a factory, had slowed because of trouble in the housing market. instead of cutting back like so many companies were doing, buddy was pro active, focusing on how

to bring in more business. >> i sort of had to drag myself knowing it's going to be difficult zblflt with the factory operating at about 70% there was definitely room to grow. >> i said we really need another location to try to stimulate sales. >> that new store which opened its doors in 2012, had to meet some specific criteria. >> there are mattress stores every are where and in cookie cutter box locations, we want add unique building with a lot of visibility and another key, a greet neighborhood. great demographic, so you got to look at the demographics, the income level of the clients. >> what makes the columbia location desirable is that it's surrounded by local businesses. it didn't hurt that buddy could also negotiate a favorable lease. while mattress stores typically don't get a lot of traffic foot traffic what they were counting on in addition to increased

online and phone sales. there was concern about poaching business from the company's home. the two facilities are only about 10 miles apart. >> we felt like it was a good enough risk to pick up enough new business it was worth doing the second location. >> the store managers say sales have balanced out and they work with their customers to go to whatever location is more convenient. >> we have a lot of people that come in this that will not go to west columbia. they like to stay in their neighborhood. i hear time and time again that they are so happy that we're here. >> the company faced a dilemma when best mattress got a new look. then there were the clients who thought the new location meant higher prices. >> we had several who admitted to me they were a few blocks away but thought they could save maybe 50 or $100 or several so they went to the factory location. >> others still didn't know where they were calling. >> they will get confused and call here thinking they are calling west columbia but we try to help them no matter what

location. >> they invested in advertising on the company's website, newspaper ads and tv commercials to ease concerns. as buddy hoped output has gone up. >> we're probably at 80, 85% now. but we got a little bit of room. >> the second location has been so successful that there's already talk about expanding further, and if buddy has learned anything, it's that this expansion was a risk worth taking. >> i just don't believe that you could cut your way to profitability. i think you've got to be aggressive. i think business owners need to look at maybe expanding and look at another location. i think that's one way. it worked for us. it may work for them. there are two new life streaming apps that can help a lot of small business owners create a really unique experience. they are called mirror cat and

periscope on twitter. so good to see you. >> good to be here. >> so before we explain how we should use these let's explain what they do. >> they are broadcast apps using the camera on your phone, smart phone, and it lets you live stream whatever it is you're doing. right now we could take and take periscope, here we are shooting with msnbc. >> i'm shooting it live and then a lot of people can come. >> anybody can join in. so the difference is that it's live and so with mirror cat once it's gone it's gone. we stop you can't get that back. periscope keeps it for 24 hours. it's a slight difference between the two apps. both of them are you have to be there in the moment or it's gone. >> almost like having face time but instead of one-to-one person, right, you can do it to tons at the same time. >> exactly. you can do it private by the way

so if you want to do something exclusive for a few people you can. >> great. so what's neat about this is if your organization is holding some event you can live stream it. >> absolutely. >> you can see how many are watching and commenting. >> yes. if your boss is giving a presentation or on something or one of your colleagues speaking, great, you can live stream that. or let's say that you run a luxury consignment goods store and you've got a new shipment and give people an early peek at it you can do that. or let's say you're in real estate and a house hasn't gone on market yet so it's not officially listed but you want to give a sneak peek, great way to use it. >> i'm thinking could use this in so many ways. it's saturday night and 8:00, and say you have a cosmetics company and say okay, i'm going out tonight, how about you guys, let's go put -- here's how i'm putting on makeup. >> what's cool about these tools because they are still early days you can get a lot of the visibility quickly. i was in the green room getting hair and makeup i had periscope

testing having fun with it. 120 people joined from six countries. some of the questions were of course sort of mundane but others interesting. it's another way to engage and obviously your content, it's content dependent. you get the feedback based on the things you are sharing. >> like anything it has to be exciting. the idea that it's live makes it fun also. >> yes. you lose out if you don't join in. there's not that sense of i can watch the recording later. >> i think there's one thing we have to point out there are issues around this. if you are filming your own owe vent it's no problem. it's yours. but say you are at a concert, a football game, something else and you're streaming that, you may be violating somebody's ip. >> you proceed with caution. i think especially for business owners you don't want to get into that mess. best to use your own content. >> got it. this is fun. it's a neat way to give kind of an insider's look or behind the scenes look if you want to use it that way. >> absolutely. you need creative ways

businesses are using it now. i think like any social tool eventually sort of the reach will decline as more join in so now is your chance to use something new. >> thanks. >> my pleasure. with more than 1.5 million apps in the app store it's an understatement to say that competition is fierce. so here now are five ways you can make your app stand out courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, polish your app store optization. data shows that 63% of ios users find new apps by browsing. two, segment your users for better ratings. instead of showing a pop-up asking users to review your app ask if they like the app. if the response is yes, ask them to leave a 5 star review. if the answer is no, direct them to your support forum. three, make your icon and screen shot stand out. the first impression counts so

have all of your images be beautiful and relevant. four, include a video. take the time to showcase your app features. mix story telling, selling strong call to action. and five, get your copyrighting text right. your description is one of the best ways to convince a visitor to download your app. make sure you capture someone's attention with the first few lines users see before they have to hit more to expand the text. still to come, attracting millennials to your business. plus our viewers tell us their favorite online tools and apps. a new start-up is offering chickens for rent. 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 ron who owns ron perrin water technology. he employs certified divers to inspect water storage tanks and using underwater cameras. shoot a selfie of you and your business and accepted it to us or a tweet to and use the #your

biz selfie. >> sharing economy is booming. you can rent your home, you can rent a car from an owner through peer to peer sharing like get away and now you can rent a chicken. because of consumer demand for locally sourced foods companies are offering a clever alternative to buying eggs at the market. here is morgan brennan. >> farm fresh eggs in the backyard from chickens that are rented. several start-ups have been hatched that lease out hens at all of the necessary supplies in what's perhaps the quirkiest' digs to the share economy. >> we raise chickens for our customers to rent for a 4 to 6-month rental over the spring and summer. we pick them up so you don't have to keep them. >> kay owns a farm in liverpool, pennsylvania. and affiliate of 2-year-old start-up rent a chicken.com. >> usually we make more than one delivery in a day. the majority of our customers are interested in knowing where

their food comes from. >> rentals fill that desire but without up front investment or long time commitment since it can take 6 months for a bird to begin laying. for $400 a customer gets two hens laying eggs daily, a coop and 100 pounds of feed. >> so if i wanted to hang onto these chickens for four months it's $400 and that includes the price of the feed and the coop and the chings and eggs. >> rent the chicken works with farmers to pair renters with birds. in return, those farmers pay affiliate fees to the home office. the co-founder says by the 2016 rental season she'll have signed contracts with 20 local affiliate locations, up from 12 this year. and rent the chicken isn't the only company cracking open this concept. rent a coop operates in eight states charging $180 for a one month coop. michigan based rent a chicken.net has clients in nine

states. bird flu has been a boon for businesses as well as egg prices climbed to record levels after a devastating outbreak wiped out more than 10% of u.s. production. these companies say demand for vac yard flocks has jumped. no small feat given the price renters ultimately pay. at $400 for four months that breaks down to $1.79 per egg. 21 per dozen. a sum at least three times higher than the priciest organic eggs in the store. but a premium a growing number are willing to pay. just to know where breakfast came from. i'm morgan brennan. time to answer some of your business questions. our board of directors is here to help us out. corey is co-founder and ceo of a biomedical engineering product development company and scott is founder of the young entrepreneur council a group made up of more than 1500 of america's young entrepreneurs. good to see you both.

let's start with the first question about reaching a younger audience. >> we're 105-year-old company, we have 85-year-old grand, i have two millennials at home and trying to figure out how to connect with them and their friends. >> obviously we chose this because you're here, scott. >> it's funny. two things. one, ask them. it sounds funny people think millennials are in this bubble and unapproachable. ask them what's interesting to them. figure out ways to tie your product in. gamify whatever you do in marketing. find a way to connect with them and help them to win points or prizes or things for telling their friends, telling others, selling your product if that's part of the process. anything that gets them active and competitive, very big in the millennial space. >> millennials is quite a large group, right? so to think about -- can we think about millennials as a group to target? some are having kids now. which changes things. >> i think it's hard to pigeon hole millennials.

bust i think one thing that seems to be crossing generational gaps maybe it's just a sign of the times, is that millennials seem to spend money where they can have the most impact. so, even if your brand is about quality, which is a great thing, it needs to be about more. it needs to be about impact as well. >> is there a way to reach millennials and other generations using the same kinds of marketing? >> i think at the end of the day when you look at how to target customers you shouldn't be look at it as i'm looking for millennials, saying i'm looking for john a 26-year-old, he loves gaming, his big thing to do in the afternoons after his -- gets home is to cut steam with five of his friends at a bar. that's the hyper targeting that's going to make your business successful. not this big swath of any generation in any way. i think you can't target effectively on almost any budget. >> to your point find john and ask him. let's go to the next question

about new hires. >> as we're onboarding new employees how do we make sure that they really buy into the ethos and understand the driving company culture as we're scaling up so quickly? >> you and i spent time talking about this. it's really important that you do that. what ideas do you have? >> well, i think setting an example, you know, radical farm has such a great vision, and they are having -- they have to show that they are not just about the bottom line in growing their company. they are also having an impact on culture and the environment and policy. giving employees opportunities to engage at that level will really set the example and bring them into the company ethos. >> i think one of the first parts or areas where you do this is in the interview. >> i was going to say, if you are worried about your company culture during the onboarding you missed a crucial part, the hiring.

when we hire folks it's always about what are we like in a room together, how do we connect, how do we not just feel about working but the culture before they are hired. how do they talk about our brand when they give them no information and what are their goals to make our brand better. those conversations need to happen well before they are on the way to getting their first paycheck. >> have either of you codified your culture, written down a mission statement? >> absolutely. we have a full document, it's always ever changing. it's not set in stone. we find new ways to make it better and find different things that are going to make people happier employees because they can add their piece to the mission. it's important that you have something, a foundational understanding of what your brand represents and what you want it to mean to others. >> then also that it's real, right? because you can say this is our culture, we believe in everyone bringing ideas to the table. we believe in work-life balance. if people don't see it all of

those words are meaningless. let's move on to the question about finding a larger business to acquire or merge with your brand. >> we would like to know what the larger corporationings or companies are looking for in smaller companies, when they are thinking about acquiring or merging them into their own. >> so how do you figure this out? >> well, i think big companies are looking for the same thing the small companies are, that's a partner that can really leverage each other's capability. an example wouldble a small company that has an innovative product and a larger company that has a distribution channel to scale it. so that's i think a very typical partnership you might see with a larger company. >> like any sale, you have to understanding where the pain point s. so you can't go in with the idea of i know how we can help you. you need to know how they think you can help them. >> there's a lot of reasons companies are merging or

acquiring. could be for talent, velocity, they want to buy in and not build it from ground up. i think before you think about merging or acquisitions or these big pictures you have to look at yourself as a business owner. how do i want to grow my business, what is my exit strategy, and then you know, the reason that most exits fail in the actual exercise of them happening is because you haven't thought it through yourself. then you are expecting someone to have this magical check make all things solve. after a merger acquisition most fail balls they haven't been set up for success. figure out what's important to you and figure out who is your target. >> someone gave us advice which is write down all of your core competencies on a sail of 1 to 5 how good are you at these. you might be surprised to see that what someone might acquire you for is not exactly what you would have thought. when you see what you are good at. it could be talent. has nothing to do with your product or service. so good to see you both. thank you for all of this advice. we appreciate it.

and we answer these questions every week here on the show so if you have one go to our website. the address is open forum.com/your biz. you see ask the show. you can submit a question or send us e-mail to yourbiz@msnbc.com. we're looking at twitter to find good advice from our small business experts. ken blanchard tweets we are all sales people because leadership is a process of influence, when you partner and work with them side by side. sales and management expert harvey mackay says trust is central. without it you have another word, trouble. and fran tarkenton combines expertise with this. failure is the agent of innovation. fail fast and forward to win long. if you are like me you probably have a bunch of unused apps and book marks you hope would make you more productive but turn out

to be a waste of time. we decided to go to our viewers to find out which ones actually deliver as promised. >> one website that i love is the organized artist company.com. samantha has great content for entrepreneurs who are creative, helping them get unstuck. and if you subscribe to her daily e-mails you get a tip a day that will help you transform your business. amazing. >> one app i use in my business every day is called appointment core. it's an online calendar scheduling tool that integrates directly with infusion soft. and the reasonable i love it so much is that since we started using it about 90 days ago we used to book about one to two sales consultations per week, now we book between eight to ten per week. >> the website i use is linda.com. if you want to find out

information about anything you can find that out and have them explain it to you. makes it simple for the on the go entrepreneur. >> our favorite app is called glip. it's a collaboration tool, it's a chat tool, it's a project management tool all in one place. no longer do we need e-mail, no longer do we need text messages, we can assign projects, keep on task and invite clients in. it's so powerful we invited clients into the folder we created that two of my clients the past month have adopted glip for their business. >> thanks for joining us today. if you want to learn more go over to our website. once you get you there find all of the segments we showed today. plus a lot more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter, it's, and find us on facebook and instagram. next week, second hand merchandise gets a new lease on

life. >> build a great brand, there needs to be that magic for the customer. i think a beautiful boox and the tissue takes an experience and feels like new. >> how buying and selling used goods has never been easier. thanks to a new crop of company using technology to make what used to be a complicated transaction effortless. till then i'm jj ramberg. remember, we make your bills our business. brought to you by american express open. visit openforum.com for ideas to help you grow your business. our cosmetics line was a hit. the orders were rushing in. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding fast. building 18 homes in 4 ½ months? that was a leap. but i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. amex helped me buy the inventory i needed.

our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com we've got a big show tonight. paul rieckhoff is here from iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. paul is here live and in person. you may remember earlier this week here on this show we were first to report on the sketchiness of the supposed veterans fund-raiser that republican presidential front-runner donald trump did on that decommissioned battleship earlier this week. specifically, we were first to report that the group donald trump was raising money for that night did not actually appear to be a group of veterans. our initial reporting on that has now been followed up by the associated press, by cnn, by local media where this veterans group is headquartered in south dakota. and over the course of this week that story has gotten sort of