. a cowboy finds the next big trend by looking outside the rodeo for inspiration. and a car repair shop gains some horsepower and customers with a financial tune-up. lessons they learned that will help you run your business. coming up on "your business." american express open can help you take on a new job. or fill a big order. or expand your office. for those who constantly find new ways to grow on every step of the journey, american express

open proudly presents "your business" on msnbc. hi, everyone. i'm jj ramberg. welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. inspiration for a new start-up or the next big product can come from anywhere. if you are willing to think outside the box. that's exactly what happened for the owner of a rope-making company in idaho who's lassoing up ideas from other industries. growing up in idaho, there's always been two constants in steve gisler's life. horses and business. >> i always tell people it's a

hobby gone bad. >> when he wasn't working at his father's farm supply and fertilizer business, chances were you could find him at a local rodeo. it was at one of those events that steve got his inspiration to start his own rope making company. cowboy cordage. >> i was at a college rodeo. he had a horse for sale. i was looking at the horse. he said i think i sell this kind of rope you use. >> even though it was typically used for japanese fishing nets, steve knew the rope would be great for his rodeo needs with a few adjustments. >> we could give specifications how it was to be made but it would come in too soft or too stiff. i thought there's got to be a way to fix that. so i invented a machine to run the rope through to make the rope no matter how bad it was,

we could straighten it and fix it. >> his invention made it possible to customize it to each customer's needs. it's made a loyal customer out of rancher jay hogan. >> they'll make them any way you want them. they know what i want and so i don't got to screw with the ropes when they come. they're just how i want them. >> cowboy cordage is one of the industry's leading distributors. they sell direct to consumer but also have their ropes stocked in supply stores lean smith & edwards. >> i know with poly they're the main distributors. >> the brand now includes rocky mountain ropes as well as two other brands they acquired over the years. it's their consistent quality that has the old-timers coming back. >> a lot of our industry isn't necessarily on the web yet. we're a little bit behind with

farmers and ranchers. some don't have internet service. we wanted a nice catalog. we wanted our name to be out there and pull the brands together. >> but cowboy cordage has been able to get new business by growing. first up, their marketing. the internet opened up their possibilities. >> we realized rodeoing is in more countries than the united states. everywhere throughout the united states there are -- throughout the world, there's still ranching and farming and they still have a need for the product. >> and the company is constantly on the lookout for the next big thing. >> the roping industry is just like a lot of other industries. it's who's out in front as far as innovation goes. someone always needs to be looking for the next best thing. steve's always done a good job of trying new things and venturing out. >> alaina, steve's daughter, came on a few years ago.

she said rounding out what the next trend will be isn't an exact science. >> some of it's going to be great. some is going to be terrible. we have to market our way through it. >> what's important is trying in the first place. and reacting quickly if it doesn't work. >> we try some new things. if we throw it out there and nobody likes it, we stop making it. we can make rope. i can make five bright green crazy looking ropes. put them on the rack. if nobody wants them, we won't do it again. >> marketing isn't the only program that has benefitted from some thinking outside of the box. one of their most successful products was inspired by one of steve's side hobbies. >> me and my boys are competitive shooters. i was coming home one day, and i'm like, you ask about an a-ha moment, we all wear shooting glasses like these and it enhances the colors. i thought if we could get a neon rope, it'd be amazing. >> when it first came out, it

exploded. everyone had to have the bright crazy colors. i would say most of the industry no matter what brand you go to now, everyone has something similar. >> steve is always looking for more inspiration from other industries. he says business is business. >> i look at a lot of different ways people do business. the business model is the same but i look and say how can we adapt that to what we're doing? what could we add to our product lines? >> but the company's biggest influencers have been and always will be their cowboy boot wearing, rope throwing core customers. >> the ranching industry, it's got an lot bigger in e the past couple years. we've listened to a lot of our customers. and just take what they think would be best for them. everything from the ropes being soft to the ropes being a certain length that they want. we try to adapt to the latest trends and get a product out there that they can use.

>> and steve says the best way to know your product is to continue to be your own customer. >> you can't be in the rope business and not rope. whether ur yo dealing with horses or sports cars, you have got to make sure your business's finances are in order. so when chris meyers saw his favorite phoenix car repairmen were struggling, he set out to give their business a tune-up. in doing so, he discovered an untapped asset the owners hadn't discovered was the key to their continuing success. their car obsessed customers. after more than 30 years doing auto repair in phoenix, arizona, brothers joe and pat richt weren't looking to change their business model. thap is, until one customer chris meyers asked what seemed like a very odd question. >> i looked around, sure enough there's a million-dollar ferrari sitting right there.

right next to a 2010 camry. i was like, that's kind of interesting. right? so i talked to pat. i said, you charge more for the ferrari, right? >> when pat told them they charge the same hourly rate for any customer, chris says he was surprised. because there's such a great difference in skill level needed to work on the two kinds of cars. >> it's not the type of problem of my god i'm going out of business tomorrow. but it's a problem. >> we were so used to getting our hands dirty and getting things done at any level, we were missing the point of what best served the clients and our company. >> joe and pat's company is called sports & collector car center. before chris spoke up, they had little interest in tracking financials. >> we used to be you wait by the mailman to bring the bank statement to see if you're still in business. >> today things are different. joe and pat aren't waiting around for the mailman to understand their business. a real estate agent is showing them around a huge new location.

>> there's nothing like it anywhere that i'm aware of. >> i'm just thinking we put the row racks and then make an aisle. >> what happened? these two have found a whole new vision of the company buried in their own account books. >> we could see day-to-day where we were at and what we were doing. it really puts excitement into the business. >> by monitoring the day-to-day financials, they discovered if they could get customers to pay on time and cut some of their extra costs, it would make a big difference. >> they found a way to collect their receivables more efficiently, tightened up spending on a few issues, and they increased their value by 15%. >> i had no financial background. now i'm reading these things and going, wow, this is pretty great. >> the more they looked, the more they found. and then they struck strategy pay dirt when chris asked about the big number of customers backed up at the front desk. >> they must be busy today. i should come back another time. so i said that to joe.

he said these guys are just here to hang out. >> i hope those guys spend a lot of money here because they waste your time. i said i wouldn't have it any other way. >> they will all migrate back here just to see what's here and what's going on. they just like cars. >> it struck me like a ton of bricks. wow. you're not an auto shop that people hang out at. you're a hangout that's also an auto shop. >> chris realized the garage was more than a repair shop. it had become a community of car collectors who liked to hang out together. >> so i wanted to cultivate a community more so than just a garage. >> together they hatched a new business plan to create a kind of car collector clubhouse with its own auto maintenance facility. >> you can socialize with people who have cars. it will be car oriented like a clubhouse, like a country club where you come in and you could have a drink. you could have your car worked

on. it'll be a membership type of facility. now i'm seeing a direction and a road map that could take us to that goal that used to be just a vision. >> i think they opened their eyes a little bit and said there's so much out there we could be doing. it wouldn't require much effort. but could it improve the cash flow and the value? >> like we talked about, your office is 80% shop. and 20% social. so we're going for the other. >> it's at a level that i always wanted to be at. but never had any idea how to get to. >> that phoenix repair shop uncovered the model by seeing the social atmosphere. this record store has been in business for 20 years and it survived the digital age by

appealing to passionate vinyl enthusiasts. >> there's more than just nostalgia in these stacks of vinyl. >> there's something about being an active participant. it's a much better experience. >> thousands of albums new and old keeps this small business turning for more than two decades. what's allowed you to survive and even thrive as we've seen others go under? >> we always try to be engaging more than just a place to buy stuff. >> fingerprints, a staple in long beach, california, is one of 128 million mom and pop shops across the country. businesses that employ more than half of all working americans and help drive local economies. >> there really wasn't much in this neighborhood. we've seen a lot of other people coming around us. i think it has had a ripple effect. it's been kind of cool. these small business owners come in, they believe in the community b, they invest in the

community. they hire local people and they support them back. >> the owner credits his success with putting the community first. >> not the chain coffee house or big box retail store, but the funky store you go in and you never know what you're going to find. >> at fingerprints, those surprises include in-store performances from big names. >> lou reed did an appearance here. we've had jack johnson. foo fighters. >> and up and coming artists like cory danes whose dreams of making music started here. >> i think fingerprints afforded me a platform to get music to people before anyone else did. >> while business hasn't always been easy over the past 23 years, foster says it's all worth it. is it your dream come true? >> i think 15-year-old me would be kind of blown away by what 50-year-old me gets to do. i think it's pretty much a dream come true. as we've seen, some people

are passionate about cars, others about music and vinyl records. then there are golfers. you know that one of the more difficult aspects of improving your game is finding someone to play with who matches your skill level. today's elevator pitchers came up with an app to help with that search. let's see if the judges think it's a hole in one. danny shultz and cozy friedman. >> hi. my name is peter. i'm the founder of golf match. it matches you with golf courses you want play and shares the passion with the golfing community. our focus is on creating great golfing situations. we look at what's called golf match groups. it allows you to connect or discover private communities in golf match based on any sort of golfing you can imagine. in 2016 we're coming out with

our secret sauce. the ability to book tee times on golf match with transparency about who you'll be playing with. this is revolutionary in the tee time booking space. we're looking to raise $1 million to grow our user base. our acquisition cost is $3. but netting into advertising, we'll have 300,000 members by the end of next year. as we grow, we'll leverage our algorithms to help businesses in the golf industry better understand and target specific types of golfers. simply put, we're the future of golf. >> nice job. very well done. i like your prop there. you had something to lean on. all right. for you two new elevator pitch people, two numbers between one through ten. first is what you think of the product. and the second one, what did you think of the pitch okay. let's start with you danny. >> i gave you an eight and an eight. reason being, i thought as a

product i think people would use it. you seem to have a lot of value you're injecting further into the product which is great. you've got a passionate user base. i'll sort of stop there on the product. on the pitch look, i thought you did a great job. you nailed it. i want to know more. that's the key. >> you piqued his interest. >> so i gave you a nine. i think the product sounds excellent. i know people are really goo golf and it's a very passionate subject for people. and you seemed to have found a niche which is important. i gave you an eight on the pitch because i was talking to you a little bit beforehand and you told me so much about how passionate you are about what you're doing and who you are. and i think any investor is investing in you. that's the biggest thing that i always heard from investors, is they want want to know about your background. i would add that to your elevator pitch. >> a little more soul? >> yeah. >> great.

good luck with everything. i know you're looking for funding right now. best of luck getting it. congratulations on your success so far. you two, thank you for your help with this. stick around because we need you on the other side of the studio in a second. >> great. >> if any of you have a product or a service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, just send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we look forward to reading your pitches and seeing some of you here on the show. brand new customers may be heading to your business to buy gifts for friends and family. and that is a great opportunity to turn them into repeat buyers. here now are five holiday marketing strategies that will win long-term commitments courtesy of mashable.com. one, provide custom search options on your website. make it easy for your customers to shop and find exactly what

they want to purchase. two, build personal connections with data. making it meaningful will have them coming back for more. consider sending a follow-up with an inquiry about their business or a special discount. three, make the small print a big deal. have a strategy in place for when things go wrong or complaints come in about returns or expiration dates. this will help your team turn a negative experience into a positive one for customer who is misread or misunderstood policies. four, get mileage out of your content. get creative about placement for any videos or photos you take. and five, think both online and offline. make sure your brand is consistent in the digital and real world. we have more information to help your small business coming up. we'll talk about getting operational funding. and sales were up for small business saturday 2015. we dig into the details about

what went right. 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 this week's your biz selfie comes from rafie fletcher who

owned ti be rks by & finn. now, all of you pick up your cell phone and send us a selfie of you and your business and an yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. it's time to answer some of your business questions. danny and cozi are here to help us out. the first one is about the availability of capital. >> looking for capital to buy vehicles or to buy new facilities seems to be available but for operational funding, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of markets out there, so what is your advice to make sure that companies that are growing can go out and get good operational funding in today's market? >> it's a good question. >> i went to the website, very interesting business. i think look, the key is to

specifically what you do look for government sources of funding, state sources of funding for example for a lot of what you to but it sounds like what you need is equity and if you're going to raise equity, you have to have a plan. you got to sit down and figure out how we are going to grow this business because getting equity means whatever investors are going to speak to are going to look at what will eventually be my return from this investment. >> why do you think equity, why not a loan? >> i got the impression that he has exhausted the loan avenue so i would absolutely recommend getting a loan but i got the impression that that avenue was exhausted so if it hasn't been, i would certainly do that and again, as i said, for some of the things that they're doing, i would definitely figure out are there state sources of funding that will be able to fill that hole. >> what do you think, cozi, have you had any experience needing operational funding? >> absolutely and i agree you need a plan for sure.

i think one element that gets lost in a lot of people especially ceos of companies that they need to be continuously networking and you can find money anywhere. there are investors everywhere and you have to find them. i once found on investor on the subway, so you don't know what's out there, and you just have to keep an open mind and i also think it's great if you can find money when you're not really looking at it so you can attract a better deal. >> i think also it is just simply with these things a lot of times a matter of asking everyone you know, right, because some people may have this, i got an e-mail yesterday from a friend whose business is in a bit of trouble because of a natural disaster overseas, and said does anyone know where i can get a short term bridge loan, right, so i called someone and within a few minutes we got him connected to someone where he'll get a loan in 24 hours. it's a matter of networking, ask everybody you know. move on to the next question

about delegating work to employees. >> we're a fast growing company and often it feels like our day-to-day tasks are constantly changing. it's hard for my employees to keep up when we're always asking them to do different things different ways. got any advice? >> i understand this, right? anyone who has been in a fast growing company understands this. to me, i think you hire the right people. in the hiring process you basically tell people this is your job today, it may change tomorrow. >> that's absolutely right. i always say the only thing constant in business is change, and so you have to plan for that. i mean a perfect example, we were offering in one of my salons a class for braiding for dads. it got picked up by the "new york times" and it went crazy viral. and because i have a very nimble team that's flexible, we were able to capitalize on it. to your point you need find people with the right skill set and also the right mind-set. >> on the flipside, though,

dani, as an entrepreneur, a founder, oftentimes you get excited about different things so do it this way, no, do it this way, so you have to keep yourself in check as well. >> absolutely. the yeo has the challenge of thinking strategically and acting tactically and it is very difficult to rein in the constant desire to take not the next hill but the one after that, but that will create a lot of confusion internally. you need a strong partner or coo type >> to rein you in? >> absolutely. i think the ceo has to do both because it's too dangerous if the wheels fall off. >> absolutely. >> moving from that jack of all trades phase in a startup to the phase where individuals really need to be tasked with specific responsibilities is a key transition. >> and with real processes. well, thank you both so much. it was great to see you. happy holidays to both of you. >> you, too.

>> and if any of you have a question for our experts, we answer them every single week here on the show, so take our advice. you can send us an e-mail, the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. the busy holiday shopping season kicked off this year with millions of consumers supporting local retailers, straubts and more during the sixth annual small business saturday. here to talk about some of the highlights of the day and to share more information on how you can get customers to shop small all year round is jane y whiteside, for open customer marketing and engagement at american express which created small business saturday. great to see you. >> thank you, great to be here. >> congratulations. it blew up this year. >> thank you. thank you. we are very happy with the results, very happy with the results. >> give us some numbers. >> so we saw more than 95 million americans shop small on small business saturday, so over $16 billion was spent on the day. >> what's so interesting is that black friday sales were down. >> yes.

>> so you might think small business saturday sales would have been down as well but you've hit something here. >> i really, i think we have. we were anticipating the day and we took a look at what was happening on black friday so we were waiting to see what would happen but i think we've hit something and as you said, you this is the sixth year of small business saturday and this year we really wanted to give back and get the community to really rally around the day, and so a big focus for us was getting events happening in the day. i was in the local high street and every shop was open, there were offers going on, bunting up, events, there were drinks and that was what was important to us so we had more than 4,000 neighborhood champions who each rallied more than ten businesses in their community to get up and out on the day. we had more than 425 local community activists coming out and joining the movement, so i really think that this was it this year. >> so do you think there is going to be an effect going on throughout the year? you get all these people to talk about small business saturday.

i think people are starting to understand the importance of shopping local, right, probably if you asked someone they'd know but now it's in the forefront of what people are talking about on small business saturday. do you think that's going to translate through the rest of the year? >> we hope so. one of the things we are working on is shop small on small business saturday but shop small all year round and so one of the benefits that we're working on with our customers is how do you do that? how can we give you tips? how can we help you think about bringing customers in all year round. >> got it, and how can they? if you could give me a couple ideas that our viewers can take. >> yes, so i would say first of all, think about social media. so one of the things that was very important to us this year for small business saturday was thinking about digital and social media engagement. we spent a lot of time thinking about facebook, instagram and snap chat. get your business out there, and get a presence out online. >> do you think it was the deals, that the small businesses

were offering better deals, events, making it fun to come, or do you think it was the consciousness of consumers that hey, i want to support my small business? >> i think a combination of both. i think a combination of both. i think more and more people are realizing if you shop small, it's good for your community, and 50 cents on every dollar that is spent in the local community stays in the local community and that is resonating but over and above that, i think small business promote themselves online. i think getting together with other small businesses, getting to know your neighbors is important, getting targeted promotions out there to get people in on the day, but once they see and experience everything a small business has to offer, that gets them coming year round so those are all important year-long tactics that i hope we stimulated. >> congratulations. from having a front row seat to this, it's been really fun and interesting to see this grow over the past six years so i look forward to next year. >> thank you so much, thank you. >> thank you, everyone, so much for joining us today. if you want to learn more, head on over to our website, it's

openforum.com/yourbusiness. we'll post all of the segments with he had on the show today, plus a lot more information to help your business grow. we're also on twitter @s had nbcyourbiz and facebook and instagram as well. coming up next week, anent were nuur whom we followed for nearly ten years shakes up her entire business structure. we've watched her turn her home garage-based business into a multimillion-dollar operation, and now she's attempting to create a lifestyle brand by licensing her designs. she shows us how it's done. until then, i'm j.j. ramburg and 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. panic time in the gop, donald trump jumps to his biggest lead yet. >> it seems every time there's a tragedy my poll numbers go up. >> how will republican leaders try to dump trump and is there denial about him and next year? >> i will take it to hillary clinton and i will whoop her. >> plus new questions about the police shooting of a chicago teenager. we'll talk to the men who got this tape released. and before there was