>> a cowboy finds the next big trend by looking outside the rodeo for inspiration and a car repair shop gains horse power and customers with a financial tune-up. lessons they learned that will help you run your small business coming up next 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 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 what happened for the the owner of a rope making company who is lass soing up customers adapting ideas from other industries. >> growing up in idaho there's always been two constants in steve's life -- horses and business. >> i tell people it's a hobby gone bad. >> when he wasn't working at his father's business chances were you could find him at a rodeo.

it was at one of those events that steve got his inspiration to start his own rope making company, cowboy cordage. >> i was in a college rodeo, and he had a horse for sale. so i went down and i was looking at the horse. he said you know, i think i sell this kind of rope that you guys use. i said really. yeah. could you show to the me? >> even though it was typically used for japanese fishing nets steve knew that the rope would be great for his rodeo needs with adjustments. >> the problem is those guys don't rope. we could give them specifications but it would come in too soft or too stiff, you know, not really in our specifications to use. i thought man, there's got to be a way to fix that so i actually invented a machine to run the rope through to make the rope no matter how bad it was we could fix it. >> his invention made it possible to customize the rope to specific needs and resalvage

inventory. it's made a loyal customer out of rancher jay hogan. >> they make them any way you want them and they know what i want and so i don't got to screw with the ropes when they come. they are just how i want them. >> cowboy cordage is now one of the industry's leading distributors. they sell direct to consumer but have ropes stocked in supply stores like smith and edwards. >> i would think they would be in the top five. i know with the poly, they are the main distributors. >> the brand includes the original rope line rocky mountain ropes, as well as two other brands that they acquired over the years. it's their consistent quality that has the old timers coming back and the way they reach some of these customers hasn't changed a lot over the years. >> a lot of our industry isn't necessarily on the web yet, we're a little behind with the farmers and ran offers. some don't have internet service so we wanted to have a nice catalog, to have our name be out there. we wanted to pull the brands

together. >> it has been able to attract new business by constantly updating and growing. first up, their marketing. the internet open themd up to a new customer base. international ones. >> we realize the ranching and cattle industry and even rodeo is in way more countries than the united states. it might have a bigger presence in some of our areas here but everywhere throughout the united states there are -- throughout the world there is ranching and farming and they have a need for the product. >> 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 is out in front as far as innovation goes, and someone always needs to be looking for the next best thing. steve's always done a good job of trying that, trying inyou things a s venturing out. >> she says that rounding up what the next trend will be isn't an exact science. >> and some of it's going to be great and some terrible and we kind of 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 new things, if we throw it out there, nobody likes it we stop making it. that's what's great about a manufacturer. we can make a rope, i can make five crazy rope, if the nobody wants them we won't do it again. >> marketing isn't the only department that benefitted from some thinking outside of the box. one of their most successful products was inspired by one of steve's side hobbies. >> my boys and i, we are competitive shooters, and i was coming home one day and i'm like you ask about aha moment. we all wear shooting glasses similar to these. it enhances the colors. i thought man, if we could get a neon rope and do that, that would be amazing. and it just really changed a lot of things. >> when it came out it exploded. everyone had to have the crazy colors. i would say most of the industry whether no matter what brand you

go to everyone has something similar. >> steve is always looking for inspiration from other industries because he says business is business. >> look at a lot of different ways people do business. i don't care if you're selling widgets or ropes or whatever, it's the business model is the same. i try to look and say you know, how could we adapt that to what we're doing. what would be different, 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 gotten a lot bigger in the past couple years and we listened to a lot of our customers and kind of take what they think would be best for them. everything from the ropes being really soft to the ropes being a certain length. we try to adapt to the latest trends and get a product 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 you are dealing with horses or sports car you have to make sure your business finances are in order. so when our friend chris meyers of financial services firm saw his favorite phoenix car repair man struggling he set out to give a tune up. he discovered an untapped asset that the owner had not realized was the key to their success. their enthusiastic car obsessed customers. after more than 30 years doing auto repair in phoenix, arizona, brothers joe and pat weren't looking to change their business model. that is until one customer, chris meyers, asked what seemed like a very odd question. >> i looked around, sure enough there is a million dollar ferrari next to it 2010 camry. it's like that's interesting. so i talked to pat. and i said well, you charge more

for the ferrari, right. >> pat told him that they charged the same hourly rate for any customer, chris says he was surprised because there is such a great difference in skill level needed to work on the two kinds of cars. >> it's not the type of problem that says i'm going out of business tomorrow. but yeah, it's a problem. >> we were so used to getting our hands dirty, getting things done at any level we were missing the point of what best served our clients and the company. >> joe and pat's company is called sports and collector car center. until chris spoke up, they had very little interest in tracking their financials. >> we used to be you wait for the bank statement to see if you're still in business, you know. >> today things are different. joe and pat aren't waiting for the mailman to understand their business. >> joe. >> a real estate agent is showing them around a huge new location. >> there is nothing like it anywhere i'm aware of. we put the roll rax and make an

aisle. >> these two found a new vision of the company buried in their own account books. >> we could see day-to-day where we are at and what we were doing. it puts excitement in the business. >> by monitoring the day-to-day financials, they discovered that if they could get customers to pay on time, and cut some of their extra costs, it would make a big difference. >> they found out a way to collect their receivables more efficiently, tightened up spending and they increased their value of the business like 15%. >> had no financial background so now i'm reading these things 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 no, these guys are just here to hang out. >> he said boy, 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 here just to see what's here and what's going on. they just like cars. >> it struck me, wow, you're not an auto shop that people like to hang out at. you're a hang out that is also an auto shop. >> chris realized the garage was more than a repair shop. it had become a community of car collectors who like 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 come socialize with people who have cars. it will be car oriented like a clubhouse, like a country club where you come in and you can have a drink, you can have your car worked on. it will be a membership type facility. now i'm seeing a road map that can take us to that goal.

that used to be just a vision. >> they opened their eyes and said wow there is so much we could be doing. but wouldn't require much effort because could tremendously improve the cash flow and ultimately the value of the business. >> 80% social, 20% shop. >> a flip. >> exactly. >> it is a new dream. it's at a level that i always wanted to be at but never had any idea how to get there. >> that repair shop discovered the untapped power of attracting by creating a social atmosphere. that same business model is working for a long beach, california records store. it's been in business for more than 20 years and survived the digital age by appealing to passionate vinyl enthusiasts. erica hill has more. >> there's more than nostalgia

in this vinyl. >> there is a ritual, hearing the needle drop and being active participant. >> thousands of albums, new and old, keeping this small business turning for more than two decades. >> what's allowed you to survive and even thrive these big box retailers. >> we always try to be engaging more than just a place to buy stuff. >> fingerprints, a staple in long beach, california, is one of 28 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 the neighborhood. we've seen you know, a lot of other people coming around us, i think it has had a ripple effect that is kind of cool. small business owners come in, believe in a community, they invest, they hire local people and people support them back. >> owner credits his success with putting the community

first. >> it's not the chain coffee house or the big box retail store but the funky store you go in and you never know what you find. >> at fingerprints those surprises include in store performances from big names. >> lou reed did one of thinks final public appearances here. we had jack johnson, john lee hooker. >> and up and coming artists like corey dane whose dreams of making music started here. >> i think fingerprints afforded me a platform to get music to people before any one else did. >> business hasn't always been easy over the past 23 years, foster says it's all worth it. is this your dream come true? >> i think 15-year-old me would be 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, and then there are golfers. if you play golf or you know

someone who dutz you know one of the more difficult aspectses of improving your game is finding someone to play with who matches your skill level. today's elevator pitchers come up with an app to help. see if our judges think the idea is a hole in one. danny schultz is co-founder and managing director of golfing ventures and cody the founder of so cozy salon formulas for kids and cozy's cuts for kids salons. >> hi. my name is peter. i'm the founder of golf match. golf match connects be you with players and allows you to share your experiences. our focus is creating great golfing experiences using algorithms to suggest golfers, courses and matches right for you. we use golf match groups. it allows you to connect or discover private communities in golf match based on any golfing you can imagine. in 2016 we come out with our secret sauce, the ability to took tee times with transparency as to who you'll play with. this is revolutionary in the

booking space. we're looking to raise $1 million to significantly grow our user base. our user cost is $3. by investing $600,000 in advertising we'll have 300,000 members by the end of next year through paid and organic growth. as we grow we'll help billses in the golf industry better understand and better target specific types of golfers through native advertising. simply put, we're the future of golf. >> nice job. very well done. i like your prop there. all right. for you two, new elevator pitch people. two numbers between 1 through 10. first is what do you think of the product, and the second one, what did you think of the pitch. let's start with you, danny. >> i gave you an 8 and 8. reasoning i thought that as a product i think people will use it. you seem to have a lot of value that you're sort of injecting further into the product which is great. you've got a passionate user

base. i'll stop there on the product. on the pitch i thought you did a great job. nailed it. it was interesting. i want to know more. that's the key. i want to learn more. >> you piqued his interest. that's all you can ask for. >> cozy. >> so, i gave you a 9. i think the product sounds excellent, i know people are really into golf and it's a very passionate subject for pennsylvania and you seem to have found a niche which i think is important. i gave you an 8 on the pitch because you know, i was talking to you a little 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 to know about your background so i would add that to your pitch. >> a little more soul. >> a little bit more. >> good luck with everything. i know you are looking for funding so best of luck getting it. congratulations on your success so far. you two thank you for your help.

stick around. we need you on the other side of the studio in a second. if any of you have a product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested invest terse send us e-mail. yourbusiness@msnbc.com. include a short summary what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with the money. we look forward to reading your pitchings and seeing some of you 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 commitment. >> one, provide custom search options on your website. make it easy for your customers to shop and look for 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 friendly

follow-up with an inquiry about their experience 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 customers who misread or misunderstood policies. four, get mileage out of your content. get createtive about placement for video or photos you take, share across mobile, e-mail and social media. and five, think both online and offline. make sure your brand is consistent in the digital and real worlds. we have more information to help your small business coming up, we'll talk about getting operational funding and sales up for small business saturday 2015. we dig into the details about what went right.

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. this week's your biz selfie from ralphy who owns the apparently company tiby and finn. now, all of you, pick up your cell phone and send us a selfie

of you and your business and e-mail it to yourbiz@msnbc.com or tweet it to@msnbcyourbiz. it's time to answer some of your business questions. danny and cozy 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. what is your advice to make sure that companies that are growing can go out and get good operational funding in today's market? >> daniel. start with you. >> i went to the website very interesting business, i think look, the key is to specifically based on what you do i think you can approach government sources for funding. and there could be state sources of funding for example for a lot

of what you do. but it sound likes what you need is equity. if you're going to raise equity, you have to have a plan. you got to sit down and figure out how are we going to grow this business because getting equity means that whatever investors you're going to speak to are going to look at okay, what will eventually be my return from this. >> why do you think equity? why not a loan of some sort? >> i got the impression simply that he seems to have said he exhausted the loan avenue. i would absolutely recommend a loan but i got the impression that that avenue was exhausted. so if it hasn't been i would do that and again, as i said, for some of the things that they are doing i would definitely figure out are there state sources of funding that will -- fill that hole. >> cozy, have you had experience needing operational funding? >> absolutely. i agree, you need a plan for sure. i think one element that gets lost with a lot of people especially ceos is that they need to be continuously

networking and thinking that you can find money anywhere. because there are investors everywhere, and you just have to find them. i once found an investor on the subway. you don't know what's out there. and you have to keep an open mind. i also think it's great if you can find money when you're not really, 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 source. 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 any one know where i can get a short-term bridge loan. i called someone and in a few minutes we got him connected where he's going to get a loan in 24 hours. it's a matter, to your point of networking. ask everyone you know. >> let's move to the next question about delegating work to employees. >> we're a fast growing company and often it feels like our

kay-to-day tasks are changing. it's hard for my employees to keep up when we're always asking them to do different things different ways. any advice? >> i understand this. any one 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 say the only thing constant in business is change. 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. because i have a very nimble team we were able to capitalize on it. so to your point, you need to find people with the right skill set but also the right mind set. >> yes. on the flip side, though, danny, 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 ceo has the challenge of thinking strategically and acting tactically. it's very difficult to rein 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. but i do think the ceo's got to be able to do both baugs it's a little too dangerous if the wheels fall off. moving from that jack of all trades phase in a start-up to the phase where individuals really need to be tasked with specific responsibilities is a key transition. >> and with real processes. thank you both so much. it was great to see you. happy holidays to both of you. >> you too. >> if any of you have a question for our experts, we answer them every single week here on the show. so take our advice.

accepted us e-mail, the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. the busy holiday shopping season kicked off this year with millions of consumers supporting local retailers, restaurants and more during the sixth annual small business saturday. here to talk about some of the highlights of the day and share more information on how you can get customers to shop small all year-round, is janie whiteside. janie is the senior haven't and general manager for open customer managing at american express which created small business saturday. good to see you. >> thank you. good to be here. >> congratulations. it blew up this year. >> thank you. we are very happy with the results, very happy. >> give us numbers. >> we saw more than 95 million americans shop small on small business saturday. over $16 billion was spent on the day. >> black friday sales were down and so you might think small business saturday sales would have been down as well. but you 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 hit something. as you said, this is the sixth year of small business saturday and this year we really wanted to give back and get the communities to rally around the day. and so a big focus for us was getting events happening on the day, i was in the local high street and every shop was open, there were events, 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 this was it this year. >> so do you think there's going to be an effect throughout the year? you get these people to talk about small business saturday. i think people are starting to understand the importance of shopping local. right? if you ask someone they know.

now it's in the forefront of what people are talking about on small business saturday u. think it's going to translate through the year? >> we hope so. one of the things that we are working on is shop small but shop small all year-round. 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. >> how can they? if you could give me a couple ideas that our viewers can take. >> 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. so we spent time thinking about facebook and instagram and snapchat. i would say do the same thing. get out there, get your business out there, and get a presence out on line. >> do you think it was the deals? you think it was that the small businesses were offering better deals, events, making it fun to come or you think it was the consciousness of consumers that

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

plus a lot more information to help. we're also on twitter, it's @msnbcyourbiz and facebook and instagram as well. coming up next week, an entrepreneur who we followed for nearly 10 years shakes up her entire business structure. we've watched her turn hur home garage-based business into a multi-million-dollar operation. and now she's attempting to create a lifestyle brand by licensing her designs. she shows us how it's done. till then i'm jj ramberg. 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. tonight, it's been seven months since a young man in baltimore died in police custody, and that sparked unrest that threatened to tear that city apart. well, now as the trials begin for the police officers charged in connection with freddie gray, we go back to baltimore. >> cell phone video shows the moment after -- up >> the 25-year-old can be seen on the ground with -- >> family lawyer says the man's spine -- >> suspect freddie gray would end up with a severed spine. he would later die. >> residents of baltimore took to the streets over the death of a man named freddie gray. but days of peaceful protest eventually gave way to destruction. >> that's it!