once you get your customers through your front door, what can you do to buy? and they can ruin your business if you don't deal with them. small business owners fell us the most effective ways to deal with they go difference online reviews. that and much more coming up next on "your business." small businesses are

revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to help. that's why we're proud to present ro"your business" on msnbc. hi everyone. i'm jj ramberg. welcome to "your business", the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. if you're in retail, you know this feeling. you see people walk through the door, they look around, and then they walk right out without ever buying anything. it is frustrating. but there is a bit of science to changing this and one boutique opener in geneva, illinois was intent on figuring it it out. she hired two retail experts to come in and mix things up in a way that would result in more sales. in 2010, sherry opened peaceful

parlor, an eco chic boutique on th picturesque main street. this is the go-to for locals looking for a custom blended tea or environmentally conscious gift. but she wants to expand her customer base. with hundreds of touristed expected to come into town, sherry is hoping to convert visitors in to repeat customers. so she called in retail strategists to help her get the store ready for the influx of new shoppers. >> one of the challenges we've been facing is sometimes we'll have people that come in and they make a loop around and they walk right out the door. >> if you have people walking in your store making a loop and walking out, they're not understanding what you sell. all of those things that make you different you we want to help you stand out. ready to get started? >> let's do it. in >> so this is a key area and it needs to say open. the first five feet, square feet, inside the front door of a

store is really no man's land because anything you put there, people won't see until they're at least five feet in the store. that's where we so that about. >> this open space allows them to slow down, now we'll romance you. >> you're not giving people enough space to walk in and actually take in the breadth of the product that you have. because by the time they hit the five feet, they're almost hitting this table. >> what i'm seeing is it's almost like a tidal wave of merchandise. when i saw those, i had no idea what they were. so creating a way to not show so much, but tell stories and make sure that it's a sign that explains it. >> from that it is play, i wouldn't understand that these are head bands. we also need do different levels. if we're going to show this many bright colors, we need to make sure that they're separated enough so that the customer understands that this is not just this folded.

>> what is in the back in these rooms? >> okay. right there we have our kids' room and then over there some house wares. >> how do i know that. >> >> a lot of times we're greeting them and say be sure to check out our kid's room or the other areas. >> we need to talk about signing. you can't be everywhere. signing is critical for customers. women rely on it. men depend on it. and especially in a store like krours, you have so many you unique items and stories to tell about products, you need to tell people that this is what this is, this is where we are constantly as we go through the store. don't use all capital letters. you want upper and lower case because it's harder for orlando eyes to be able to read upper case letters. you need to take the average age of your oldest customer and divide it in half. that's the smallest size font you can use in any of your store signs. >> oh, wow.

>> the prime item that draws people in on the store or that you're known for is teas. >> one of the things that we do here that is a little different is we hand blend the teas. we have a little working station back here, so it fits to have the tea back here as far as logistics for us to move things and package things. >> low fwis tigistically it mak but could we maybe bring some of the teas in the front of the store. >> we need to make sure we're utilizing minor locations outside of this area. >> with a laundry list of changes to make, they got to work getting the store ready for the first day of the festival. and the next day was the big reveal. >> so we made a couple changes. >> it looks fantastic. >> so we gave you the five feet of space here so people have a chance to walk in and they have more room to shop. we took your table that had the toys underneath, brought this

one on top of it, combined the two so now you will multi-level. it's easier to shop for people to see. we've cross merchandised still, but it's easy to understand now. >> now it's time to put the changes to the test. >> so what have we learned today? we've learned that when customers walk in the front door because we gave them that extra space, they felt more comfortable shopping. >> not only did we see that but we watched everybody go with the flow. in other words, we created this path and it came to the right, look at the focal wall and instead of seeing just the radiator, they saw product and they were handling it, they were talking about it. and they looked at the tea and they all started talking about the tea and that was driving them further into the store. there a >> and the third thing, wow, she has a lot of jewelry in here. we actually took jewelry away from this space, but because the way it's merchandised, they thought you had more.

so less on a display is more. >> a couple weeks later, we checked in with sherry to see if anything change and we're happy to tell you that thanks to the adjustments made, her sales numbers from the festival were up 44% from last year. like it or not, we are living in a world where everyone can voice their opinion on the internet. whether you you sell a product or a service and whether you're e-commerce or brick and mortar, your business is at the mercy of online reviews. and if some of those are negative, it can severely impact your sales unless you understand how to deal with them. we solicited advice from small business owners and experts about what you should do to turn a negative review into a positive experience for your company. word of mouth is the life blood of many small businesses. but in the digital age, your company's reputation is how at the mercy of online customer reviews. >> it can trash 25 years of work. >> and those customer reviews on

sites like yelp, amazon, angie's list and trip adviser can make or break a small business. it affects how the public perceives your handling of customer service. >> you've got to be engaged. you can't bury your head in the sand. >> so what can and should an other than to to combat harsh critiques? the key is engagement and doing nothing is generally not a viable option. so remember these three key points. one, take a breath and don't react out of anger. >> take a pretty, wait, do not respond for at least i would say 12 hours because you really need time to calm down. >> number one is you you don't take to heart, don't let it bum you out. and in that two, if you're going to respond, you should always respond, always take the high road. >> two, don't argue and remain positive. >> i just simply tell them they're wrong and crazy and they should just get out of here. no, no, with negative reviews, you know, everyone no matter who they are and no matter where they're coming from, they have a reason for saying what they're

saying. >> you definitely don't want to start any battles or anything negative. if you try to be negative about somebody else's comment, all that really ends up doing is cause other people to come in there and start trying to fight and battle you. >> you don't ge't defend the st. i still believe in the old adage the customer is always right even when they're wrong. so the idea is to turn it around to try to make it as possible as positive. >> and finally, off a real solution. >> fix it, make sure that if you see a replacement product as soon as possible. >> i actually put my phone number on my product so people can contact us. because very often in a world where everything becomes ap-800 number or everyone wants to go to a website, it's wonderful to be able to pick up the phone and actually talk with a management or manager or owner of a company. >> because at the end of the

day, not everybody l. like yoi product, but if they like your customer service, you've made a lasting h lasting impression. >> and you show the public be you care about your customers, which could result in increased royalty. sometimes mended fences are those that were never broken. >> i think it's all an opportunity even when you say how could do you this, but if you really take it in the right vein and use to try to make it better, i think it's good. >> incredibly important but hard to find the right people to hire. step one is generally posting the job. so check out these five sites that may be useful. one, pinterest. two, mogul, it's a platform for

women worldwide that connects years to trending content. if you're looking for a way to reach talented females, consider posting opportunities there. three, recruiter is geared towards employees that already have jobs but are open to a move. after potential workers create private profile, you're sent e-mails of the ones you might be interested in. four, dice. a site that focuses on hiring for tech jobs. with over 2 million user, they pull in social data from more than 100 different sites to give you access to skilled tech talent for your company's openings. and five, zip recruiter is idea if you want to cast a wide net in your search for toptal lepts. fro fr your account, you can post a job to more than 100 of the top online i don't think boards with a single chicago. hiring isn't the only part of your business that can benefit from some of the resources on the web, so let's find out from our viewer respes what tools th

using. >> campa is a website where you can produce graphic design for facebook, twitter, instragram, social media, i ccon, and have come across as quality work. i would it for high facebook cover, for my twitter cover, for specials and different things that i'm doing and it also has a social media feature so you can share your sgdesigns with other and they can follow you. >> so one website that i absolutely love is nonprofit marketing guide.com. this woman has single handedly transformed my marketing from all over the place to very clear and concise. she is speaking to an audience that is working for a nonprofit, but this applies to the small business, as well. she has many free products, free

webinars, it's all really great. >> mighty belt is a website and turning in to an app that allows you to build basically mini soerl networks that also function as members areas. where you can build an entire community of your members or of your customers where they can enter ae ent interact, access kepcontent. it's free to start and and you awesome way to distribute contented content and put your members all in one place to learn from each other. aces a business owner, you have to keep on top of your finances, which seems obvious, but a part of the job too many seem to ignore. our next guest is here to simplify it. according to him, there are five crucial numbers you need to know. justin crane is founder of crane financial solutions. he teaches business owners how to plan their cash flow and be

strategic. i like that you're simplifying to five because i think it's like the big bad scary thing for a lot of't know where to start. so if you say here are these five, get those and we're off to a good start. >> absolutely. >> so let's start with the first one, sales. >> we have to track our sales. sales are the life blood to our businesses. we need to know how much money is coming in and where the money is coming from. >> do you find a lot of people who don't know that number? >> yeah, a lot of business owners don't know what their sales are. so why don't we recommend whether 00 ara service based or products based, the top three things that we sell. figure out what is product a, service b, whatever, and start tracking that. that way you can though where the money is actually coming from, which can help you just get clear with your finances. >> and next one, marketing. >> yeah, marketing is a big one. the average business owner invests about 2% to 3% of their sales in marketing.

and i want people to consider doubling that if not getting to 10%. because marketing is the life blood of our business. >> but first you have to understand what you're spending because you have some social media here and some e-mail marketing and then supplies. >> yes. >> put it together. >> absolutely. you have to make a list of where you want to actually invest in marketing. because we need to think about it as an investment because we want the money to come back, we want to make money. so we have to make a list of what we'll invest in, we have to come up with a plan and the most important thing that a lot of business owners don't do is they don't have a marketing campaign. they don't have a calendar of events. you have to really think through it strategically and plan out your year as to what you want to market your business. >> and then roftprofits. >> yeah, you have sales, but if you don't make money in your business and if your business model doesn't allow you to make money easily, then you'll be out of business in a few years. you have to make money. >> cash. we found so many companies 2008,

2009, doing well but they ran out of cash. >> it's very important to track your cash flow. and as soon as i say statement of cash flow, a lot of business owners roll their eyes. but you can easily tell your accountant to tell you what were the top two drivers in the business. it allows you to say no when you're a business owner because a lot of business owners take on projects that they probably shouldn't do just for the money. but if you know how much cash you have, you're so much clearer or where you are in your business. >> and then finally taxes. you don't want to be surprised. >> taxes are huge. it's a big thing that business owners need to plan. you need to know, well, are you an s corp, do you have withholding on those taxes, do you have to pay estimated taxes. a lot of business owners wait until the end of the year and that's okay, but you need -- i would rather have you pay as you go. pay the taxes as you make the money so you won't have a big surprise. >> so if you have good

accounting software, it's easy to get all these numbers. >> yes, but the thing is that if you're a business owner and you get overwhelmed and you stress out when it comes to money, just tell your bookkeeper our accountant to give you these five numbers. that way you're on a need to know basis what you really, really need to know and you'll feel way more empowered with the information. >> i think that's the point. set it up so that these numbers are easy to get and then just get in the habit of looking at these numbers every morning or every week or whatever works for your business. >> you yeah, i think tracking is a big thing. and it's understanding that you can have people help you with it that you don't have to do it all yourself. >> thank you. appreciate it. do you want more advice to help run your business? when we return, we talk about dr growing your brand without losing your identity and how to know when to start paying yourself a salary. and a cool way to wirelessly or remotely open locked doors.

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 is from david in portsmouth, new hampshire who owns fun to eat fruit. they put custom logos and mess ams on apples and pears. we'd love to see yours, so

please send selfie of you and your business to your business@msn business@msn business@msnbc.com and use #your biz selfie. this week's elevator pitch had an idea to help give and gain access to apartments and houses without having to carry key. let's see if she can unlock the passion of our panelists. tonya is the founder and ceo and lease lisa have an investor with new york angels. >> hi. if you've ever stayed in vacation rental or airbnb, you were probably given a key. did you ever think about how many other people have been given that key? unfortunately, keys can be copied, lost or stolen. and when paired with a calendar showing when a home is unoccupied, creating easy opportunity for unauthorized access or theft. this kept me up nights as a property manager sorgs i created

a software platform that allows property managers, homeowners and investors the ability to remotely manage access to their properties from anywhere in the world using our patent pending . the lock doesn't use wifi or blue tooth. our technology is based on light transmission so it's safe and secure. we already have three large management companies in each of our target markets on board for beta testing and looking for an investment for $200,000 for 10% of the company to help us small run manufacturing for our beta looks and staffing for onboarding new customers. >> congratulations, meghan, good job. i'll give two numbers. the first one, one through ten, how do you think the product is and the second one is how was the pitch? i would like this for my house. the number of times i have lost the keys to my house and calling

my husband to send them home this would be good for me. >> i think i could get you one. >> let's start. >> i gave her an eight for the pitch and a six for the product. i think you were great. i think you covered all the major points, you had enthusiasm. i think maybe if you could speak a little bit more about the competition in their pitch that would be helpful. i think on the product side i do see the need for this. i think this there is also a lot of other technology already on the marketplace and so if you could maybe articulate more clearly why it is that this is different and safe and not hackable and i think that would go a long way. >> perfect. those are related, the eight and the six there. tanya? >> i gave you an eight on the product and a nine on the pitch. i'll talk about the product. i didn't know i was nervous about it but i am now that you talk about it. anything which starts technology

of a physical product has a great runway. i would have liked to have known more detail about how you're pulling off the tech and how you're going to reverse engineer against any unauthorized access so that was what was going on there. the pitch itself, i love that you came from your own personal experience. i think the one thing i would say is there's also an opportunity to think about the use case beyond property management because that thought how big is the addressable market. you want to think how this could solve problems for every person who has a lock, not just a property manager. >> great. thanks, both of you. good luck with your company. thanks for stopping by and pitching it here. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> absolutely. if any of you out there have a product or a service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, send us an e-mail to yourbusiness yourbusiness@msnbc.com.

you never know, somebody out there watching the show might be interested in helping you. it's time to answer some of your your business questions. tanya and nisa are here to help us out. eyal writes we are planning on expanding to meet a new marketplace. how do we grow our brand without losing the soul of our company? >> when you talk about the soul of your company you talk about the culture and what you stand for when it comes to dealing with your clients. i would say three quick tips going through this growth. the first is to really get clear on what your values are as a company, how do you treat your company, how do you treat each other and what does the customer stand for. the second thing to make sure as you're going through this growth to hire people who believe what you do and who share those values so they're going to treat your customer in the same way even as you're experiencing this growth. and then lastly, i would say please keep checking in, because you'd be surprised how quickly these values slip particularly

when adding lots of new people who may or may not know truly what you stand for. >> i agree completely. the soul of the company and culture is important. if you are amaking any change to the brand you really need to communicate with the customers way ahead of the time that you plan to make the change. you need to explain why you're making changes to them so that gets them loyalty, more loyal than they already are. that is really important if you're making changes not to lose that customer, that existing customer there, your evangelist. >> if you're expanding your brand hopefully you're doing it in a way or offering something these people will like, too. to your point these are the evangelist, first point of contact they have. next question about getting paid. >> how do i determine when do i pay myself a full salary? >> i imagine you must get this question all the tomb as an investor. >> absolutely. i think as a general rule you

pay yourself a salary when you have some traction, you have revenues, you can meet all your other expenses. the real question is here is do you pay yourself the minimum to cover your living expenses or what you're worth. i think investors like to see some kind of flexibility here, like maybe build in a ratchet up system so if you meet certain milestones and numbers you pay yourself more and if the business is flailing, you pay yourself less so i think that's important also, consider your structure, c corps, llc or sole proprietorsh proprietorship, certain tax implications go into drawing a salary. >> tania, you started a few companies. when did you decide to pay yourself? >> my perspective, pay yourself as soon as possible. you have to cover your bills, super hard to stay really committed to a company if you're not making ends meet so for any business owner you can feel guilty about it, you shouldn't take it out of the company but

if you're already working 24/7 you have to do it. the second reason why this is so important is it gives you a much more realistic picture of what your business actually looks like, because your books can look great because you're getting all this free labor from you but it doesn't give you a really clear perspective on what it's going to take to get your business to the next level so it's actually good for investors because it means you can really start to learn how to scale. >> let's go to the last question about getting your name throughout. >> as a small business how do you find a beta place to market your product? >> do you a lot with social media, here is a free at least money wise way if not time. >> i'm going to take it as a given that your product is good so when you have a great product the biggest thing that's going in your favor is customers who can try your product and that you can get in their hands so they can become advocates. social media is by far the best passa passageway to get this out there and enable your customer to tell

your story. so as soon as you find people who like your plod, then you want to be giving them an opportunity to post to your social pages, you want to give them case xarmz if you're in the services business of how they succeeded. people are going to trust something that comes from their friends or trusted network way more than they're going to be based on advertising dollars. the trick is to make it easy for people to tell the story. >> what i find out a lot people try something in social, doesn't work and they give up, doesn't work for me. though it's free, it didn't work, not worth my time. >> facebook ads, google ad words, twitter, you need to have everybody that's touching your company doing this on your behalf so that you create plurality and i think there's also other ways that you could like create for example a blog or a funny video that really gets a lot of attention, that's really inexpensive and really

effective at making things go viral. i will also say that are guerrilla marketing tactics, use offline as well. for example, people paint logos on their car or drive them around or go to an event or trade show and offer free food. there's inexpensive ways to market your company, free pr, advertising, et cetera. >> thank you for your advice, really appreciate getting to pick your brains a little bit. >> thank you. >> if any of you have a question for our experts send them in because we answer them every week. get free advice. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. thanks so much for joining us today. if you want to learn more about the show, head on over to our website, it's openforumth com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus the web with exclusive pieces with more information to help your business grow, also on twitt twitter @s had be @msnbcyourbiz.

>> santa claus helps owners of an amusement park helps guests seven months a year. >> what's not to like about christmas? >> most everybody is in the christmas spirit whether it's in june, july, august or the first of december. >> we'll tell you why santa's village is still such a popular destination for generations of families after being in business for 63 years. 'til then i'm j.j. ramberg and remember, we make your business our business. 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 from world famous rockefeller center in new york city, welcome to "politics nation's" fifth annual revvi 'wards, featuring the big stars of 2015, look, there's donald trump, what does he think about the festivities? >> the american tredream is dea. >> save it for the acceptance speech, donald. also, ted cruz jeb bush, hillary clinton and bernie sanders. >> feel the buzz! >> settle down, senator, the ber-nae-nae can wait until after the party.