sounds like my ride's ready. don't get stuck on hold. reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," the struggle for survival. what steps did the owner of a camera store take to keep his company competitive in the e-commerce age? we hit the road to find out how this tour bus company caters to celebrity clientele. plus you may not think you're in danger of employee embezzling in your company? but are you really protected? information and advice to help the small business owner 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 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 and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. when a small town retailer fiegs back to save his family business in torrence, california, it gets very personal. this week we meet one of the last men standing in an industry that has been decimated by the internet. brick and mortar camera stores. despite the insane levels of online competition, he has found a way to keep his customers coming back.

>> john is going to be so jealous. >> oh, my god. >> it's like light painting, they call it. see how cool that turned out. >> when these amateur photographers get together, they have one thing on their mind. who took the best photos, where, and how they did it. >> i've never done that before so it's so exciting. >> for mark coman, gatherings like these have been the secret weapon that has kept his small camera shop in business while many others have had to shut down. >> we're like the cheers of camera stores where everybody knows your name. and we really have a good time with it. that's the problem. >> paul's photoisn't run by him anymore. his son has taken over. >> as my peers got older, they

were not capable of keeping up. as i would not be capable of keeping up if it weren't for mark. it's an entirely new ball game. >> if you listen to mark, it's not even a new ball game. it's a completely new business model. >> so when my dad started, the camera store business was all about consumables. film, processing, developing. we could see customers on a regular basis. that was the cash flow. that went away with digital. then in 2008, 2009, here comes the internet and retail is struggling. >> without the predictable cash flow of film and processes or the vast product range of the internet, industry analysts say most of the local camera shops like palm's simply closed up and disappeared. >> we had 17 camera stores sold nem the 1990. now today not a single location that we were in has a photographic application. all of them have become

something else. >> bill mccurry is a business adviser to what he now call this imaging industry. he's watched this painful process of extinction play out in large and small towns across the country. >> ten years ago, ritz camera had 1200 camera stores. today there are 11 operating you should the name. >> the problem, they say, extends beyond technology and the internet. they blame the suppliers as well. >> we have no control over pricing in our business. the camera manufacturers control the price. so when i sell you a 1,000-dollar camera, you have to realize that $950 of that $1,000 goes to the camera manufacturers. we get 50 bucks. >> you need other things to survive. >> other things for mark coman begins with this army of camera buffs who've been hired by

mark's energy style. tonight 45 night hawk students have gathered in the dark. >> one, two, three. >> not just to shoot pictures of the christmas lights, but to share the excitement of learning from each other as well as getting amazing pictures. >> look at that. look at that. look at that. see? yes, evelyn. great. i love that. >> it's experienial marketing. they respond by keeping his business in the black. >> i came into it to learn how to use a camera and did in eight weeks buy a whole new camera. and so i kind of went to the classes, sort of doing the homework, took a back corner seat and just got pulled into it. >> what makes this work is that

mark's enthusiasm is contagious. >> we'll generate a thousand dollars worth of revenue tonight which is okay. but what we're going to do is we're going to get 40 people to have a great experience. and they're going to tell their friends, post it on facebook, post it on flickr. they're going to tell all their neighbors, man, i had a great time last night and paul's photo was the place to go. >> mark takes the classes to an o olympic sports level. >> mark's ability to keep local retail relevant rests on his ability to provide experiences for his customers that can't be found anywhere else. >> it's an ecosystem that we've built. it's this symbiotic relationship between the camera store, the lab, and the classroom that feeds itself. >> paul's photo is not alone. you can see this ecosystem

approach as well. sfl my friends who have running stores and bike stores, how many have a free class? and they're doing the same thing we are. >> to a big picture guy like bill, mark's passion for teaching is a two-edged sword. on the one hand, it's kept mark's business afloat when others have gone bust. on the other hand, bill worries it may be preventing mark from taking the steps to prepare for the future. >> there's others who say they want to build something they can retire from nap means it has to be big enough you can sell it to an investor. >> to mark, however, the big picture looks very different. >> and if i can get every customer within ten miles to buy their camera here and have their pictures printed here and to take a photo class with us, that's enough for me. i'm not crete i did. i'm a small time guy and know

what i do and like the customers. each january people flock to las vegas to see the coolest and newest technology unveiled at the consumer electronics show. we bring you the top picks this year to help your small business from entrepreneur.com. nextbit robin. two, omnity takes the idea of a search engine to the next level. instead of just being able to put in a few key words, you can entire an entire document to find other relates articles and sites. three, job site ear buds from tough tested. these will perform well in a high energy start-up space. four, the app speed fi mobile has the combination of the phone

so you're using the fast fest speet at any point in time. and five, the bluesmart carry-on suitcase has a remote controlled locking system. what do oprah, justin timberlake, and george w. bush have in common? the answer is they have all hit the road in style thanks to brothers james and joey huntville. they took their experience and created a luxury bus company that caters to a celebrity client list that includes the biggest names in music, theater, and politics. ♪ if you've ever wondered how lady gaga, justin timberlake, britney spears, aerosmith, cher, or even the president get from point a to point "b" on tour, talk to these guys. >> you have to stay focused on

what you're about. that's what we do. our customers have to be famous though. >> they get people where they need to go in style and comfort without having to worry about the details. >> you have to know that you've done everythingic to get them a safe and comfortable experience. >> when you walk around the business, you'll see the walls covered with many of their celebrity clients. clients that relied on their service because they did one simple thing right. they delivered on what they promised. and in the topsy-turvy world of touring, they rely on hemphill to be a stable force in the unstable world. it's a world trent and joey know first hand. with a history in music, they grew up in a partridge family style bus singing with their family band.

>> i traveled singing gospel music. so it was an interesting way to be raised. >> with an intimate knowledge of what it's like to be on the road, they know about what someone needs to have a relaxing trip. so they decided to start their bus company. >> we know that feeling of being on the bus, riding down the bus, being on the stage. >> pioneers in the luxury coach industry got two buss to get their start. they transformed them on the inside and the out so they looked brand new doing most of the work themselves. they didn't have a lot of money, but they had a ton of experience and learned early on to underpromise and over-deliver. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they did whatever it took to keep their buses rolling. support the drivers and keep their clients happy. they started doing small local tours at first. their big break took shape when

van halen called. >> i'll never forget when they were in nashville and they needed to add a bus to their tour. just so happened we had a bus available. and took the bus down there with a driver. and got to meet the management and obviously we did a good job, because 30 years later, we did the whole van halen tour 2012. >> they're able to buy and customize buses to u fit the needs of high-profile clients. as the company grew, they put all their resources into every aspect of building their customized buss in house. from the woodwork to upholstery and painting. if a bus is ordered for a tour and is to be delivered on a certain date, it is. >> you might have an artist that has a special mattress. or one that likes all white

everything. white furniture, white drapes. so we'll take an existing bus and we'll make it white for that tour. there are families that travel together that have babies. they want the cribs. we've put tanning beds in buses. sometimes we'll set up a recording studio in a bus. that way they can go down the road and record their latest hit. >> hemphill brothers expanded their fleet slowly only doing so when they could adequately increase their driver pool and support staff in nashville with the right people. with less than 5% turnover, they have cultivated, build an extremefully loi group of employees. >> we went out there and hired the best of the best for our company. even when we really felt like we

couldn't afford to do that. we couldn't afford not to. so we had to have the best drivers that we could possibly find. and that built company pride. getting a call from air force one, you know, booking buses for the president. getting a text from george strait saying i want you to build me a new bus. or getting a call from the oprah show saying we want to use your buses for her show. it's always something new and it's never boring around here. if you ask around, i bet you will find so many more people than you possibly imagine who have been victims of embezzlement. though i've not experienced it myself, one family member and one close friend have. both of whom i think of as very smart and on top of things at their companies. this doesn't count the stories i've heard from people in this program. so today we have brought in jim ash the national leader of the

forensics practices group and independent public accounting and advisories firm. jim's here to tell us what we need to do so this does not happen to us. it's great to see you. >> thank you. >> first and foremost, if you're a victim of it, don't feel badly. you are not alone. >> it is a very prevalent event. we see it all the time. >> from very smart people. >> yes. and it just happens toechb the most, you know, people who are watching the situation where are closely. it just happens. >> so let's make sure it doesn't happen to anyone who's watching this. tell us what to do? >> typically this happens a lot more in small business and it could be from 10 to 20 employees. and there's a combination of two things happening. one is that there's a trusted employee who's been there probably for 5, 10, 15 years. it's very trusted by the owners. and it's somebody usually in the age group of 30 to 45 and they've been there at the company for a long time.

and there's that trust factor. the other thing is in a small business, very hard to segregate the duties between different employees. so you can't have a situation where somebody's a bookkeeper who's in charge of signing checks and making deposits. you have to separate all those duties out so you have one person sort of responsible for the books and records and another person responsible for writing checks and other person responsible for taking the checks that come in to the bank. >> and then some oversight over all those people. >> the important thing is the owners oversight or key employees oversight. like a checks and balances type of situation. an owner really has to do a number of very important things. they have to open up the bank statements. they have to look at the bank statements. they've got to see that the checks are made to legitimate payers. >> because even if you have a different person writing the checks than the bookkeeper, they may still trust each other. oh i see this person is getting

a check every month so it must be good. so as a person that's not the owner, it doesn't raise a red flag for me. i trust jim. >> right. so that owner when they get a folder of checks to sign, they have to look at the voucher. they have to look at the check. >> ask questions. >> if the dollar amount looks wrong or the payer's name. >> if it's above a certain threshold, make sure that you are the one to sign it. >> for sure. i recommend any small business -- and it depends on the nature of the business, but usually a threshold is $1,000 or a little more and requires a double signature on the check. that way you have the check balance in place. >> it is not brine surgery what we're talking about right now. it is simply saying look at this. >> yes. be vigilant. you have to be vigilant. it happens so frequently that you have to have those checks and balances in place. particularly in a small business

where you can't necessarily have enough people to do all the segregated out. >> you can't divide it out. you need to be watching. >> correct. >> right. and even if they're embezzling $100 here and there, right? >> it all adds up. and in small business, that's a significant amount of money to a small business. >> and is it always or often just people who the owner says i would have never expected this? >> that's a great comment. that's exactly what i hear every time. i can't believe she did it. i just can't believe it. she was with me at the picnic at our house last weekend. we were enjoying hamburgers together. it's true. happens all the time. >> so this conversation should be enough about cyber security as well. you know what you need to do. you got to do it. >> yes. >> jim, thank you for coming on and reminding us. >> thank you. want to wear your fancy high

heels but there's 2 feet of snow on the ground? today's elevator pitcher has a product. alisha surrete is part of angel investment firm and heather thompson is a former real housewife of new york city and founder of yummy by heather thompson. >> hi. i'm cassandra jurgen and we have pyisys for protect your shoes in style. they're designed for when your outfit calls for dress shoes but the weather disagrees. protect your shoes and tackle that puddle or snow mound in style. they're just as sturdy as a regular boot but they're light and roll up and come with this carry back for storage. our initial style -- this is the carry bag. our initial style is selling

online. and we have 35 -- we have customers in 35 u.s. states and six foreign countries. our customers are women who are -- who hate to change chang their shoes or ruin their shoes and they are loving the fashion forward look and unique elastic closure. they are asking for many more styles. we're currently seeking $500,000 to design and develop new styles and to begin our wholesale launch. [ bell ] >> okcassandra, we have the perfect panel for you. so, you know, i want two numbers from you guys from one to ten first. how was the product? what do you think of the product. second the pitch. while they were writing that down i want to congratulate you on your ability to give the pitch while taking off your shoe. that was very well practiced.

you've done that before. >> easy to do. >> let's start with you. >> to start i gave you and eight on the product. i'm totally enamored by the shoes. i feel i'm your target demonstrate demographic. for the pitch i gave you a six. i'm left a number of questions. i don't know anything about your background, why you are best suited to execute on this idea. i don't know why other competitors might, may or may not be able to replicate your product. i don't know anything about sales to date and i don't know how you're reaching your audience. i'm intrigued to learn more but i'm left with more questions. >> it's interesting. she only had 60 seconds so you can't get to all of that. really did she give you enough of anything to say, oh, she might be good at this. you're shaking your head.

>> i agree. we have no time. 60 seconds moment to tell us everything about you. i think like for example the spelling, i didn't think was that important right now so i would maybe have spent more time talking about sales figures. a little bit about marketing. how you're separating yourself from others. i gave you eight for the product, seven for the pitch for the same reasons. you definitely hooked me and we both want to know more. and congratulations on fashion forward design. i like that you made it high. in the rain it's always about the pants getting wet not just the shoes so kudos to you and best of luck. >> congratulations on your success so far. great to see you. thank you for all your advice on this really helpful. coming on this elevator is a very good way to get some good honest feedback like you saw from real entrepreneurs and real investors. so if you would like a chance to pitch them send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusine

yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we look forward to seeing some of you here on the show. up next,000 keep changes in software and technology from upending your company. and the danger of over hieyping with an aggressive sales approach. 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

at what point do you know you need and how do you transition from software systems that worked when you were smaller to the larger software system? >> so, we want to talk about moving your software system to an enterprise system. there are two big things you want to make sure you do always. number one sue have to have an administrator in front of your system. you have to have somebody that you're investing in that will take ownership of this project. this is not some small little system, this is a big project that you're going to do, somebody internally has got to own it and take responsibility for it which means it will cost you money do that. if you don't have somebody in house with the power to actually move the system like that forward you're going fail and, number two, you got to be involved as well. no enterprise system gets implemented without executive

support. that person that owns the project they got to know you got their back. you invest money in that person and make sure you'll be there and support that person. that's the only way you'll succeed with any type of enterprise system. if you're not ready to do that you're not ready to move forward. >> we have the top two tips to help your business grow. great to see you guys setting at the set. let's start with you. >> my top tip is don't be too salesy. i say this to entrepreneurs all the time. i feel like often i hear them say, you know, if you don't invest now the opportunity won't exist or nobody else can do what we do. the truth is when you make bold statements like that you risk losing credibility all together. the key is don't be too salesy because the thing is if something sounds too good to be true we know that it probably is. >> so it's true unless it's really true that you -- you have to invest right now because i

have another person coming behind. don't say it like that. it sounds fake. if it's true that's fine it doesn't matter you have somebody in the background. >> and start off managing expectations. it's a great segue to my tip. keep focused on your priorities. oftentimes entrepreneurs are like oh, my god i have so much to do. it's a simple tip but important to stay focused on your priorities. it's not always about doing more, it's about doing what you're doing, the best you can do it. what happens is you're like i'm over here and i want to develop the website but i want to start my wholesale business. you really have to focus on the task at hand and prioritize that. do at any time best you can do and then move on. you have time. you don't have to do it all tomorrow. >> so how do you put together those priorities? do you have staff meetings where people are battling it out fighting for their time, their share, their place on the list? >> that's important if you have a big staff or small staff definitely involve the staff on what parts of their division or

what they are responsible for is important to them. what do they see as the priorities. but if you really sit back and don't get too caught in the weed and as entrepreneurs we do and you take the top down approach, the priorities are obvious. you know what you have to do. you have to have your supply chain set. you know you have to deliver the product, making it on time. make sure your margins are set. >> one of the tensions i see is marketing versus product. you must see this all the time. >> it depends on the business, right. if it's a consumer focused business marketing is key and you got to get out there and reach the consumers because if you're not making sales then it doesn't matter how much you're focused on the product. but if it's something in the tech industry, then the product is everything. right? that drives it all. so you really have to be cognizant of what drives the revenues and behaviors of the consumers in your industry and adapt accordingly.

and about focus sometimes it's helpful to have somebody come in from an advisory board and shake up your own view. you're spending too much in this area. you need to get out there and shake hands and develop customers or spend more time on the product. so making sure that you're not just kind of in the weed in your own area and having some outside view giving you perspective. >> great advice. thank you so much for coming on the program today. moving on to this week's #yourbizselfie. this man sells great acoustics and lielectrics in the lonestar state. send us your business. please do not forget to use the #yourbizselfie. we would love to hear from you.

e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. >> next week we meet a woman who cracked the code for cracking government contracts. until then, remember we make your business our 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 >> good morning. welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sharpton. big news this morning from the presidential race and from the health crisis in flint, michigan. i'll have that coming up. but let's start with richard lui who has full coverage of the aftermath of this massive blizzard here on the east coast. >> good morning to you. lots to talk about in terms about the storm. the east coast is waking up this morning to record setting or near record setting amounts. yesterday's massive blizzard that dumped as much as t