good morning, coming up on msnbc's "your business." what steps did the owner of a camera store keep his company safe? we hit the road to find out how this tour bus company katders to celebrity clientele. plus you may not think you're in danger of an employer em bezing your company, are you really protected? how to avoid being caught by surprise. information and advice to help the small business owner coming up next on "your business."

hi everyone, welcome to "your business." the chose dedicated to helping your small business grow. when a small town retailer fights back to save his family business, it gets very personal. this week, we meet one of the last men standing in an industry which has decimated by the internet. brick and mortar camera stores. despite the insane levels of

competition, this entrepreneur found a way to keep his customers coming back. oh my god. >> oh my god. >> it's kind of light they called it. >> yeah, figure it 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 like, oh. >> for mark, the owner of california based tall photo, gatherings like these have been the secret weapon that has kept his small camera shop in business while so many others have had to shut down. >> is everybody having fun? >> i'm having fun. >> good. >> we're like the cheers of camera stores. everybody knows your name and we have a good time with it. and that's the secret. >> it isn't run by paul anymore, mark, his son is now calling the shots. and pulling in the customers and

keeping up with the times. >> 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 blaem. >> if you listen to mark, it's not even a new blaem. it's a completely new business model. >> the one my dad started, the camera store business was all about consumers. still processing, developing, we would see customers on a regular basis. that was the cash look. that went away with digital. then in 2008, 2009, here comes the internet and retail struggled. >> without the predictable cash flow of film and processing or out vast product range of the internet, industry analysts say most of the local camera shops like paul's simply closed up and disappear zblrpd we had 17 camera stores. sold them in 1990, today, not a

single location that we were in has a photographic application, all have become something. >> this is a business advisor to what he know calls the "imaging industry." he watched this painful process of extinction play out in large and small towns across the country. >> ten years ago, rick's camera had 1200, today, there are 11 operating. >> the problem extends beyond technology and the internet. they blame the suppliers as well. >> we have no control of pricing. >> we get to keep 50 bucks. >> economically, you will not survive selling cameras, period. you need other things. >> other things for mark, the

army of camera buffs who've been inspired by mark's high-energy classroom style. >> how many opportunities do we have? raise your hand. >> tonight, 45 students gathered in the dark. >> one, two, three. >> not just a few pictures of the christmas like thes, but to share the excitement of learning from each other as well as getting amazing pictures. >> look at that. look at that, john. look at that. see. >> yes, great, i love that! >> it's experience marketing at its best. he shows them thousand have a great time taking pictures. takes them out for drinks afterbards, and they respond by keeping his business in the black. >> i came into it to take a quickie class, learn how to keep a camera, then in eight weeks buying a whole new camera. and so, i kind of started doing the homework, took a back corner seat and just got pulled into

it. >> what makes this work is that mark's enthuse yaechl is genuine. >> i like that that. look at that. and contagious. and it builds a community strong enough to compete with the internet. >> you know, we'll generate $1,000 worth of revenue tonight, it is okay, but what we're going to do is we're going to get 40 people po to have a great experience. and they're going to tell their friends, post it on facebook, 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 a olympic level. the upsman can't do that. >> mark's ability to keep local retail relevance rests on his ability to provide experiences for his customers that can't be found anywhere else. >> it's an ecosystem. it's the relationship between the camera store, the lab, and the classroom. the feat itself.

>> paul's photo is not alone, you can see this ecosystem approach in other retail industries as well. >> my friends who have running stores and bike stores. they offer runs and bike rides. how many nurseries offer the free planting class. right? and what are they doing? they're doing the same thing we are. >> to a big picture guy like phil, it's ast two-edged sword, on the one hand, its kept the business afloat. on the other hand, bill worries that it may be preventing mark from taking the steps others take to prepare for the future. >> there's others who say they want to build something. asked to be big enough that you can sell it through an investor through a higher professional management. >> 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 them. that's enough for me. i'm not greedy. i'm a small-time guy in a small

little town, and i love what i do and i like knowing my customers. >> john, you okay? >> each january, people flock to las vegas to see the coolest and newest technology unveiled at the consumer electronic's show. we bring you the top picks from there this year to help your small business from entrepreneur.com. one robin is an android phone that takes your lesser used apps and content and moves them to the cloud when your phone's internal storage reaches capacity. two, it 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 enter an entire document to find other related articles and sites. three, the ear buzz are designed specifically for construction workers taking calls from noisy locations. so these will perform well in a high-energy start-up space.

four, the app's mobile from connected by, managings the combination of mobile data and wi-fi networks on your phone so you're utilizing the fastest available at any point in time. and five, the carry on suitcase has built in realtime location tracking and app-controlled blocking system. what do oprah, justin timberlake and george w. bush in common? they have all hit the road in style thanks to trent and joey. they know a lot about touring. they did it themselves as a successful gospel group. they took that experience and created a 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, rihanna, britany spears, aerosmith, or even the president get from point a to point b when they're on tour, talk to these

guys. >> you have to stay focussed on really what you're about, and that's what we do. it's just our customers have to be famous. >> and what they're really about is going the extra mile. literally getting people where they need to go in style and comfort, without having to worry about the details. >> you have to know what you've done everything you can to give them a safe and comfortable experience. >> when you walk around the offices at the company in nashville, 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 turvey world of touring, they rely on hemphill for being a stable force in an often unstable world. it's a world they know firsthand. with a history deep in music, they grew up in a part ridge

family style bus. singing with their family band, the hemphill. >> i traveled two million miles on a bus doing gospel music. it was an interesting way to be raised. >> with an intimate knowledge what have life is like on the road, they knew a thing or two about what someone needs to have a relaxing and trouble-free trip. they decided to start their bus company in 1980. >> we know that feeling of being on the bus, riding down the road, or being on stage. >> pioneers in the luxury coach industry, the brothers scraped enough money together to buy two old buss to get their start. they transformed them on the inside and out so they look 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 overdeliver. 24 hours a day. seven days a week. they did what ever it took to keep the buses rolling, support the drivers, and keep their clients happy.

they started doing small, local stores at first. their big break came two years after starting the business when van halen called. >> i'll never forget the day, they were in nashville, and they needed to add a bus to their tour. and just so happened we had a bus available. and took the bus down there with the 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. >> being prepared for that first big call led to many more. and the ability to start phasing out their old buses and buying and customizing new ones to fit their high-profile clients. they poured all of their resources into bringing every aspect of building their customized buss in-house from the custom wood work to the uphols ri and paint pg. if the bus is ordered for a fur tour and it's delivered on a certain date.

it is. >> you might have an artist that has a special mall stress or an artist that likes all white. white leather fortunate, or white country. white drapes. and so we'll take an existing bus and we'll, we'll make it white for that tour. their families that travel together that have new babies. they want those cribs with the monitors, we put tanning beds in buses. and sometimes we'll set up a recording studio in a bus and that way they can go down the road and record their latest hits. >> with careful and measured growth, 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, frank and joey cultivated and built a loyal introductive team of employees. starting with the day-toy-day face of the company, their drivers. >> we went out there and hired

the best of the best for our company. even when we really felt like we wouldn'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 spells company bride. >> getting a call from air force one, 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 top 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've been victims of em bezment. one family member and close friend has. both of whom i think of as really smart and on top of things. and this doesn't count the

number of people i've met through the program. today, jim ash, national leader at and independent public accounting and advisory services firm. he's here to tell us what we need to do so this doesn't happen to us, great to see you. >> thank you. >> first and foremost, if you are a victim of it, don't feel some badly, you are not alone. >> it is a very troubling event. we see it all the time. >> very smart people. >> yes, very smart people. and it just happens to even the most, you know, people who are watching a the situation very closely. it happens. >> let's make sure it doesn't happen to anyone who's watching this. tell what you say we need to do. >> the first thing that happens, typically this happens more in small business. and small business could be anywhere from 10 to 20 employees. and the combination of two things happen, one is that there's a trusted employee who probably there for five, 10, 15 years, and very trusted by the

owners, and it's somebody usually in the age group of 30 to 45, and they've been there for a long time. and you lose that trust factor. the other thing is to segregate the duties between the employees. so you can't have a situation where somebody's a bookkeeper who's in charge of writing checks, signing checks, and making deposits. you have to separate all those duties out so that you have person who is responsible for books and records, another person responsible for writing checks, another person responsible for taking the checks that come into the bank. >> and then oversight. over all those people. >> the real key is the owners oversight -- >> right. >> sort of like the checks and balances type of situation. an owner really has to do a number of important things. they have to open up the bank statement. >> uh-huh. >> they have to look at it. they have to see that the checks are made so that you can pay it. >> because even if you have awe this person writing the check,

they stimneed to trust each other, right? oh, i see this person is getting a check every month, it must be good. that person's writing it. >> yeah. >> and so i, as a person looking at it, it doesn't raise a red flag for me. i trust jim, he knows what he's doing. it's all just by road. >> right. and so that owner when it gets a folder of checks to sign, look at the voucher, look at the check -- >> ask questions. >> if the dollar amount looks run. >> if it's above a certain threshold, make sure that you are the one to sign it. >> i recommend any small business, it depends on the nature of the business, you usually threshold is $1,000, sometimes a little bit more, and it requires the double signature on the check. and that way that you have check balance in place. >> and it is not brain surgery what we're talking about right now. it is simply saying, look at this. >> yes. >> right? >> you have to be vigilant.

it happens. so frequently that you have to have those checks and balances in place. typically in a small business, where you can't necessarily have enough people to do all the data. >> you can't divide it up, so you need to be watching. >> that's correct. >> even if it's not $1,000, $100 here, $100 there, right? >> it all adds up, and small business, there's that's a very significant amount of money for small business. >> and is it always or often as people who the owner says i would have never expected this? >> that's a great promise. that's exactly what i hear every time. i can't believe she did. . i just can't believe it. she was working at the picnic at our house last weekend. we were having hamburgers together, and it's really true. it happens all the time. >> so, this conversation could be enough -- i think about this about security as well. you know what you need to do. you've got to do it. jim, thanks so much for

reminding us. >> thank you. want to wear your fancy high heels, but there's two feet of snow on the ground? there's product packed full on the oulds but fashionable on the inside. alyssa is founder and ceo of angel investment firms, and heather thompson is a former real house wooif of new york city and the founder of facts and minds, yummy by heather thompson. >> hi, my business is high heels over boots, but it's -- protect your shoes in style. our posh glaushs are designed for when your outfit calls for dress shoes, but the weather isn't cooperating. you can tackle that puddle of snow mound in style. they're regular boots, but they're light and roll up and come with the convenient carry bag for storage.

our initial style -- our initial style is currently selling on amazon. we have customers in 35 u.s. states and six foreign countries. and our first are women who are, who halt to ruin their somehow shoes, and they're loving the fashion forward look. and their asking for many more styles. we're currently keeping $500,000 to the design and develop new styles. >> cassandra, we have the perfect panel for you. we couldn't have ask two better people right, heather from the facts and world, and alyssa, who invests in exactly these kinds of things amongst many others. so you know, i got two numbers from you guys. first, how was the product? what'd you think of the product, second the pitch. while they're writing that down.

i want to congratulate you on the ability to give the pitch. >> thank you. >> that was very well practiced. you've done that before. >> indeed. >> alyssa, let's start with you. >> so, to start i gave you an eight on the product. i am totally enamored by the shoes. i feel like i'm probably your target demographic and i can't wait to try on a pair. for the pitch, a six though, you spent a lot of time talking about the product and gave us a little bit of a sense of traction, but i am left with a number of questions. i don't know anything about your background, why you're 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. so i'm really intrigued to learn more, but i'm left with so many questions that i had -- >> sfwresing. 60 seconds. you can't get to all of that. really, db she give you enough

of anything to say, oh, she might be good at this, let me -- >> you're shaking your head yes. >> i agree with what she said, no time. 60 seconds, moment to tell us everything about it. so i think like for example, the spelling wasn't that important. i would have maybe spent more time talking up sales figures. how you're separating yourself from the others. clearly an eight for the product, and seven for the pitch for the same reasons. but you definitely hooked me, and we both want to know more. >> yep. >> exact. >> and congratulations on a fashion forward direction. kudos to you. >> thank you. >> congratulations on your success so far, great to see you. and thank you for all of your advice on this, really helpful. coming on this elevator is a very good way to get some really honest feedback like you just saw, real sberp nurse and real investors. so, if you'd like a chance to

pitch them, send us an e-mail. yourbusiness @msnbc.com. include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're raising and what you're going to do with the money. we look forward to reading about your companies and seeing you here on the show. up next, how to keep changes in software and tech following upending your company. and the danger of overhyping with an aggressive sales approach. 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

you have to have somebody that you're investing in that is going to take ownership of of this product. this is not a 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, it's going to cost you money to do that. if you don't have somebody in-house to have the power to actually move a system like that forward, you're going to fail.

and number two, you've got to be involved as well. no enterprise system gets implemented without the executive file and executive support. that person that owns the project, they've got to know that you've got their back. you're going to invest money in that person and also make sure that you're going to be there and support that person, that's the only way you're going to succeed with any type of enterprise system. if you're not ready, you're not ready to move forward with an enterprise system. >> we now have the tips you need to know to help your small business grow. alyssa and heather are back with you. sitting hearing at the set now. all right. alyssa, 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, if you don't invest now, the opportunity won't exist or nobody else can do what we do. and the truth is, is when you make bold statements like that, you risk losing credit bltd altogether. 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. >> unless it is really true that you -- you have to have invest righting now because i have person coming behind, don't say like that. . sounds fake. and so if it's really true, it's fine, it doesn't matter you have someone in the background. >> start off managing expectations and what you're going to do. actually a great segue into my tip which is keep focussed on your priority us. oftentimes entrepreneurs are like oh my god, i have so much to do. and it's a simple tip, but it's important to stay focussed on your priorities because it's not always about doing more, it's about doing what you're doing the best that you can do it. and what happens is you're like, i'm over here and i want to the develop a website, but i want to start my wholesale business and i want to do this. you really have to focus on the task at hand and prioritize that, do the 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 or place on the list?

>> yes, i think that's important to, you know, if you have a big staff or you have a small staff, definitely involve the staff on what parts of their division or what they're responsible for is important to them. but if you really sit back and don't get too caught until the weeds, you do sometimes and you take that top down approach and look through the trees. the priorities are obvious. you know what you need to do. you have to know that will you're delivering the product as quality product, making it on time. you know, you have to make sure your margins are set. >> one of the tensions i see when i talk about priorities, marketing versus product and you must see this all the time in the companies you invest in. >> ting depends on the business, right? if it's a customer-focussed business, marketing is key. you have to reach the customers because if you're not making sales, it doesn't matter how much you're focussed on the product, but if it's something in the tech industry, then the product is everything, right? that kind of drives it all. you have to be cognizant of what

drives the revenues and the bez haifrs and consumers in your industry and adapt accordingly. to heather's point about focus, sometimes, it's helpful to have someone from an advisory board shake up your own view and be like, you're spending too much time in this area, you need to get out thereto and shake hands and develop customers or you need to spend more time on the product. sop making sure that you're not just kind of in the weeds in your own area and having outside view giving you perspective is key. >> great advice. thank you for coming on the program today. moving on no this. week's your biz selfie. it's from a musician who owns guitar tech in san antonio, texas. he sells and repairs acoustics and electrics there in the lonestar state. now, put down your guitar and pick up your cell phone and take a selfie. or you can tweet it t to @msnbcyourbiz and don't

forget #yourbizselfie. thank you for joining us today, we love love to hear from you. e-mail us @your business at msnbc.com. our website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all of the segments from today's show, plus a lot more. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. next week, we meet a woman who has cracked the complicated code of winning government contracts. she shares her strategy for getting a piece of uncle sam's pie. 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 >> you know, fridays are supposed to be slow news days. today is not a slow news day. we got a big show coming up, including some dmuz that protect tonight. in fact, it's still breaking tonight in the state of flint, michigan, the mayor of complint and the lead poisoning response in flint tonight called a last minute unscheduled press conference to announce some very disturbing new information from flint. we will have the details ahead. when i say that the news is sort of still breaking tonight. we're trying to get our