photography, it's not just an art, it's a business. that's coming up next on "your business."

hi, everyone, i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow and happy valentine's day. they say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but surprising your special someone with sexy pictures might be worth a thousand more. so this seemed like the perfect day to profile a company we've been watching grow for the past couple of years, a company that focuses on boudoir photography. >> are you nervous? >> i'm nervous, yes. >> what are you nervous about? >> posing and lingerie. it's revealing, i'm not used to it. >> i like to call myself a

phototherapist. instead of a photographer. i'm not a therapist. i'm not guaranteeing that. there is certainly for the right woman who's open to the experience something therapeutic that goes on here. the images are a souvenir of that experience. turn your head toward the window. beautiful. >> when jen rosenbaum started generations photography eight years ago, she had no idea that her boutique boudoir photography business would grow into something much more than simply taking sexy pictures. >> i think people assume it's about sex, women taking off their clothes and being looked at like an object. but to me it's about exploring femininity. in 2008, jen discovered she had a knack for making women feel comfortable in their own skin. a friend suggested she tag along on a boudoir shoot, she found her calling. she wasted no time getting

started. taking glamorous pictures of women in a mikeshift studio she set up in her own bedroom. >> there were a lot of naysayers at that point that said you can't do that, it's not safe, it's not smart, why would you want people in your bed, what are you doing? i just tuned everything out, said, i don't care with this is what i want, it doesn't matter. i don't care what you think, this is what i want. >> her can-do attitude translated into a very savvy grass roots marketing campaign. newly engaged women planning their wedding. >> tell me about the cool girl principal. >> pretty much how i started my business. i knew that i had to reach other people to talk about me. it is hard to go out and talk about yourself. so how do i build an army, almost, of enthusiasts to talk about me. so i went online on a wedding board that i knew, because i was on there when i was getting married. >> a message board? >> yes. >> this is before facebook.

during that time i ran a contest. it didn't really matter who had entered the contest, i'm not going to lie. i already knew the two cool girls were going to win. those are the girls that everybody looks up to, they want to be like. they emulate. those girls won. and part of the idea of the contest was i will take pictures of you for free, but you have to post them, talk about me, and tell everyone about the wonderful experience you had. which of course was the truth. and they went on and did it, and it was like a snowball effect. >> business was booming. just three years after starting generations, she had more clients than she could handle. she had outgrown her bedroom and rented a studio to do her photos. her schedule was gruelling and this was not the business she wanted to run. she decided the time had come to dramatically restructure and raise prices. >> i was working seven days a week, a million hours a day, and not making as much money as i wanted. so i raised my prices quite dramatically and dropped the amount of clients that i could take to about 50 a year instead of 300. i went from 300 clients to zero.

i remember laying next to my husband one night. i said to him, maybe my e-mail forum is broken. can you fill out the e-mail form and see if it's still working on my website. he went and filled it out, and of course my e-mail goes blink. i was like, oh, man, it's working. >> after a few months of nail biting, things slowly started to pick up again. >> it was a pivotal moment for me. i had to keep saying to myself, this is what separates the men from the boys so to speak, the women from the girls, this is what separates true entrepreneurs, people who struggle through the tough times. >> the price change and extra time allowed had her to tackle one of the biggest issues with her business. she didn't want to hire other photographers so her ability to make money taking pictures was limited. if she really wanted to grow revenue, she had to pursue other ideas.

she expanded her business beyond just taking pictures to teaching boudoir workshops, creating how-to guides people could purchase on her website and eventually it also led to sponsorships in the photo industry. >> how is this split in your business from taking pictures to all the other stuff you do, the seminars, workshops, sponsorships? >> it's about half and half right now. it's important for me to do this. i can't teach other people to do it if i'm not doing it. i enjoy it. it's why i got into the business in the first place. i enjoy kebting with clients and doing the work. other side of it and the other income, some of it is passive income is important to me because it allows me to have work/life balance and take a day off and play hooky with my kids. >> with her schedule in check, her singular focus with all things relate today's boudoir photography has paid off, making her the go-to person on the subject. >> i think because i specialized so early on i was one of few

photographers doing that. i was starting to gain recognition and notice from the photography industry. not just for my frfy but for my message and the fact that it was all that i was doing. >> when you think of american innovators like steve jobs and mark zuckerberg, you might assume they were born with a gift that the rest of us just don't have. not true says a claim professor adam grant at university of pennsylvania's wharton school of business. in his new book, "originals" how nonconformists change the world, professor grant shares the secrets of successful trail players and explains how you can become one. here's nsbc's willie geist. >> adam grant is teaching some of the youngest business ninds to be productive. >> some of you are having way too much fun with this. >> the first step to a original idea, he says, is to poke a hole

in the status quo. >> originality starts with looking at the world around you and seeing something that nobody else saw. it's taking the leap. not only to have the idea but making it a reality. >> in 2010, four of his professor did just that. they wondered why a pair of eyeglasses should cost hundreds of dollars. that question and the answer the guys found gave birth to the popular eyewear company warby parker. >> they said we would like you to invest in this company to which you said -- >> no, i'm not interested in investing. >> that hurts right now, doesn't it? >> they were just valued at over a billion dollars. now my wife handles all of our investments. >> 1.2 billion to be exact. the warby moment was an inspiration for grant's book. he set out to investigate what he had missed about his students and their idea. >> i thought that all original people were daredevils, but most successful, entrepreneurs, anybody who champions an

original idea, most of those people hate taking risks. they like playing it safe. another finding? that so-called experts don't always know best. we all know seinfeld as one of the most successful tv shows of all time, but executives and test audiences were ready to leave it for dead before the show ever saw the light of day. >> the show is about nothing. >> but a lone nbc executive whose focus was not sitcoms thought jerry, elaine, george and cramer were worth a shot. >> he came from the varieties and specialty department. he was working with all different kinds of formats of shows. when watching the show, he experienced it. it made him laugh. he said at the end of the day, people watch a show that makes them laugh. >> so what does it mean for you and your original idea? professor grant has a list of suggestions. first, take your ideas to disagreeable people.

>> those are the people that are going to challenge your ideas more or criticize you more which will help you improve the idea. >> don't be afraid to procrastinate. >> productive procrastination is waiting for the right time to act, not rushing in to saying i have to make progress or i have to get this done but giving yourself the full window to allow creative ideas to incubate. >> make time for leisure hobbies. >> nobel prize winners are 22 times more likely to have b a performer, actor, magician, dancer, than anyone else. why is that? >> part of it is a reflection of having a strong sense of curiosity, and the same curiosity that leads them to explore directions in their science work leads them to interesting artistic hobbies. >> but who knew the secret to your success is in your web browser? >> it was about how you got the browser. if you wanted chrome or fire

fox, you had to download your new browser and take initiative. that's like initiative in your idea. >> i don't like to brag, but i'm a chrome user and i have been since before i read this book. >> my work here is done. >> leveraging all of the different social media platforms to market your small business can get overwhelming, i know, but you will love these five new tools kurt sieve ink.com that promise to take you from novice to expert in no time. one, notifier. paste the url 6 your blog post into the search box and the site scans your post to find the twitter handles of the people you mention letting them know they've been featured is a great way to promote content and connect with influencers. two, pablo 2.0 is the upgraded version of buffer social media image creation tool. you can create great images that mix photos and texts for

pinterest, instagram and facebook. blab lets four people talk on camera multily and letting other people interact. four, if your brand has come to rely on instagram, check out latergram. you can manage multiple accounts and upload from computers instead of just from a mobile site. and five, crate is a curation tool that lets you build a digital library of topics, influencers and key words that pertain to your brand. the site creates a social graph from your bookmarks that shows you what of that content performs best on social networks so you can repost it. the online lending space is very interesting. it's an industry that is evolving and becoming a real alternative for traditional bank loans. here to tell us more about how it works, when it's appropriate

for your business and the likelihood you'd be aof proed is the sam grazianno. it is so good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> it is fascinating to see how this has grown in even the last four years since you started. >> i think technology has a lot to do with that. but it is also sort of where the banks want to participate in the small business lending market. by and large, online lenders, whether it's consumer, commercial or finance are here to do what the banks will or can't do. >> do most people come to you after they have been turned down by a bank or are people coming to you first? >> there is two types of customers we serve. the under banked, those that don't approach their bank, don't feel they will be successful, or they have been turned down. and we're there to provide that capital to a customer that can't qualify for bank financing and the other segment is customers who are supplementing bank financing meaning they have a line of credit or a long-term loan in place but they need to

do something opportunistic with the business and we're there to provide the additional capital. >> let's talk about when someone might come to you. working capital? >> sure. working capital really means short in cash. you know, if you read the federal reserve's most recent study, it says the leading challenge that small businesses face is managing uneven cash flow. so managing uneven cash flow meaning it's hard to predict the cash flow and, therefore, you need flexibility an leading product those customers want is a line of credit. the challenge with getting a line of credit is it's a difficult product for a lot of lenders to offer. why? because when things get bad in the economy, everybody pulls on that line of credit and the ship has sailed at this point. >> how quickly can this get approved? i had a friend that a natural disaster took place overseas where his company is based. he says i need a loan tomorrow. relatively substantial. he had a good track record with his business. would someone like that come to you? >> sure. we funded loans between the hours of 9:00 and 5:00 so the transaction came in at 9:00 in

the morning and by 5:00 it was funded. that's not typical. what we say is the business, we're usually waiting on the business rather than vice versa. they have to provide information in addition to what our technology can do to allow to us put that capital in place for the customer. that's really the fundamental difference between bank financing and online financing. bank financing is obviously the cheapest because they have the cheapest cost of capital and on the other hand, online lenders who are efficient and quick because they use a lot of technology and they're willing to price for different types of risk. >> so if i'm looking to expand my business, right, i need a land to open up my second restaurant, why would i come to you instead of a bank? >> so what i would say is most often, the bank -- if that customer had a bank facility in place, chances are it might be a line of credit or something like that. and the customer doesn't want to exhaust that resource because they want to keep that in place. they say to themselves, okay, well, no other bank is going to offer me a loan beneath that first loan i have. but we would.

why? because we lend to customers based on likelihood of repayment rather than knowing we're first in line if something goes bad. >> got it. then again, people are coming to you for all kinds of things that they would go to banks for. refinancing. >> sure. refinancing is very common, the most common reasons we see are working capital, refinancing higher cost debt or expanding the business which could include equipment from time to time. >> i need to go by a brand new big machine, i go to you and get it. in general, you said you could do it in a day but how quick is it and how likely is it? what do i need to have in place so you approve it? >> the great thing about a firm like ours and others we compete with is there's not a lot of barriers to finding out where you stand. we start with applying some technology to sort of render an issue decision rather than collecting a whole bunch of paperwork, looking at that, then sort of maybe checking your credit score. we do all that up front. we can tell you rather quickly, hey, it's just not worth your time because you're unlikely to

qualify for us or this looks good, let's get more information from you. the information we collect really depends on how much you're looking for. if you're looking for less than $100,000, it's as little as a few months of bank statements. if you're looking for more than that, same thing, maybe a tax return for the most recent year and year prior. you go up the scale, we ask for more and more. >> is this all online or am i talking to a person. >> it's all online in terms of getting the application started, providing us with information but we always render a dedicated relationship manager to every transaction. we believe and studies would show small businesses value relationships. we try and give that to them. our relationship managers can manage a lot of relationships because of the amount of effort that goes into any one particular transaction. >> there are a bunch of online lenders now, the industry is definitely growing. how do the interest rates vary between them. >> price at the end of the day is driven by a number of factors, likelihood repayment,

if the customer stops paying with be the likelihood of getting many back and the costs it requires of a lender to have access to that capital. >> it's quite varied even within your own business and then across businesses as well. >> yes. >> sam, thank you so much for stopping by. >> thanks for having me. >> flower and chocolate and wine shops go crazy shipping out gifts for valentine's day this time of year. as fun as it is to send something to someone you live, one thing you miss out on is seeing their reaction when they open it. our elevator pitcher has found a solution to that. let's see if our panel loves his idea. nisa amoils is an investor with new york aingers. ryan harwood is the ceo and founder of purewow. a specialty company that specializes in women's lifestyle content. >> i'm jason. i'm the founder of a company.

a special occasion comes up, you want to send a personalized gift to a loved one but you're away from home and can't see the reaction when they receive their gift. bite size moments solve that. they can up load a video message. we hand deliver the gift, show the message and capture the reaction. you receive a private video of your special moment, they can upload to your social media. we're only company in the u.s. to offer this type of service. in order to scale, we're partnering with companies to license our equipment and technology. we've already partnered with four companies and we're currently in talks with a major retailer to distribute our delivery service in over 1,200 stores worldwide. we're currently raising $250,000 for a 33% equity stake in our company in order to bolster our team, in order to purchase more equipment and also to improve our i.t. infrastructure. >> good job. all said with beautiful roses that you're holding. all right, guy, i'll give you

this. if we can get two numbers from you. one what did you think of the product from one to ten and two, what did you think of the pitch from one to ten? congratulations so far. it sounds like you are hopefully close to securing this big deal. >> absolutely. >> okay. let's hear it. nisa? >> i thought you did a great job on the product, i gave you an eight because i think this is very unique and it's a great use right now of the technology that's available and it's using technology to bring people closer together. so i think that's always very important. and i think a lot of retailers would actually really use the product. on the pitch i thought, you know, great job. if you could elaborate a little bit more about the business model and how you make money, know you only have 60 seconds but that would be helpful to me because i'm left with so many more questions. >> ryan? >> great. on the product i gave you a seven. i think at the core you're a commerce company. i think those products you're selling need to be great

regardless on their own besides the app and the emotional message you're receiving. because i think the novelty might wear off after one or two times someone receives that reaction. i also think it's all about execution. if you can really make that app and that messaging system really seamless and easy where people want to use it, someone can't come in that has more scale and infrastructure from day one and try to replicate that easier than you. i think it will be execution as well. on the pitch i gave you an eight. i loved your passion, your eye contact. you feel good about the product and that sells. so kudos to you. >> really in a pitch that's the thing that piques your interest, the person themselves. congratulations. good luck with everything. happy valentine's day. and if any of you out there have a product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, please send us an e-mail, at dress is "your

business"@msnbc.com. in that e-mail include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money. you never know, somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. still to come, can direct mail marketing work for your small business? and how should instincts come into play when making your next hire? 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 . i sent out dynamic e-mails one, a month. i get a good response rate. lately it's declining. is it worth investing in direct mail? >> i think you really have two questions here. first it's really to stop and ask yourself what's going on with your outbound e-mail that's causing a decline in the open rate or in the engagement rate? and perhaps it's getting kind of tired or stale content. or perhaps you're not segmenting your risk. the other part of the question is really about, is direct mail a great way to reach out to people? and i can say emphatically, it is absolutely an awesome way to reach out. in fact, if you can, you might start now with actually doing a

little bit of direct mail that doesn't look like direct mail, and by that i mean, actually handwriting some personal notes to some of your key accounts. all of us get tons of junk mail. very few of us actually get handwritten notes with a stamp put on it. and i can tell you, those things are opened first. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. nisa and ryan are back with us again. all right. nisa, i'm going to start with you, because you're an angel investor, as well as an entrepreneur and all these other things but you look at so many companies. >> right. >> so what's one thing you tell the companies? >> one thing i always tell entrepreneurs is to create a great advisory board or informal board and try and recruit people that don't have the skill sets that are on your management team or have specific industry expertise. not necessarily somebody just with a big name who isn't going to have time for you.

once you have the board in place, use them, communicate with them frequently. they can really help you when you're down in the weeds to tell you where to focus, product, marketing, sales, they can also help you with problems where you have no experience so you're not getting tripped up in something. >> i think sometimes, for people who are just starting out, and who aren't well connected, right, they don't have a good network the term advisory board sounds scary because i don't know anyone and how am i going to get to them? i think if you think of it as get people around you who you can call. you don't have to have big, formal meetings. you don't have to give them anything but just get some people around that you can call and ask questions. >> exactly. mentors. >> and trust. >> trust. >> and trust. all right. ryan. >> so, when it comes to hiring, always go with your gut. deep down when you're sitting across the table from someone, when you're interviewing, you know pretty quickly whether you have chemistry. whether that's someone you're going to want to work with. i think that's really, really important. because eventually work doesn't

become work if you really love the people you're working with. pick passionate people. forego talent and skills if these people are jaded or unenthusiastic about their craft. it is much better to work with someone that you have chemistry with and that you really want to spend time with. >> have you made mistakes in this regard? >> of course. >> is this how you learned this tip? >> in the early days when you're trying to figure out your culture, trying to figure out who you actually have chemistry with in a close-knit environment, because i came from corporate america, so this was the first really small business and startup i worked on. you have to make mistakes in order to learn from them. at this point you know what you're looking for. you feel that chemistry pretty quickly. >> i found that early on hiring was one of the hardest things to learn. >> yeah. >> you shake your head. >> no, i think it's really important for any ceo to spend the most time on hiring because it's the most important decision you can make. and you can make mistakes. it really is costly if you do. >> totally agree. >> and i think also, we talk about this a lot here, is they should be interviewing you, as much as you're interviewing them. >> definitely. >> during this process. >> yep.

>> and our ceo of my company for awhile did something. he gave us some tips which is interview someone in three different places. >> hmm. >> so you're going to learn something different when you're sitting across the table, than when you're going to get a coffee, than when you are, you know, taking a walk around the block. >> right. >> so if it's an important hire make sure you interview them in a couple places. >> definitely. >> any other ideas from you guys? >> as the ceo of the company i think a lot of ceos neglect hr and neglect their people because they get caught up in the weeds. so i spend quite a bit of time on recruiting and with people that are existing in the company and making sure they're happy. i think it's really important. >> it is the most important thing. surround yourself by good people. >> and for your board. >> all right. thanks both of you. >> sure. >> this week's your biz selfie is from debbie shaffer owner of mrs. g. tv and appliance in lawrence township, new jersey. looks like she got a selfie stick to take this picture of her and her staff maybe celebrating a birthday.

happy birthday to you guys. now why don't you grab your selfie stick and phone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. or tweet it @msnbcbiz and don't forget to use #yourbizselfie. thanks so much for joining us today. one thing that i learned today comes from the piece that we did about bud your photography. jen rosenbaum was always so busy taking pictures, but she always took time to go to conferences and meet people. and because of that, now she has speaking gigs and she has sponsors. i know it's hard for all of us to get out of our business because our to-do list is so long. you never know what's going to happen once you leave the four walls of your office. we'd love to hear what you thought of the show. if you have any questions or comments about today's show, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. you can't also click on our website, 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, too. next week, a partnership gone wrong. the owner of a souvenir sticker company was reeling when his partner suddenly decided he wanted out. we head to steamboat springs, colorado, to see how he handled the aftermath of his partner's departure, and how learning from the past is helping him make sure his next partnership sticks. till then i'm j.j. ramberg. and 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 >> there's a lot to talk about tonight. there is a lot of news about choosing the next president of the united states, for example. the contest ends tomorrow in nevada on the democratic side and in south carolina on the republican side there's tons of news to get to on that subject tonight. but before we do that, you just bear with me here a second. how about a little palette cleanser. wall-to-wale presidential race, a little palette cleanser. a tiny bit of news not on the subject of choosing the next president of the united states, at least not directly on that subject. this is the town seal, the official town seal of crystal