good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business" things can get heated. so how do you as a small business owner deal with employees who discuss politics at work? educators become entrepreneurs by selling classroom materials to other teachers. and the otherers of a men's skin care company get an education on distribution and packaging and learn a lot from their mistakes. we have so much good information to help you run your small business coming up next on "your business." >> american express open can help you take on a new job. or fill a big order. or expand your office.

for those who constantly find new ways to grow on every step of the journey, american express open proudly presented "your business" on msnbc. hi, everyone. i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. never, never, never give up is a quote famously attributed to winston churchill. and it's an adage most entrepreneurs understand. especially when things just don't seem to be working in their business. it took five years before the company teachers pay temperature teachers got traction and there were so many times they could have given up but they didn't. now the business has 4 million active users and teachers who

sell materials on the site have earned $200 million. $200 million. this for a company that took five years with no traction. not bad for a company that almost didn't make it. ♪ kindergarten teacher deanna jump is something of a rock star. >> all these teachers are coming up wanting their picture with me. i'm still not used to it and hope i never get used to it. >> that's because she's a self-made millionaire, the first of several teachers that have hit the jackpot on the educational website called teachers pay teachers. similar to etsy, this pier to pier marketplace makes it easy for teachers to sell classroom resources that they develop like lesson plans to other teachers. >> i was the first one to hit the milestone and was honored to be the first one. and to be able to pave the way for others so to speak. >> that was back in 2012.

not only was it a milestone for deanna jump but also for teachers pay teachers. >> we saw a group of teachers really adopt the platform. one of them was deanna jump, a tremendous teacher and inspiring educator. and they got teachers excited about what was going on on the platform. from that point on tpt was how to keep up with fast growth. >> fast growth was the last thing new york city public school teacher pawel edelman had to worry about when he started the company in 2006. he launched the business to connect and support the education community by allowing teachers to share the innovative materials they were creating for their classrooms, like lesson plans, interactive notebooks and games. >> that allows us to different versions of the reading of "the three little pigs." >> while everyone agreed that teachers pay teachers or tpt was a great concept, adoption was slow. the journey was a study in the three ps, patience, persistence

and perseverance. there were highs like the purchase of the company by scholastic and lowe's. after the acquisition, there was no growth, then the business almost closed down. in a last-ditch effort to keep the company alive, paul bought it back in 2009 to save the community and the business from obscurity. >> it feels like a ten-year long over night success story. >> if you talk to teachers, they almost always know about it. teachers o people outside of the teaching community don't. but people outside the teaching profession don't and the companies kind of live under the radar. it's a place teachers came to get help.

>> with almost 4 million active users, two out of every three teachers have downloaded something from the site. and while it's no secret that teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid, tpt became a place to escape that by getting help, support and ideas for their classrooms with the potential of making extra money themselves if they sold their resources on the site. >> the typical journey for someone who comes to tpt is they start downloading for free. when they find a teacher they connect with they start to buy. so from the perspective of the teachers selling, that's a double good. they make some money, they get recognition for the work they've done and also get to know they they're having real impact in classrooms. because it is important to remember if you're a teacherpreneur on tpt, you're a teacher first, an entrepreneur second. >> todayed in orlando, florida, two of tpt's most successful teacherpreneurs have combined forces in two ways. >> where's my party people? there we go.

>> by creating an event, the inaugural get your teach on conference. all of this helps grow the tpt community. >> we looked at each other and said, we have to start a conference. within an hour, we had get your teach on logo, we had the sessions worked out. that's what i love about the teachers pay teachers business, if you want to do it, do it. if you want to go for it, go for it. >> hope is a teacher at the academy in atlanta, georgia. she has a blog called elementary shenanigans as well as a successful store on the teachers pay teachers site. >> if i really want teachers to take what they are learning here and impact their classroom through engagement, i have to show them what engagement looks like. >> text, structure, very cab. >> so that's what i'm doing, songs, cheers and chants, hands-on learning because i can't just show teachers here's what you do, they have to experience it, too, because that motivates them and inspires them and that's what's going to impact the classrooms. >> if you look closely, you'll see adam freed in the audience

here taking notes, asking questions and engaging with this group. part social, part educational, part technical and part entrepreneurial, tpt stays relative and connected by making sure all the tpt employees are immersed in the teaching community. >> in order to be an employee of the tpt, you have to be in the classroom shadowing a teacher twice a year, i go once a month. that doesn't matter if you are an accountant or engineer, you are a customer support rep. you need to be in a classroom at least twice a year. we bring teachers into tpt to ask them questions. >> anna is a second grade teacher in new york that was looking to supplement her income. not only did her tpt store simply skilled take off in just a few days, more importantly she found exactly what founder paul edelman intended when he started the company ten years ago. how important is the community of tpt for you? >> oh, my goodness, it's probably more important than anything.

tpt has been such a huge part of my life the last four years. they invite us here, they want your feedback, they want to know how they can better this business and how they can help children and empower teachers. that's what they are all about. it's amazing the collaboration and friendships that have been created because of tpt. during a presidential campaign season it can be hard to get away from conversations about politics, especially this year when there is so much to talk about. so what is the best way to keep political discourse at bay? in the office? david lewis is the founder, president and ceo of operations ink, human resources and outsourcing firm. good to see you. >> hi, jj, how are you? >> i'm good. there's so much to talk about, particularly this year, right? >> is there an election going on? >> yeah, right? especially you're at msnbc, stay on for a couple hours, you'll see lots more.

but there's so much. people are on different sides of the table. how do you keep this away at work? i mean, you can't. people are going to talk about it. >> you can't keep the approach of taking this out of the discussion in the workplace and it is a very polarizing issue. so you have to look at it from a few different angles. you have to accept the idea that it's going to get discussed. i think there are danger points, though. telling people they can't talk about it is a problem. ownership coming out and making a strong statement about what their views are on politics is also a problem because it also can be polarizing. so it's best to give some advice to people to just keep the conversation to a minimum versus telling people you don't want it to happen in the office. and try to diffuse as quickly as possible any of those more passionate discussions. if you have to pull people aside who are more passionate, explain to them, listen. the more passionate you are in the office the greater chance it will create some level of conflict with others who don't share the same views you do. >> let's get tactical about this, what do you do? do you have a conference about

it, send an e-mail, how do you get the information across? >> there's different prevailing wisdoms here. one is you can go ahead and put a policy out there but that can create issues in terms of what the law says because the national labor relations board may come in and say, wait a second, that's limiting people's ability to free speech and concerted activity. so i think the policy a little bit different to craft without getting yourself in some trouble. so moving forward, i think you want to go ahead and just have more small conversations, pull people aside, especially when you see the conversation getting a bit out of hand. stay away from something printed. >> nothing printed. chances are you are not going to be there when somebody's having a heated conversation. so then it escalates and now suddenly there's conflict between two people. >> it's a typical hr issue. go ahead and bring the individuals in creating the issue or who have identified an issue and complained in some passion and try to work through

it like any other item in employee relations. try to talk through and say, i understand you have differing views, we are not going to take sides here. we're simply going to say this type of discussion has potential problems within the workplace so we want to tone the rhetoric down and maybe this is not the best place to go ahead and bring these things up. >> have you seen this happen a lot? >> i see it happen almost every day. >> really? not to the point that people are just on different sides, that happens all the time, but to the point it escalates and is creating a problem in the workplace? >> this particular election is one that is extremely polarizing and it is demonstrating in office places as well as just everywhere around the country how people have very significant and different views from one another. so it's natural that it's going to come up in the course of conversation and someone is going to come in and make a comment in favor of somebody's political stance and someone is going to come in and have a completely opposing view. the more that spills into the workplace, the more it's going to create that type of potential firestorm if you don't go ahead and diffuse it. >> i guess you talk about it as

you would anything, say we are a culture of openness, hopefully one is, right? and we don't want to insult each other. >> correct. >> we want this to be a place where people feel happy coming to work, people feel safe coming to work, and it's okay for us to have differing views but let's not insult each other and not make each other feel badly about it. >> again, you have to walk a fine line because you don't want to imply -- >> you're not saying don't talk. >> the talking thing is going to happen, it's the company's culture to have communication, but what most business owners will see, they'll start to see it potentially getting out of hand. they want to bring people in smaller groups and say, i know you're a supporter of this candidate or of this particular perspective. tone it down in the workplace. >> maybe you simply say, let's be respectful of each other, right? >> we're all going to have different opinions and that's okay. we're here to work, we have a common goal and a common mission around this particular business. you're absolutely entitled to your opinion, your perspective. that's what it is.

it's all opinion based. on that basis, you're entitled to your opinion but remember, take a hard look at how people react to that opinion and figure out is that going to be conducive to you being an effective employee, a good coworker and be able to focus on what it is you're here to do. >> yes, it is an interesting time and lots of people have a lot to say. so i think it is important that we had you on to talk about how do we deal with this in the workplace? thank you so much. >> my pleasure. some of the most successful entrepreneurs we have spoken to over the years like tommy hilfiger and stewart whitesmith told us one of the keys to their success was learning from their mistakes. failure, large or small, happens to everyone at some point. but what you do after making a bad call makes all the difference in the world. just ask the owners of skincare line j. paul. they overcame some costly decisions which they shared so you can avoid the same pitfalls. ♪ men's skin caroline j. paul may

have entered a crowded field when it launched its shaving accessories in 2007, but for the founders, that was no deterrent. >> our products really are targeted for those guys that do have thick beards, like myself. and my business partner, paul strong, has very sensitive skin. we felt that there really was a market void there. >> for them it was unchartered territory. >> i had zero. i had no experience at all, came from an oil and gas background and some logistics, we didn't have real industry knowledge. >> while they may have been at a slight disadvantage, you wouldn't know it. >> we used our savings and boot strapped this company from the beginning. we have very little outside investment. >> in addition to the company's website, j. paul products are found all over the country including nordstrum, macy's and dozens of high-end boutiques which they credit for giving them a boost. they admit they've made mistakes

along the way. >> you have to be willing as a entrepreneur and business owner to be willing to make the mistakes. >> one of the first challenges involved the development of packaging. at first, the entrepreneurs turned to china. that just took too much time. >> what we found was that part of being in china is you have to wait six weeks for every interration of the packaging. if you get it back and it's not the right color, you have to wait six more weeks for the adjustment. >> a canadian company eventually produced the right packaging with the right shade of brown but j. paul already wasted a lot of time and money. >> 18 months from the first time we first contacted the company in china to when we received the tubes. it was close to about $15,000 start to finish. >> the ceo said at one point this texas company used a distribution center in connecticut. >> as we were growing and the demand was growing and the orders were coming in, so at the

advice of our consultants, we moved our operation to a fulfillment center that was recommended to us. we paid a monthly fee. >> but then the customers started to complain. >> we just kept getting more feedback from customers with pictures, this is what arrived to me and it just wasn't up to standard. we just didn't have the quality control. >> distribution was eventually brought back to houston. but not without losing money first. >> after it was all said and done, we took a $20,000 to $25,000 hit that we won't be able to recoup. as a result of that, we're not getting product that's arriving anywhere damaged. >> marketing was another hurdle. j. paul ran newspaper ads in markets like dallas and chicago where products were starting to sell. they launched a social media campaign, too. >> we felt that we needed to have some sort of advertising campaign, whether it's print media, online, and that was a major mistake. >> the newspaper ads didn't bring in any new customers.

>> quickly added up to $15,000, almost $20,000. in these different cities. >> the social media campaign wasn't any better. >> we probably invested close to somewhere between $15,000 to $20,000. probably closer to $15,000. >> the lack of name recognition didn't help when j. paul looked for a spokesperson either. >> we felt inevitably we needed to be in the bigger box stores, bigger retail stores. as a way to bring recognition, bring exposure and bring some clout, we felt like a celebrity endorsement would give us the cache we needed to walk in the door. >> despite hiring a talent agent and meeting face-to-face with one celebrity, nothing materialized. >> i think the official reason was that we were not really a known company. >> that search cost them $15,000 which never amounted to anything. but it turns out j. paul never needed that kind of endorsement. the product spoke for themselves and customers responded.

>> in the end it really is about your product being able to stand alone by itself. >> while all agree the money lost could have been better spent, this was a learning experience. it may have been costly but in the end j. paul is a better company because of it. >> sure, mistakes probably did motivate us. i don't think every company can do everything right every single day. we're human, mistakes are going to happen but it's how you really adapt and learn from those sort of mistakes. in proving your small business's performance is difficult if you're not measuring your company's progressive effectively. to turned to venture.com to see if your business is on the right track. one, web traffic. measure how people are engaging with your tools using google analytics. knowing how visitors are finding out about you and what products and services are piqueing their interest will help you better

target your key audience. two, customer satisfaction. find this out by talking to your clients or asking them to fill out a simple survey. three, social media. monitor what people are saying about your company on different platforms. check for comments and responses at least once a day. four, finances. small businesses often fail because they incorrectly budget or forecast their funds. so track your financial performance to ensure you have an accurate sense of your cash flow. and five, productivity. assess how efficient your employees are day to day. analyze ways you can help them improve their performance output so your company as a whole can continue to expand. spring is here and the weather's getting nicer and that means that a lot of you are going to go outside to do some gardening. today's elevator pitcher has expertise in the landscaping business to come up with a product to make weeding a little easier. now we'll see if our panel thinks his business can grow.

les mccuen is the founder and ceo of predictable success and patrick mcginnis is a venture capitalist in private equity investor who found deer we go advisers. he's also the author of "the 10% entrepreneur," live your startup dream without quitting your day job. >> my name is vinnie. i invented a garden tool called the ring weeder. i pulled out many weeds being in the land escape business. the best way to weed is with your hands. use the fork to penetrate the soil, losen up the root of the weed. this is a very good in vegetables gardens and flower beds, while other larger tools don't fit and it's like an extension of your hand. i was overfunded on kick starter by 248%. since then i've been featured by

this old house magazine. with the help of my son john we're currently selling online and throughout stores across the country. we need to increase inventory, lower our production cost, that way we have a higher mark in profit and be able to fulfill the orders from the big box stores. thank you and let the ring be your weeder. >> thank you, vinnie. nice job. good for you. i'm going to give these to you two. i want two numbers, one to ten. the first one is what did you think of the product. second, what did you think of the pitch? how did you make your first prototy prototype? >> i went to a welder the day after thanksgiving in 2012. he liked the idea so much he made a bunch of prototypes over and over for free because he wanted to see it on the market. i went to an old-time welder. he did it for me. >> good for you. let's get the answers. let's start with you. >> eight for the product, six

with the pitch with the potential of tuning in. here's the reason why. i want to hear about the business, not just the product. i want to hear about the market, your current sales activities, know you're going to expand and hear about product extension so i'm not investing just in a single product. wonderful you're overfunded, think about the business, how are you going to pitch the business and not just the product. >> i love this, right. you have you have a different elevator pitch for different people, customers versus investors. >> seven for the product and eight for the pitch. the reason i gave you a seven, i love this product. i get it. i weeded gardens to make money. was this defensible? it's a simple tool. i wonder if somebody could rip you off and take your entire lunch and eat it. in terms of the pitch, i love the passion you brought. i love the fact you convinced me that you're the man to build this business and so that really got me excited and you told me about your partners who are highly credible which made me

think this guy's got something. >> thank you so much. >> sounds like you have great traction already. good luck with everything. >> i have a ring leader for both of you. >> thank you. >> i have one for you, too. >> i will be handing that over to my husband. thank you very much. thanks both of you. >> now, if any of you out there have a product or service and want feedback from our elevator pitch on your chances of getting interested investors, send us an e-mail to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. tell us how much money you want to raise and what you intend to do with that money. when we come back, what you need to know about writing a business plan and will you be ready when walmart or google calls?

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 how does one write a business plan when contemplating starting a business? is there someone who will do this for you or help you with an outline? >> so i want you to think about your business plan as a flight plan. like this. a pilot would never get in an airplane in new york and fly to los angeles without a flight plan, right? of course, he needs or she needs

to know which direction they're going to head in. they need to know how much gas they're going to need. they're going to need to know landmarks to look for along the way. that's exactly what your business plan is, is your flight plan for the success of your business. and what you want to do is think through all the things that you're going to need to know to run your business. how much money are you going to need? what are the obstacles that you likely are going to face along the way? who's your competition? how are you going to market your business? how are you going to do your money? if you think it through all ahead of time, you're going to have a far greater chance of being successful because you've thought it through. and you're going to find obstacles that you anticipated and some that you didn't. but if you thought through your plan, then you're going to be at least prepared to deal with it. how are you going to do that? there is all sorts of help for you along the way. you could go to score, score is a great organization with people who could help you come up with a business plan and work through your business plan. there's a website i like a lot called bplans.com. they have some interactive

software that really helps a lot. just do a search, find some help, and you'll find that you can create your own flight plan for the success of your small business. we now have the "top 2 tips" you need to know to help your small business grow. les and patrick are back with us. let me pick your brains. les, let's start with you. >> my tip today, j.j., is know what you're going to do when walmart calls or google or department of defense. whoever the big dog is in your industry. what i've seen so often is you get that precious call or e-mail or the sale goes through, and before you know it, you don't own your business anymore. you're doing precisely what this massive supplier tells you to. six months later, you're totally making everything to their specification. they move on to a lower-cost supplier. you've got to start all over again. know how to manage the relationship at the start. and most importantly, plan to exit because you don't want to be that vulnerable. you don't want to have more than 20%, 25% of your revenue from

any one source in the early days. sit down, think about, what are you going to do when walmart calls? >> patrick. >> say no to fomo. >> fear of missing out for anyone who does not know. >> exactly. fear of missing out. and i was credited by "boston" magazine for actually coining that term. >> really? wow! >> it's something i know about in my own life. when you're starting a business, everybody is going to tell you you should do this. you should enter this market. you should try this out. try that out. you need to focus. and if you listen to fomo, you're going to spend your time doing things that aren't going to drive your business forward and trying too many things. so instead of fomo, try focus. >> great. thank you so much, both of you. this week's " #yourbizselfie comes from christine. she owns hair solutions in niles, illinois. after managing a number of small businesses, christine struck out on her own at 62 and started this company that makes custom hair replacements for men and women.

what an inspiration and a reminder that you can start a company at any age. now, we love celebrating your businesses. so please pick up your cell phone and take a selfie of you and your company and send it to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. do not forget to use the hash tag your biz selfie. thank you, everyone, so much for joining us today. i think one of the biggest takeaways came from the top five, and it's about metrics. we should all have a dashboard of the metrics that drive our business. and if you don't have this or if you don't even know what those metrics are, you need to step back and figure that out. and you should look at that dashboard daily, weekly, monthly and yearly so you know what levers to pull to increase your business. we'd love to hear from you as well. if you have any questions or comments about today's show, just send us an e-mail to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. you can also go to our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness.

we posted all 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 we meet the entrepreneur of a superhero costume company who found himself deep in debt and on the verge of losing everything. how listening to his customer helped rescue his small business and now has the company flying high. till then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. brought to you by american express open. visit openforum.com for ideas to help you grow your business. ing. ing. 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 want to wish you a very happy friday. there's a lot going on in today's news. just a moment, we'll look at the rowdy and aggressive and at times violent protests that erupted today in burlingame, california, as anti-donald trump protesters just exploded with rage over an appearance by mr. trump at the california state republican convention. this is the second day in a row that anti-trump protests have gotten violent in california. we have the story of those clashes coming up in a moment. caught on camera, about an important $10 bet that involves vice president joe biden and a cadillac.