good morning, coming up on msnbc's "your business." a son convinces his father they should stop working for other peoples' vineyards and start their own business. and then bootstrapping his bicycle delivery laundry service. and how new overtime rules could affect your small business. that and much more coming up next on "your business."

♪ >> hi, everyone. i am jj ramberg, and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. working with family is not always easy, especially when age and experience are factors but for one millennial his fresh perspective helped his family with strong roots in napa valley dream bigger, and we head to wine company how to developed a blend of new and old to help

develop a successful small business. ♪ for the gallegos family, wine is in their dna. >> my grandfather immigrated from mexico and settled in napa valley, and he worked for one of only five wineries in the area, and then in '66 he brought over his family, including my dad. >> often with his two sons, working in napa valley. >> i would go and prune and they would be with me, and i would do the big cuts and then they came through and helped. >> when he saw his boys wanted to follow in his footsteps, he considered doing something different. >> i was happy what i was doing and i enjoyed working with the

people i was working with, and when i saw my boys were going in the same direction as i was, i thought it would be a good time to start a business. >> 2008, hand in hand with his sons he started a vineyard management company, and they tend the grapes that go into making some of the world's top wine labels and his son, eric, wanted to bring back another family tradition. >> my father would make wine when we were kids, and we would stomp the grapes with his feet and eric grabbed the bull by the horns as far as the wine making decision. he was adamant about it. >> they bottled their first blends in 2007, under the gallegos label. they were one of the first to distribute the wines.

>> the wines in general are delicious, and our sales pitch is they have been a growing family here for so long and then very have gotten into the production side. >> it has not always been smooth sailing and at first they got carried away and released too many different varieties, something their dad warned them against from the start. >> after that we learned and we didn't do it again. >> that is probably one of the wines my dad wanted me to scale down and think about it before we produced those wines again. >> that's one of the few times and that's what makes this family business tick, and even when he can see his sons are headed in the wrong direction, he still let's them take the lead. having the openness and letting them try new things led to new things for the company. >> both wines are good for

themselves, and my brother and i decided to blend some together and we put it on the market and it's doing well. >> how to market the wine was another area ignacio was not on board with from the start, and he had a much smaller vision for the label that focused on distributing the bottles locally, but eric knew focusing would be on the global market. >> and i think it's important, and i think it's important when you are at consumer events, they can take a picture and tag your company, and millennials, they want that experience and share with their friends. >> eric says having clear responsibilities is one way to keep things running smoothly. >> i think it's important in a family business to understand that everybody has different skills, so i think at first you set the guidelines on who is responsible for what, and if my brother is going to be responsible for the vineyards, he is doing that, and i am

responsible for all of the administrative stuff and everybody has a different role and they have to stick to it. >> there's always a tie breaker if there's a disagreement? >> my dad makes the final decision on everything. >> success is a common goal and respect. >> all three of us treat each other with respect, and the younger brother can tell the older brother what to do or the father, and we work so well together we understood the end goal and the vision. >> and one thing they never disagree on is their family roots is what sets their wine apart from the rest. >> it's nice to showcase your product knowing what we are rooted from, it's the soil, and it's a total pride, a glass of wine, it's from our family, it's from us. a little cash infusion can

go a long way when you are starting a small business but investors are only going to fund your idea if they feel they have a good chance of getting that money back and then some. what do you do when potential investors won't even listen to your pitch because they think your business could be a bust? as the owner of a company with a special focus on bikes, you bootstrap your business and manage it creatively and then get people to pay attention. when gabriel started his small business in philadelphia, he knew right away that getting funding was going to be tough. his bike laundry pickup and delivery service wash cycle laundry had a bit of an image issue. >> people were like how can you service a large account on a bike? what do you do when it rains? what about the snow? >> at first gabriel considered going at it alone?

>> i thought the savings in my bank account would be enough, and then i was going to do it myself and then the savings in my bank account ran out. >> he realized as he grew he would need money, so he started out by bootstrapping it to show everybody, including investors, what the company was capable of. step one was to stick to the most important part of his plan, the bikes. even though people had their doubts about them. >> i don't think a lot of people just understood the scale of what you can accomplish with bikes. i think a lot of people thought i would carry laundry in the backpack or in the basket of my handlebars or something like that. >> the bikes saved money in a lot of ways. first of all, advertising, the brand had word of mouth advertising. >> and a bike is three times cheaper than truck delivery in downtown areas, and don't have to pay for the truck or the gas or insurance. we don't get parking tickets.

>> and they are equipped to handle time sensitive pickup and deliveries to homes, gyms, and the convention center. >> there's bike lanes so we move quicker than traffic and finding a place to unload is easier for us. >> wash cycle laundry's internal app helps to streamline operations. >> they can schedule appointments for pickup online to routes and tells our cyclist where to go and be at a particular time. >> all orders are tracked while in transit. the laundry teams use it, too. >> this is how we start the machine ppz. >> it alerts the staff in laundry what they have to do that day, and it automatically generates the invoices and that feeds into a dashboard so we can see what is going on. >> another cost the company doesn't have to worry about? >> real estate.

we found under idealized laundries and rent from them during their down times. >> didn't want to deal with machines that need to be repaired. >> it turned capital expense into a operating cost, and when we have more business we pay more and less business we pay less. >> it helped to cut costs associated with hiring. >> as soon as a position comes up, they call us and say we have somebody perfect for the job. the goal is to address an under served population for people who have been out of work but are eager to get back in the workforce. >> the benefit is some of the costs for new employees are covered. >> they will cover up to 50% of a trainees wages for three to six months while people are getting up to speed and going through a preapproved training

curriculum. that's huge. we do everything on a 24-hour turn around, so if something is not going right on the cycling, it impacts everybody pretty quickly. >> with other clients like nursing homes and a va hospital, investors have taken notice of what the company accomplished. >> can you service a hospital. >> wash cycle's laundry success in philadelphia resulted in expansions in washington, d.c. and austin, texas. the bootstrapping principles have followed. >> we launched in washington, d.c. with less than $25,000 in investment, and one of our investors put it to us this way, and i was giving a presentation and she said our other portfolios company don't have a launch party for $25,000, much less launch. >> and gabriel says the boot staping served its purpose. >> after we made it through the

first winter, and after we delivered our first million pounds and expanded to the second city, people started to see the potential in it. it's a real business. getting your current customers to talk about your company to their family and friends is the best way to get new business. thanks to ink.com we have five ways you can cultivate feedback from existing clients to help attract new ones. ask for feedback, so whether it's through a casual conversation or a survey, get their opinions and find ways to deliver on those requests. two, find a high-profile satisfied customer. getting an endorsement from somebody people admire can go a long way to bringing exposure and new business to your company. three, be responsive to social media. nobody likes to feel ignored. answer questions promptly and

post regular updates to show you are focused and engaged. four, emphasize relationships. don't forget the customer wants a job is over and stay in touch so the next time they need what you offer, they will think of you. five, say thank you. when a client refers you to their friends, send them a product or note to show them how important you are to their business. the department of labor recently announced a new ruling that will expand overtime pay for millions of employees starting on december 1st, salaried employees making $46,000 or less will be entitled to time and a half pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, and this new rule impacts the bottom line for many small businesses. rhonda abrams has written about this topic and is president and founder of a publishing company,

and katie serves at the national association for the self-employed. so good to see you both. >> nice to be here. >> as a quick summary, explain to the audience how it changed? >> first of all, i should reassure everybody that the sky is not falling and most small businesses probably won't be affected at all, but how this has come about is that way back in the depression, rules were adopted to make sure that workers weren't exploited and particularly to try and encourage a regular 40-hour workweek, and as a result overtime pay was required for any employees who were not considered managerial or supervisal. the employees that fell into the category that fell exempt to overtime kept expanding and then 80% of employees were covered by

it and now it's down to 8%, and what has happened is trying to readjust that and part of the reason this has come about, many employees especially in large retail or restaurants were abusing this and naming people as supervisors or team leaders or managers who were doing menial work and then requiring them to work 50 or 60 hours a week and being paid less than the workers they supervised. >> katie, just so people can understand how they are going to affect their companies, is it about a 40-hour week or an eight-hour day? >> it's about a 40-hour workweek. and i think a little to what rhonda is speaking to, there are definitely situations within the current workforce where they had been labor issues as it relates to how a big corporation manages its workforce, and for the

microbusiness owners, this is a pretty significant jump. they are looking at how they are going to be able to accommodate these rules and no employer that i have spoken to is willingly or wanting to take advantage of an employee. there are certain circumstances depending on your field that perhaps in a given month you may work 36 hours a week, you know, 28 hours a week, given on the work flow and now what is happen something the employer and employee can't manage that work flow affectively, because if you work more than 40 hours in a given weaker eligible for overtime and then the next week when there is less of a work floor, maybe less orders coming through and it's not a holiday time, they are not able to use the month to work on that schedule to make sure that it works for the employee and the employer and everybody is being paid fairly for their work. >> i know there are definitely people on both sides of this issue, and what i would love to help our audience understand is

given this is going to be the rule, how do we deal with it and what kinds of things do they need to think about? >> let's talk about the solutions. one, one thing you can do in that situation you can switch your employee to an hourly worker, and then therefore your work flow, you will be able the adjust the payment from one week to another. that's one solution you can be going to instead of a salary employee. >> but you will still pay overtime if that -- if you are paying somebody hourly and they work more than 40 hours a week. >> you will make it up on the 25 hour weeks when you pay less. >> one of the things i have been pondering on this is the erosion between the employer and employee relationship that i feel is being more attacked on this, because for an employer to sit there and say i have an employee making less a year, and

there are eight weeks, and i will throw that out, and their time spikes more than the 40 hour work waerbg, and so do i take them down to an hourly employee? i think a lot of the decisions are being made without the understanding that the employee and employer do have a relationship and it's important for them and there is value placed on that. to a lot of individuals going down to being an hourly employee, it doesn't actually make them feel good. i know that's unpsychological, but when we were talking about our members about it, it's psychological and about the relationship between the two and what they can do to get through this period. >> thank you so much, and i am sure you will get so many questions from your constituency about this, so thank you for your organization being there and helping people get through changes like these, and rhonda, so great to see you, and thank you so much, both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you.

if something happened to you today, would your family know where to find your banking information, your will or insurance policy? if the answer is no, then pay close attention to today's elevator pitchers and we want to see if our panel thinks they have a good business. we have the author of the new book "surge," and nelly is the founder of a movement and has a book out "self made." we're john and michelle, co-founders of my life and wishes the online solution to an able-old problem. >> after my father died it took us a year to find all the documents and online accounts.

>> 50 million baby boomers alone indicated they have not shared this information with family and imagine a day when families know what to do from funeral plans to location of bank accounts, wills and passwords and even digital life. to use. it provides step by step guidance to help you organize, upload, and securely store the information your family will need when you're no longer here. and for less than $100 a year, our solution is for everyone. >> we're seeking $200,000 for 10% stake in our company, to hire additional staff and to expand our marketing efforts. >> nice job. and i think there is definitely a need out there for this. whether this is the business or not, that is for my panel to decide. so two numbers, mike and nelly. first one, what do you think of the product? and the second one is, what do you think of the pitch? is it up and running right now? >> yes, it is. >> how many users do you have? some beta testers? >> we have gone through beta

tester. we or offer a free trial for 30 days. we're just beyond that. now people are converting over. >> got it. you went through your beta. mike, i'll start with you. >> i think the product is a 7. i think the pitch is very good. the product is a curative product, which means i don't know there is a problem until the problem has happened. it is very hard to sell a product like that. what i liked about your pitch, personal story, when you can share -- this is my background, this is why i'm doing it, it becomes compelling and i'm interested. pitch is better than the product, but the product, the natural challenge is how do you make a preventative in a way that people register with it as opposed to curative. >> nelly in. >> i was a little tough too. product is a 7, pitch is a 6. let me tell you why. product, first, i love the idea. i think it is a home run. in my book, i say in your pain is your brand, you're coming from your pain. that's the best way to invent a company. but i think -- i had a lot of questions unanswered.

what am i going to pay for this? i'm worried you guys are giving me an idea but then i realize i have a problem and fix it myself and put it together myself. i'm also concerned about how are my data, where do you put my data and who are you and is there proprietary software. i'm worried about investing in something i think you're going to leave for someone else to steal. so it worries me. the pitch, i think what you said is really beautiful. and perfect. you left out a few things. i think you were very nervous, nothing wrong with that. i feel like -- this is an emotional business. you almost have to be so calm, you have to breathe, you have to meditate before you say it. you'll catch me emotionally. you're almost, like, memorized in reading the thing and i want you to make me feel like, oh, my god, has anybody died in your family, do you know what's going to happen? you're going to be in a horrible situation, so i emotionally connect with it more. >> thank you. you are two of the best pitchers we have ever had. i've seen you not on this side,

but in live pitch. this is great advice. good luck. i agree. there is a real need for this. if i could add one of my own things which i usually don't do. for me the pitch, my only question is security. why would i put it on your site? if you could add something in there, nelly touched on this, why this is secure and why the country won't go way tomorrow and my information won't be hacked, that will throw me over the edge to take another meeting. thank you for coming on the program. good luck with everything. thank you for your advice on this. very, very helpful. if any of you have a business and want feedback from our elevator pitch panel and your chances of getting interested, investors send us the e-mail. in that e-mail, include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and then what you're going to do with that money. we look forward to reading all the pitch es and seeing some of you in the elevator. we look at the advantages of women in minority owned

businesses getting certified and how to turn your pain into gain. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? our new cocktail bitters were doing well, but after one tradeshow, we took off. all i could think about was our deadlines racing towards us. a loan would take too long. we needed money, now. my amex card helped me buy the ingredients to fill the orders. opportunities don't wait around, so you have to be ready for them. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. monica writes, does it pay to become certified as a

minority owned or woman owned business? >> the answer to that question is yes. it does pay to become certified as a minority or woman on owned business. here are two caveats. figure out which certifications really apply to your business. do you need to be state certified? is it better to be certified as a veteran owned business or woman owned business. that depends who your customers are and what kind of business you're trying to go for. you don't want to go for too many certifications. the certifications have administrative costs in terms of managing and staying current. you have to decide how much staff and resources you're going to apply and invest in maintaining those certifications. it is a good thing to do, but got to be strategic about it. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. mike and nelly are back with us once again. mike, let's start with you, i haven't seen you in a while. >> you're a big movie fan. >> i haven't seen a movie since

i had kids. >> remember the classic action movies, tom cruise or something and he walks out on to the beach and everything is perfect, opening movies are always perfection and then it is the murder, they take the kids and then the rest of the movie has to avenge the situation. that's called the phoenix effect. we can use it in business too. most businesses boast how successful and wonderful they are, but that causes envy. other businesses say we had such a hardship, it is hard the whole time and we pity them. that causes us to avoid. a phoenix, where you see where they could be, collapse and revival, we embrace that and want to join on. in business, state your big bold vision, how you're changing the world, the impact you want to have. then, talk about the struggles, the heartaches, how difficult it is, where you failed. your successes, and then invite the audience to join in on the path to get the vision. >> how do you do the first part

without sounding boastful? you're not there yet. >> not there yet. here is the big challenge we see, the big opportunity. here is the big players in the market and we're going to change it forever. this is how we plan to do it. but we're struggling to get there. we fought our way there. we're in the trenches. we have gotten dirty. we had some successes. join us and let's get there together. >> nelly. >> for me, this is something i just wrote in my book, "in your pain is your brand." from going on the road and meeting so many women, the people that i find have transcendent businesses that are both profitable but have a message and meaning are people that instead of taking their pain, something horrible that happened to them and sweeping it under the rug, they use their pain in their brand. either to get customers, or to actually create a business around their pain. i have a woman that, you know, was -- had child abuse beaten up by her husband, the worst thing you can think of and she got some massage done for her physical abuse and she realized, oh, my god, this is a business.

people that either come back from the war, people that have issues need body work to get that trauma out of their body. and she created this incredible massage business. she has a blog, a book, everything. >> so good to see both of you. thank you. >> thank you. this week's your biz selfie comes from rhonda jones. they sell desserts including a trademark rum cake. rhonda, i'm going to come visit and taste that cake when i go to my college reunion next year. your passion for baking started as a child when you made miniature pineapple layer cakes in your ez bake oven. take a picture of your business and send it to us. or tweet it to us @msnbcyourbiz. thanks so much for joining us today. we would love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about today's show,

just e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com or head over to our website, which is openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all of the segments from today's show and a whole lot more. and you can also connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. next week, a small business owner is surprised to find out his handmade rope sandals have an international customer base. we'll tell you how this company turned into a successful exporter and what they have done to increase their sales around the globe. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? our new cocktail bitters were doing well, but after one tradeshow, we took off. all i could think about was our deadlines racing towards us. a loan would take too long. we needed money, now.

my amex card helped me buy the ingredients to fill the orders. opportunities don't wait around, so you have to be ready for them. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. good morning. i'm al sharpton. it will be a week for remembering muhammad ali. the greatest of all time. in the next two or three days, ali's body will be moved from arizona to his hometown in louisville, kentucky, where he will be buried. family members will hold a private ceremony on tuesday. then on friday, a funeral procession and a public memorial. among those eulogizing ali, former p