good morning, i'm j.j. ramberg. coming up on msnbc's "your business," come over to my house where we put one entrepreneur in the hot seat, and brainstorm how to grow her company. an interior designer shows us how interviewing your customers can save you a lot of time, money and misunderstanding. that, plus cultivating trust with your customers and employees. that's all coming up next on "your business." >> will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job. or fill a big order.

or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. for those who always find new ways to grow their business, american express open proudly presents "your business" on msnbc. hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business." the show dedicated to helping your small business survive, thrive, and grow. about a year ago i went to my friend sam with a business problem i was having. she suggested that we get a group of women together who could brainstorm the issue with me. so i made dinner, bought a couple bottles of wine, and we all sat around on the floor and came up with some solutions. it was great. not only for me, but nor everyone who came to help. so we decided to make this a regular thing. now with the hope that this may

inspire some of you to come up with ways to help each other with your companies, i wanted to show you what our dinners look like. hey that's me, rushing home from what turned out to be a busy day at work. it's 5:45 and typical i'm running incredibly late. but, i'm having about 10 women come over in 45 minutes. we're going to have dinner and our brainstorming session. and this is samantha, the president of the lifestyle media company she knows, my good friend, and my co-host of the evening. the latest of our semiregular dinners and brainstorms. where we invite one entrepreneur to explain an issue she's dealing with, and cure eight a group of women to help solve it. connie is the founder of nug

wutty which makes natural, affordable face lip and eye masks. her company is at a turning point. >> we're at the point now where we can go from smaller companies to a little bit bigger companies and it would be -- it's about brand awareness mostly on social, how do we get it into hands. >> connie is pretty impressive. nugg is in target, and other stores. she was formerly the ceo of tweezerman. but she decided to set out on her own and launch nugg while she has the retail strategy manufacturing down she's trying to figure out how to let more people know about the brand. >> my name is wen and i'm co-founder and ceo of fashion brand [ inaudible ] >> i'm cindy mclaughlin, the ceo of a real estate tech start-up. >> i had a marketing distribution for conde nast entertainment. >> i am the founder and ceo of

tyrek media. >> call it a book club for entrepreneurs. a little food. a little wine, and a lot of throwing ideas around. >> thank you, everyone, for coming. sam and i started doing this how many months ago? >> a year ago, actually. >> a year ago because we thought that it is so incredibly helpful to get advice, particularly from women, in a really casual setting, because all of us have busy issues that we're facing at work. wen started by talking about how she's used retailers to find her brand ambassadors. >> and through the network of specialty stores, they have their own network of moms, travelers, hotels, that they work with, so they became my really incredible marketing tool for my brand. while i didn't have smart people in my company back then to have -- back then, to have the very strategic thinking, and also didn't have a budget. >> and then we moved into the

digital space. >> we work with 21,000 influencers, and deploy them on behalf of brand. but they will only work with brands they love. and so it's great to have an image library that they can select from or to have different use cases like the travel use case. >> we talked about whether connie should use an agency to find these people. but the beauty was the evening was that we had the brain power right there in the room. >> so you usually use an intermediary. i would recommend going directly to saboteurs and finding this kind of group within this room you've got like a lot of different people who have a lot of different influencers. >> as the discussion got going, some creative ideas came up for spreading the brand name through new channels. >> i don't know if anybody is doing this but like the ultimate distribution in my opinion would be like can you have a partnership with air bnb, where people do that as a business. i don't -- you're talking about hotels. i don't stay in hotels.

i can't afford it and i don't feel like home when i'm there. if i could walk into an air bnb and these were on the space, that would change my life. >> it was a good idea. >> the whole evening lasted just a few hours. while connie took notes throughout. it was a true brain storm. some ideas will get thrown out the window but others will become part of the nugg strategy. but it wasn't only great for connie, it was great for the rest of us, as well. >> a lot of us want to see her succeed. that's in our best interest. >> as small business owners we are answering questions all of the time, trying to make sure our customers, and our employees get the information they need. well, one interior designer is more than happy to answer any questions her customers have, as long as they're willing to answer hearse, as well. it's an inquisitive approach to business that has had a colorful effect.

>> really, i believe listen to what we had to say, and did exactly what we needed. >> i could tell from the first time i met her that she and i were a really good match. i think she has a great way of matching her clients to the products that they want. >> love it. >> dawn stratton and robin miller know that liz makes it her business to ask a lot of questions. >> i always say hire people that know more than i do. to help me reach my goal. and liz just went with it. >> i felt like she was very succinct about figuring out exactly what it is we needed to get to to make sure that it was perfect for me. >> the owner of polka dots and rose buds interiors in lexington kentucky since 2009, liz discovered early on that she needed to dig deeper and learn more about her clients' wants and needs. >> i didn't think i needed a psychology degree to be able to decorate someone's home. but you do. you really have to understand somebody. >> after a few rough business

decisions, she came to the realization that every conversation is crucial when it comes to connecting with the right customer for her company. >> as a young business owner you want to help anyone. but after a couple times of experiencing, you know, someone who really wasn't a great fit and that was the point where it was like, okay, we need to have some questions, and get a little bit deeper in the beginning, and not be halfway through the process before we realize that maybe this isn't going to work. >> which is why liz started interviewing her clients about the homes, storefronts and offices they wanted to decorate or renovate. >> they may catch on that it's a little bit of an interview process but it's not something that's an interrogation. it's just very conversational and they're natural questions that pertain to the project. >> liz knows how to get customers talking. she has her list of go-to questions to get the ball rolling. >> who's using the space? how will it be used? what their time line is and we also need to know about budget. what they're wanting to spend. >> going into any conversation, liz knows who she can work with, and who she can' >> someone who understands what

they would like to accomplish, they may not understand their personal design aesthetic, but they know the living room needs to be done. or they have "x" number of dollars to accomplish a priority list. if someone is really unsure of what that end product needs to be, we're not quite ready to help them at that point. >> the process is much like a job interview. a simple phone call is usually the first step. in some cases, it's the last one, as well. >> not everyone that calls is a good fit. we may not be able to service them the way that they want so we have to figure that out before we go out and meet with them. >> if liz thinks there's potential she schedules a time to chat in person. remember, her questions are fairly routine. but the answers can make or break the relationship. >> typically the questions that i'm asking about the space get the answers that we need. people will be a little more forthcoming than even what you're asking for. once we see the space we meet them, you can feel the chemistry if it's working or if it's not. >> as liz cease it, there isn't

only one right answer to her questions. she knows everyone's style is different. but the responses set the tone and the timing for the rest of the project. >> usually, from seeing the space, and coming up with a plan, that's maybe two or three weeks time. so it's very important that we're clicking, and that we understand each other fully in the beginning and we know what we're getting ourselves into. >> from that point forward the questions get more detailed so that liz can come up with a game plan and create a look. >> we have to ask them specific questions like, colors they like. patterns they like. more importantly, the colors and patterns they don't like. because that can be a little bit more telling. >> her primary concern is giving clients what they want, and not what she this they might want. >> we're very collaborative in working with our clients. we want their input. that's something that historically is not what the industry is known for. you often feel like you hire a designer, you're bulldozed. we do not take a project if we are the only voice. >> liz also tries to identify

the decisionmaker in her clients interviews. there's nothing worse than having to deal with people who can't agree. >> sometimes it's a tug-of-war and a balancing act between a husband and a wife to be able to say, you know, she really likes this. i don't like that. so whose opinion is going to win out? you know, what do we have to do to balance that? >> it doesn't happen often, but liz will turn down jobs based on the outcome of her interview. >> just like the customers need to know themselves, you need to know yourself as a business owner. there's a little bit of a gut reaction, and you can just tell, and if i get that feeling, we don't do it. >> she just refuses to take on a client who isn't a good match. even if it means losing money. >> no matter how much we could have made on the project, it wouldn't have felt good. there would have been a lot of added stress. it could have ended in a bad relationship. and i just don't want to leave that kind of wake behind me. just because you take three new clients, if they're not a good fit you may be missing out on one really great client that you could have had. >> liz's customers get the sense that the interview process has

actually made her a better listener. >> in the beginning when you meet somebody new and you've got ideas in your head and you're trying to -- you want the others to understand, i just so remember the day they came to the office with everything to show us what they had learned from us, and it was exactly on. >> she i think has listened to me, taken in the most basic level and translate that into something pretty phenomenal for the decor in my home. >> liz says she'll continue to ask, listen, and learn from her customers. she believes it's the best way to give her clients top-notch service that they won't forget. >> i want to be able to help the client and leave them with a good feeling based on our experience. i work very hard to be able to do that with clients. so the communication doesn't stop after that first interview process. it keeps going. and that was just the foundation for it. as we just saw knowing what your customers want is essential to your business's success.

but a big mistake some entrepreneurs make is not knowing who exactly that customer is. the owner of a new orleans children's amusement space learned that the hard way when he discovered it was the parents, not the kids, who he should be catering to. bouncy castles, gigantic slides, pizza. it looks like heaven to your average kid. and that's exactly what gene was thinking in 2008 when he opened new orleans based bookoo bounce. an indoor inflatable party place. after attending party after party where the children were the one and only priority, he thought that he should do something different with his company. >> so often, the party's experiences were not geared around the parents. so it was hot or uncomfortable or unclean bathrooms, or for that matter, safety. >> the kids may have been having fun, but gene knew that when it came down to it, they weren't

the ones making the decision on the party place. >> that child can request a party place that they want to have, where they want to have it, what kind of theme they want to have, but ultimately, you know, the financial decision comes from the parents and what sort of budget they might have. >> with experience in the hotel industry gene looked to bring what he had learned about hospitality to his small business. knowing who their real customers is, parents are the company's top priority. amenities were included in both the design, and business model. to make bookoo bounce not just a fun place for kids but also a haven for adults looking for a little downtime as well. >> free wi-fi that you can connect your laptop to, ipad, phone, get some work done. televisions around so you kind of watch tv or watch football game. he has a couple seating and he also supplies coffee drinks, also, for the parents. >> comfort alone isn't what keeps customers coming back again and again. the bookoo staff has made it

their mission to take the guesswork out of plans. they've set and met the standard that when you hold a party at bookoo bounce everything will be taken care of. >> i love that i didn't have to get my house ready for people to come over. it was just, i brought a cake, and some pizza and the kids got to go play. i got to chat with the other parents, and the kids had a great time. >> gene's not the only one making parents number one. every team member is trained to look out for what the adults want. the goal even carries over into the interviewing process. when hiring new staff, gene thinks about who will interact with the adult staff, not just who the kids will have the most fun playing with. >> there are lifeguards for the children, but at the same time they're out there to service the parents' experience. >> attention to the details that will keep his customer happy has also opened up a new revenue stream for day camps and after-school sessions. jason horne owns nearby martial

arts school. during its summer camp, a visit to bookoo is always on the calendar. >> being a priority in his business, you get that sense as a parent myself, and also as a business owner, i'm in the care of other people's kids. so i'm bringing them somewhere where i don't have to worry about them because it's a safe environment. >> paying attention to parents as much as kids also brings new foot traffic to the business all the time. >> word of mouth is huge. your reputation, especially in a city like new orleans, it's a small town, people talk, and people have an impression of the experience they're going to have based on what people tell them about. >> as gene looks to launch a second location in the near future, there's one thing he knows he'll be keeping the same. >> as we move forward, as we branch out and try to expand, parents are definitely going to be our primary focus. >> if you want to have a successful company i cannot stress the importance of building and maintaining trust

with your customers, with your employees, basically all your business associates. anyone who you come in contact with. if you are a trusted leader, it then becomes easy to elevate your business. but if you lose the confidence of others, your organization can quickly crumble. our guest offers a plan to cultivate trust. joel peterson is the founder of the investment company peterson partners. he's also chairman of the board at jetblue airways and co-author of the new book "the ten laws of trust >> kelli: building the bonds that make a business great." so good to see you. also professor at my alma mater stanford gsb. i want to focus on four of your tips that have to do primarily with employees though once you got that down it extends out to everyone else. the first one is invest in respect. we know the idea of respect. but what do you mean by invest in it? >> so, people want to be a respected member of a winning team, doing something meaningful. and they can tell if you're not respectful, not so much by what you say to them, but you talk about others when they're not present. so if you bash people outside

the organization, if you bash suppliers or whatever, there's a disrespectful atmosphere that starts to develop. >> and it's interesting because you can -- it could get tense, right, depending on your personality. you may be in situations where you disagree with one of your managers or something, and you're talking about something, and it's tense, but it's respectful. >> yeah. and what makes it respectful is you listen. >> right. >> you pay attention. you give honor to what other people are saying. you talk with somebody who wants to interrupt and give their point of view all the time. they never capture what you've just said. that's disrespectful. >> okay. let's get to number two. measure what you want to achieve. >> so a lot of people think that if they're trusted there's no measurement. people don't need to be checked up on, measured. but it's actually just the opposite. imagine if you don't know how you're being measured. if you don't know whether or not whatever the budget is, if you don't know what the time frames are, if you don't know what the deliverables are, you actually can't be trusted.

and you're not really being shown trust. >> right. >> working with. >> right. >> the whole thing is easier. here are your goals, go get 'em. if you need help, come back and talk to me. if we need to change them come back to talk to me but i trust you to be the manager of your own destiny here. >> and here are the measures. >> right. >> so if you don't know what the measures are, people can actually think they're doing a good job. >> exactly. >> and be failing. and then trust breaks down. >> exactly exactly. because then they have a review, you're saying they're doing a terrible job, they thought they've been doing a great job but what's going on here. >> right. >> okay. keep everyone nfd. >> so this is one that isn't that hard to do but not many people do a very good job of it. i call it communicating lavishly. and that means communicating before, during, and after events. bad news as well as good news. and the reason is people are smart. >> right. >> and if they learn all the news from the newspaper, or at the water cooler, they learn to mistrust their leaders. so communicating, you almost can't overcommunicate. >> really? i do think that people struggle

with how much should i share with the whole staff though there's they don't need to know every single detail or do you think they do? >> they don't need to know every detail but i think people need to in leadership positions need to be transparent. and often what that means is, i really cannot talk about this, or it wouldn't be appropriate. >> right. >> to talk about this. so you're transparent. you let people know. you don't need to tell them everything but you need to tell them i can't talk about this right now. >> right. or if they know anyways it's better to just bring it up. >> yeah. >> okay and then finally, this almost goes back to something we were talking about before, which is embrace respectful conflict. so -- you can have conflict. >> yes. in fact you want conflict. you want different points of view. you want to be in an organization where the best idea wince. >> mm-hmm. >> not the most powerful person. so you can tell an organization's gone off the tracks when it's politics that wins. you know, when the highest office gets whatever their way is. >> right. right. >> so you want to have people that bring up their points of view. as long as it's respectful. people are listening, and then

once the decision is made everyone needs to get behind it. >> again i think that goes right back to the top which is listen. >> yep. >> so good to see you. congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> and thank you for stopping by. >> nice to see you j.j. >> when we come back, how to be nonaggressive when it comes to getting potential employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement. and the need for small business owners to look at the bigger picture. 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. when you have employees that are very new to the company how do you go about crafting an nba to make sure they feel secure and don't feel trapped into staying with your company for a long period of time? >> this is such an important question because nondisclosure agreements are such an important part of doing business today. what she's referring to is a contract that employees enter into by which they agree not to share all the information that you consider really confidential and secure in your business. for example, customer lists, your method of doing things, you've got a lot of information that you wouldn't necessarily want your employees posting on facebook or walking out the door with in the event that they leave you. so it is very common to ask new employees to sign an agreement so that they're very clear about the kind of information they can

share, and how they can share it. so that's kind of an offensive move. on the defensive side if you do happen to have an employee that happens to do something inappropriate or walk with confidential information you have a very clear legal basis for taking some kind of action. in terms of making them feel comfortable it's very much a part and part of doing business today i would say if you have a potential employee who's concerned about signing one think again and have a discussion with them before you hire. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. let's get in our board of directors and get their advice. serial entrepreneur howard love is an angel investor, and he's also author of the new book "the start-up j curve >> kelli: the six steps to entrepreneurial success." and entrepreneur bryant car don is a sales expert, a real estate investor and a consultant. so good to see both of you. >> great to be here. >> all right, howard let's start with you. after 35 years of being an entrepreneur, an angel investor, what's one tip? >> well, my tip would be it's a

marathon, not a sprint. start-ups take a long time. small businesses take a long time. the average length of time that i look at as an angel investor that i make an investment is 10 to 15 years. that's a very long time. the tough part of that, of the dip in the j curve is about five years. you don't want to treat it like a sprint. run ing around helter skelter that denotes drama and burnout. you want to take great care of your health. exercise, relationships, sleep, all those other things so you can show up for work and work hard for ten-plus years. >> i think it's hard, i agree with you but it's hard to do that at least in the very beginning where i guess maybe your processes are in place. but in the very beginning when you're getting something out there it's hard to tell people hey take care of yourself nine to five job. >> and you're going to have to

work hard. you're going to have to work harder than the average bear out there. but, listen if you've got a lot of that early energy that's so much fun that's great. by all means be enthusiastic you're going to need it to get you through the tough part. you know, so you know, whether you're selling customers or trying to get other team members to join you or frankly pitching investors, that energy is fantastic. >> the point is if at year five it hasn't been an amazing success you are not a failure. >> absolutely not. you have unrealistic expectations out there that you're going to get rich quick. >> it never does. we always hear about these overnight 15-year success stories or overnight 30-year success stories, sort of always forget about the first 25 or so years of some of these companies. okay, grant, how about your tip? >> howard is going to be healthier than me but i'm going to get richer faster. >> you look pretty healthy there. >> or you're going to lose it

all faster. >> look the biggest mistake i made in business was that i in the beginning i would try to be a boutique thinking that i would better serve fewer customers and it was a monster mistake. it actually meant that i didn't make business -- make money for the first three years when i could have probably been making money in the first twelve months. the point is this you need to go big from the get-go. 60% of companies in america break even or lose money. if you're going to start a business to break even, don't start a business. work for somebody else. it's not worth it. and anybody that tells you you're going to do it 9:00 to 5:00 and you're going to have balance, if you're not willing to do 95 hours a week, that's what i think 9:00 to 5:00 is, 95 hours. if you're not going to do 95 hours, if you're not going to go big, if you're not going to spend big, if you're not going to hire big, don't do it, because staying small takes as much energy as going big. and there's no payoff. >> but when you talk about spending big, you know, spending -- i understand the spending your hours, may be

about your health but i get where you get that you're able to do that. spending big suddenly becomes very risky. right? and so how do you -- how do you decide -- >> no, it's risky to spend on the break. you're not going to get there. nobody's winning staying small today. the solo entrepreneur doesn't make it. the mom and pop is going to get squashed by the big players. you have to go big today. you have to go really big from the get-go. if you're going to think small and tiny you're going to get consumed by the monsters. that can move fast. so you need to be agile. you need to be nimble. and you need to be thinking with a monster, monster volumes, and margins in your pricing of your product or your service. >> got it. take big risks, big rewards? >> because here's the deal, if you stay small you're going to get punished. the entire middle class of america is getting punished because it tried to play everything safe. >> got it. all right. two very, very different tips.

for the first time. great so good to see you both. thank you very much. we love this week's your biz selfie. it comes from 9-year-old twins from orlando whose business is called the lil cupcake girls. they make cupcakes for events, sell aprons and donate their sales to no kid hungry. an organization that helps children in need. congratulations to both of you guys. i'm very proud and very excited when i see little kids starting businesses like this. the twin say they are big fans of the show and that they learn a lot from us so thank you for watching. now, why don't you pick up your cell phone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. or tweet it to@msnbc your biz and please don't forget to u use #yourbizselfie. thanks so much for joining us today. we would love to hear from you, so 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've posted all of the segments from today's show, plus a whole lot more. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms, as well. we look forward to seeing you next week. till then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business, our business. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office

and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. right now we are watching donald trump speaking live in green bay, wisconsin. and the big question coming in before he took the stage tonight, trump actually going to go forward with endorsing paul ryan, the speaker of the house, in his republican primary in the house next tuesday. you have to be careful.