good morning. it takes faith to trust your customers. how do you do that when you're dealing with accused criminals? also, why this ceo hires recovering addicts to run his booming computer company. we'll have that and a lot more cong up next on "your business".

hi everyone. welcome to "your business", the show dedicated to helping your small business survive and grow. deciding whom to trust is never easy. when all of your clients have been arrested before you have even seen them, it makes it harder, as you can imagine. we find out how a mom and pop bail bonds business make that is difficult decision. >> tell him to take a deep

breath, okay? we'll get him out of of jail. >> bail bonding. >> a family came into my office. the wife said my husband has been arrested. i said okay. sit down. let me help you. >> she is the owner in downtown seattle, washington. she started there over 30 years ago as secretary. 15 years later when the owners retired she took over. >> felony harassment. >> danny was a retired u.s. deputy marshal of washington state when gail invited him to join her company. >> when he retired i said what are you going to do all day? he said i don't know. how about coming to work for me? >> a year later they got married. >> a client called in. i said i got a crook on the

line. she said they are not crooks. they are clients. that's the only time that ever happened. today gail is president and danny is vice president. today their company bonds their clients out of jail so they can return home while they wait for their court dates. >> even though a person has been accused of a crime they allegedly commit that i had still have rights. part of those rights is right to bail, which is what i do! we normally will hear from the client calling from jail. we will ask them, who can help you on the outside with collateral. >> we require 10% for the amount of bail and clollateral for the full amount. >> i don't want to get into the ones that will be high-risk. >> one of the biggest is choosing clients who could return to court.

>> i want to know the families connected to them. >> a customer who runs away can be very aggravating and costly. >> if they don't appear in the courtroom the next thing we do have locate that person. if we can't do that, we don't find them, then we pay our forfeitture to the court and that's out of our pocket. >> nevertheless, every business owner faces the same question, how do i know this client will be trust worthy? >> gail is wonderful with this. she will say have you been in touch with your parents recently? well, no. we are kind of estranged. we don't get along very well. that's a red flag. >> the red flag is if they are hesitant giving me personal information, if they are real uncomfortable letting us know where they live, where they work, that's a red flag. >> the next question is

inevitab inevitably, is your grandmother alive? how are you with grandma? grandma is not around they are probably going to be going out the door here. >> the green flag is connection with family, friends, people who still believe in them. >> they call it the circle of love. it's a simple and powerful formula which they use to screen clients. >> hi. i'm in downtown seattle. i am calling on behalf of your friend. >> i am going to e-mail the documents to you and you'll take them to your grandmother's home for signature? okay. great. >> what that means is when they person comes through the door who is it that is going to guarantee they come back to their court appearance because they love them? >> the flip side is making sure

their clients also trust them enough to follow their advice. >> it is critical they trust us. if we give good information, if we seem to care, and we do, that builds trust faster than anything. having answers for the family that's never been through this builds trust. >> how are you doing today? >> good, sir. yourself? >> good. >> everybody knows them and respects them. i think their word is often taken without any question. >> john henry brown is a seattle based criminal defense lawyer. he says he has seen how the trust they build gives gail and danny leverage throughout the court system. >> they can also get somebody t of jail faster than i can, faster than a judge can.

>> it's no surprise they turn away many more clients than they accept. >> probably eight people that would call we maybe write one bond out of those eight people. >> i need to fill you in after you left the courtroom. >> they say they never even read the police reports about the people they bond. >> of my 15 years in this business i read one police report. my wife doesn't read police reports either. >> we don't invite them to our homes. it's a business. as a small business owner you keep it adds a business and it will take care of you. the owner of coast to coast computer problems hires employees who are also recovering from substance abuse. he says facing adversity can pave the way to being

successful. >> well, you know, i kind of came up in a very dysfunctional family, a lot of alcohol abuse, violen violence. annual sales are right around 60 million right now. we currently employee 240 people. not only was i struggling with drugs and alcohol, i was second-degr suicidal as well. i was defending a keg of beer. that's what's defending your life over. i was stabbed during that party and ended up at the trauma center with emergency surgery. i should have died. the rest is history. i have been sober for over 30 years now.

i think probably one of the reasons i was willing to gamble is because people were willing to gamble on me. there is well over 400 years of sobriety in the organization. >> when came over here i was not sober. i was going through a divorce at the time. what i found is from working here and being around other people that were sober and s seeing the destruction that alcohol is causing in my life, you know, i started to look more into it and have been sober for about nine years now. >> october 1986, and rick allows me to bring in the people who need a second chance. we hired a lot of felons. even five dui's would be a felony. if you give people chance they will clean up real fast for a job like this. we had a few people that didn't

make it but as a whole my percentage is pretty good. >> i wasn't in a position to judge on what their pasts were like. what i learned is somebody who has those kientd of challenges in life, generally they are intelligent people. if you can channel that out of negative into positive you end up with a very loyal, very dedicated hard working person with a lot of drive who wants to succeed. the federal government has $2.5 billion it is die to go give to small businesses every year. that's right. it is money waiting to get in the hands of small business owners. here to tell us how to access that funding is mark walsh. he oversees all sbic, sbir.

nina is the cofounder of a company growing human bones for skeletal reconstruction. what an interesting company. we will focus ton funding. before we get into the details of how to get the money let's tell what it is. >> we have about 4 billion a year we invest in private equity funds. they are managed into small businesses. surgeons general sbir, we get research of defense, and we then find companies that solve a government problem or have fresh ne technology. it is your tax dollars making sense. >> and those are grants. >> those are nonequity. we have an accelerator program

that are doing great jobs. we are very excited about it. it is start up capitol and growth capitol. >> how big are the grantgrants? >> phase one. >> so let's get to the heart of this, which is how do you get at that money? maybe you can tell us how you found it. how did you get the money? >> well, the sbir program is phenomenal when you look at what small businesses can do. it really is a stellar program. we even won a grant from new york city economic development to help us with our application for sbir. it is a grant essentially. you propose milestones and what you plan to do with the funds.

if they make sense and preliminary data line up you have a good chance of skcoring small grant. you know, do i want to go forward with something? from there you can take the business further. it is a really great way to derisk a technology. >> are there rfp's out there? how do i know if my company would qualify for one of these grants? >> we have a web site which i challenge all of your watchers to go to right now. you can find an rfp from national institutes of health, department of defense. you'll find a description of what they need. you hit the bid, tell us what you do. we map it, check it out and make sure you can validate it and improve it and then introduce

you to your first customer. it's a wholistic way to get you started and find a customer. >> so you're just focusing on developing technology and developing a market like you normally would and later down the road if it works then you'll be introduced? >> well, in our case actually our first and second sbir grants were from the national institute of health. it was lined up with what we were planning to do anyway. we were using nondluted funding. third grand is with the department of defense. it leads to potential opportunities for us. we can collaborate with clinical trials down the line. there is a whole host of opportunities that open up once you're in the system. >> your is a very specific -- is

it all about technology? >> no. far for it. the department of education have given money for game to help learn new languages. they have funded a game online like sim city for farmers. for start up farmer this through the sbir program is showing first-time farmer how the succeed. it ranges far and wide. i'm biassed. it is one of the best around. >> it absolutely makes sense. you may as well go on there, type in a few keywords and see if there are any funds waiting for you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we really appreciate it. >> thanks for having us. there's no point in having a company blog if the content you put out is boring and doesn't help your readers. we give you useful ways to help

expand your brand's reach. one, understand your audience. keep away from lingo. write in a tone your readers connect with. two, offer helpful tips your viewers will want to share. give them tools to easily repost the social media. identify those who can further extend the reach of your cont t content. three, don't forget about pictures and videos. four, add a personalized touch to your blog. talk about your own experiences and use creative tools like story bird to spice up your post. and five, end with alear call to action. your content should conclude with what your want your read

toe ers to do. we all remember kathy ireland but you may not realize the super model turned mogul is one of the biggest names in business. she is the ceo of a global empire worth more than $8 billion. she sat down to share a lesson she learned along the way to help small business owners. >> i'm kathy ireland. nothing is impossible. if you can dream it you can do it. >> it helped launch a global empire worth over $2 million. >> kathy ireland from window world. >> her sports illustrated cover is still the best silling issue of long time. she was businesswoman long before she was ceo of her own company. at eight she became the first

newspaper girl. >> a gentleman just began yelling at me. what are you doing? this is a boy's job. >> what did it teach you? >> it was my first taste of discrimination. it really instilled that fighting spirit in me because there was no logical reason why i couldn't have the job based on my gender. >> a lesson she would hold onto when she was building kathy ireland worldwide. >> diamonds, sleep ware, ceiling fans, windows, furnitures, bras, rugs, suits, music, destination weddings and that's just the beginning. how do you get into so many different product sns. >> i love what i do. it's exciting. >> her company began with a pair of socks in 1993.

>> i read somebody said that's dumb idea. why did you decide to take that advice and throw it out the window? >> i knew it was a good idea. socks really felt like a foundation. if women would embrace something as basic as a sock that would tell us if we were onto a real brand. >> more than 20 years later she designed and markets some 17,000 products. a key to her success, not just endorsing products but licenses them. she has razor sharp taet middle america's mom, something she can relate to as a mom of three. >> i mean early on there was someone who wrote something that was rather unkind, called me a bimbo. i found out who he was and called him. i said i need to get to know you. i don't think you understand what our company is all about. >> ireland proved them wrong.

her top rules in business? >> i would say consider others as more important than yourself. it works. i believe that all that you give is all that you get, so give it all you've got. and don't do anything half measure. really put your heart into what you do. >> talk to me about how he inspired you. >> he share that had fashion and

appar apparel, but in the home it is much more steady, so i listen. he believed -- >> you know, wanting to be the first paper girl what would you tell that little girl after everything you learned about ge? >> i would tell that little girl you continue to work hard and work and work well, work fairly. . . 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 comesext. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. so we're always looking to target as many consumers online as possible. any advice on how to reach bigger audiences, we'd be interested in looking at. >> i would make the case no matter what industry you're in, there's some aspect of content that you could get into whether it's blogging, whether it's social media, whether it's writing for other media out there. you want to look at what is the best way to tell your story. it could be about your product. it could be about your service.

it could be about your company itself. do you have interesting employees? more and more people want to have brands they feel a connection with, a personal connection. the first step is understanding what is that story, what do we want to tell, then looking at the best vehicle for telling it. we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. let's introduce our panel and get their advice. gene marks is the president and founder of the marks group. he's also columnist for "the washington post." and matt is part of a time tracking and scheduling tool for companies with hourly employees. >> great to be here. >> i feel we should also put in your intro i often come to you for advice when i have small business questions of my own. so fantastic for us to get you ask you for the audience. what's one tip you have? >> i have a big tip in 2016. look, the whole internet is going video. when i talk to different clients and i talk how they're going to

expand their businesses. i keep saying this is the year where you need to become a video star. start your own video show. facebook live, there's like 160 million people watched that chewbacca mom video. big companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and look at this. she puts on a chewbacca mask and gets attention. t-sheets is a great example. when you go to facebook live, google hangouts, have your own tv show on there. once a month provide some advice, interview a customer, show something off, do a bit of a demonstration. you can come up with some content to do. you can stream it live, save it and put it on youtube or vimeo. >> how do you get people to watch it? anyone can put something else. >> the reality is true. there will be three people to watch it. you, your mom's going to watch it because mom watches everything you do.

and some guy with stumble to it. it's not just the live broadcast. it's something to talk about before and after. then again, you'll save it and put it on youtube. given time, you'll build up a library of these videos and it will attract more people to your company. you've got to embrace video in 2016. you and i should do that. we'll have our own show on dating and relationship advice. what do you think? two hours once a month. >> it's going to be huge. >> fantastic. >> all right. you're up. >> well, i would watch that show, for sure. >> of course. we have lots to share. >> my tip for small business owners is don't trust your gut. where it might be a little different than what you hear most of the time. trust your intuition. which you have to do sometimes. but i have four colossal, miserable, go to market failures that could have been avoided had i used data to make decisions versus just what i thought would work. so my tip is for a small business owner is draw a line right down the middle of the white board. once i put what's working and on

the other side put what's not working. make your list. here's your kicker. at the end of it, you have to prove it. what data do you have to support your hypothesis that it's working or not working. if you don't have data, you've got to get it. and it's this simple. if it's not working, it's okay. stop, iterate, and try something else. >> i think it's good to think about that in your staff meetings as well. not only not trusting your gut, but don't trust what somebody says without them having data to prove it. you hear all the time we got a lot of e-mails on that. or we got a lot of something. what does a lot of mean? it may not be a lot of. >> you have to get the data to know whether or not it worked. if you don't have the ability to get the data, put a level of infrastructure in to know. trust but verify. >> thank you. sifting through all the apps and websites that can help you

run your company can be an arduous task. so we asked our viewers which ones they find most useful in this small biz tools. >> one tool that i use is agile crm. it's both an app and a website. and it allows you to seamlessly coordinate your service, your calendar, everything you're offering businesswise. and it's been great for me. i don't know all the ins and outs of it yet but i look forward to learning more. >> we've been doing core bridges for pos system. the whole team is able to use it from the beginning of the process all the way until we install the customers' project. >> one of the technologies we use especially here is furkot. it wraps out the best

destination between any target. we're doing a road trip in the fall where we want to reach out to the curly haired community and we want suggestions as where to go. it allows you to send out your route via e-mail or publish it online to your social media community. i think it's good for any business that wants to have face-to-face communication. >> this week's your biz stefl fee comes from leia love. the owner of leia love hair and salon in ohio. with a b.a. and a doctorate, she provides a wide range of beauty services and knows the importance of maintaining a great blog with a lot of beauty tips on her website. now why don't you pick up your cell phone and take a picture of you and your business and send it to us so we can feesh it here on the show. or you can tweet it to us. please use the #yourbizselfie.

thank you so much for joining us today. we would love to hear from you. if you have questions or comments about today's show, e-mail us or head over to our website. it's open forum.com/yourbusiness. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. and 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. explosive accusations in the 2016 fight. pushing thelection into new territory. >> hillary clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes. >> he is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe. >> one on one with pastor mark burns, gregory meeks, and hugh hewitt. also from the foundation to the e-mails. challenges facing hillary clinton. plus surprise endorsements from gun control groups. can republicans be trusted to stand by their word? and bending towards justice. what does a second chance look like? >> i signed my papers and