can political button sales predict election outcomes? if you're the owner of a 40-year-old business that sells them, the answer may be yes. see how this clever businessman thrives by reacting to breaking news and staying in touch with his customers. on a special edition of "your business."

hi there, everyone, i'm jj ramberg. welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business survive, thrive and grow. some people just have it. we all know people like this. they have this incredible ability to charm. call it the art of the schmooze. now, i never met anyone who does it better than mort berkowitz. he's the larger than life owner of a political memorabilia company. we followed him down to the democratic national convention so that i could see him in action. ♪ >> how are you? close to 1,000 buttons.

>> mort berkowitz is working the crowd at the democratic national convention in philadelphia. >> it's a crowd. and we see them over and over and over. so you really in a four-day period, you've developed a relationship. >> and relationships for mort mean money. >> that relationship, which is sincere at the moment, also pays dividends later on. >> his new york-based company, bold concepts, designs, manufactures, and sells political buttons. it's not about his politics, he says. it's about all politics. >> i go to the democratic and republican conventions. and we sell buttons at both conventions. i like to think of myself as an equal opportunity offender, because i've done several negative buttons for each candidate. >> how long have you been doing this? >> long, before you were born. >> no, you're very kind, but i don't think so. >> i think so. well, we'll debate that after.

i started doing buttons in 1972. so my first convention that i did this was 1976. >> this week, he and his partner robin abrams are operating booths at ten convention state caucus sites. >> are there more, please? >> yes. great. >> they'll be up by 6:00 a.m. every morning and won't go to sleep until well past 2:00 the next morning. >> you don't need this sleep this week? >> well, i need it but i'm not getting it. >> you'll sleep on friday? >> no, no, no. let me explain. the single best day of the convention for button sales is friday. >> friday. that's the day after the convention closes. oddly enough, mort says he expects his typical customer will buy more buttons that day than all of the others combined. why? >> he's checking out of the hotel. >> last minute, i need to get a gift for someone. >> no, not a gift for someone. he's a delegate. he has constituents, he has

relatives, friends. people push for them. people got signatures. that's when i will sell 100 for $100. >> by the time he leaves, mort will sell over 40,000 buttons. >> how are you? >> all right. thank you. >> good to see you. >> my pleasure. >> while those numbers are good, he says that's not the main reason he came here. >> this pays the freight. but it does not pay the profit. >> for mort, the profits come from building long-term relationships across the country. with groups like these, clintonettes for hillary. >> i'm going to make up a clintonettes for hillary. >> are you going to? >> yes. >> are you kidding? >> no, i'm not kidding. >> oh, okay. that is wonderful. >> they're very excited because he's offered to custom design a button just for them. >> i have now sent over the picture of clintonettes for

hillary, and that will be back to me in about an hour and that will be part of the order for this afternoon. >> senator is walking away. >> mort's partner robin is about to make a similar offer to this pennsylvania state senator. >> i live in montgomery county. i represent montgomery and delaware county. >> senator, senator. we would like to donate a button for you if you would like one. >> i'd love a button. >> we would need a photo of you. we would put you on, if you want one with hillary, and donate for whatever purpose you would like them. if it's for a fund-raiser. here's our card. send us your photo and we'll make one with your address, and we'll make up a button design for you and donate it as part of our contribution. >> all right, cool. >> very excited. >> great. another entree into another district. >> mort says these are the kind of relationships which can only be built one at a time. face-to-face, and he says, they often start with an offer of a free sample.

>> yeah, she's the 45th senatorial district. >> you're going to do a button for her for free. >> if i donate 100 buttons. let's say my cost is $60. if i can then get buttons in their headquarters, maybe i take in 1,000, 2,000, whatever, and that's really what you want to do. >> this is all about relationships? >> yes, it is. >> for mort, the cost of giving away free samples is insignificant compared to the years of button sales he's hoping for. sales resulting from the relationship that was launched by those freebies. >> i just need you to e-mail me a picture. >> sometimes those relationships start long before the national conventions. right here on the street with local politicians like danny o'donnell. when they need to buy buttons for fund-raisers, they don't go online. they call their buddy mort. or stop by his booth at this street fair if they're members of the broadway democrats of manhattan. >> because mort is right here, and he's our button man, as he

is the button man for all of new york, we are going to probably take at least a couple hundred. sure, we'll sell them. >> the first person they think of is me because i was supplying them before. and once they have used me, they will continue to use me. election after election. >> surprisingly, the work at the convention doesn't stop there. mort's also planning for the after market. >> the after market of collectors. collecting shows, et cetera, and that's terrific. >> and that's why you're doing the trade? >> yes, exactly. exactly. and we've gotten maybe 700 buttons in trade because i put out a catalog after. so if a button costs me 50 cents and i give her basically $1.50, and this goes on my catalog for $10, have i made money on it? >> and many collectors like this

woman here find their way to mort's table, knowing he'll trade with them, give them tips, make them laugh. >> you're finally smiling. >> and build a relationship that keeps them coming back. >> how did you know to come here and trade with him? >> he's been coming every day. every time i get a button i get excited because i know i'm coming to this table. >> you've got a reputation. so you're collecting buttons elsewhere to come back here and trade with him. >> yes. yes. >> she's a good supplier for you. >> she has what i want and i have wwants. >> how does mort know who's got what he wants or needs what he's got? his secret, he calls it the art of the schmooze. >> the more schmoozing i can do, the better i'm going to do. >> mr. mayor. >> how are you? >> you were born for this job. >> thank you. good-bye. get out of here. see you, man. thank you.

>> as the campaign season enters into its final months, both sides of the aisle will be talking more about issues that impact small business owners. the economy, taxes, health care, access to capital. these are just a few of the issues that small business owners will want to get details on leading up to election day. here to share some opinions on where both candidates stand and whose policies may be better for small business owners, we have bill dunkleburg, the chief economist at the uaib and rhonda abrams, a "usa today" column is and also has a publishing company. so good to see both of you. >> nice to be here. >> i want to open this up with just a general question of do you think either of these candidates understands what it's like to be a small business owner and the obstacles small business owners face, the challenges they face?

i'll start with you, bill. >> well, you know, i'm not sure that they do. i guess they all have been small business it's at some time in the past. you don't start off big, as we know. microsoft was one person, et cetera, et cetera. so they had some experience in being small. now, trump is certainly larger. and he's grown through the small to the large. and he must know something about being small. >> what about you, rhonda? what i find, we have seen this over and over again. and we have talked about this in conversations, which is that policies get enacted, laws, et cetera, that help big business and have unintended consequences for small business. it happens over and over again. is there a candidate out there who's going to be looking out for the small business owner who really understands the challenges? >> well, jj, let me just say that i'm a small business owner and i had to navigate my way through two very difficult recessions.

i can tell you that no one policy, no tax, affects my small business and other small businesses as much as the overall health of the economy. and so i guess really the question is, who do you trust to run this economy? who do you trust your livelihood with? if you take a look at both of these candidates, one is the far, far riskier choice. if i'm going to bet my livelihood, i want a candidate who i think is more trustworthy and whose judgment and temperament i can count on. >> i agree with you. we heard this through the recession in general and for sure that the economy is the noes important thing when small businesses talk about what is going to help them, it's a good economy. let's try and go through some of the issues small business owners tackle toll try and understand how trump will help business owners, how clinton will help business owners. let's start with access to capital. i'll start with you, rhonda. >> there are a few things. once again, it's really important to talk about who is going to be able to navigate the economy.

clinton has proposed a number of access to capital improvements to access to capital, but i think we can take a look at her track record. as senator of new york, and remember, to this year is the 15th anniversary of 9/11, and she helped small businesses recover in new york. she had a 74% approval rating by the time she left as senator. over half of republicans approved of her job. so in the jobs that she's held, she has dramatically improved the support and the recognitn and the retation that she's had. people think she does a good job. she has done a good job for small manufacturers to help the city recover, and as secretary of state, she has brought great respect to the united states and was widely considered the most admired woman in america. so as a track record for somebody who has delivered for small businesses in america, she has had that track record. >> all right, and bill, let's move on to you. is there anything that trump has talked about in, throughout this

time period, that has given you the sense that small business owners will have easier access to capital if he's president? >> well, not a whole lot of specifics that i can recall. access to capital, there really isn't in our top ten list, so to speak, of the problems we really face. number one, of course, has remained the cost of health care, which we try to provide to our employees when we can, but rising costs of health care insurance, that's a real difficulty. number two on our list is the cost of regulations and red tape. complying with them. so we really look at all these policies that exhaust the capital that we have. small businesses have really two important pieces of capital. one is the financial capital that we have, and the other is the time of the entrepreneur, how it's allocated and what it's used for. now, what we have seen in the past eight years, of course, is huge amount of regulatory change

and it's very -- it really exhausts, if you will, a lot of the time which is a very valuable asset of the entrepreneur, trying to comply, find out what it is and work with it. i'm the chairman of a small bank in new jersey, and i have to tell you that our rising cost continues to be just hiring people to keep track of all the nitty-gritties that the regulators want us to keep track of. i don't know how much value that's adding, but it certainly depletes our resources and i think that's probably one of the main concerns that we have. number two on our list is the regulatory piece, not access to capital, but what they're making us do with our capital or not letting us do with our capital. >> go ahead, rhonda. >> here's where i think you can see that donald trump doesn't really understand the real life of small business. in prepared remarks, not off the cuff remarks, he said it was impossible because of regulation to start a small business in this country.

and yet over a million small businesses are started every year. and if you take a look at hillary clinton's positions on small business, she understands the nitty-gritty. one of the positions that she's takeb is changing the way, and this is going to sound really boring, whether you can report on cash accounting or accrual accounting. because i'm a publisher and have inventory, i have had a lot more regulation and red tape because of that. she'll cut through that. she does her homework. she thinks about what she says. i mean, donald trump has failed. he's had four bankruptcies, leaving a wake of small businesses unpaid. i've gone through a bankruptcy. my distributor went through a bankruptcy. i can tell you, as a small business, small businesses get the short end of the stick as a creditor when somebody goes bankrupt. and he's left a trail of very unhappy vendors and small businesses. he's had 4,000 lawsuits, 4,000 lawsuits.

that's more than the five biggest real estate developers in new york combined. he's a litigious man. >> what i always find interesting on talking about it on a federal level, small business owners, the burden of regulation is often on the state and local level. >> but it's also by who you do business with. i mean, we're much more affected day to day by our customers. if you had a customer like donald trump, your life would be miserable. and their lives have been miserable. and look, he's been in a job interview, both of these candidates have been in a job interview for a year now. and look how they have performed in this job interview. if you were hiring for your small business, would you want someone who has mocked the handicap, who has disparaged the parents of a patriotic soldier who lost his life for the country, who has made fun of john mccain because he was a prisoner of war, who mocks immigrants? is this who you would hire? >> for the purposes of this conversation, i would love to

try to focus on the issues of how we think these candidates would help small business owners, though there are bigger -- >> or hurt. >> or hurt small business owners. based on their policies and their feelings about the way that we should be moving forward. and i would be remiss if i didn't bridge up immigration because it's been such a hot topic over this political season. bill, let's start with you. donald trump has obviously expressed a lot of opinions about immigration. as a small business owner, how might this affect you? >> well, i suppose if you're a small business owner who depends on very cheap labor, you know, low-cost labor, this might be an issue for you. it was, i think, concerns about that turned out to be 74 out of 75 concerns and we'll release the results of our survey this year, some time later this month. that's really not a top issue unless you're right there on the border, i guess, depending on that kind of labor.

it's certainly a big issue for us as a country, but i'm not sure that most small businesses are really going to be impacted by that. >> let me disagree, if i can. >> let's talk about h1 visas as well. >> let me just disagree there. because immigrants start businesses at twice the rate of nonimmigrants, of native born in the united states. so having an anti-immigrant feeling in this country, as donald trump has expressed over and over again, for both legal and illegal, represses the economic activity of immigrants in this country, which hurts all of us. i mean, that's why leaders in silicon valley are almost uniformly against donald trump. because they see what kind of contribution both immigrant workers and immigrant entrepreneurs make in creating new businesses that then do business with other small businesses. >> we have to wrap it up. bill, i want to give you the final word if you have anything left to say. >> well, nobody really mentioned taxes.

many of our top concerns have to do with taxes on business earnings. that's the main source of capital, financial capital for a firm, that's how we grow the business, with the profits we make. so between having taxes take the profits away from us and then having this avalanche of regulations that tell us how to spend the money we have, not very productively, i think, but unproductively, really is damaging. i think the small business owners are going to be looking for somebody who's going to be supportive of capital formation and deregulation that is not making these poor guys spend all their time and gals complying with regulations but rather growing their businesses and creating new jobs. >> all right, and since you brought up a new product, which is taxes, rhonda, 30 seconds to respond to the tax issue. >> well, hillary clinton -- i think one of the things to understand is that the clinton presidency that we had during

bill clinton's always understood the needs of businesses. hillary clinton gets accused of being too friendly to business because she understands tax regulation. she was the daughter of a small-business owner, she worked in a small business, and she understands that access to capital and fair taxes is out there. she's got a number of ways to lower taxes for small businesses. >> rhonda and bill, thank you so much for taking time out to talk about this. i'm sure we'll be talking to you a lot more over the next couple months as more issues come up. thank you both. it can be easy to forget how effective traditional marketing can be with the rise of all things online and mobile. that's why this week, we turn to entrepreneur.com to give us old-school strategies that still get the job done. one, distribute business cards. pass them out to contacts you meet or leave them at locations potential customers go to a lot.

two, speak at events. participate in industry specific meet-ups as a speaker or an attendee. you'll get a chance to network and establish yourself as a prominent voice in your market. three, communicate with local print publications. pitch a story to a magazine or newspaper that targets your desired audience. good media exposure could be extremely valuable. four, send snail mail. a lot of people still like physical offers. so ship out coupons, product samples and newsletters to promote your business. and five, celebrate successes. host events that acknowledge your team and what you have accomplished so far. your gatherings will catch the attention of your target audience and may get your future business. when we come back, we answer a viewer's question about raising capital for inventory. plus, how do you decide when it is time to pivot?

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. how do you raise capital for inventory when you're still growing your business? >> barbara, what i would do is i wouldn't go the traditional

pattern which is to banks or lenders. look at baby boomers specifically as a demographic and go to them and show them a way you can pay them 10% to 12% on their money. supported and back by inventory. this might not be a normal thing for them to do but it will be friends, family, people you know, baby boomers that have money sitting at the bank earning 0.5% and you could pay them 20 or 30 times that. we have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. let's get a panful here to hear their advice. serial entrepreneur christiane lemieux is the founder and cloth and company. we also have the founder and ceo of 75f. nice to see you both. people who have started businesses. >> you're in round two. >> let's start with you, christiane. >> one of my tips is be ready to

pivot hard and fast. things are changing so quickly these days. it is amazing to me as a second-time entrepreneur how the landscape has changed and how quickly things are moving. so if you see a bump in the road, drive around it, fast. >> and how do you know if it is a bump in the road that requires a big pivot or just, hey, we need to rethink a couple things? >> i think that sort of gut sense. when you're faced with a really big bump in the road, oftentimes you're seeing it from your competitors or things that are happening in the marketplace or something you've done that's no longer as relevant. that's when you take the big pivot. the bumps in the road, i think you try to navigate without upsetting this sort of infrastructure. >> i think this is really psychological, right? you've created this company with this one idea, and it takes something in you to be able to say, okay, i was wrong. >> i was wrong. but you know what, we have so much information at our fingertips these days, which is what's really exciting to me.

you can see what other people in your space are doing, and you can get a very quick sense, a very quick read of what's working and what's not working and where you need to direct yourself. it's much, much more transparent than it used to be. >> absolutely. all right. how long ago did you start your company? >> it's been about four years now. >> what's something you learned along the way? >> i say business plan competitions are not just for start-ups, right? if you're in a business, you better have a business plan to begin with. a business plan is not just a spreadsheet. it can be a written document, flow charts, mind maps, something that describes what your business does, how you get your customers, how do you monetize it and more importantly, it should have a section that says how do you plan to grow that business. and how do you sustain it. this is a slam dunk. you have to have a business plan, otherwise you're sometimes groping in the dark. i say conceive it, believe it, achieve it. the problem is most people -- business owners throw up their hands. they say, i already know how my business is running so why do i

have to write it out? so i think business plan competitions are a good way to get started on this road. >> i don't have a business plan. i'm starting to feel a little nervous. >> does it have to be formal? you said mind map. can it be something informal? >> that's the point. the thing is, you have to put it down. sometimes you put these things in your mind, but we never verbalize them and never write them down. that's the key thing. when you do a business plan competition, all of them tell you how to do a business plan and how to present it, but the key thing is not the end goal of the business plan but the journey. because most of them will end up filling you with mentors that are way above your pay grade. you can have fortune 500 mentors mentoring you. it's really focusing on what your vision is going to be, qualify your thought process and expand your network. >> interesting.

>> i always got the question, give me the synopsis and the elevator pitch, the 30-second whatever it is, sound bite. if you really structure and think about a business plan, it's easier to distill it down to that 30 seconds, which really ends up being a very important thing, strangely. >> it's absolutely important, not only for your customers and partners but internally. and as you hire people. >> what's your mission. >> what's our mission, right. >> people talk about what are you really doing. ultimately it boils down to the founder and the founder team to be really lock step. if you don't do that exercise formally, i just thing you tend to gloss over it. right? >> you have to leave wiggle room in there because you may have to pivot. >> absolutely. and one of the interesting things, i mean, in case you actually get lucky and end up winning these business competitions, there's other benefits as well so you end up getting the prize money and you could get a lot of free publicity. >> you get connections. >> absolutely. >> thanks both of you.

>> thanks. this week your biz selfie comes from champions sports films in katy, texas near houston. his company records team sporting events for analysis, recruiting and to share with friends and family. why don't you pick up a cell phone and take a picture of you and your small business and send it to us? we'd love to see it. we're at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. please use #yourbizselfie and include the name of your business and where you live. thank you so much for joining us today. we'd love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about the show, just send an e-mail to your business@msnbc.com. please visit our website aas well, openforum.com/your business. we posted all the segments for today plus a whole lot more for you. don't forget to connect with us on digital and social media platforms which you can see on the screen. we look forward to seeing you next week.

until then, i'm jj ramberg. 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. for those who always find new ways to grow their business, american express open proudly presents "your business" on msnbc. 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. on the last day that president calvin coolidge was in office in 1929, he signed a public law that was called public law number 107. and it authorized what was defined in the statute as a national memorial commission. this law that coolidge signed his last day in office was to build a building that would be a memorial and a tribute "to the negros' contributions to the achievements of america." 1929. calvin coolidge signed that law authorizing the creation of this national memorial and tribute. it also provided exactly zero dollars to do that with.