good morning, coming up next, looking for office space? we walk you through the process and go through what you need to know before signing that lease. los angeles based business turns their retail shop to draw in more customers. and what you need to do to become a super boss all coming up next on "your business."

♪ hi there, everyone. welcome to "your business" the show dedicated to help your small business grow. there's one process in running my company they find not very fun at all and that is looking for office space. once you get a great space of course it's fantastic but the road can be a bit of a headache. so today we're going to make it a little easier for you by preparing you with the questions to ask and the issues you need to think about before signing on the dotted line. here's a primer on the best practices for renting an office whether it's your first lease or your tenth. it o's a rainy day in new york

city, not the best weather to go out looking at weather space. but as entrepreneurs, we're used to looking at much worse than a little rain. i've gone through the process of renting an office a few times and i know it can be daunting. ♪ hi there >> jj how are you doing? >> we ask ceo and founder of real estate tech startup, the square foot, to give us an overview on how to approach the process of renting office space. >> welcome to square foot headquarters. >> jonathan took us on a day long tour giving us a sense of what you get for your money and more importantly what questions you need to ask yourself when looking at spaces. because, he said, no matter what, they're going to be tradeoffs. >> when you walk in, is the lobby good, is it clean, you want to make sure the bathrooms are clean, elevators, how many elevators are there, how fast

are they, connect tyty is important. you want to make sure there's enough providers of internet and telecom. >> in a real estate deal there's a negotiation. how much are you paying per square foot, how long is the lease for, what kind of improvements will the landlord pay for. >> it depends on the specific market and who has power in that market and how long of a lease you sign. if you come in and say i want the space for ten years, the landlord will do whatever you want within reason. if you're saying you want three years, it will be more of an as-in space and you'll have to put your own money in. >> jonathan showed us a range of places, a good one, a better one and a best one to give us a idea of the decisions his clients have to make. we started in the garment district. this would be what he would

consider a good option. >> it's a beautiful building. >> yeah we've done a few deals in this build within clients love it because the same lobby like and field, same space look and feel that you see in flat iron, chelsea and soho but it's 20 ducks less that foot. >> the building is nice but the neighborhood a little less so. for this company that didn't matter. they wanted to be in this area. >> they wanted to be around the same types of companies that they're working with all of the time. >> they didn't have to do much to move into this. >> it was an as-in space. the landlord polishes the floors, paints the wall and makes it a turnkey. >> this rental was a simple one. mostly the terms were the price and the length of the lease. jonathan felt comfortable putting his client in this build because he knew it wells, something he suggests business owners try to do before signing on the dotted line. >> we've been in places before

where there was an active tenant still in the space and been with a client saying how to you like it and the tenant says everything is great everything for these three things which are horrible. >> next to tribeca. their price per square foot is a little more expensive because it's a trend ya area of town. this company had very specific requirements. >> what must haves does this country come to you with. >> one of the things they needed was a kitchen and this space checked that box with flying colors. they cove a lot of food stuff and best recipes and they like to be able to cook within their space. >> this must have been hard to fine. most offices don't have a kitchen like this, a full kitchen. >> it was hard to find but it makes it easy once you find it. >> easy because they were clear on what was important. they decided they wering willing to pay a little extra to be in a

desirable neighborhood and to get the kitchen. but they didn't want to change money on changing the layout. and even though they're growing fast, the setup works for them at least for now. >> how many square feet do i need per person? >> depends on the type of business you have. we have about 4500 square feet here and we can fit 42, 43 people. that's what we call startup comfortable. as you go up to a law firm law firm, you're looking at several square feet of persons. it depends on your business you have. >> the trickiest part of renting a space is predicting how much space they'll need in the future. >> there's a skup l of ways that we deal with that. we took this whole floor and share space with one of our investors and we've helped other groups do there. there are a couple of companies out there that specialize in that matching process. that's one way to get around the growth issues and the other is to realize in the going out

months you'll be paying a little more because it will be empty but at the back end of the your lease it will be inverse where you're getting to be sardines. >> the last stop on the tour is the flat iron district where we visited john belay's company, a company that's growing rapidly. hi, good to meet you. the company started with this one office. when they ran out of space, they annexed an office next door and then another down the hall, far from ideal. the cobbled together space was just no longer work iing. as i look around the room here and i look at your sales area in the other room, it's tight. >> it's really tight. >> was there a pointy your employees were starting to grumble a little bit and say, you know, john, we need some space? >> i think that point was a year ago. >> they found a great new space nearby and they're getting ready to move but the staggered leases on their current offices makes it all a little complicated.

>> is your lease up? >> because we have three different offices, there's three different lease terms. you have the ongs of subleasing were surrendering and dg something in the middle and that's giving away offices at a one time. when you surrender, the landlord takes it back, there's a mixture of fines and penalties and it clears a liability off of your books. >> this time around john wanted to create the perfect office. so he and husband landlord did some negotiating. he took a longer lease in exchange for a tenant improvement allowance which means the landlord helps pay for the cost to build out the space. >> the specific details of it put us into a position where we can grow for three to five years and feel like the landlord did so in the new space by setting us up with nice buildout and putting us in a place where we can grow and expand in the same floor. >> with the hammer still swinging, john gave us a sneak

peek at his new office around the corner. >> welcome. >> this is great. >> beautiful setup. great entryway when you walk in. super excited for the upgrade. >> now at the higher end of the rental market, john's two priorities were room to grow and a great customer experience are realized. >> welcome to the new space. >> this is great. it's big. >> yeah, it's massive. the elevator entrance right off of the space. a nice change in scenery to what you saw in the old space. you're walking into an all showroom floor set up with a retail experience. we've taken the old retail floor and tripled the size. >> after seeing offices all over town with different priorities and budgets, it was interesting to end the day witnessing the life cycle of growing out of one space into another. how excite rd you to be in one space insfaed of four spaces?

>> if i'm excited, our staff is ecstatic. as we just saw, space is incredibly important and that's particularly true when it doms a brick and mortar retail store. it is so easy to buy things online these days that your shop needs to have a little extra to get people through the door. this owners of this los angeles based business figured out the trick. they sell items you can't find anywhere else, they've turned their store into a true experience. ♪ when ted and angie created a small collection of slienl wallets on a whim, they never managed that their passion project would evolve into a leading lifestyle brand known throughout the world. back in 2003 the husband and wife team become known for organized hip little art shows during their down time. they loved exposing their inner urkel. >> none of the artwork was

selling because none of us could afford it because we're all poor. we thought why not make something that's really affordable that everyone needs. >> ted and angie collaborated with local artists for the wallets. >> the wallets sold out that night. >> people were like what, this was awesome. >> with their art, the couple launched this online retail destination that sells their original creations and other design driven pieces with a similar ast thetic all at affordable prices. they've always celebrated the visionaries behind the products. >> there was a bio associated with the artists and to give exposure to artists and designers who wouldn't normally get exposure. it adds life to what you're bricking home. >> over the past decade they've gone from an unplanned upstart to a booming business with a

robust community of die hard fans that grows by the day. big name brands like nike and target have also embraced their flavorful flare. >> i think the special thing is that poketo can walk the line of being mainstream and niche. >> from popup shops to art shows across the globe, their stand outevents allow the local following to engage with the brand on a deeper meaningful level. so in 2012 ted and angie opened up the black ship shop and gallery in the heart of l.a.'s downtown art district. the one of a kind brick and mortar houses a retail store, creative offices and an area for

special events. the work shops have become a celebrated community building staple for the brand. >> we're not just here to sell things to them but we're actually here to provide a whole different set of creative outlets. >> ted and angie's ability to creatively and authentically connect with their community has taken poketo beyond their wildest dreams. they recently opened a second store and this summer they paired with nordstrom to create eight pop-ins through the country so that you could get a real taste of what poketo is all about. >> the best compliment is when people write us saying i'm so inspired by what you do. you push me to make this or do that. it's a great thing that we can touch people in that way and really have that experience

beyond just buying a product. i know that we talked so much about social, but i don't want to discount the importance of e-mail. e-mails evolve in big ways thanks to a growing focus on mobile and a greater integration of social. we're giving you five way to make the most of your digital correspondence. make your contact list a database of information. linking your e-mails to relevant details on each lead. two, get real-time notifications. a chrome extension can alert you when your e-mails have been opened when you can engage when to check back in. three, you can capture more e-mail addresses with the help of a tool.

this service collects new contact to add to your list through built-in popups on your website. four, automation. have prebuilt e-mails sent out based on user behavior with the help of companies, strategically communicating with your visitors at a specific time and in a spaesk way will help you convert them into customers. number five, don't under estimate a transaction l e-mail. when it comes to building our teams, i think that all or most of us go into the process thinking that we're looking for the best people and assuming that once they're in our companies we're cultivating their talent. but the truth is so many small business owners are doing it wrong and their companies are suffering as a result. sydney fink lstein has spent time researching this area. he's a professor and the

director of tuck center for leadership. he launched the book "super bosses, how exceptional leaders master the flow of talent." thank you for coming on the program. >> great to be on. >> this is probably the most important thing you can do for your country, hiring people and keeping them. too many of us don't think of it as a real business practice. >> it has got to start with the interviewing process. take advantage of that. so many people say hire people smarter than you, have the guts to do that and then when you interview someone, know how to dig into it and ask the questions that give you a lot of meaning and ideas. ask about specific things they're going to be doing on the job to see how they think and react. >> i want to go into that for a second. how specific can you be about your company? how much can you assume that this person knows about your company? >> number one, you want someone who has done research ahead of time. that shows they're somewhat interested. number two, it's too costly the make a bad hire.

you want to get the right person. let's test them out. >> what are the top five things you're going to do your first month here. granted they might be wrong, it wouldn't be the things i'm thinking of but it at least gets me to understand that they have started thinking about what we do. >> that's what you want. people who are in the game thinking. not going to do everything you assign them to do, but you want them to come up with stuff you haven't thought of. >> a lot of us feel like when you lose people it's disrupt tiff. >> yeah. >> but you feel differently. >> you don't want to lose a best talent but the reality is that the best talent will go and do their own thing. they might want to start thane ore company, have your job or go to another company. give them the opportunity to excel. you do much better and don't worry about it so much. we can get hung up with that. >> how do you deal with it -- if all of your employees are there and they suddenly see a lot of

people going out the door, one reaction is this isn't a great place to be. if it were great, there wouldn't be such a children. >> these people are moving on to bigger and better, this is the place i want to be at. you gain a rep taths as a town magnet and that's a good thing. >> how do you say good-bye to people who leave js you say thank you to start. the last thing you want to do is say you're disloyal. the network you're developing afterward could be valuable. i've had examples of people that come back to get rehired. why wouldn't you want to do that. >> let's move on to the next c delegate more. one of the issues with founders, they just hold on tight. >> it's tough. you've built it, created the whole thing. >> you know everything that's right. >> that's a dangerous thing in

and of itself. the key to being a successful manager, then's what you have to be when you're past the startup company, you've got to be able to hire great, delegate and give them opportunity to create value. you have to feel like they're not going to eclipse you and you've got to trust them. that's the thing i find time and time again trips up people. if you're finding that you're not delegating -- so many people tell me they're overworked, they can't hnd l it. they're not delegating because they don't trust those people. >> we cannot stress how important the team is. it's the difference between a successful company and a not so successful one. >> thank you. >> thank you. today's elevator witcher wanted to teach ore children the importance of being charitable and so she developed a product that he thinks does the trick. he's the founder and ceo and

scott is cofounder of so cozy hair care for kids. hello, my name is lily. i'm the founder of little loving hands, little loving hands, a monthly transcription business providing kids crafts for a cause. i wanted to teach the importance of giving back and helpi ining others. i wasn't able to find any volunteer opportunities for their age. so i created little loving hands. we feature a different charity and help kids create a craft sent back to that charity. since launch, we have shipped over a thousand boxes, and we have hundreds of kids around the country creating beautiful crafts that are sent to help the elderly, homeless and sick children. right now i'm doing this all by myself, so $50,000 investment would be really helpful so i can focus on strategic efforts to grow the business and acquire more customers. the kids craft business is a

billion dollar industry, but there is nothing like little loving hands th s thas that has activity to teach kindness. >> how much are you looking for? >> $50,000. >> i'll give both of you these. two numbers. first number, one to ten what do you think of the product and what do you think of the pitch. you tapped into something clearly that parents are thinking about right now. i think it is incredibly smart. idea is incredibly smart. that's my opinion. let's get the panel's opinion. alicia, we'll start with you. >> i gave the product a 7. you felt a personal pain point and there was a real need for this and you understand this deeply. i really like the idea of what you're doing and sounds like there is some traction to date. i gave the pitch a 7 because i felt like there was a lot of

really great information in terms of your ask and some of the mile stones you've reached and also the market size, but i probably would have wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're using the money for, and how you're defending yourself against competition. so 7 and 7. >> great feedback. this is what alicia does for a living. >> yeah. >> so i gave your product a 9. and i gave your pitch an 8. on the product side, i have a 4 1/2-year-old daughter who loves arts and crafts, she would be obsessed with this. as a dad, i want my kids to learn how to do well. from a pitch perspective, sometimes when you deal with charity and capitalism, it is a little bit like oil and water. so somehow if you can bridge the gap between the two, and give the investor the context of how to relate that to other businesses that have succeeded there, that would be helpful. so, for example, toms for the shoes and state bags is another example. if you weave that into your pitch, you can kind of bridge the gap between the two. and give some context to us to your opportunity. >> i think that's great

feedback. ultimately, an investor is not investing in a cause. that would be a donation in this particular case. they also want to make money. so thank you, that was great feedback from both of you. thank you so much. and good luck with everything. >> thank you so much. if any of you out there have a company and you want to pitch it in the elevator. send us an e-mail, yourbusiness@msnbc.com. include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with the money. we look forward to reading about your businesses and seeing some of you here on the show. when we come back, we tackle the question, how much will it cost to start up a new business? and the difference between pitching a product to customers and pitching your company to potential funders. 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. arlene writes, how does one come up with starting costs to start up a business in. >> good news. it is never has been cheaper or easier to start a business. a lot of the basic tools you need whether creating e-mail accounts or marketing on social media or creating a website are basically free. so that may even allow you to start a business without raising any capital at all and just basically bootstrapping it. if you need to raise money, i think the best way to do it is so to talk to banks and see if you can get some debt, if not,

talk venture capital, or consider crowd funding. if you think about those tools, and then you consider how much money you need, you may find you can raise very little capital to get started. and that's a good thing because the minute you raise capital, you have a boss. you want to make sure you retain as much control as possible. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your small business grow. alicia and scott are back with us to give their advice. okay. you gave great advice in the elevator. let's hear something for the audience. >> my top tip is, know the difference between a product pitch and an investment pitch. >> yes. i cannot agree with you more. >> huge, right? with a product pitch, as you know, it is talking about all the details of the product, the technology, the adds on, et cetera. an investment pitch, ie a pitch to investors for funding, really has to focus on the business wholistically. that includes everything including the product. but also the team, the market size, the competitive landscape,

what you're asking for in terms of funding, where that funding will go, and also the financials, how you're reaching customers. you have to know what kind of pitch is called for because if you're giving a product pitch to an investor, and they're looking for the whole view of the business, then you're probably missing out on an opportunity to really connect with them and get funding that could grow your business. >> absolutely. and if you're speaking to a potential partner, it is a different pitch as well. >> exactly. >> put yourself in the shoes of the person you're talking to. such a good point. all right, you're up. >> my top tip is find the white space and go after it. so the marketplace is so super competitive and the barriers to entry in almost any product or service is really, really low. if you look what the you're doing and look at the market and see what you have that your competition doesn't have, it gives you an opportunity to hone in on what you should focus on and what you can own, and make your own. so from there you can build a defensible position in the

market and that informs your product development and informs your marketing and informs everything you do as a company, and gives you a clear path in the industry that no one else can copy. >> assuming that what you have is something that customers want, so i think the only thing you have to be careful there is, okay, i have this one feature, but there may be a reason none of your competitors have that feature, right? might be that nobody wants it. >> and one may not be enough. has to be a deck stacked high of things you bring to the table that no one else can bring. but has to start with having something that is really unique and special in first place. >> all right. great, thanks so much. so good to see you both. this week's your biz selfie comes from john larkin who owns electronic system consultants in column bush o columbus, ohio. thank you, john, for sending that in. want to see your company here on the show? pick up your cell phone and take a selfie of you and your business. no professional shots. we want selfies. send it to us at

yourbusiness@msnbc.com or use twitter, @msnbcyourbiz and use the #yourbizselfie. >> thank you fon joining us today. here's what i learned on today's show. leases are negotiable. more you know about the market, and the more you understand what your must haves are versus your like to haves, the better you're going to do through the process. it is hard. while process is hard, you need to have knowledge in order to go in this correctly. now, 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. you can also go to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all the segments from today's show and a lot more. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms too. next week we find out how one company turned their entire staff into a team, so loyal that they put the survival of the company and each other ahead of their own interests.

>> i still get a little teary when i think of it. people came to me that knew other people couldn't afford that cut and said take more of my salary, people were grateful for their jobs. >> we look at open book management, a controversial management tool that works but may not be for everyone. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg, 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. the racial divide in america, a special look at race after the trump election and the truth about so-called identity politics. also, conflicts of interest, growing pressure on trump to separate his business from his administration. we'll also preview tuesday's big protest for a $15 minimum wage. and take stock of the obama economy. and trump's plans to change it. from rockefeller center in new york, this is "politicsnation" with al sharpton. good morning. i'm al sharpton. we