good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," the struggle for survival. what steps do the owner of a camera store take to keep his company competitive in the e-commerce age. >> we hit the road to find out how this family-owned tour bus company caters to celebrity clientele. >> you may not think you're in danger of an employee embezzling from your company, but are you really protected? we tell you how to avoid being caught by surprise. information and advice to help the small business owner coming up next on "your business."

hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg, and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. when a small town retailer fights back to save his family business in torrance, california, it gets very personal. this week, we meet one of the last men standing in an industry which has been decimated by the internet. brick and mortar camera stores. despite the insane levels of online competition, this entrepreneur has found a way to keep his customers coming back.

>> john is going to be so jealous. oh, my god. >> oh, my gosh. >> kind of light painting, they call it. >> when these amateur photographers get together, they have one thing on their mind, who took the best photos, where, and how they did it. >> i have never done that before, so it's like, it's so exciting. >> for mark, the owner of california based paul's photo, gatherings like these have been the secret weapon that have kept his small camera shop in business while so many others have had to shut down. >> is everybody having fun? >> i'm having fun. >> good. >> we're like the cheers of camera stores, where everybody knows your name. and we really have a good time with it. that's the secret. >> paul's photo isn't run by paul anymore. mark, his son, is now calling the shots, and pulling in the customers and keeping up with the times. >> as my peers got older, they were not capable of keeping up,

as i would not be capable of keeping up if it weren't for mark. it's an entirely new ball game. >> if you listen to mark, it's not even a new ball game. it's a completely new business model. >> when me dad started, the camera store business was all about consumables. film, processing, developing. we would see customers on a regular basis. that was the cash flow. that went away with digital. then in 2008, 2009, here comes the internet. and retail is struggling. >> without the predictable cash flow of film and processing, or the vast product range of the internet, industry analysts say most of the local camera shops like paul's simply closed up and disappeared. >> we had 17 camera stores. we sold them in 1990. today, not a single location that we were in has a photographic application. all of them have become

something else. >> bill mccurry of mccurry associates is a business adviser to what he calls the imaging industry. he's watching the painful process of extinction play out in large and small towns across the country. >> ten years ago, ritz camera had 1200 camera stores. today, they are 11 operating under the name. >> the problem, they say, extends beyond technology and the internet. they blame the suppliers as well. >> we have no control over pricing in our business. the camera manufacturers control the price. so when i sell you a $1,000 camera, you guys have to realize that $950 of that $1,000 goes to the camera manufacturer. we get to keep $50. >> economically, you will not survive selling cameras. period, full stop. you need other things. >> other things for mark comon begins with this army of camera buffs whhave bn spired by mark's high-energy classroom

style. >> how many rookieight hawkers do we have? >> tight45ight hawk students have gathered in the dark. >> one, two, three. >> not just to shoot pictures of the christmas lights, but to share the excitement of learning from each other as well as getting amazing pictures. >> look at that. look at that, joan. >> oh, gosh. >> look at that. see? >> yes, evelyn. great, i love that. >> it's experiential marketing at its best. mark gathers people together, shows them a great time, takes them out for drinks afterwards, and they respond by keeping his business in the black. >> i came in for a quickie class to use a new camera, and in eight weeks, i bought a brand new camera. i went to the classes sort of doing the homework, took a back corner seat, and just got pulled into it. >> what makes this work is that mark's enthusiasm is genuine. >> i like that. look at that.

>> and contagious. and it builds a community strong enough to compete with the internet. >> we'll generate $1,000 worth of revenue tonight, which is okay. but what we're going to do is we're going to get 40 people to have a great experience. and they're going to tell their friends. they're ghost to post it on facebook, on flickr, they're going to tell their neighbors, man, i had a great time last night, and paul's photo was the place to go. >> all right. >> mark takes the classes to an olympic sport level. good retailer will create an experience every time you buy something. the u.p.s. man can't create that experience. >> mark's ability to keep local retail relevant rests on his ability to provide experiences for his customers that can't be found anywhere else. >> an ecosystem we built. this symbiotic relationship between the camera store, the lab and the classroom that feeds itself. >> paul's photo is not alone. you can see this ecosystem approach in other retail

industries as well. >> my friends who have running stores and bike stores, they offer runs and bike rides. how many nurseries offer the free planting class? right? what are they doing? the same thing we are. >> to a big picture guy like bill, mark's passion for teaching is a two-edged sword. on the one hand, it kept mark's business afloat when others have gone bust. on the other hand, bill worries it may be preventing mark to take the steps others take to prepare for the future. >> others say they want to build something they can retire from. that means it has to be big enough that you can sell it to an investor who can hire professional management. >> to mark, however, the big picture looks different. >> if i can get every customer within ten miles to buy their camera here, have their pictures printed here, take a photo class with us, that's enough for me. i'm not greedy. a small town guy in a small town and i like what i do and i like

knowing my customers. each january, people flock to las vegas to see the coolest and newest technology unveiled at the consumer electronics show. we bring you the top picks from ces this year that can help your small business from entrepreneur.com. one, robin by nextbit is an android phone that takes your lesser used apps and content and moves them to the cloud when the internal storage reaches capacity. two, omnity takes the idea of a search engine to the next level. instead of being able to put in a few key words, you can enter an entire document to find other related articles and sites. three, the jobsite earbuds from tough tested are designed for construction workers taking calls from a noisy locations, so these will perform in a high-energy startup space. four, the app speedify mobile manages the combination of mobile data and wi-fi networks

on your phone so you're utilizing the fastest speeds available at any point in time. five, the bluesmart carry-on suitcase has built-in realtime tracking and an app controlled locking system. what do oprah, justin timberlake, and george w. bush have in common? the answer is they have all hit the road in style thanks to brothers trent and joey hemphill. the two know a lot about touring. they did themselves as successful gospel group. they took that experience and created a luxury bus company that caters to a celebrity client list that includes the biggest names in music, theater, and politics. if you have ever wondered how lady gaga, justin timberlake, rihanna, britney spears, aerosmith, cher, or even the president get from point a to point b when they're on tour, talk to these guys. >> you have to stay focused on really what you're about. that's what we do.

it's just our customers happen to be famous. >> and what they're really about is going the extra mile. literally getting people where they need to go in style and comfort without having to worry about the details. >> you have to know that you've done everything you can to give them a safe and comfortable experience. >> when you walk around the offices at hemphill brothers coach company in nashville, you'll see the walls covered with many of their celebrity clients. clients that relied on their service because they did one simple thing right. they delivered on what they promised. and in the topsy turvy world of touring, they rely on hemphill for being a stable force in an awful unstable world. it's a world trent and joey know firsthand, with a history steeped in music, the two brothers grew up in a sort of partridge family style bus, singing with their family band. >> i traveled 2 million miles on

a bus singing gospel music so it was a very interesting way to be raised. >> with an intimate knowledge of what life is like on the road, the brothers knew a thing or two about what someone needs to have a relaxing and trouble-free trip. so they decided to start their bus leasing company in 1980. >> we know that feeling of being on the bus, riding down the road. or being onstage. >> pioneers in the luxury coach industry, the brothers scraped enough money together to by two old buses to get their start. they transformed them on the inside and out so they looked brand-new, doing most of the work themselves. they didn't have a lot of money, but they had a ton of experience and learned early on to underpromise and overdeliver. 24 hours a day. seven days a week, they did whatever it took to keep their buses rolling, support the drivers, and keep their clients happy. they started doing small local tours at first. their big break came two years

after starting the business, when van halen called. >> i'll never forget the day they were in nashville, and they needed to add a bus to their tour. and just so happened we had a bus available and took the bus down there with a driver. and got to meet the management, and obviously, we did a good job because 30 years later, we did the whole van halen tour, 2012. >> being prepared for that first big call led to many more. and the ability to start phasing out their old buses and buying and customizing new ones to fit the needs of their high-profile clients. as the company grew, they poured all of their resources into bringing every aspect of building their customized buses inhouse. if a bus is order for a tour and it's supposed to be delivered on a certain date, it is. >> you might have an artist that has a special mattress or an artist that likes all white.

white leather furniture, or white carpet, white drapes. and so we'll take an existing bus and we'll make it white for that tour. there are families that travel together that have new babies. they want those cribs with the monitors. we put tanning beds in buses. sometimes we'll set up a recording studio in a bus. and that way they can go down the road and record their latest hit. >> with careful and measured growth, hemphill brothers expanded their fleet slowly, only doing so when they could adequately increase their driver pool and support staff with the right people. with less than 5% turnover, they have cultivated, trained, and built an extremely loyal group of employees, starting with the day-to-day fashion ce of th company, the drivers. >> we went out and hired the best of the best for our company.

even when we really felt like we couldn't afford to do that, we couldn't afford not to. we had to have the best drivers we could possibly find. that built company pride. getting a call from air force one, you know, booking buses for the president. getting a text from george strait saying i want you to build me a new bus, or getting a call from the oprah show, saying we want to use your buses for her show. it's always something new. and it's never boring around here. if you ask around, i bet you will find so many more people than you possibly imagine who have been victims of embezzlement. though i have not experienced it myself, one family member and one close friend have. both of whom i think of as really smart and very on top of things at their companies. this doesn't even count all the stories i heard while meeting people through this program. we have brought in jim ash, he's the national leader of the

forensics group, an independent public accounting and advising firm. jim is here to tell us what we need to do so this doesn't happen to us. great to see you. first and foremost, if you're a victim of it, don't feel so badly. you are not alone. >> it is a very prevalent event. we see it all the time. we're dealing with it on a daily basis. >> very smart people. >> yes, it happens to the most, you know, people who are watching the situation very closely. just happens. >> let's make sure it doesn't happen to anyone watching. tell us what we need to do. >> the first thing that happens because typically it happens more in small business. that could be anywhere from 10 to 20 employees. one is that there's a trusting employee who has been there for five, 10, 15 years and very trusted by the owners, and it's somebody usually in the age group of 30 to 45, and they have been there at the company for a long time, and there's that trust factor.

the other thing is in a small business, very hard to segregate the duties between different employees, so you can't have a situation where somebody is a bookkeeper in charge of writing checks, signing checks, and making deposits. you have to separate those duties out so you have one person sort of responsible for the books and records, another person responsible for writing checks, another person responsible for taking the checks that come in to the bank. >> and then some oversight, over all of those people. >> the real key to this thing is the owner's oversight or a key employee's oversight. like a checks and balances type of situation. an owner really has to do a number of important things, open up the bank statements, look at the bank statements, see that the checks are made to legitimate payers. >> even if you have a different person writing the checks as the bookkeeper, they may trust each other. oh, i see this person is getting a check every month. it must be good, right? because that person is writing

it. >> yes. >> so i, as the person looking at it, if i'm not the owner, it doesn't raise a red flag for me. oh, i trust jim. he knows what he's doing. he's writing the checks. it's by rote. >> right, and that owner when they get a folder of checks to sign, they have to look at the voucher. they have to look at the check. >> ask questions. >> ask questions. if the dollar amount looks wrong. >> if it's above a certain threshold, make sure that you are the one to sign it. >> i recommend any small business, and it depends on the nature of the business, but usually a threshold is $1,000, and it requires a double signature on the check. that way you have the check and balance in place. >> it's not brain surgery what we're talking about. it's simply saying, look at this. >> yes. >> right? >> be vigilant. you have to be vigilant. it happens. so frequently that you have to have those checks and balances in place. particularly in a small business

where you can't necessarily have enough people to do all of the segregated business. >> it's one person doing it so you need to be watching. even if it's not $1,000 they're embezzling, $100 here, $100 there, right? >> it all adds up. in a small business, there's embezzlement of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, that's a very significant amount of money to a small business. >> is it always or often just people who the owner says i would have never expected this? >> that's a great comment. that's exactly what i hear every time. i can't believe she did it. just can't believe. she was with me at the picnic at our house last weekend. we were enjoying hamburgers together. it's true. it happens all the time. >> this conversation should be enough to, i think about this, about cybersecurity as well. you know what you need to do. you have to do it. jim, thank you so much for coming on and reminding us. >> thank you. want to wear your fancy high heels but there's two feet of

snow on the ground? today's elevator pitcher has a footwear product that is practical on the outside, but fashionable on the inside. alisha and heather, a former real housewife of new york and the founder of yummy by heather thompson. >> hi, i'm cusanda and my business is pisces overboots. pisces is pronounced like the water signs and it stands for protect your shoes in style. our posh galoshes are designed for when the outfit calls for dress shoes and the weather disagrees. you can protect your shoes and tackle that mound in style. they're just as sturdy as a regular boot, but they're light and roll up and come with this convenient carry bag for storage. our initial style -- this is the carry bag. our initial style, the posh

galosh, is selling on amazon and shoe buyer, and we have customers in 35 u.s. states and six foreign countries. our first customers are women who hate to change their shoes ruin their shoes and they're loving the fashion forward look and unique elastic closure and they're looking for many more styles. we're seeking $500,000 to design and develop new styles and to begin our wholesale launch. >> cassandra, we have the perfect panel for you. >> while they're writing it down, i want to congratulate you on the ability to give the pitch while taking off the shoes. i thought that was very well

practiced. >> it's easy to do. >> so to start, i gave you an eight on the product. . for the pitch, i gave you a six. i'm left with a number of questions. i don't know anything about your background, why you're best suited to execute on this idea. i don't know why other competitors may or may not be able to replicate your product. i don't know anything about sales to date and i don't know how you're reaching your audience. i'm really intrigued to learn more, but i'm left with so many questions, that i had to give you a six. >> she only has 60 seconds. really, did she give you enough of anything to say, oh, she might be god od at this. >> i agree with what she said.

we have no time. 60-second moment to tell us everything about you. for example. the spelling i didn't think was that important right now. so i would have spent more time talking about sales figures, a little marketing, how you're separating your sfl for the others. i gave you an eight for the product, seven for the pitch for the same reasons. you definitely hooked me and we both want to know more. congratulations on the fashion-forward deseen. in the rain, it's always about the pants getting wet, too, not only the shoes. kudos to you. >> congratulations on your success so far. great to see you. >> thanks. >> thank you for all of your add vials on this. really helpful. coming on this elevator is a good way to get really honest feedback like you saw from real entrepreneurs and real inve investors. if you'd like a chance to pitch them. send us an e-mail, the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com.

we look forward to reading about your companies and seeing some of you on the show. up next, how to keep changes in software and technology from upending your company, and the dajer of over-hyping with an aggressive sales approach. 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.

transition from software systems from when you are smaller to the larger software systems? >> we want to talk about moving your software systems to an enterprise system. two things you want to do. number one, always, you have to have an administrator, and this is not some small system but a big project you will do. somebody internally has to own it and take responsibility for it which means it will cost you money to do that. if you don't have somebody in-house to have the power to actually move the system like that forward, you are going to fail, and number two, you have got to be involved as well, and no enterprise system gets implemented without executive

buy-off and support, and that person that owns the project they have to know you have their back, and you have to be there and support that person, and if you are not ready to do that you are not ready to move to the enterprise system. great to see you guys sitting here at the set now. let's start with you. >> my top tip is don't be too salesy. i say this to entrepreneur ts all the time. i feel of the en i hear them say, if you don't invest now, the opportunity won't exist or nobody else can do what we do. when you make bold statements like that you risk losing credibility altogether. the key is don't be too salesy, because the thing is, if somethsounds too good to be true, it probably is. >> that's true.

unless it's really true you have to invest now because i have somebody in the background. >> actually a great segue into my tip, keep focused on your priorities. oftentimes entrepreneurs are like, oh, my god, i have so much to do. it's a very simple tip but stay focused on your priorities. it's not always about doing more. it's about doing what you're doing the best you can do it. what happens is, i'm over here and i want to develop the website, but i want to start my wholesale business. you have to focus on the task at hand, prioritize that and do it the best you can do. you have time. you don't have to do it all tomorrow. >> how do you put together those priorities? do you have staff meetings where people are battling it out, fighting for their time, their share, their place on the list? >> yes. i think that's important. if you have a big staff or a small staff, definitely involve the staff on what parts of their

division or what they're responsible for is important to them. what do they see as priority. if you sit back and don't get caught in the weeds as entrepreneurs we do sometimes, and you do take the top-down ap proch and look at the forest through the trees, the priorities are obvious. you know what you have to do. you have to have your supply chain set. you have to know your quality product is making it on time. you have to make sure your margins are set. >> one of the tensions i see is marketing versus product. you must see this all the time. >> i think it depends on the business. if it's a consumer-focused business, marketing is key and you've got to get out there and reach the consumers. if you're not making sales, it doesn't matter how much you're focused on the product. if it's in the tech industry, the product is everything, that drives it all. you have to be cognizant of what drives the revenues and behaviors of the consumers in your industry and adapt

accordingly. to heather's point, sometimes it's helpful to have someone from an advisory board come in and shake up your own view and saying, you're spending too much time in this area, you need to get out and shake hands and develop customers. making sure you're not in the weeds of your own area. having outside view is key. >> thank you so much for coming on the program today. moving on to this week's yourbizselfie, a musician who owns guitar tex in san antonio, tks. he sells acoustics there in the lone star state. why don't you out there put down your guitar and pick up your cell phone and take a pic and send it here to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. please do not forget to use the hash tag your biz selfie. we would love to hear from you. if you have any questions or

comments about the show, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. you can go to our website, openfor rum.com/yourbusiness. don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. next week we meet a woman who has cracked the complicated code of winning government contracts. she shares her secret strategies forgetting a piece of uncle sam's pie. until 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. the best of "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. we will call it a political earthquake. an unraveling of the system or a revolution. 2016 changed the face of american politics forever. there was the nationalist ascension of donald trump, the collapse of the clinton dynasty, the reshaping of the democratic party. even the growing call for a third party solution represented most effectively by libertarian gary johnson. all these