good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," there's trouble brews with this detroit woman's tea company. we'll find out her challenges and see if the "your business" makeover team can help her grow her business. we bring in retailers to show how to turn foot traffic into sales. what for profits can turn a man running for profit to bring clean water around the world. lots of inspiration coming up next on "your business." will your business be ready when growth presents itself? we can help you take on a new

job. or fill a big order. or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. for those who always find new ways to grow their business, american express open proudly presents "your business" on msnbc. hi, everyone, i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping grow your business. one of my favorite segments is our makeovers where we get to dive in with a team of experts to turn things around for a struggling business owner that asks for hem. we got an e-mail from a woman named nailah ellis-brown.

she wrote because she wants to grow her company into a national brand. she needs help to do it. nailah told us she is absolutely determined to succeed in this business or die trying. after spending the day with her, i believe it. we decided to give her a "your business" makeover. we are here in detroit because of a letter we received from nailah ellis-brown. she started an iced tea company eight years ago. while she's seen success, the company is not where she wants it to be. she let us know, she needs a "your business" makeover. let's go meet nailah. nailah? >> hi, j.j. >> so nice to meet you! >> good to have you. >> 29-year-old nailah is a 29-year-old detroit beverage entrepreneurer. she started the company eight years ago brewing tea in her

mother's house and distributing it out of her car. now, she has her own bottling facility. >> this is it? this is where it happens? >> yes, this is my operation. we do not use tea syrups or concentrates. once we get it to the right color, we take the herbs out and add the sweeteners. >> she's taken a treasured family recipe, developed by her jamaican grandfather. he served this brew on the black star line passenger ships back in the roaring '20s. today, she sells it as ellis island tropical tea and in several retail locations like whole foods and meijers and more to come. >> i have business in airports. i have a distributor as big as u.s. foods.

>> when you give the list, it sounds fantastic. >> it's brought her lots of attention. she was on "forbes" 30 under 30. she's had a number of national and local tv appearances. looks like everything is going great, so, why did nailah write to us. if you had to measure her business on a scale of uh-oh to this is amazing, where does it fall? >> the first third of near uh-oh. i think there are issues based on my conversations with her that need to be addressed. >> arthur is a beverage expert that helped grow brands. we asked him what he thinks of her company. if this was your business, would you throw in the towel? >> i might. it could be fixed, but requires a lot of fixing. >> that's why we are here in detroit. arthur said there were a whole bunch of issues and none of them

came as any surprise to nailah. the first, packaging. we took her to her local whole foods to check out the tea display. >> so, all these brands are local. it doesn't pop. the label is not serving its purpose. >> when you are on shelf next to 30 other iced teas, 100 other beverages, you have to pop. >> i need help with my packaging. i need a lot of help. i have no idea what i'm doing with that. >> then there's the distribution. right now, ellis island tea is in 300 stores, including whole foods and krogers. that sounds impressive. while it's a nice start, it's nowhere near where she needs to be. >> the threshold of when a beverage brand becomes profitable is probably after say 15,000-20,000 stores.

so, it's a long road. >> whoa! >> it's a very long road. >> each distributor is a world of its own and all operate on different, unique systems. so, i need help with figuring out how to grow within those channels before i lose the accounts. >> that lack of distribution causes a third problem, price. when her volume increases, her cost decreases. right now, she doesn't have that luxury. >> so, looking at the larger market, my price is always way higher than everything else. >> it's $3.99 for a bottle. that's extremely high for a ready-to-drink iced tea when you can get a comparable product for maybe $1.25 or less. so, right there, she has a challenge at the shelf. >> and maybe her most telling challenge of all is this, after nearly a decade of building this business, her take-home salary

is still zero. at eight years in, not paying yourself a salary, yet, living off your husband's salary and that getting tricky, have you thought, you know what? i gave it a good run, time to close up shop? >> no. that's not -- closing up shop is not an option for us. there's no plan b. this is it. quitting is not an option. i don't want to come off aggressive, but, yeah. >> by the way, you don't come off aggressive. it takes that kind of attitude to get you through tough times. >> it will take me dying to give up on this company. >> what does your husband say about this? >> he's rooting for me, but, at the same time, bills have to be paid. >> we put the same question to her that we asked arthur. >> if you had to judge your business on a scale from uh-oh to this is fantastic, where would you be? >> that's hard to answer. it's both at the same time. it's -- we might have to close

these doors next month, but then it's like, there's opportunities. there's coca-cola, possibly, there's u.s. foods. >> this is so the story of an entrepreneur. it's either going to massively fail or we are going to be hugely successful. right? >> it's an emotional roller coaster. >> this is a critical point. make it or break it. this is just the beginning. we are going to get experts to come in here and take a really hard look, right? really say, what is this going to take to make this work? >> i'm very excited about that. we'll be returning to detroit with our ex-perts to help nailah re-energize her business. let's turn to people that know about branding. jeffrey hayzlett is het head of the group and peter shankman.

good to see you both. >> good to be here. >> you just saw that piece. tell me what you think. i asked her and arthur, on a scale of uh-oh to this is amazing, where does it fall? >> it's double uh-oh. it is amazing. i love her. this is where the real future is reading the tea leaves. if you don't make a profit, you can't keep the business going. stop kidding yourself. don't spend your husband's money or family's money until you can prove you can make money with the product. if you can't make money, shut it down. >> what do you think before i chime in? >> i'm on the same page. at the end of the day, if you are not generating revenue to continue, you have to ask yourself, if i'm not, why aren't i? if i change that, i need to do that. if i can't change it, it might be time to cut. that's what i saw. i want her to succeed, i do. >> a great product, but $3.99 a

bottle. i love root beer and bacon, i will pay, but not everybody has the money to get it over and over. she has to find the right people. >> she's in a part where she's generating enough money to keep the doors open. she's not taking home a paycheck, the business is still running. she still has ideas. she knows these are problems. so, when you still have ideas and still potentially see a path to get there -- >> that's the thing. instead of figuring out the next 20 things to launch, it's great to run a business. no, i'm running a business, but not taking a salary myself, that's not going to last forever. >> right. >> that's not really running a business. that's staying afloat. >> it's a hobby. >> tough get to the next point to turn it into a real business. they pay employees, pay you. >> she needs to put time in. by this day, i'm going to do

this. >> she thooz reduce the costs. you can still sell it at four bucks, if you can get people to buy it, good for you. look at taking down the distribution and concentrate just on whole foods and sell at every flea market and craft fair to cut my costs. >> that's market seg menation. i'd go to whole foods. wla i would like to see her do is if she's going to the craft markets, it's a bargain of two. look at two segments to sell to in two ways. >> well, we are going back there in a few weeks. we are going to bring back our ex-perts to turn this company around. >> wish her the best of luck. >> would you like to have a "your business" makeover for your company? we are going to let viewers decide who has the next one. you need to submit a 60-second pitch video of why your business deserves to be selected.

send your video to us@yourbusiness@msnbc.com. if you are in retail, you know this feeling, you see people walk through the door, look around and then walk right out without ever buying anything. it is incredibly frustrating, but, there's a bit of science to changing this. one boutique owner in geneva, illinois, was intent on figuring it out. she hired two retail experts to come in and mix things up in a way to result in more sales. in 2010, sherry opened peaceful parlor, an ecochic boutique in geneva, illinois. the story is now the go-to for locals looking for a custom blend of tea or environmentally conscious gift.

she wants to expand. with hundreds of tourists expected to come to town for an annual festival, she hopes to convert visitors into return customers. she called in someone to get the store ready for the influx of new customers. >> thank you for coming. a challenge is we have people that come in, make a loop around and walk out the door. if you have people walking in, making a loop and walking out, they don't understand what you sell. all the things that make you different, we want to help you get started. ready? >> sure. >> let's go. sherry, this area is important. it's a keierre ya and needs to stay open. >> okay. >> the first five feet, square feet inside a door is noman's land. anything you put there, people won't see until they are at least five feet in the store. that's where we stop. >> this open space allows them to slow down.

>> you are not giving people enough space to walk in and actually take in the breath of the product you have. by the time they hit their feet in the door, they are almost hitting this table. >> what i'm seeing, it's almost like a tidal wave of merchandise. what i mean is when i saw those, when i first walked in, i had no idea what they were. creating a way to not show so much, but tell stories and have a sign that explains it. >> from that display, i d not understand these are head bands. >> we need different levels. if we are going to show this many bright colors and groupings of colors, separate them enough so the customer understands this is not just this folded. >> what is in the back in these rooms? >> okay. right there, we have our kids room, then over there, we have house wears. >> question, how do i know that? i have never been here before? >> we are interacting with the

folks, greeting them, say hello, check out the kids rooms or step into the other areas. >> we need to talk about signing for the entire store. you can't be everywhere. signing is critical for customers. women rely on it, men depend on it. especially in a store like yours, you have so many unique items and stories to tell, you need to tell people, this is what this is, this is where we are. constantly, as we go through the store. don't use all capital letters, you want upper and lower case. it's hard for older eyes to read upper case letters. take the average age of your oldest customer and divide it in half. that's the smallest size font you can use in store signing. >> oh, wow. >> the prime item that draws people into the store or that you are known for is tea. >> one of the things we do here that is different is we hand blend the teas. we have a working station here so it fits to have the tea back

here as far as logistics for us to move things and package things. >> lodgistically, it makes sense. could we bring some of the teas to the front of the store. >> major location and minor locations. we need to use the minor locations showing items. >> with a laundry list of changes to make, they got to work getting the store ready for the first day of the festival. the next day was the big reveal. all right, we made a couple changes. >> it looks fantastic. >> we gave you the five feet of space here so people have a chance to walk in the store and have more room to shop. we took your table that had the to toys underneath and brought this on top. you have multilevel. it's easier for people to shop, to see. we cross merchandise, still. it's easy to understand how this is. >> now, it's time to put the

changes to the test. >> all right. what did we learn today? we learned that when customers walk in the front door, because we gave them extra space, they felt more comfortable shopping. >> not only did we s that, we watched evybody go with the flow. we created this path, came to the right. looked at the focal wall. instead of seeing a radiator, they saw a product, handling it and talking about it. on top of that, they looked at the tea and started talking about that. that drove them farther into the store. >> the third thing, wow, she had a lot of jewelry. we actually took jewelry away from the space. because of how it is merchandised, less of a display is more. great contact marketing is about the right mix of strategy, creation and distribution. when you get it right, it is a

win/win. entrepreneur magazine gives five great tech tips on content marketing. one, do your research to create strong data driven content, you need to know what influences your customers. tools like make my persona and a who knew who customers are and how to become their purchasing journey. two, pick up on trends. google alerts and google trends track what's drawing the interest of customers. clear voice help brainstorm and track the competition. three, time to create. use google docs and create pinterest boards. sales and marketing like hud spot can help with blogging and social media. four, distribute through social media. they can help you better engage your audience. post with meaning and think of social as collective to engage

customers. five, syndicate your content. you don't always have to invest in new tech. syndicate content through linked in polls to reach your audience. when we come back, chelsea krost motivated millennials and scott harrison, the founder and ceo of charity water on what your company can learn from his fast growing and inspiring nonprofit. 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. what are some tips to help identify talent and then motivate talent for young millennials that are coming out of college where a traditional bonus or pay structure might not be the only thing they're looking for? >> leadership is so important. it all starts at the top, and it trickles its way down to your employees and your interns. if your leader is passionate, is collaborative, allows for millennials to voice their opinion, voice their concern, think outside of the box, be a part of the creative, you will see millennial employees be that much more loyal to you and avoid that job-hopping stereotype.

almost a decade ago, i learned of a non-profit called charity water. soon after, i started hearing about them from lots of people. that organization seemed to be on fire, and i was incredibly impressed. well, today i'm even more impressed, because i've been kind of watching it from the sidelines, and it's still around, it is still growing, and it is still doing things so differently than so many other organizations out there. i figured there must be something that we can all learn about how they stood out from the crowd, so i went to talk to the founder, scott harrison, about how he did it. ♪ it was liberia in 2005. new york party promoter scott harrison decided to take a year off to take a humanitarian trip. he came home forever changed. >> i couldn't believe people were drinking dirty water in this day in age. i came home, you know, shouting from the rooftops, this is crazy what i've seen. a billion people are drinking dirty water. this shouldn't be.

>> that was the beginning of charity:water, which is helping people around the world get access to clean water by building wells all over the globe. it's one of the fastest growing non-profits with a track record many for-profit companies are looking at in awe. >> we've given 7 million people access to clean water, funded 22,000 projects that will help 7 million people across 24 countries. >> last year, they raised more than $30 million. they have more than 2 million loyal followers on social media and companies like google and caterpillar are bending over backwards to help them. what's the secret? how has charity: water succeeded when so many others have faltered? scott says it all starts with a fierce commitment to staying true to your principles. >> i mean, i've always believed that more important than what you do is how you do it. i think we've had many opportunities over the last decade of charity: water to compromise, to take the easy way out, and we really try to hold ourselves accountable.

>> it sounds simple, but it's not. his unwillingness to waver on this point almost did the company in many times. charity: water promises to give 100% of their donations to finding safe water solutions. they have an entirely separate fund-raising account for overhead. at one point, he had millions of dollars in the bank to build wells and only $881 to pay for the overhead. luckily, a last-minute donor saved the day, but this test set the stage for how scott would always run the organization. today, as always, he believes in 100% transparency and sharing the organization's mistakes has only made his community more loyal. >> in order to win trust, you had to be straight with people. and you could share your successes, but you also had to share your failures. we once broadcast a live drill from the central african republic, where we failed. in short, the sand started caving in and the well

collapsed. >> why weren't you afraid that donors were going to look at that and say, okay, i just spent all this money to get that rig there, and it didn't work, and what a waste of money, i'm going to put my money somewhere else? >> because life isn't perfect. people want truth. they don't want a glossy -- they don't believe the glossy perfection that so many charities or so many businesses present to the world. i think they like things that might have a few warts on them. >> it's not only donors scott has attracted, but top-notch employees, people who could easily get higher salaries and stk options elsewhere. he does that by making innovation a key element of how charity: water is run. >> we run this place like a start-up, you know? people walk in the office, and they feel like they're at google or square or twitter or spotify. we have dashboards with metrics. >> and finally, scott says, much of the organization's success rests on their ability to tell its story. >> you need to go and find story tellers and bring them in.

i mean, i think i could find a story in the making of mattress springs. what makes that unique? we're talking about the people that are making it or the values of the company. >> for charity: water, the story is far from over. and with new technology tracking the wells and more donations coming in every day, scott says they'll continue to tell it until every single person around the world has access to safe drinking water. ♪ we now have the "top 2 tips" you need to know to help your growing business. jeffrey and peter are back with us once again. all right, both of you, i know you are chock-full of tips, so pick one. >> killing squirrels. that's what you have to do. the great movie "up" had an old man and a young scout that went on this adventure to paradise falls. they run into a dog named doug, the talking dog. it was outfitted with a collar. you could hear his inner thoughts, and he would say, hey,

i like you, you're really cool -- squirrel! and he would look away. every day in business i have people talking squirrels to me or i'm looking for squirrels. i have to kill them and get focused on my business and what's important every day. you've got to kill those distractions. >> we call them the bright, shiny objects here. like that's shiny, let me do that! that's shiny. i think we've all had that experience where we got distracted and followed one or two of those and a year or two later say that was a waste of time and money and refocus. >> even a week or a day or a couple of hours could in today's climate really affect you and your business. >> absolutely. all right, peter, you're up. >> my top tip is to understand embrace your fear. so, the whole premise of being scared is that it's a paralysis. if you're scared, you don't make a move either way. you don't get killed because you make a decision. you get killed because you don't make a decision. so, whether you're scared doing something or not, if you don't do anything, nothing's going to happy. so embrace the fear. just because you failed at something doesn't mean you're a failure. and if you've learned from your

failure, you haven't failed. i will hire someone who's failed multiple times. the best thing you can do is learn from it and do better the next time. >> how do you do that? it's good to say, but you're in the moment where you are paralyzed -- >> burn your boats. >> kill squirrels, burn your boats. >> you don't have a choice. put yourself in a situation where you have to make a decision one way or the other, because if you don't, you don't have the boats to get back to where you came from. cortez did that, burned his boats, gave his people no decision, you have to make it where you live. give yourself ten days, if i don't do this, stop it. if i don't have "x" revenues six months from now, it ends. and stick with it, tell someone. have a tribe of people you can share stuff with and say hold me to the fire on this. >> i think having people to go to, and also to just be able to be honest with and say i am scared out of my mind right now, and lo and behold, they're going to come back and say i was there, too.

>> it's also like going off the high dive. you're looking down and it's 6 feet off the water, looks like 30 feet, and you jump off. halfway down, you're going, i want to do this again. the fear only lasts a second or two. one, two, and it's over. >> ride the plane down. first time i skydived, he said if you don't do it, you have to ride the ride down. >> that was me bungee jumping. >> that's nuts. >> don't ride the plane down. >> thanks both of you. this week's #yourbizselfie is from lee eckel who owns the triangle food tour company in raleigh-durham, north carolina. they have walking food and craft beer tours of raleigh-durham, chapel hill and other local areas. close to my heart because that's where i went to college. now, why don't you walk on over to your smartphone, take a selfie of you and your business and extend to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. don't forget to put your name, the name of your business and your location and use #yourbizselfie.

thank you, everyone, so much for joining us. we love hearing from you, so if you have any questions or just want to get in touch, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we read every single e-mail we get. also, please head on over to our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. we've put up all of the segments from today's show, plus a whole lot more for you. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm jj 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. good morning, and welcome to "politicsnation." a lot to get into today's show, including the congressional black caucus meeting with president trump. but first, the health care drama. the white house was delivered a major defeat on iday, when facing a humiliating defeat in the house, president trump and speaker paul ryan pulled their health care bill. >> youe