her yarn store is a mecca for knitting enthusiasts but refusing to sell online. thinking of changing your business's name and branding? find out how this pennsylvania golf course did it without losing customers. that plus five spending hats to make your company more profitable and efficient all coming up next on "your business". >>

. ♪ hi, everybody, remember to "your business", the show dedicated to helping your growing business. many entrepreneurs are embracing the internet to boost sales but to say that everyone is doing it would be wrong. a virginia entrepreneur refuses to set up shop online because she believes that would be doing her business and clients a disservice. this yarn store owner prefers to interact with her customers on the phone, by e-mail or face to

face any day of the week instead of trying to manage her sales through a website. >> i really don't want anything to do with selling online. i don't want to process web orders, it's not the nature of what i set out to do. >> danielle already knows what other business owners say about her. >> they absolutely think i'm crazy. >> the creator e eor is used to head shaking and puzzled looks from her peers. >> it's suggested almost daily from anyone in the business world. why don't you sell online? she says it frankly doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, she's never going to sell on fiber space.com. >> it was something that i examined and studied and talked to other shops who did sell online and made a conscious decision to not sell online and

i'm simply raising my gross sales by 5% or 10% for an awful lot of work. >> the company's website is only about information, if someone wants to buy something, they have to come into the store. >> on the website if all they did was search for the thing they wanted and don't see it, they never come in the shop. we've actually lost the sale. if they come in and ask for had, i probably have three substitutes for it. >> what's interesting about this yarn, it actually stripes as you work with it. >> walking through the door transports you to a world of texture and patterns, it's an experience that doesn't translate digitally. >> all about the feel of the yarn and color of the yarn. i have a hard time communicating that through a website. they may think they want pink yarn when you see it next to the other colors, they may change their mind. >> while everyone else is building up their e commerce platforms, danielle is focused on foot traffic. fiber space is also a gathering

place. there's obviously plenty of yarn to buy but you can also come to get help or knit with others. >> when we opened i made a decision what i do is sell community. there are people sitting in our lounge that wouldn't otherwise be friends or know each other who are connected through the craft. knitting is really about bringing people together who would otherwise never ever be in a room together. they would never cross paths. >> the secret to her seven figure sales is our social footprint, she interacts by taking advantage of their addictions to smartphones and lap dsz tops. >> social media gets people in the door and it's where you get people excited about what's here and new. >> instagram and facebook have the biggest reach, a yarn focused social network has benefits of his own. >> we have a large presence there as well and a forum just for our fans, fans of fiber space and a place where our customers can pose questions, there's an entire thread for do you carry where people will

comment do you carry this or that and we can respond to them all day while we're at the store. >> the store also has another secret weapon that gets people to make the trip in, it carries some highly sought after names. in our industry there are some brands only in eight or ten or 12 stores, we happen to have several of those. that helped up grow rapidly and quickly. >> hosts of new arrivals get people commenting and sharing but no sale is ever just a mouse click away. as soon as a picture goes up, danielle's customers start calling e-mailing or walking through the door. >> sometimes they'll open and it was on the instagram or i saw this on rafflery and that helps us narrow it down. >> i love two of the three colors, can you find a third color that's more of a jewel tone, that's what i like. we love doing that. we love picking out colors for people and texting them photos.

>> these are crucial sales moments, phone calls lost 5 to 10 minutes and walks in more attention. >> the interaction can be 30 minutes to 60 minutes, our staffing is our largest expense for sure. if you put the time and effort into this, you need to have a yarn you love and end up with a fabric you love and color that looks good on you. >> the selection is so large that it can be exciting and overwhelming for shoppers who visit from around the country. >> they come in and go -- yeah, at any ti isn't it great. >> employees welcome new customers. >> one of the things we do here is give a yarn tour. we want to let them know we're here to answer questions, we love the yarns and want to show them the yarns. here's the yarn that just came in and local dyer and softest yarn on the planet.

>> when customers leave they always get a parting suggestion about a good way to keep in touch and keep the relationship going. >> they'll stop and say we'll probably never be back. i have to say, we do ship. if you see something you love on instagram, just call us. >> no matter how much grief danielle may get, she won't budge. she's sticking to her mission to sell and experience instead of a transaction. >> i don't ever want to do it. i say to my customers flippantly, if you see me selling online, things got really bad. i really don't want to sell online. >> the trump administration is pushing hard for american companies to bring jobs back to the u.s. from overseas, particularly manufacturing jobs. around 5 million american jobs have gone overseas since 2000 but many companies are starting to invest in the made in the usa movement. as nbc stephanie ruhl reports, there are still some obstaclobs

>> it's 10:00 a.m. and the competition at this cross fit studio is just heating up but the big winner isn't taking part in the jumps squats or races, it's the company behind the equipment these competitors are using. the company's name, rogue fitness. and it's all made right down the street in columbus, ohio. >> we're showing all of our secrets. >> bill henninger is the founder of rogue, a company he started in his garage. and exploded as cross fit fitness programs took off around the world. but what isn't all around the world, his factories, they are all right here at home. >> made in the usa means to me that we've done it the right way. >> henninger is bucking the trend of companies moving manufacturing jobs overshore to lower costs. his company employees more than 400 workers in ohio. almost all of them factory jobs. >> we own the process, we own the parts. we know exactly how they are made. bob made that piece or joe made

that part. it's not just something made by someone else we're selling. >> made in america aa priority for president trump. >> we're having our products made everywhere in the world so much but we're bringing that all back, coming back fast. >> what are the facts? >> well, since 2000, 5 million american manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. president trump himself has been criticized for manufacturing trump branded ties and clothes in china. but he's not alone. 98% of the clothes sold in the united states were made overseas last year. so how does that 2% made in the usa survive? we went to middle ssex, north carolina to find out. these factories lay dormant for years. now the parking lots are full again and business is back. this is the manufacturing home the american giant apparel, a

six-year old startup that is disrupting the clothing situation. >> i was told we couldn't make a sweat shirt in america anymore. >> he says the secret for success is the dedication of the american worker. >> u.s. manufacturing is viable as long as you bring the classic american values to the problem again. >> to stay competitive, higher efficiency means cash bonuses. >> we decided to launch a business trying to innovate in a business model perspective to unlock great american manufacturing again. >> american ingenuity only goes so far. >> do you believe manufacturing is going to come back? >> no. >> a professor at new york's university stern school of business. >> there will be certain high end niche and it becomes a complicated conversation because there is an american manufacturer index, what car is the most manufactured car in the u.s. and winner, the toyota

camry. what it means to be made in america is taking on new meaning. >> what's not so new, the role automation plays in american jobs. economists estimate most of the 400,000 steel working and 350,000 textile jobs lost since the 1950s was due to automation. with the explosion of technology giving way to rob ots and driverless vehicles, jobs for humans will shrink. having just completed construction of a new manufacturing plant, a former steel mill that set vacant for 20 years now churning out thousands of products a day. >> that's just our little eco system. but the ripple effect is pretty substantial. >> enterprising businesses adding that special label to their products, made in america. stephanie ruhle, new york.

>> when you are running a business on a tight budget every extra expense from hiring additional staff to shipping products can weigh heavily on your cash flow. what strategies can you use to grow your business without opening up your checkbook too much? here with several spending hacks that every business owner can benefit from, nicole lapin, host of the nationally syndicated competition show hatched and author of the new book, simple 12 step plan to take charge of your career. so good to see you. >> so good to see you. >> last time we were in los angeles. >> causing trouble, sister as usual, two ladies talking about business news everywhere we go. >> i'm excited for you, congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> let's get into this. even if you are not worried about cash, you should be using these hacks, why -- zpl. >> 100%, your hard earned money and work for every penny. you might as well make most of

it. >> let's go to the first one, let apple hook you up this is the kra ziest thing, a no brainer, it is a free account, it doesn't matter how many employees you have. you have access to apple's business experts 24/7. all of the business stuff you're doing on your computer, they will hook you up. what's super cool is that if you sign everybody in your office up and reach a certain tier, then you start getting discounts from apple, like jj, when do you ever get discounts from apple, right? >> you can call them up and get advice from them? >> 24/ 7, there's the extra special geek squad, nerd squad, specifically for businesses. >> be a discount shopper, always. >> chip , shipper, everything. >> usps is the most cost effective way for any business owner to ship stuff, we're all

shipping stuff, all the time, all day, every day. by the way, ups is more expensive than fedex, but if you're going the usps route, think about a media rate or immediate gra d media discount. if you're shipping books or test materials or scripts and other stuff like that. >> how do you get that? >> you just ask. can i get a media rate. >> we had somebody on talking about how to ship on the cheap. if you ship a lot but not a ton, find someone else in the area that may be shipping something about the same size. >> smart. >> and hook up with them. >> smart. >> >> legal on the cheap. >> so obviously we know about legal zoom, they have democratized all sorts of forms made it super simple but if you have legal stuff more complicated than that, think of a new site call law tender. they call it law with a twist. you put down your specific legal issue and then lawyers bid on

those so you can get it cheaper than hourly rates which everything is negotiable in business especially. >> also when you use an online site, they may not deal with the complexities of your business, to be able to get someone you can speak with who can help you is cheerp than going to a lawyer. >> and it will take a lesser fete. >> barttering, great idea. >> this is amazing, match making service. let's say you kill websites, you crush making wkts and designs and whatever but you're really terrible and stink at accounting, that's cool, you'll find somebody else out there in the world that probably needs your sweet web skills and you can get the accounting help in change. so biz exchange is one site, it's a little costly up front, about 800 bucks. >> whoa. >> and $15 a month to continue the service but if you use it

really effectively, it will pay dividends over and over again. i should also mention as a caveat there are a couple of other sites like trade ya, which i like and you also have report on your 1099 b the fair market value. >> got it. don't mess up on taxes. and also take time. you need the time to bartter your service. >> because you obviously have to give something to get something. it's probably going to be cheaper. >> finally go virtual. >> have you heard of these virtual assistants. >> yes, i know, it's freaky, it's a little like sci-fi weird stuff. ai is more common place with a lot of executives and business folk who doesn't want an assistant but can't afford one. >> i'm so happy you stop by. these are all fantastic tips, boss bitch, everyone should get it, more tips in there. >> thanks. >> you don't have to be rich and

famous to be an industry inflew enser, with hard work and authenticity, incredibly important, you can establish yourself as a leader in the field and build your brand. this week we have five tips how to step it up and become an influ enser within your industry courtesy of yfs magazine. >> one. start a blog. a website and strong social presence are great, but your blog is an equally important channel within your brand. square face and ghost work well for small businesses. two, step it up on social media. know where your audience hangs out and start targeting, instagram, pinterest or twitter, grow a following and share con tant. apps like buffer can help with automation. >> three, create for industry sites. writing content for websites, magazines and blogs in your industry will help you attract a

clearly defined audience and drive customer action. >> four, use testimonials and let your customers sing your praises. testimonials and referrals are the best way to build trust with your base, include them on your website or blog. >> and five, develop branded content. strong into graphic marketing will get people linking back as an expert and reverse. >> whether you're launching a company you typically get to build from the brand up. there's generally some flexibility when you're new to market but if you opt to buy someone else's business you inherit everything that comes with it, the good and the bad. and when arthur hawk bought a pence golf cour pennsylvania golf course, he knew to give a new identity and that started with changing its name. >> it's a business milestone

that was years in the making. three lakes golf course in pittsburgh, pennsylvania is finally a brand of its own. >> what we were fighting hard fight too is convincing the public that they could come here. every day more people understand that. >> arthur hawk now owns this 18-hole facility and anyone is welcome to play a few rounds now that it's public. it's quite a change from three lakes former like. it used to be the members only alcoma golf course. he knew the name was familiar to many. not only was the course called alcoma but the neighborhood around it. the club faced an uncertain future. >> like a lot of golf courses it was going out of businesses. as soon as the membership dropped below 225 with the board of drerkts they waited too long to sell it. >> he had a plan to revive alcoma whether he bought it. he needed to create a new

identity and open the course's doors to anyone. >> the real reason was to tell the public that hey, you can come here, draw from a larger base of people. >> once the sale was finalized in 2007, the reinvention in 2007, the reinvention started with wa series of improvements. his daughter manages the location. >> we had to remodel three of the areas overhaul the cart paths and the map, the layout of the course. there wasn't even a map on the score card. >> despite the changing landscape and the in addition of things like new tees and league play, the brand didn't disappear right away. it took two years to consider swapping the name. >> luckily we had a period where we hadn't changed the name yet, and there wasn't this huge influx of new people trying to navigate the campus here at three lakes. had we changed it immediately out of the start, i'm not sure we could have handled all that

play. >> employees liked the idea of a new name too. the officer manager says customers were confused. >> i answer the phone every day. a lot of people would call and didn't realize it was a public course. we thought if we change the name, people will know we're a public course. >> arthur said not everyone was on board. >> people arguing with me. i said you have to leave it that way. >> in an effort to get the word out, they launched a contest. they wanted to engage with customers. >> we thought including the public into the name change was the way guard. holding the competition really made everybody start talking about oh, alkoma is going to change their name. what should the name be. >> an employee's son submitted the winning name. that's when the push began. the transition started slowly by using the old and new names on

printed material. meghan was hesitant to make a clean break from the brand. >> we worked through it with a tag line on all of our publications. three lakes golf course, formerly alcoma until we established our true identity. >> another campaign focussed on reminding old and new customers that three lakes was carrying on a local tradition. the course didn't change, just the name. >> we started a campaign called the roots stay the same. we would put three lakes golf course across the top and then have a layer of grass and in the roots of alcoma. i think it helped customers feel comfortable with the transition. >> it didn't matter how long the rebranding took. arthur says making a major move like that was necessary. >> if you want to distinguish the ownership changing, change the name. it's the easiest thing to do. >> as everyone has discovered, the old name keeps popping up in conversation because some old habits are just hard to break.

>> if somebody says alcoma, i don't correct them, but i immediately follow it with at three lakes. >> still to come, how to get through to the right person at a company you want to sell to, and why you should be using content marketing to get referrals. 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.

>> a big problem for any business that relies on selling, sales people, is cold calling. what is the best way to find the person that you need to reach in a company to make your sales presentation to? >> well, do you remember the first rule of fight club? the first rule was we don't talk about fight club. well, the first rule of cold calling is we don't sound like a cold call. there's two things that go into that. the first is how you speak. you have to call someone with confidence in your voice, not fear. but the second one is even more important, and that is you need to know the name of the person you are calling. how do you get that? you go to their website. you go to linked in. you find who the decision maker is so when you make the first cold call you kousound confiden

and ask for the name of the person calling. if you do that, there's a higher likelihood of being successful. we now have the top two tips you need to know to help grow your business. let's introduce our panel and get their advice. barry multz and tiffany fam. >> are they getting referrals or just asking for them. there's a big difference. a lot of people ask for referrals. at the end of their product or service they'll say can you refer someone that i might be able to solve their problem. that works not very well, because at that point in time, the customer doesn't have anybody to refer. however, getting referrals is a key marketing tool. you have to remember you actually can sell anything to anybody. you only can be there when people are ready to buy. this works where the customer's

friend has a problem you can solve. you jump to the front of the line and then sell your product. t this only works if you do consistent content marketing through social media. tell them what problems you solve. so you're there when people are ready to buy. very powerful. >> tiffany, how big is your community? >> we reach 18 million people each week. >> started from zero. >> yeah. >> and what's one piece of advice. >> my tip is what helped accelerate my business. i recommend using world connections to gain more business. when you're trying to aim for a new business opportunity, look at who the decision-maker is. and then assess a social presence such as linked in, mogul. then when you get an introduction through the reference, try to see if you can make an ask but they can't decline. a five minute coffee to get to

know each other for ood vice, and then when you get that meeting, just develop that genuine friendship to set yourself up with strong foundation to flourish into a business connection that becomes a partnership. >> someone told me this piece of advice like that. if you don't have someone in common, right when you get to someone's office, scan their pictures and scan what's on their desk. if you can find anything that relates to something that you're doing or something that you love or maybe you'll see a diploma and you went to the same school, suddenly you have a way to make a personal connection. both of your things are all act connecting with people. >> and consistently connecting with people over a long period of time. >> thank you so much for your advi advice. >> this week's your business selfie comes from robin rogers. the creators and owners of natural splendor premium hair care products. they debuted their product in

2013. thank you for sending that in. now, all of you watching, pick up your cell phone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to your business at msnbc. we love seeing pictures of businesses around the country. use the hash tag yourbizselfie. >> thank you for joining us. both of our panelists talked about building relationships with people in order to grow your business. and a lot of growing your business is about the relationships you have with people, but it's hard if you're always out building relationships, you're not there building your business. you're not there doing the work. you have to think about both things. and i think a lot of times entrepreneurs go too much in this direction and they're always out meeting people and not building their business. when they have to build their business, and then they say no to everything. think about it each week. what time are you going to spend

building relationships that may help you in the future but make sure you don't go too far that you're doing that all the time. it's tricky, but it is a balance to strike. we'd love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about today's show, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we post all the pieces on today's show online and more for you. connect to us on all our digital and social media platforms adds well. we look forward to seeing you next time. 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. president donald trump's order this week to strike syria may represent a break with his nonintervention foreign policy. here's trump on tuesday. >> i'm not, and i don't want to be the president of the word. i'm the president of the united states. and from now on, it's going to be america