good morning. coming up, their limo service was failing because hardly anyone gets married midweek. find out how they pivoted and became a multi million dollar company. and our elevator pitch segment returns with a product that will help your kids get into the swim of things. let's fwroe fast and work smart next on "your business."

hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramburg. welcome to "your business." today marks the start of your 12th season of helping your business grow. first of all, i want to thank you all for watching us. it's very exciting to have been on this long. we're going to start today with a story of one owner who had to entirely rethink his company in order to survive. ma reese loves vintage cars, especially luxury vintage cars. about ten years ago, he fell in love with a particular one and he persuaded his wife they should buy it and start a company driving people around. when the company just wasn't strong enough, they had to change their business model and it works. >> i've got big dreams. >> we're always looking for new opportunities. >> maurice and rhonda brewster are president and husband and

wife of this company. >> he's the visionary .sales marketing and public relations and i have more the detail, organizational logistics project management skill set. >> together, these two started out with a wedding show fur service 15 years ago, which they ran from their home in pal alto, california. >> we would take calls at the dinner table all hours of the night. at the time our office was in the garage. >> maurice is quick to say, not any more a mom and pop business. >> it started that way. when you're clocking the revenue numbers that we're clocking now and i think we're a little bit beyond the mom and pop stage. >>. >> today, their revenue has multiplies and they serve employees all over the world. how did they make the leap? it started with mo's instinct for marketing and his special

fondness for luxury vehicles. >> you know, i like nice cars. i like fancy cars. >> that let him to one bright light late model import. >> we were at a car show and he saw a car and said i think i can make some money for that. >> mo's marketing instincts paid off. right away, the brides loved his vintage rolls right royce sedan. >> our first year, we did $444,000. >> by the second year, revenue had nearly doubled, but maurice was looking beyond that. he had to figure out a way to continue to grow his business and he didn't have it quite yet. >> well, the obvious one was we couldn't get a bride to get married on a tuesday.

why? it's a great day. the rolls-royces sat monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday. so either we had to buy a lot of rolls-royces to go out on saturdays and sundays, which wasn't practical, or we had to change the business model. >> around that time, a hotel client suggested they add on corporate limousine rides. >> they opened up their books and showed me how much business they were giving a local limousine company and they weren't very happy with them, thought we could do a good job. >> you can't drive them in a rolls-royce. you have to drive them in a town car and the very next day rhonda and i bought a town car. >> in less than a year, they had a fleet of town cars, revenue was jumping up and they dumped the bridal business. >> the volume of business that the hotel could give us far excited what we were doing with

bride and grooms on saturdays and sundays. >> he was watching the market for corporate event shuttle services, the numbers he saw were large. very large. >> we've handled the super bowl, the world series, the espn awards, the emmy awards, different things like that that i think a person coming from an operational background might not go after that business. >> they went after those juicy accounts using their marketing skills and something else, their network of certified minority owned businesses. >> mo engages the network. and what it means is that we provide opportunities for the minority owned business to meet the corporate members. >> josette wright lacy heads up the new york based national supplier council, the mmsdc. it's a national membership organization for introducing black, hispanic, native american and asian-owned businesses to fortune 500 companies. >> we provide a bridge between

our corporate members and our certificate minority-owned businesses. >> when i look back today at the corporations that we do business with, i would say 90% of it has everything to do with the fact that we are certified minority-owned business. >> certification is an invitation to the party. it's not a guarantee that when you get there you're going to be asked to dance, okay? and there is not a guarantee that you're going to get a contract. there is no contract with your name on it. you will earn that contract through your own hard work. >> it opened up doors for us to be able to at least make a presentation about our capabilities and win business. >> once they got the contracts for these big events, how did they think they could deliver? >> there is no one company in our industry that can handle all of the needs of transportation

companies that need to move their people. >> their secret? they got the competition to collaborate. >> so we have this frememy relationship. >> for these big occasions, they subcontracted the work to their competitors. and, by the way, that's how they also offer national and global service. they turn to their enemies when they need to have friends. >> i love that fact that we grew 42% last year, but that doesn't give me the greatest joy. the thing that i enjoy the most is that a little over a hundred people rely on the decisions that my wife and i make in order for them to raise their children, to educate their children, buy their first home, buy their vehicles, to recycle their dollars back into their communities and that gives me the greatest joy. >> over the past 11 years, we have profiled thousands of companies. today as we start our 12th season, we wanted to take a look back at some of the ones we met when they were small who now

have become multi million dollar businesses. we met pakistani immigrant tarike faried in 2006. we were impressed then with what he has grown. but today, his company is a household name, edible arrangements. tarike had owned a flower shop, but had a vision for a cut fruit bouquet. along with members of his family, he launched a store in connecticut and by 2001, they opened another franchise. within years, we opened nearly 400. >> how do i know we're not growing too fast? i don't think in business there's such a thing as growing too fast unless it gets out of control. >> they're now a global brand with annual revenue at almost $500 million. >> you are one of the early people on this show here and you had 400 franchisees then? >> a little less than 400. >> now you have 1300. >> 1300 stores, thank you. >> we're looking for about $5

million. >> do you know who this is? when they first came on the show to do an elevator pitch, almost nobody had heard of the company. they were pitching a new coconut product. it's called vata-coco. both the company and the category interview substantially. vita coco eventually faced competition from coca-cola. >> we were nervous when we heard that coca-cola had invested in zico. but we also remain focused on doing what we do well. >> today, vitacoco is a global leader in coconut water sales, selling in 31 countries, accounting for 46% of the market and attracting investors like ma down na and matthew mcconaughey. its founder and co-founder started a chocolate renaissance when she started to mix and match unusual ingredients like curry, cheese and bacon with chocolate. it may seem commonplace now, but

this artisanal approach to chocolate was new in 2008. the company was suffering from growing pains. >> i'd really, really like to grow. i don't know. it's some sort of weird adekz for constant improvement and growth and nurturing. >> katrina realized she needed to hire more help to run the company, freeing her up to experiment and conduct the next innovation. >> katrina is stretched to the limit. and in order to get through in a man's land, she's going to have to figure out pieces of this business she can hand over to others and trust them to do it well. >> since we first met katrina, her company has flourished and distribution everywhere from whole foods to starbucks. she's introduced a new line of chocolates whose company profits

go to a portion of helping women entrepreneurs. hi. so nice to meet you. your son adam and you seem to be modeling the product your mom is going to be marketing. what are they called? stwr they're called giggly goggles. >> do you think your mom is going to do a good job? >> yes. >> is this your first time on tv? >> yes. >> you be a fantastic model, you be a great pitch. also josh will be here, a serial entrepreneur mission is his latest company, athletic gear. he's also a fund investor. so you stand there with those goggles. you, good luck. >> thank you so much. >> let's go. >> hi. i'm definite thee, the founder and designer of the giggly goggles, and this is my sob, adam. traditional swing goggles are

painful. they pull your hair and leak water that is harmful for your eyes. the giggly goggles are here to the rescue. our unique patented design you allows for an easy on and off, made of knowo preen and textured rubber they will hold and stay in place. they come in three different sizes to fit. they are fun and stylish and can be personalized. theyry tail for $25 at giggly goggles.com and selected stores across the country. we are on track to make over $200,000 in our first year. we've been spotted as a summer must have by the "today" show, real simple, star magazine and more. customers are raving about our product. we've recently been approached by several major retailers and are asking for investment to help us put smiles on faces with the giggly goggles. >> we have had so many models on over the past 11 years, you are the best we've had on. nice job.

>> these are for your two. i can hold your goggles. i want two numbers, the first one, one through ten, what do you think of the product? second one through ten, what did you think of the pitch? did it peak your interest? >> productwise, i've got three kids. i'm going to steal this from you and give it to one of my kids. >> i love the product. i'm in the kids business so i can appreciate it. i know how much parents will love it. i gave the pitch an 8 because of a couple of things i want want to know if i were investing in it. what is the competitive market? how do you plan to set your goal, you know, reach your goals. a couple things that you could tighten it up.

>> you're an investor. you look at a lot of companies. >> i gave it a 9 and an 8. the product i think is well sdond. i love the no hair pull even though i'm losing mine. it's well designed and the packaging is useful. i think you could have given more data on the size of market, opportunity space, competitive landscape. obviously it was a quick pitch, but i think you did a great job. >> congratulations to both of you. these people know what they are talking about, too. they're both in consumer products world. good luck with everything. have a fantastic rest of your summer swimming with these. >> thank you so much. >> if any of you would like to come on your business and pitch your company just like you just saw, the best way to do it is to send us a video of you doing your one-minute elevator pitch. let us know the link on your youtube page. please include a short summary

of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money. we look forward to seeing some of those pitches and seeing you in the elevator. a blog can be a complete waste of your time or it can be a great marketing vehicle. if you want it to help your company, you have to be strategic about it. so here are five best blogging brasses. one, learn how to write for the smartphone. more .more people are getting their information on their phones. so think about how your blog is going to look on a small screen. two, write strong headlines. good headlines make it easier for people to find your posts and are key in telling search engines what your content is about. three, make your content good. it sounds obvious, but not everyone does it. if you get people to your blog and then they quickly leave, that means you'll have a high bounce rate and that will developly hurt your rank in seo.

four, perfect the structure. break your posts into digestible bits. put the most important information at the top and use subheadlines throughout the post. and five, use compelling images. you can find free stock images on-sites like stocksnap to engage your audience members and help with your blog structure. >> i've sure you'll all seen those stories that come up at the bottom of your screen after you've read an article. stories like six ways to have better skin or you won't believe what this college kid did to get free tuition. that is content marketing. they're articles put there by brands to get you to read, either subtly or not, about what they have to sell. so good to see you, adam. >> great to be here. >> i'm so happy you're here to talk about this. i see these articles.

i click on many of them. and i don't exactly, even though i know it, obviously, i'm not reading them because i want to be sold to. just say i have a flower business. how do i think about this kind of content marketing? >> we're moving through this time of day. when you watch a movie on youtube, did you ever see the buttons before? >> always. sorry, advertisers. >> people don't like known advertising any more. we're moving from a traditional and known advertising to sort of story selling way of marketing. people want to relate. they want to read about you. they want to watch a video of your product. over time, they'll consider to buy your products. so if you have a flower shop, if someone wrote about you, even if it's a small blog and they said

this is a great flowers. i love them. you should check it out. or if you have something on social, any piece of content, it doesn't have to be the "new york times," you can promote it and slowly build that trust with consumers because they want to be curious about your business. >> so one, you can take a piece of content that's already out there and amplify it, right? so somebody wrote a blowing on you. then you work with a company like yourself to pull it to get that at the bottom of someone's screen. >> yeah. my wife has a flower business and nobody knows the flower business because she just started. at the bottom it says you may like and there's a post about her business .and she's doing it and why she's doing it. you can get curious and you might become a client. >> let's say it's a flower business. you don't want to write buy

flowers here. she might write an article and you tell me if this is right, but the seven best flowers to give as a thank you. >> right. >> so you're reeling people in with the content and then somehow selling them within the article subtly. >> it can be that. it's can be something that i'm seeing a lot that works really well is sort of the founder story. people want to see who is the person behind the brand. people don't like the click here buy now model any more. you can get going relatively quickly. but the key is do not sell. you're entertaining people, you are not selling people. >> right. relationship, journey versus now. >> okay. and now let's talk about pricing. am i paying per impression, am i paying for click? am i paying for sale? >> you pay only if someone

discovers your content. so you pay per click and content is king in that fashion or in your case content is queen. but the transition is from just thinking of building, getting again over the next month for m eventually winning you forever. >> the way you need to think about that the return, i'm paying 50 cents per click, making this up, they read the article, click over somewhere to my site. i need to think what am i trying to get them to do. am i trying to get them to buy something, to sign up for something? i have to really understand my metrics. >> let's talk about that for a second. historically what we would do, place buttons all over the page so people click on and maybe buy the product right now. these days, what do you do? the article is clean but at the bottom you may say sign up for our newsletter or follow us on facebook so we can build a community. it's more about, i'm not going to sell you anything right now, but you will get offers from me

over time. >> what about links within the article? let's go back to my flower example, seven flowers to get for a thank you. one of them are tulips. would you have that linked on your web page? >> yes, to have it linked to mult multiple companies. trying to educate the consumer works well if you can compare credit cards or it could be insurance options or flower shops. it's best if it's not only ability you. >> this is fantastic advice. really good to know about. i love anything online, you can just test it. put it out there, see if it works. if not, stop it. thank you so much. appreciate you stopping by. >> when we come back, cozy and josh return to why you should be networking and the importance of having a positive mental attitude.

thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. what is the perfect cadence for followup with clients, the kind of clients that haven't bought from you yet.

what is too much and what is too little on those touch points? >> i would say if the person hasn't bought from you yet, they're not really a client. they are a prospect. that means you don't have a relationship yet. you need to focus on building up that relationship. depending on what you're selling, a good cadence could be something like every other week, and building that relationship by providing them content and other things of value to their business before you ask for the sale. so maybe you do that two or three times, and then you ask for the sale after you've built up that trust and relationship. if it doesn't work then, then keep on that cadence, again, perhaps every other week until you do close the sale. lather, rinse, repeat, and that should turn those prospects into customers for you. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help you grow your business. cozy free man and josh are back with us. thank you for your help with the

elevator pitch. now is your chance to say the one thing that someone needs to know to grow your business. this is company number three for you, mission. >> yes. >> so what's something you've learned along the way? >> i learned it very young. i give credit to my mom. i definitely got a lot of reenforcement along the way. probably the best tip i could give is pma, positive mental attitude. >> so true. >> i think it is critical for every business owner, small, medi medium, large, you face obstacles ahead when you never expect and you've got to be able to take no and turn it into motivation for yes. >> some of us are born that way, and some of us aren't. what do you say for the people who aren't naturally inclined to be positive? >> you have to learn being comfortable with uncomfortable. although you may not have been born with it, i think it's something you can learn. focusing on the positives will help you over come the negatives, an important trait. >> and focus on it.

it is a thing you have to do. if it doesn't come naturally, you have to pay attention to it. >> it's like anything. it's not as much the cards you're dealt as how you deal with the cards you're dealt. >> i think, also, if you surround yourself with people that are positive, that really helps you. >> great point. >> cozy. >> which leads into my tip. i wanted to talk about networking today because i think networking has a bad rap and a lot of people are uncomfortable around it. i know how i used to feel about it. i felt it was kind of phony and felt, like, what can you do for me. i think if you change that framework in your mind and think about how can i help people and actually create real friend ships, these friendships go a very long way. when i first started out, i couldn't find a contract manufacturer that would work with me to create my hair care products. through networking i was able to find through the recommendations of people contract manufacturers that would work with me.

it would never have happened otherwise. >> i think also maybe people are a little allergic to the term networking, but like the idea of going out and meeting people and talking about your business and seeing how we can help each other. thank you, both. i think these are great tips. >> thanks. >> thank you. >> avery is an app specific for photo shop editing. because we do a lot of social media, we use that to get the look and style of the pictures we're using, we can add text and do fun stuff like that so we're able to use that for all our social media at tacts. >> one fius is called retype. it's important for my business because i do not at all have a photo shop background, no graphic arts background. retype is a great app for me because on the go, when i'm in line getting coffee or whatever, i can do a social media post where i can take a picture of a product and go ahead and insert really robust graphics and texts

and stuff like that and make it look professional and polished and post it on my social media. it looks like i've had someone really pull it together that's professional. i'm not, i'm just a regular person doing it. >> one of the tools we use is light speed pos. it's a great web-based, cloud-based pos system. right now i can look on my cell phone or my mac and i can pull up inventory, sales for the day, it shows it's a really good thing. otherwise i can tell during the day where our sales are, if we're slow during a couple hours or speeding up. it's a really great tool. >> let's hit the beach for this week's yourbizselfie. from bill poffe and david mcnear who own bana beachtime. take a selfie of you and your business and send it to

yourbusiness@msnbc.com. or tweet it, include your name, the name of your business and anything fun or interesting about your company. please don't forget to use #yourbizselfie. >> as we start our 12th season, i have two groups to thank. first of all is my team, most of us, if you can believe it, have been with us since the very beginning and work so incredibly hard to put the show on every week and keep the shows interesting and find our guests. i owe them a big thank you. i'd like to thank our guests. running a business is incredibly fun, but it is really, really hard. we've challenged these guests to be honest about what they do, because it's the only way that i think and you as the audience can really get inspired and learn from what other businessers and business decision makers are doing. we ask them the hard questions and get them to tell us stuff that maybe they're not excited for the whole world to hear, but we need them to be honest. thank you all very much.

i look so forward to our next season. now we've love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about today's show, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we read every e-mail we get. please go to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all the segments from today's show plus a lot more. don't forget to connect with us on all our digital and social media platforms as wealth. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah...

(laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. morning glory, america. i'm hugh hugh it, you can find me weekday morning on the salem radio network. saturday mornings i'm here on msnbc this weekend i'm in california. today turning my attention to the race for the governorship, the second most important job in these united states. governor jerry brown is rounding the corner in the last year of a total as 16. he served from 1975 to '83 and returned to sacramento as a big boss in 2011. in between brown's