good morning. coming up on "your business," why did the owners of this cool cleveland motorcycle company get more traction overseas than they did in america? eous on how listening to women help them grow their business. plus, what you can learn from google about retaining employees and making them feel appreciated. let's grow fast and work smart, all coming up next on "your business."

>>ly hi, everyone. welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your growing business. scott calisimo has always been proud of his cleveland roots. when he wanted to launch a new motorcycle company, the city seemed like the perfect home. but when he couldn't find a local manufacturer, he had to abandon his hometown and make the bikes in asia. now after ten years, he's finally bringing some of the manufacturing back home. cleveland has struggled in recent years with its post industrial identity. as the city reinvents itself, it's not that surprising to see out of the ashes of an old rubber factory a new motorcycle company has taken over with the motto, we are cleveland. >> what is cleveland? cleveland is blue collar. cleveland is, you know, working class.

it's not flashy, it's gritty. >> cleveland cycle werks was a dream for scott who has a degree in automotive design from the prestigious cleveland institute of art. after graduating, he found the transition from school to working in the industry was not what he expected. >> once you go work for a large corporation, it's all about glacial movements, right? you have a five-year development program where in college you had basically one semester to design an interior, exterior, the wheels, the tires, every component. >> in 2008, scott and his cleveland jared string found themselves at a bar commiserating about their recent layoffs. scott told jared about an idea he had. >> that's when scott said basically, you know what? i can't go back and work for another company. that's not me. that's not who i have. and i have an idea that i think makes sense and he walked me

through his rationale about delivering affordable motorcycles that are quality but are cool. >> jared was so impressed with the concept, he and scott decided to do the unthinkable. start a new motorcycle brand.. they went into business the very next day. we bootstrapped a motorcycle company. which is pretty insane. we start the with $9,000. so yeah, we brought in a little bit more money after that, but most of what we've done has been off of what we've earned. so it's been organic growth. >> in a whole where most bikes are big, loud, heavy and expensive, scott's simple retroinspired designs would always turn heads. >> and there was, you know, like harley, harley, harley, harley, bagger, bagger, bagger, you know, $30,000 bike. and i roll up on this little bike that i've built for like three grand spi parked it in the middle and all of a sudden everyone was on it. and i'm like, you see how this cheap, inexpensive bike, everyone likes.

i'm like, that's the power of design. >> with the name cleveland cycle werks and the motto we are cleveland, it's not surprising the cornerstone of this ambitious company was the idea of bringing manufacturer back to the heart of cleveland. >> we started small. we were scrappy. how the company was started was in scott's garage. his garage operated as the warehouse, distribution center and the shop. >> with very little money and scott being relatively new to the field, they knew they would never be able to set up like a traditional motorcycle or car manufacturer. instead, their business plan called for finding local partners to help the company get started and fwroe. >> i don't look all that old now, but imagine back then being, what, the 26, walking into to million tie million or billion dollar corporation telling them you're going to start manufacturing motorcycles. the response i got in the u.s. was pretty much like, you're crazy, not interested. it was pretty depressing.

>> the door shut in their face again and again so they decided to try another approach. we actually created the heist, which is our fist model. we created that here in cleveland. the issue was once we developed that, we couldn't find anybody to make it here in the u.s. fast forward after six months continuing and trying and hitting one wall after the next, we shipped the bike off to china and scott followed it shortly behind. >> the goal of actually getting the bike made trumped the goal of making it in the u.s., at least in the short-term. the experience turned out to be a sobering lesson in manufacturing a product overseas versus making it in america. >> i would say the one thing that was absolutely amazing to me was nobody said no. every single factory that i went to in china, they didn't ask me my age. they didn't care how old i was. they looked at the idea for what it was and they said how many, how long? >> it turned out part of the issue in the u.s. was that manufacturers were not relating

to the product. it was different in asia where small motorbikes outnumber cars and demand is high. it suddenly seemed to make sense to make and sell the product there, get some traction, and worry about the american market later. our bikes in asia are viewed as american style. and if you spend time in asia, they love american music, they love american culture, the lifestyle, the image. so our bikes appeal for them. but the original goal of cleveland cycle werks was to make them in cleveland. the irony of the bike being made in asia is still an issue for those looking closely at the brand. >> if you look at what people would typically consider the american motorcycle, they would be shocked at the content that is not made here because it's -- it's significant. >> like with many companies, some parts that go into a cleveland cycle werks bike are made in the u.s. and some are made overseas. is there are still those people that say, you know, i'll never buy anything made in china and

they'll type an angry e-mail on their made in china computer. we manufacture parts in the u.s. if we can find the right component at the right place in italy and the right partner, we will do it in italy. >> scott has created a modern global business with most of the manufacturing done in asia closest to their largest customer base. but after making tens of thousands of bikes, earning a good republic are ewetation and surviving in a tough industry, cleveland cycle werks is finally getting back to the original plan of bringing some of the manufacturing and semester isbly of the bikes back to america. >> we do currently manufacture a lot of aftermarket components here. we're starting u.s. assembly, which is great. we are starting to manufacture chassis, gas tanks, so large components here. so it goes full circle. >> no matter what, the brains of the operation will always be in cleveland, providing many jobs in the u.s. and beyond. >> i can say without a doubt cleveland cycle werks would not exist if i didn't go overseas to make this happen.

i wouldn't have all the employees we have. i wouldn't own the factory i have in the u.s. we wouldn't be manufacturing here now. we wouldn't have our distributors. we probably have hired in its entirety between cleveland cycle werks and the people who make our parts and distributors in the u.s., probably over a hundred families. >> after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, it may not a bigger smile stone than they ever expected. >> somebody told us that once we reach our ten-year anniversary, that we'll have been the first motorcycle company in the u.s. in the last 50 years to have started and have the staying power as a brand that we've been able to achieve. from a miley cyrus music video to a kim kardashian instagram post, the iconic egg-shaped lip balm from eos has been everywhere and outselling brands like chapstick and we sat

down and found out how they managed to break into this seemingly saturated market, continue to attract the highly sought after millennial customer and why patience has helped them get women worldwide to give them their kiss of approval. >> we looked at the lip care market, lip balm specifically. we saw the products were all the same. and despite the fact that 80% of lip balm was purchased by women, there was really nothing designed specifically for women. >> often times, people think they do best if they are their own customer. you've created something. you keep talking about how it is for women and you are two men in your button down blue shirts. how did you know what your customer would want? >> we certainly have been influenced by the women around us. we saw that women were struggling to find lip balm in their bags and that they were using pots, but they were trying

to put the pot directly on their lips instead of using their fingers. our belief is that if we really want to do something different, we knew to intuit it. it's asking the right question sometimes. don't listen to the quote/unquote professionals because they don't know everything. and i think one of the challenges with consumer products is that everyone is a consumer and people react in their own ways. so someone -- one individual's reaction is not necessarily more meaningful than someone else's reaction. we believed we would be successful because of self-confidence. as we got along, we were concerned saying if we want to do this at the scale that we would like to be, to compete in this very big and established marketplace, possibly shouldn't we go get money? and we went to investors. what happened when you went to investors and you said we have not money? >> well win vesters said no. we got more nos than we envisioned we ever would. and it was, for us, an interesting process because we

had to look within and if all these professional investors were saying no, did we still believe in what we were doing? and we fundamentally did. >> people think build a good product and people will spread the word and you don't necessarily need to spend the same money on marketing as you did in the old days because word-of-mouth is so powerful right now. do you agree or disagree with that? >> the old methods of marketing and communication are less effective than they used to be before. what is absolutely true is that word-of-mouth is significantly more effective than it ever was. and what has happened is people jumping product to product or jumping on whatever is new because that's the thing everybody is buying has become far more prevalent. >> you have to market differently today. so certainly consumers have a lot more power. and so marketing in the context of spending a lot of money on a

traditional advertising campaign and basically broadcasting to the consumers what they should like and what they should buy, clearly, that doesn't work like it used to. >> when we started, we said amongst ourselves, we need to create buzz and we need to find influencers, right? so what we did -- this was well before anybody else even thought of these things. what we did was we said to ourselves, who are our influencers? >> it's got to be an authentic relationship between the influencer and our product because we know that consumers are looking for that. it's about finding authenticity in the context of these relationships. so their use of the product is actually reflective of what they do in every day life. >> we have distributors from 140 countries reach out to us and we said no to all of them. and it has worked well for us because as we now go into market, we don't have to recreate what was done and we can start from the beginning and

we can do it the right way. >> our perspective was you only do it once. if you're launching with that perspective, it's going to sustain with a quick blip and then you're out. >> jonathan and i are actually quite patient. and we tell ourselves, it's not going to happen had in a hurry. if we want to build a great brand, it does take time. >> what advice do you have for people who are partnering with someone? >> if if one of us disagrees with something, we simply don't do it. we both agree on everything we feed to do and that's when we know that we're aligned. and the other part is we are very open with each other. there are no secrets amongst the two of us. we don't carve up spaces that this is mine and this is yourgs. together, this is ours. >> i'm here right now with in this week's elevator pitcher, rhama maria.

tell us what you have here and what's the name of your company? >> i have amazing shea butter products created by women in northern ghana. >> i have to admit this is close to my heart because you are helping women create jobs for themselves. >> absolutely, by bringing natural organic products that are at the force of women's cooperatives. >> and i know you've been successful already, but we want to see how the panel takes it. >> i'm ready. >> you're pitching to two people today, alicia seret, she's an angel investor he. >> oh. >> incredible woman. she's going to give you great advice and ida lefle, whose latest company is called ubi. all right. let's go in and see them. >> hello. my name is rhama wright and i'm here to butter you up. my company creates natural organic shea butter products ethically sourgs our shea from

northern ghana. our business model is a fusion of high product quality with social impact. the shea yeleen wants good product and they want to make a difference in this world. 73% of the ma lynnan women want to buy all natural products. this had is not a trend. grandview research predicts that by 2020 the natural products market will be $15 billion. the sh hea yeleen can find of products at resorts as well as whole foods markets. i'm looking to raise $2 million to support product innovation, build our supply chain and make some improvements as well as sales and distribution. >> nice. >> take me into consideration -- >> i'm going to stop you right there. you got a lot in there. i'm going to give you two these. i need two numbers from you, one to ten. what do you think of the

product? what do you think of the pitch? i'm going to hold this for you for a second because you've done a fantastic job and also i wanted to smell it. it smells fantastic. i didn't get to do that out there, but fantastic job. let's start with you alicia. who is an angel investor, as you know. >> 8 and 8. >> for the product side, i gave you an partnership love it. i love the social enterprise, i love of that you're helping women, i loved your presentation, the delivery, it was great. the only reason i nicked you a little bit is because i don't know the price and you didn't mention that, but it was really good. on the pitch side, i felt like there was a lot of great information. i learned about your distribution which was awesome. i learned about your customer focus, your ask and your uses, but i had to sense of your sales overall. so i don't know if you've sold $2,000 or $2 million. so, again, i thought it was really good, but i nicked you a little bit because there were bits of information i would have liked, but great job. >> thank you. >> and ido knows consumer

products. a serial entrepreneur. he's very successful in in this world. let's hear what you think. >> i've given you a 7 for product and 8 for pitch. and the 7 for product is primarily because of your packaging. you've got to make sure particularly when you go out into mass retail, you're really wanting to have impact on shelf from day one. you have two seconds to grab somebody on shelf and you don't want your product to get lost in the mix. as far as the pitch goes, i loved it. i think i loved the -- you can tell that you're excited about this and that you're passionate. and one minute is not easy. the reason why i didn't get you more than an 8, though, is because i really want to know more about you and your background. when we invest in somebody, it's really about the entrepreneur and then the product. >> okay. >> because the entrepreneur is really the person who we need to believe in more than anything. >> in the minute, did she peak your interest? >> yes. >> love it. >> love her. >> thank you both 1067.

great insight. you, congratulations and good luck with everything. >> thank you, j.j. >> absolutely. >> if any of you would like to come on "your business" and pitch your company, the best way to do it is for you to send us a video of doing your one-minute elevator pitch. 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 the funds. we look forward to seeing those pitches. business travel is so much less glamorous than it used to be. airlines have cut back on many of the services they used to offer to conserve resources and save money. but that doesn't mean your business trip needs to be a nightmare. here are five ways to make things a little easier and nicer for you. >> one, dress to impress. it's tempting to wear sweats while traveling, but you never know who your seat mate will be and airline crews are more

likely to give you an upgrade if you look the part. two, use tech to stream line your trip. most airlines offering easy check-in on their websites. and apps like trip it and expense phi can help you stay on top of your eye tenry, expenses and loyalty rewards in one place. three, arm yourself against jet lag. set your watch to the local time at your destination before you leave. drink mret plenty of water, wear breathable layers and sleep only when it's dark in your host city. four, stick to a healthy routine. it's so easy to stay up late, stipulate your workout and eat junk food on the road. but back away from the free doughnuts. a healthy routine will keep you sharp and focused for big meetings. and five, sanitize everything. there's nothing worse than getting sick on a business trip. wash your hands religiously and bring plenty of sanitizer so you can degerm everything from your in flight food tray to the remote controls in your hotel

room. >> if you want to score major happy points with your employees, then one of the best things you can do is provide google-like perks. but what if you don't have spice for a private napping room or the money for free lunches every day? our guest has every day. tray is a business and lifestyle journalist. she is here to help share her expertise. great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> i think this is a big issue for smaller companies because it is a big perk to go somewhere and get free lunch and all the other things. i'm happy we can say, okay, here is what you can do, so you get a little bit first -- let's start first about lounge space. >> a lot of companies like uber and zappos, they offer napping rooms or pods. i don't think it's necessary to take a nap at work necessarily, but trs nice to provide a nice comely place for your employees to relax and charge up again and get back to your guests.

i discovered the pouch couch. it's an air-filled couch. you toss it around in the air, fill it up. once it's closed, it holds the air. light, expensive, very lightweight. employees can lounge wherever you like. >> okay, perfect. let's get to the second one. you don't have a ma soos coming in every day. >> this is becoming, too, to have masseuses come in and massage employees. that's a very expensive thing to offer employees. i found this guy, a she at sioux massage pillow. you can see how it's very stylish and they have different covers to choose from. if you flip it over, there's four different heads that will massage your back or your neck. >> like when you get a manicure, those chairs. >> exactly. so comfortable, rejuvenating.

you plug it in on the side. my suggestion would be keep a few around for employees to share. they can plug it in at their office chair and enjoy a massage. it actually feels really good. >> i'll try it as soon as we're done. lunch is very important, too. snacks can get very expensive. >> that's true. not all companies can offer full lunches and breakfasts. snacks are a great alternative for employees to recharge. i recommend buying snacks in bulk. you can do costco or sam's clubs. but i also love boxed.com, a wholesale club online, but they don't charge a membership fee. so you get the benefits of buying in bulk without the expense. >> finally, organizing events with local charities. >> that's my suggestion for a replacement for the expensive off-si off-sites, like a ropes course or trust falls and going to a

spa for employees. it's very expensive to do. my recommendation would be find local charities you like, offer a sign-up sheep, maybe do it on a work day so your employees don't feel like they're sacrificing their weekends. have the employees go out and do something good for the community and maybe meet other co-workers they may not have met before at the same time. >> i love it. the big thing here is just letting your employees know that you care about them and you're doing something for them, understanding you care about their well-being. >> yes. don't be so concerned that you can't compete with the big guys. if you're not google or amazon, these are alternatives you can offer that are more friendly to your budget. >> thank you, trae. >> thanks. when we come back, how to value a growing early stage company, plus why you need to give buzzwords a rest. 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. the question is from sem. he asks, how do investors value an early stage company? >> that's a great question. valuing a startup business or emerging business is one of the most difficult things you can do when you're either raising capital or selling a company. my favorite method is called the first chicago method. what that does, it looks at

three different scenarios. the first is the best-case scenario. you project your cash flows in that instance. the second is the achievable scenario. the third, of course, is the worst case scenario. once you've done that and projected those different cash flows, you've applied different weightings to those scenarios to determine what you think a reasonable outcome may be. do be careful to not push the value too high. if you do, it can make it hard to raise capital in the future and make it difficult to live up to investors' expectations. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help your business grow. alicia and ido are back with us again. out of all the tips in the world, let's start with you, alicia? >> my tip is go light on the buzzwords. as an investor i have entrepreneurs pitch me all the time and tell me how members of their team are hustlers or hackers or ninjas or gurus.

i have to tell you, i don't have any investor colleagues out there that must invest in ninjas, it just doesn't happen. what i say is be authentic, be real, lgo light on the buzzword. it can cause you to lose credibility. >> i also just think speaking normal language, right? you're not impressing anyone. if you know your stuff, you know your stuff. >> don't be too trendy. just be real. >> what do you think, ido. >> we believe everything should start and end with a cause. if you've got true meaning in the business that you do, it gets you up in the morning, gets your employees, your employees and the people you sell to excited about what you do. my example, when we started yoobi, we started because my mother was a school teacher. we wanted to supply free school supplies to these teachers to give to their kids in need.

if you can find something that has meaning for you, you can have it as a local give, something that is meaningful to your customers and the people that you serve, you can end up with something that is significantly more special than just selling a widget or any service. >> i talk about this a lot. the company i started, socially responsible and we've given millions of dollars away. i always say because i think people want to give back and also feel pressure to give back because they want to often. i say giving back doesn't necessarily be about money. for me it is. for you it's about school supplies. it could be about treating your people very well, and treating your customers well and providing people with jobs and focusing on that. but you believe you actually need to have some partnership with a non-profit or community organizati organization? >> i think there are plenty of ways to do good. for us i think what drives us forward is not necessarily the dollar signs.

you get to a certain point where the dollar signs can only get you so far, and you really want to wake up five years from now in your business excited to wake up in the morning, excited to know that the people that -- the things that you do end up serving somebody else. and that doesn't necessarily mean partnering with a non-profit. it could mean working with socially responsible factories or sourcing your products fairly. >> thanks both of you. great tips. this week's your biz selfie comes from ken patsch who owns apollo packaging. he provides high quality packaging and janitorial supplies to customers across the southeast. all of you, pick up your smart phone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. include your name, the name of your business, your location and

the #yourbizselfie. thank you for joining us today. we love hearing from you. if you have any questions or want to say hi, send us an e-mail to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. also go to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. we put up all of the segments from today's show plus a lot more. you can connect with us every day and every night on our digital and social media platforms, too. we look forward to see you next time. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. 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 a week, the sort of week when you run out of adjectives, the bad sort of adjectives, the kind that go with catastrophe. later in the program i hope we can bring you some joy into the morning by a conversation with one of hollywood's most lininged people, henry winkler. who better than the fonz to put some step into an exhausted country. first, texas, i do 15 hours of radio monday flew friday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. just as the storm comes