xfinity, the future of awesome. coming up on msnbc's "your business," the sweet smell of success. a company capitalizing on the science of scents grows into a multibillion dollar business. you may know her as buffy the vampireplay slayer but now she's staking her claim in the food industry. how can you get the the attention of social influencers and followers learn how to grow fast, work smart and go far. that's all coming up on "your business." >> "your business" is sponsored

by american express open, helping you get business done. hi there everyone i'm jj ramberg and welcome to your business. the show dedicated to helping your business grow. all of us are trying to figure out the best way to pique the interest of our potential customers we think about how to use the right lang and design. but how many of you have thought about trying to use the right smell. if you spend more time in a hotel lobby or store you may smell this invisible marketing magic, it's called scent marketing. we've visited one of the companies that pioneered the magic to find out why the battle for your nose has become so fierce. have you ever walked into blooming dales and smelled coconut in the swim suit department what about amber and

citrus in the lobby of a jw hotel, that's no accident. scents are being delivered by companies in hopes of enhancing the company's experience. >> our sense of smell is the most powerful in our emotions. >> ed burk is the vice president of customer strategy and communications at scent air, a leader in the scent marketing industry. they were one of the first companies to figure out that the use of strategically placed scent could influence customer behavior. >> all great things happen when you have the right smell. they can transport us to a different time, a different place. >> and being able to tap into customer's emotions have had powerful results. a study was done in the '90s.

it showed that people were 80% more likely to buy the shoes placed in a floral scented space. scent air provides fragrances and delivery systems to thousands of clients. based in charlotte, nrk north carolina it was by a disney engineer. >> trying to figure out who might want it was a challenge because it didn't exist. we invested in sales people. it was about going out and introducing the concept to the customers, talking about what a scent marketing program might be like. we ask people to discovery the power of scent. >> when the hospitality industry got on board it was a game changer for scent air.

>> they believe in creating a wonderful experience for the guest. they developed brands. hotels used it in lobbies and other spaces. with the intent of strengtsenning brand loyalty. it's also in the product line giving guests the ability to bring a piece of the brand home with them. >> our addressable market is any business that places a premium on their experience. it's really about driving financial objectives for the business that is we serve. >> in retail business owners use scenting to ner jazz customers, influence spending and encourage repeat visits. sports stadiums use it to lure people out of their home and to the games. >> sporting teams are compelled to create a more engaging

proposition for the fan experience. >> one of the unique asks came from the children's museum of indianapolis. they needed something special for their t rex exhibits. >> you could experience dino dung. the idea was to draw kids in and go one step further in the marketing experience. >> it's about making the experiences richer, more meaningful and enjoyable. for businesses that can booth profits. more than half of their clients are small businesses. >> they're not selling themselves as a brand. it is a small business selling an offering who is trying to create a wonderful atmosphere. scent plays an important role. >> they have more than 2,400 scents to choose from or if you want to spend more you can create a custom scent. >> there's a process we'll go through with a customer and we'll refer to it as the

imagining front. >> service start for as little as $100 a month making scent marketing a low cost strategy requiring not thatch effort with the potential for high impact results. for business owners who want to explore it, first thing about who makes up your target market, gender age and culture are some of the things to consider. keep it simple. citrus and sin mom envoek feelings of happiness. fig is also really popular. if you want to add a layer of luxu luxury, turn to leather and wood smells. fragrances that are too bold can backfire. scent air adds 6 to 800 new customer a months and ships for than 2,000 packages a day. a clear indication that scent

marketing is becoming a must have tool for many and businesses are embracing the power of smell like never before. >> sara michelle geller spent years on screen fighting vampires and dark lords. now she's entered a new battlefield, the food industry. she launched food crafting brand foodstirs in 2015. we sat down with her to talk about fighting stereo types, being a jack of all trades and building a product that has customers coming back for more. you know her best as buffy the vampire slayer. but she has traded her in weapons for a spatula and the movie set for a test kitchen. >> i was the stereo type of how your entire life shifts when you have children. before that i would be on a

movie or tv show and be like where's my next job where am i going next? and now it was about these people and how i could be present. >> slowing down to take care of her family. led to a play date with a former publicist. >> we knew starting from complete scratch was way past our capabilities we went to buy a mix and thought this was so weird, there was these legacy brands filled with chemicals and stuff that i would never consider feeding my children. and the other end was the very maybe higher quality ingredient but lacking in taste. we decided it was this category that was ripe for reinvestigation.

>> ga leet was going to do it no matter what. it was convincing her that i was the person she wanted to partner with. >> celebrity gets excited, they'll put their name on something, do a lot of press and then they're out. we had heart to hearts and i said you have to be committed. >> they got a natural food gu are you on board and they launched foodstirs in 2015. they started with a baking kit subscription service they sold online. sara's celebrity sta stus meant there was more to prove. >> buffy bakes let oops see her come in but no intention of taking us seriously. >> that's where her acting career helped her per ser veer. >> an actor is rejected so many times. you're gg on audition after audition. we know it takes one yes for all

those noes. i think that aspect of it was helpful in terms of launch. sometimes things have to be shaken up. you have to say because the book has been done this way, we're rule breakers. i say i started on a network, "buffy the vampire slayer" was a mid season replacement on a network no one knew about. i believe you can rewrite play books. >> for sara it meant helping customers rewrite the playbook took. they use their network as a way to let people use their mixes and gives them a reason to tweet, post and get the word out. >> we give our consumers to buy it again. >> her career also helped her be

ready for anything entrepreneurial life through at her. >> we needed someone to code the e-mails. no one was stepping up, i was like i'll do it. they're like do you know anything about it? >> not a bit. called a friend who had a company and he came over and sat down with me, about a three-hour lesson. for the first four or five months i did all the e-mails, coded the e-mails, i did the pictures. all of it. you have to be ready to get your hands dirty and do whatever it is, whether it's cleaning the office or testing products or figuring out recipes. >> it might be a while before you see her back on the screen. the entrepreneurial life has her full attention at least for now. >> this is my day job, night job, weekend job at the moment. my goal probably is that when the business is really up and running and i don't need to be here, yeah maybe i will go back in front of the camera then.

i would nope 5, 10, 15 years when you think of baking the word foodstirs comes to mind. it's so synonymous with what you trust. >> sara michelle geller is one of many stars who have a large media following and that means opportunity. when you see a tweet or instagram post from one of your celebrities showing off the good life with a new bag, beauty product or vacation spot there's a good chance they have a reason to tell you about it, money. jolene cant looks in on the followers. >> you might say her inta gram following goes from is from when her dog almost drown. >> i was kayaking and she

followed me. >> it was this photo of aspen snuggled in her kayak that changed everything. >> i remember my husband saying wou that's different. >> the kayaking pick won a photo contest and earned her new instagram followers. they want to know how she gets aspen in her kayak but also what kind of kayak she's using. >> a lot of people are interested in the year i'm using in my pictures. >> interest that caught the attention of advertisers who came bearing gifts. the kayak, dog food, all in an exchange for a post a month. >> we were looking for an influencer who was a female and who was also using garmin products. >> matt bound is it the director

at garmin international. who looks for people like samantha, influencers, whose influence range from information that, fitness, and of course celebrities. >> we relied on print and broadcast, that forces you to talk at consumers and be the interrupter. now with social media you have an opportunity to be part of the consumer dialogue. >> major corporations like coca-cola are cashing in to luring see lee na-gomez who can make $550,000 per post. >> it keeps the authentic vibe. >> 40% of people say they purchased an item after seeing it on social media. it'll be a 5 blld by 2020.

it's money funneling down to people like natalie m. rossi, who quit her finance job to do the influencer thing full time. >> just like a risk that i needed to take. >> natalie is closing in on a half a million followers who love her photograph regardless of whether or not those kenneth cole shoes were part of an advertising deal. >> i have to ask, everyone wants to know. how much can you make on an annual basis doing this? >> i'm in the six-figure range and yeah comfortable. >> but all these sponsored posts have raised some red flags. >> selena gomez is the most followed person on instagram. how much is sne she advertising to us? >> quite a bit and more than many people may know. >> it's the wild west right now.

the vast majority of social media influencers are not disclosing these are ads. >> including see lee na's coke ka cola post. it only posted the word ad after it was required to. >> can the ftc enforce the rules? >> to date the ftc has only brought four actions against companies that have violated the social media influencer rules and that's four out of thousands that are occurring each and every day. >> leaving consumers to decide for themselves whether or not they're under the influence. >> we just saw the power of social influencers we wanted to get best practices on working with them as a brand. mom influencer's hilarious viral videos have amazed more than 100000 views. we attended her blog in or land

doe and talked about how to get the most inout of influencers like her. >> our followers and fans really trust us. there's data they trust influencers, 92% of consumers trust influencers like a friend. so if you're recommending a brand to them they're going to listen to you because they are like my friends. i have lots and lots of online friends. >> you're talking about something specific. for you it's women, right? moms. >> yes. >> that's who you speak to? but other influencers it might be cool 18-year-old kids. >> exactly. as an influencer you have to find the right fit for you. for me, if you want something for moms come to me, for 18-year-old girls i'm not your girl. >> how do i think about this, if i want to hire an influencer? do i think of the money on branding or i'm going to get customer acquisition?

how do i decide what this money is being used for. >> i think for video that's a great brand play and you get exposure to lots and lots of people. it's a huge splash. i have done projects that have ended up on good morning america. if you want customer acquisition you want click throughs which would be a blog post someone can read and sign up for your camp or down load your wid jet or whatnot. >> how do influencers charge for this? is can you buy it on a cost per acquisition basis or do you pay a flat fee and you get what you get. >> there's different ways. for video you pay a flat fee. you can pay per click through, a lot of people thai pay that way. there's affiliate programs where you get a percentage back as an

influen influen influencer. so there's lots of different ways to do it. >> when i'm a brand and think of who to work with it, a step deeper, who do i figure out which influencer is going to give me the most bang for my buck? >> one thing i look at is not necessarily the size of the person audience but how engaged is the audience with them? you can have someone with a million followers and two likes or someone with a smaller audience but they're really engage preponderance of the evidence i would try to figure out who are you trying to reach. >> how much control do you have as the brand when you're talking to the influencer that this is the message? or how much do you have to say i'm putting it in your hands? >> to be honest, i think if you hire -- 98% of success in directing is casting. if you hire a great influencer who really understands their audience, i think you need to

trust them because they know my videos tend -- my sponsored videos tend to be shared thousands of times because i know what is going to resonate with my audience. but i listen to the brand and i like to talk not through my agent or not through the agency so i can really hear what is the message you're trying to get across. what do you want people to take away from this. >> i give you everything i can and let you run with it? >> i think that's the best way to go because the influencer really knows. >> that's why i'm hiring you. that you so much. we recently talked about the importance of letting go of the reins and why you need to master art of delegation. if you missed it, you need to visit our website. we as leaders focus on the big picture. here are five ways to keep your eye on the prize and not get bogged down by the little stuff.

one, schedule time to think, and keep that appointment. give your self the space to be creative. it's easy to lose that when you're focused on the day to day. two, use technology to your advantage and automate everything you can. while the transition may feel overwhelming, it will free up time for you to concentrate on more important things. three, make sure that your employees get ample training. you'll never be able to focus on the big picture if you're constantly being called in to put out fires. empower your staff with whatever they need to make decisions without you, and then trust them to do this job well. four, pretend to boot strap your business. even if things are going well, pretending to be a cash strapped startup for an afternoon could help you achieve laser-like focus on the most efficient next step. and five, reconsider your net worth. if you feel like you've been operating your business as usual, you may want to consider shaking up the people surrounding you. actively seek out relationships

with people who are different from you and who will challenge you to think in new ways. when we come back, why you need to take the emotion out of your exit strategy. and how having a gig on the side can help you run your company. 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.

trying to take an analytical approach to it. we could really use some help and guide annuaance in that are take the emotional issue out of moving forward. >> when trying to understand your business as an exit strategy, it's important to get a couple of data points. one is public markets. can you look at companies who do similar things, even though they are much bigger companies, there's normally a multiple on revenue and underlying data. the second thing you can do, you can look at how much cash the business is throwing off. what's the ebida, the growth rate. those are variables that give

you predictability into what the true value of the business is. for me i think it's really important to look at key business, which is revenue, growth, and profitability. look at those things. there's comparable metrics out there of how to value something in any industry, whether it's hardware, software, or services. then you can use that to get an analytical valuation for your business. >> we now have the top two tips that you need to know to help your growing business. venture capitalist patrick mcguinness founder of dear go advisers and the co-finder and ceo of pipeline angels for women investors. good to see both of you. >> good to see you. >> start with you, patrick. one thing you think they need to know. >> a lot of people talk beauty side hustles, about 30% are doing side hustle. did you know you can use your side hustle to grow your

business. when you're work ongoing a business you're heads down all the time. it's important to look around at others an invest time or money in business or maybe start something unrelated to what you're doing during the day on the side where you can do that without messing up your day job or risking your actual busine. >> do you think most people with side hustles are in the early stages of their company? when you say side hustle, you mean investing, you don't necessarily mean starting your own thing on the side. >> exactly. can you do either one. let me give you an example, a friend of mine, diego, has a travel business. great business, going fine, mature. he had an idea for smart suit case. he wasn't going to do that in his day job, didn't have the time. launch add business and doing millions in sales and he works there now. >> it also gives you perspective, right? sometimes a fire under your belly, excited about something new when maybe if you've been running your team a long time,

you're getting a little board with it. it gets everything more exciting. >> exactly. a great way to diversify and upside. most importantly, a great way to learn. >> natalia? >> i was going to say mine is leverage the do-over. it comes from my side hustle. guess what, i loved your book and how you made the point entrepreneurs can do side hustle. i'm 100% entrepreneur. i launched podcast pitch makeover. what we do is interview entrepreneurs. i gave them a literal makeover for their pitch. what they should keep, what they should add, what they should delete. the reason my top tip is leverage the do-over, i go to so many events, entrepreneurs get all this feedback chlgt they aren't applying the feedback, putting it into practice. what we do on the podcast, pitch makeover, as soon as i give them that makeover, as soon as i give them the feedback, guess what, they get a do-over. they get to do their pitch again

implementing the feedback that i give them. so the reason why it's so powerful. when someone -- so many people say the entrepreneur, startup is their baby. as soon as you get feedback that is constructive criticism, it can get you deflated. you're like, oh, it didn't work out. instead of thinking of it as something that's a disappointment we're giving these entrepreneurs an opportunity to do over their pitch, make it stronger. >> basically the gist is when you hear criticism, don't think it's over. i just pitched to patrick, he didn't like my company, time to throw in the towel. or i want this partnership. basically say i'm going to listen to what you say and use it the next time. thanks both of you. this week your biz selfie from baton rouge, louisiana, provide aluminum, bronze and cast iron products to other companies in the area. please send us your picture. we'd love seeing them. pick up your cell phone, take a

selfie of you and your business and send it to us at your business @msnbc.com or tweet. include the name, name of your business, the location, and anything fun or interesting about what you do. don't forget to use the #yourbizselfie. thanks for joining us. here is something i learned from today's show. earlier patrick talking about a side gig can help you with the company you're running day to day. the reality is most people don't have time for a side gig or they may not have money to be an investor. but we all have time to do something outside of our business. we need to do this just to get inspired and get our brain thinking a different way. go, walk in the park, go take a half hour and go to a museum. go have lunch with somebody who has nothing to do with your business. just getting out of the day to day of your company can give you all kinds of ideas that you don't have room to think about when you're sitting at your desk or talking to your managers all

day. now, we would love to hear from you. so if you have any questions or comments about today's show, e-mail u us @yourbusiness @msnbc.com. also click on our website, open forum.com/your business. we posted the segments from today's show plus a whole lot more from you. don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms, too. we look forward to seeing you next time. 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. . good morning and welcome to "politicsnation." it was while we were on the show during last week's show we began to understand the magnitude of the catastrophe left behind from hurricane harvey. now as the recovery efforts are continuing in texas, we want to focus on how much race and class ar factor in the aftermath of that natural