xfinity lets you witness all things me. skblo good morning. coming up on msnbc's your business, her ice cream business took a licking when the unthinkable happened. we'll tell you how she rebounded making the brand bigger than ever. find out how collecting data helped this lunch shop owner. flus, what you absolutely must do to protect that data from a growing threat of cybercrime. let's grow fast and work smart. that's all coming up next on "your business." "your business" is sponsored by american express open. helping you get business done. hi there, i'm j.j.

programburg and welcome to your business. talent, hustle and guts. that's what jenny britain bower of jenny's ice cream values most in her employees and partners and that's what got her business through a crisis that could have tanked the company but instead strengthened it. ♪ >> bramble berly crisp, salty care mel, pistachio and honey. is your mouth watering? the trademark orange and white container is known for its artisanal ingredient and unique flavor combinations. a brand built on quality and it's changing the way we think about american ice cream. and it's not cheep. at about $10 a pint, you pay a premium if you want to experience the distinctive taste of jeni's.

>> we believe if we're making the world's greatest ice cream, people will find us. we have to be making the world's greatest ice cream. >> jeni has dedicated more than half of her life to perfecting the art of making ice cream. her obsession started when she was a kid but it wasn't until college when the free spirited pink haired art student dropped out of school to open up a scoop shop did she realize it's a calling. >> it's delicious. but i feel like the watermelon is what i want. >> i'm turning 44 this year. it's really at this point so much a part of me, it's the lens through which i read and understand the world and it's probably a part of my, you know, makeup at this point. >> after years of building the business with just a few employees, the columbus, ohio based brand needed help with growth. that's when jeni turn to her old friend joe lowe. at the time he had a big job at ge. >> i said well i love you guys and that sounds awesome and

whole some and i'd love to do it but i don't think you need a ceo. no no in, you know us. we're artists. we created something amazing and need somebody to help us grow it. >> the company grew steadily turning her ice cream into a national brand, healthy online sales and retail distribution to high end supermarkets then everything came to a grinding halt when a crisis hit that threatened everything that the company stood for. >> we were informed that one pint of our ice cream in lincoln, nebraska tested positive forlisteria. that's the after moment for me. there's stress and then there's crisis. crisis is when there is a before and after. you go forward in a whole different way than you were before. >> the news was devastating. food contaminated with listeria could kill someone. with jeni's name on each and

every pint, the problem struck directly at the heart of this business built on a reputation for being the best. >> we decided to pull all of our ice cream, not just that lot, not just that flavor but everything and shut down our scoop shops. we couldn't fathom the idea that somebody could walk into our scoop shop the next day and be injured. and fortunately we got through that with no one suffering any serious injury. we overreacted some would say. we thought it was the only way we were going to sleep that night. >> john and jeni decided the only way forward was to fully tackle the problem with complete transparency. it was a costly decision but they felt it was necessary if the business was going to survive. >> we had absolutely no idea how much money it would cost us. the fact of the matter is it cost us millions. but there wasn't an alternative. i was saying to jeni at the time i don't know if this means

bankruptcy. frankly i can't see a path that we get through this without bankruptcy. and we're very fortunate. we threaded the needle multiple times to find financing and find backers to keep us afloat during that time. >> with the very survival of the company in the balance, they relied heavily on what jeni calls talent, hustle and guts. qualities they look for in their employees and partners but never expected would be tested. >> you want to say you've got talent and hustle and guts but you don't really know until you prove it. this was our proving it moment and we came together and figured it out. >> the crisis management started with their suppliers. like the employees, they had to have the same level of talent, hustle and guts to ride out this storm. mike hish as worked with jeni for ten years. he's had a long standing

argument to grow the berries. when the news hit, he admits he was nervous. >> i'm thinking, what am i going to do. what am i going to do with all of these strawberriestrawberrie. what are we going to do in blackberry season. they were in constant contact with me about the steps that were being taken. they assured me immediately don't worry. we're still committed. don't worry. that was within the first seven days they put my questions to rest. they were going to get through this. i was going to stick with them and we're in it for the long haul and here we are. >> with the support of their suppliers shored up, the next step was taking a hard look at all of their production and processes to figure out what happened. with so many local ingredients from farm fresh milk to blackberriesance whiskey, it meant looking at how they brought those items in and what they did with them in the kitchen. >> then we started testing, okay, it came from the kitchen.

listeria is everywhere. it's in the dirt that's in the strawberries. it's in the air. it's airborne. it surrounds us constantly but it's dangerous if it gets into go food so you don't want that to happen. we were doing everything we believed we needed to do before and it still got in there. so we changed everything we do and we did it i believe in record time. >> they also hired a former food safety expert from ben and jerry to oversee their production and they decided to do something understand precedented in the industry. test every single batch of ice cream before it went out to be certain it's never happened again. >> it's a sleeker organization that's ready to go forward in a way we wouldn't have been able to do this had we not had this. >> it's enabled us to take advantage of the crisis and think about the way we operate as a company and we've come out of it stronger in many ways.

there's misconception that utilizing data to grow fast is just for really big companies. but look, anyone who runs a business or a department of a business should be collecting data. hide in those numbers are some great strategy to help your company thrive. we went to visit the owner of a lunch shop in california who showed us how her data helped her increase her cash flow and decrease her supply costs. ♪ >> next customer. >> take a close look at this turkey and cheese on a roll. if you're one of these customers at village cheese shop in palo alto, california, that san wi s looks like lunch. but if you're the owner here, that sandwich looks like data, raw data. >> these are the bread choice, the spread choices, meat, cheese, toppings and then if

they wanted a deli salad on the side. >> at the 50-year-old lunch shop which lindsey operated since 2007, she turns everything into a number. >> we've been opened 19 minutes and made $260. you track how many people are coming in, who's visiting my business. a big slice of the business is 25 to 34 demographic. that's the biggest demographic. >> lots of data in that sandwich. >> big data expert alan is at vancouver. >> how much did that sandwich cost. who bought it. >> even small business owners can learn a lot from their data if they just ask the right questions. >> how many times have they bought it? where did the meat come from? how much did the bread cost? >> those are the exact questions that lindsey asks herself every day. >> in the last 30 days i've paid 121 bills for a total of $50,523.

>> tracking those numbers is harder than you think. >> something goes up 7 cents a pound you don't notice on the first invoice but over time you see a difference in the money you're making. >> if the cost rise faster than the prices, lindsey says each popular shops like hers can go broke very rapidly, no matter what industry they're in. >> i can't rise the cost of my sandwich up and down based on what the cost of tomatoes are or cheese. >> like any other high volume business, she says her survival month after month depends on monitoring those food costs because the profit more gins are so small. >> somewhere between 86,000 and $11,01 11 0,000? sales. a lot of turnover. >> the first difficulty with tracking the costs is that suppliers don't always give notice when prices change. the second obstacle to tracking

food supply prices is the paper trail. the receipts listing changes come in on scraps of paper, left behind by the deliver ray man, no digital record at all. >> you get paper every day from vendors. but there's no such paper it sort of becomes pointless because it couldn't really find anything. they might have well have thrown it out, on the honest. >> in fact that's what lindsey does. she throws them all out but not before she's carefully scanned each one into her quickbooks account. >> these are the food costs right near. >> this is e-mailed to her bill.com account for payment and sent to a spread sheet showing the rate she's paying vendor by vendor, day by day, month by month. this allows her to flag price changes and respond to them as soon as they happen. >> bringing them back down with your vendors or adjusting your prices or dropping something off of the menu. >> by using this data this ways,

lindsey's retail business is what alan bond kaums data driven. lindsey says her shopkeepers who select collect their receipts in a draw and wait for they bookkeeper to do the math are getting their information too late to use. food costs are not the only numbers she monitored. lindsey using bread crumb software to track the cash in the cash reblgstgister. >> we assign a particular cashier to each register. >> alan says this kind of access to data allows owners to make decisions and change plans quickly and effectively. >> the key with big data and small data is getting the rapid feedback and thinking about the actions that you think. >> but data alone is not enough. when this vendor suggested lindsey could save 17 cents a

pound on precooked roast beef, she jumped on it and made a big mistake. but the customers could tell that it was commercially cooked and they didn't like it at all. >> the feedback was like you've ruined my life. and i just realized, it's not worth losing the business. >> that's where the judgment comes in. some numbers matter more than others and every business owner must decide what to do with the data once they get it. >> i can't say i've had a single day of being bored since i bought this business. it's never the same. no two days are the same. ek kwa fax, target, verizon, whole foods, all of these companies have been hacked and those are big companies with a lot of resources. so you need to ask yourself, what are you doing to protect your own company. james c. foster is the founder and ceo of zero fox, a cybersecurity company. i'm very excited to talk to you because i think there are a lot

of things that we all should be doing that people are not doing. >> thanks so much. appreciate the opportunity. >> and you go by foster, not james. >> i do. >> let's start, number one, you got to think about this and ask the right questions. >> it's not a question anymore of if it will happen. it's when. you need to plan an invest accordingly. >> what does that take to plan and invest accordingly. where should i put my money? >> you've got to get beyond the basics. 23% of growing businesses these days even on the smaller side are getting hacked and attacked every single day. 23%. it goes back to if. make sure you have a plan. if it happens you know who to call, what to do. most people find themselves in a reactive situation where something bad has happened and they don't know who to call. >> am i right in saying the number one way that people get hacked into is through employees still or no. >> employees are part of the weakest link. >> that is a weak link nks

absoluab. >> absolutely. >> i clicked on a phishi ining . i know better than to do this. the minute i did it i called the computer person sean said can you check my computer. >> it used to be e-mail. but social has blown this up. everybody is on social. for instance, there's only 1345 million websites on the dot-com space today. 200 million businesses on facebook. >> how do you warn your employees to do something like i did. i know better. how do i keep my employees who probably already know better from doing this? >> training has got to be part of the equation. you've got the train your workforce to understand the risks that affect all size businesses. >> it's training. i know there's some programs out. we had one on the show at some point where they will test your employees, they'll put some red herrings out there and see if they'll click on them. >> there's testing platforms out

there and protection. making sure you understand the risk on the testing side, incredibly valuable. you put a lot of time an effort on the protection side. >> it's not just the website. you got to check social media as well. >> that's right. >> and then you talk about the liability. it's not just your own liability. you've got to district that wbu with the people you work with. >> most business owners don't realize they have the opportunity to transfer the liability back on their vendors. >> how do you do that? >> make sure the vendors are willing to guarantee the capability. all too often business owners get stuck with the bad end of -- all too often business owners get stuck with the bad end of the stick. and when something bad happens the guy says you didn't configure it properly. they need to transfer the liability back to the vendor saying look, if your product doesn't work, there's a financial ramification. >> are most people not thinking

that through right now? >> i don't think they think that through. that's right. and i'm not sure they understand they can do that. >> and then finally, if something happens, you got to be up front about it. >> be up front, be honest and communicate quickly. i think reputational and brand damage is one of the longest and hardest things to repair. i think your customers will really appreciate if you come out and say look, we were doing a lot of things, we missed this one thing, we had a problem because of it, here's what we've done to fix it. that level of transparency will earn you big points in the long run. >> that goes back to your first point which is have a plan and know who to get to. if you do not have a plan in place and you're scrambling to see who to call, you're not going to be able to be transparent with your customers in a way that makes them feel safe. >> that's right. >> i hope this is a reminder to everyone, every business large and small that they need to be paying attention to that. >> so do i. thank you.

i'm here with this week's elevator pitcher sam white who is here to tell our panelists about your new product. tell me about it. >> this is a technology that i deployed in india to help dairy farmers chill their milk without the generators. but my wife couldn't take the heat. >> so this product not only is going to help people but it helped your marriage? >> exactly. >> let's go in to meet the panelists. >> is this your color by the way? >> i really love purple but i'm going to try the gray one on while we're walking. the cooling is nice. let me tell you about today's judges. we have patrick mcginnis and the cow founder of june group digital advertising company. i think you'll do great. >> fantastic. looking forward to it. i'm sam white inventor of this cooling necklace. millions of people suffer from

chronic heat issues and my pat tenlted cooling technology lets me beat the heat in style. a few years ago i was living in india deploying a cooling technology. but my wife couldn't take the heat. so i took the ice technology and created this buceautiful coolin necklace that when you take it out of the freezer it lasts for hours. i've sold 3,000 of these necklaces on amazon and my website at $49. i'm. looking to raise $500,000 in order to expand internationally. this is a social impact investment. over 50 million people suffer from hot flashes alone in the united states. so please come help me improve the lives of so many people who suffer from heat. thank you. >> nicely done. it looks like you guys are all wearing leis. okay. both of you, i need a number,

one through ten. what did you think of the product and what did you think of the pitch. patrick. >> i gave you a 9 for the pitch and an 8 for the product. i thought your pitch was actually pretty tight. you gave me metrics about howme how you're foremaning, you talked about the social impact which is a really important thing to talk about, and you explained why with you are the right person to build this business n terms of the product, i need to get out into the field. it is hot. >> narrator: lights. i need to really test it out in the real world to know if it works for sure. you convinced me that it it's a pretty good product. >> mitch snl. >> i gave you seven for the product and eight for the pitch. starting with the product, i don't know if this is a great look for me on national television. but it certainly is -- i love the idea of it. i think it could probably use mob development. it is certainly a great concept n terms of the pitch, i agree there is a lot of great data and did a terrific job explaining it. i would love to have a little more passion, a little more fun. >> that's good. that's great advice.

i know you're passionate about. this i spoke to you about it. that's great advice. good luck with everything. thank you so much for coming on the program. congratulations on the product. >> appreciate it. >> thank you for all your feedback. >> pleasure. thanks. >> how would any of you tlik come on "your business" and pitch your company like just saw? the best way to do that is send us a video of you doing your one minute elevator pitch. you can send it to us. or post it to your youtube page and then send us the link. include a short summary of what your company is doing, how much money you're going to raise and what you're going to do with the money. >> coming up next, what you need to do to maintain your company culture when your business is growing fast. and we've all heard of fomo. but what does fobo mean?

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! "we got a 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. as you scale the business, how do you make sure that the culture, the core values and that mission driven focus continue to permeate every part of the business and are embodied in every team member in the company? >> so for me, what was very

important is that those five values, i mean we call the five ps, that i one, write them down. you have to write them down. then you have to get everyone trained on it and disseminated within your organization. and i follow this formula of 20, 20, 60 which is positive te20% time telling people about the history and then 20% about the present. and then i spend about 60% of the time in the future. but it is defined by our past, experiences, what we learned tlachlt is very, very important. so first, getting it defined. you have to let people know about it. and every week you have to communicate the values and in different ways. motivate. you have to inspire people. you inspire people. you take the values, those things that made you successful that are going to make you successful and you make sure everyone in the organization knows about it. >> we now have the top two tips you need to help grow your

business. patrick and mitch rl back with us. >> my tip is beware of fobo. >> what is fobo? >> fomo is fear of missing out. what is b? >> i'm credited for creating fomo. it is much worse than fobo. fobo is fear of a better option. it's idea instead of making decisions we xlecollect as many options we have and we never really decide, right? and so in this age of big data and analysis paralysis, it's really critical for people to be decisive. so what i tell people is ask yourself why are you holding those doors open? if it's just to have an option, close the doors, make a decision and move on. >> it's so true. right? i mean too many options is paralyzing sometimes. and it gets better to just -- i agree. just be decisive, direct, and can you go back later if you need to and change everything

up. all right. >> so my advice is simple. don't stop. the temptation to try something else or to give up or to quit, you know, people don't realize when you start a company you're embarrassed, u mihumiliated on, stepped on, abused. if you keep going, failure doesn't really happen. just experiences and learning. and that is the main thing is to just keep doing it. >> all right. so that is great as you're looking back. failure never happened. it was just experience. when you're in the middle of it, it's terrible. everything is crashing down around you -- >> that's the thing. see, that's what separates people who are successful and people who aren't. a normal person would never go through what an entrepreneur has to go through. you have to not be normal. you have to put up with things that the average person would not in order to succeed. >> so i want to know how both of you do that don't stop? right? it is common to want to give up when things get tough. what do you do?

>> the big thing that helps me is always remember to enjoy the small things, enjoy the small victories. the big picture is something you can't sol inform a dafrment the small things can you attack one by one. >> okay. so get small victories. what do do you? >> my dad taught me it's all about speshgtive. you have to take a difficult situation and embrace it and say this is what i'm supposed to be doing. this is what i have to go through. what i can learn from it? and when you look at it in those terms, it's not a block or not a wall, it's not devastating, it's just difficult. and difficulty is okay. >> right. my mom used to read us the book the little enink that could. i started i think i can't which i start mid company which is we cannot be expected to solve every problem ourselves. and so if you just recognize what you can't solve and then say i'm not going to solve the problem, the only problem i need to solve is who is the person that can help me solve this problem?

right? and so recognizing what you can't do. >> it's great. >> absolutely. >> that's what i do when i'm up at 3:00 in the morning worrying about something going on in business. all right. you know, i love this kind of almost self helpy stuff. as i've been doing this show for longer and longer and talk to more and more business decision makers, i realize that that is the part that often is the hardest in running a business. >> yeah. you feel alone. you feel like you're the one that's failing. >> or embarrassed. >> that's something a lot of people don't talk b you're in the spotlight. it's just you. you're going to say dumb things every once in a while. hopefully not on a show like this. >> if you do, we'll take it out. all right. thank you both. >> this week's your biz selfie comes from alexander donaldson and a great little helper. he runs alexander donaldson trucking in stone mountain, georgia, an interstate carrier and mover for residences and commercial businesses. we love seeing these photos from oren the country.

so please right now pick up your smart phone and take a selfie of you and your company number professional shots. send it to us or tweet it to us. include your name, name of your business, and your location and if you tweet it use the #yourbizselfie. thank you so much for joining us. earlier this week i had an issue with a kmip was a customer off. and i was talking to them or on hold for literally an hour talking to someone after someone after someone, none of whom were helpful until finally i reached someone who was helpful and resolved my issue. that person saved the company in my eyes. i would never have gone back because that person was so great, i will absolutely go back to that company. so this is just a he remind that's right people on the front lines, the people who are dealing with your customers can absolutely make or break your business. so treat your kmucustomer well

teach your customer service team to treat them well. we would love to hear from you. if you have any comments about today's show, please e-mail us. you can also click on our website. we posted all of the segments from today's show plus a whole lot more. don't forget to connect with us on our digitsal and social platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. 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. good morning. welcome to "politics nation." the trump white house is a growing chaos for staffers and according to a report this week, the president himself. we'll talk to a former first lady michelle obama's chief of staff on how the current administration stacks up against the previous one. and will the nfl cave to president trump's wrath? as the league refutes speculation that