see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," it is christmas all year round at this gigantic family run store in michigan. how their customer service keeps people coming back. sva administrator linda mcmahon talks about the small business outlook for 2018. and will these owners get the chance to go to arkansas or go home? our elevator pitchers try to get their products on the shelves of sam's club. let's grow fast and work smart. that's all coming up next on a special year-end edition of "your business."

hi there, everyone. i'm jj ramberg. welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your growing business. so many of us talk about traditions at this time of year. the ways that we celebrate the holidays with our family and friends. well, christmas just wouldn't be the same for generations of shoppers without a stop at one special place in michigan that rivals even the north pole. it's a pilgrimage that millions of people make every year to the world's largest christmas store. ♪ >> if they're looking for something for christmas, they're guaranteed just about to find it here. >> it simply doesn't get any bigger than this. >> we have about 2 million people come through here in the course of a year. they come back year after year after year. >> if you love christmas, frankenmuth, michigan, is the

merriest place to be all year long. >> 27,000 people came through the store in one day. >> the town is home to the world's largest christmas store. >> you can just come in and kind of lose yourself and enjoy the christmas spirit. we want them to feel the joy of christmas, whether it's january, july, december. >> bronner's christmas wonderland has an area the size of about 1 1/2 football fields filled with trees, lights, nativities, and ornaments of every size, shape, and color. >> we have over 50,000 different things that we sell here in our store. my father wally would always say, it's up to you to come in and how much it costs to leave is up to you. >> wally bronner started the business in 1945. his son wayne now runs it. >> i got to be the ceo when my father passed away. i had the most gray hair. i went from taking care of white tail deer to taking care of rudolph. >> the business had humble beginnings. wally originally made wooden

signs he sold to local towns and cities. >> a lot of times people would say, do you have anything for the home? another lightbulb went off. >> karla, one of wayne's two sisters working for the company, says her father never would have imagined the business bearing his name would be so famous. >> it wasn't like we said, oh, let's build the world's largest christmas store. it's been an evolution. we had three stores in the middle of town and combined those stores into one store at this location at 25 christmas lane. we thought, how are we ever going to fill up this big building? well, it didn't take long. >> wally set a very high bar when it came to his customers. he could and would talk to anyone who walked through the door. >> we talk about expectations, and people come here with pretty high expectations. our job is to exceed those expectations. he had a mind that was like a 5 gig hard drive. he could remember people's names from ten years ago. so they were just impressed that he knew their name and where they worked and who they were

married to. >> wally's personal approach to business lives on with his family and the 750 permanent and temporary employees who work around the holidays. it's not about just making the sale for them. it's about connecting with customers through conversation. >> bronner's is so different from a typical retail establishment. the people that come here don't need a thing. they're coming here for an experience. so we have to give them that. so we have to go above and beyond. >> wayne's son dietrich is the first member of the third generation to join the retailer full time. he focuses on product development and bronner's catalog, which is sent to about 3 million places. >> i always kind of knew growing up that i'd be ending up here for my career. still, it's mind boggling. people from every country in the world have come to it. we want them to get lost in the joy. we really put a lot of care and passion in the store and it shows. >> on some days, it not uncommon to see a thousand people waiting in line for bronner's to open.

once inside, commerce love seeing one of the family members. >> it's funny. if somebody sees your name tag and sees bronner, oh, he's a bronner. we get comments like, oh, you're working here? we thought you'd be retired in florida. >> there are lots of customers who have personal stories about why they keep coming back to bronner's, stories they love to share. >> they'll say, i used to come here as a kid, we would pick out an ornament every year. now we're bringing our kids here and they get to pick out their special ornament. >> there's a particular group of women that come around november, december, and we know when they're here. they all dress up to the nines in crazy costumes. >> part of bronner's appeal is that about half the ornaments are original designs. >> i'm always dreaming of what new thing we can do that hasn't been done yet. we're just here to thrill the guests. that's all we want to keep doing. whatever the guests want, we're going to follow that. >> and because they get so many repeat customers, they're constantly having to introduce new products. >> if you look at the growth curve of bronner's, it's a long, steady, boring curve.

but the important part is it always goes up. we try to cater to the customers' tastes and so forth. we have our finger on the pulse of what people want. >> but those items will only get them so far. in the end, wayne says it all goes back to his father. wally's strategy was simple, and it's helped bronner's become the christmas icon it is today. >> really treasure your customers because they're honoring you with their business. the fact they're coming through your door really means something. so they're looking to you for your services, for whatever goods you provide. so treat them right. and they will keep coming back. as we end the year, we want to take a look at what's ahead in 2018 for small businesses. linda mcmahon, the administrator of the small business administration, has been on an ignite tour where she's visiting all 68 district offices of the sba to find out what small business owners need and what it looks like for 2018 for them.

it's so good to see you. >> nice to see you too. thank you. >> well, we're going to get some real insight from you because you've spoken to so many small business owners over the past year basically to find out what does the future look for them and what do they need. >> well, you know, i've been in this role as administrator since february 14th, valentine's day is when i really took over. i made it a goal of mine to visit all 68 districts of sba throughout the country and u.s. territories. so i have been from puerto rico to anchorage to the northwest corner to the middle of the country to the east coast, and i've only been to about 26 so far. what i've heard consistently from small businesses all over the country is how can they be helped from the federal government, and it is tax reform. it's regulatory reform. it's health care reform. and more and more i hear the issue of work force. those are common themes throughout the country.

without fail, small businesses tell me that when they have more money in their pocket, they invest it back into their business. so tax cuts, tax reform would be helpful for them. they would take that money and reinvest. when they reinvest, they grow their business or they raise the wages of their employees. they add to our economy. as we know, small businesses are the backbone of our economy. so we want them to grow. we want more of them to start. and we want them to succeed. >> are small businesses feeling optimistic right now? >> they are. small businesses are feeling optimistic because they are looking forward for these changes. they've already seen the economy grow. we're up to about 3% or a little more. we're heading in hopefully a continuing upward trajectory for our gdp growth. but small businesses are hiring. more of them are starting. but we need to continue this feeling of optimism through

2018, and i think we're definitely going to see that. >> it's an interesting time because it's much easier to start a small business now than it used to be because tools are cheaper. they're more accessible. it's easier to market to people. at the same time, some of these big businesses serve as a gateway, even if it's an algorithm that's serving as a gateway from amazon to google. they have so much power over small businesses. how do you compete in this world? >> well, a lot of small businesses can compete by having niche products, but also, even the amazons are fed by a lot of small businesses. >> absolutely. >> so we need to continue that growth of small businesses, whether they're feeders, whether they're supplying a product that can only be found through them. they're continuing to be inno va ti tive in the marketplace. that's what we want to see in the marketplace. we need to continue more and more of that. >> what can we expect from the sba in 2018?

>> my goal with the sba in 2018 is that it will no longer be the best-kept secret in the country. you think sba, you think loans. but not even everybody thinks about sba as a resource for access to capital. however, sba is so much more. we have our resource partners, our small business development centers, our score offices, and score offices are volunteers who are there, often retired ceos or not even retired, but they'll work with entrepreneurs to develop business plans, look at what kind of business they want to develop, their marketing plans, spend thend them back to drawing board. and it's all for free. our women's business centers, veterans outreach. i want everyone in the country to know about sba. one of the first things i set the agency about was a reimagining sba, which has been

almost a year-long project. probably next spring we'll roll it out with new outward facing messaging, logos, resource materials for our district offices. we're doing much more on social media now. so sba is not going to be the best-kept secret by the end of 2018. >> for people who complain about red tape around loans? >> cut it. >> when we come back in a year, do you think they're going to be complaining less? >> i think they will because through technology, we're absolutely making the application process much more streamlined and looking at combining some of those processes so that we're not, you start here and then you have to go to step number two and repeat a bunch of the questions that you already answered in step one. it's more along the lines of, you know, you can't advance to the next page until you've answered all the questions on this page. just make the whole process much more streamlined. so we're working on it. working hard on it. >> well, thank you very much for all you do. we wish you the best of luck. thanks for taking the time to talk to us. >> been a pleasure.

thank you. we're here at sam's club in secaucus, new jersey, where our elevator pitcher is going to have the chance to pitch two buyers from sam's club. sam's club is a membership only retail warehouse club with more than 650 locations across the country with millions of members. so if our elevator pitcher gets the thumbs up from these buyers, they're going to go to arkansas, where they'll have the chance to get their product in a sam's club just like this one. let's see what happens. john, good to see you. let me see this product of yours. what is this? >> it's a barbecue tool made from broken hockey sticks. >> but this is a job, not your only job. what else? >> i'm a manager for writers and directors in film and television. >> what seems scarier, pitching to people in hollywood or to buyers from sam's club? >> sam's club buyers. >> all right. well, we're going to get to the moment of truth.

you're going to be pitching two people. let's go see what they think. >> all right. hi, guys. how are you? i'm steven. >> amy. >> john. >> very nice to meet you both. my company was formed five years ago by two hockey dads in a hot garage in los angeles, california. when we saw $300 hockey sticks constantly being broken and thrown in the trash, we thought there had to be a better use. our first thought was a barbecue set. this is high quality stainless steel. it retails for $49.99. as an extra add-on, we're going to include this hockey bag, which is a mini version of a hockey bag. our sticks are sourced from over 80 different hockey teams throughout the u.s. and canada. we work with three of the major stick manufacturing companies. we repurposed over 60,000 hockey sticks that all would have ended up in landfills. our products are sold throughout

the u.s. at various different nhl arenas. >> do you have to have a professional license for these by the teams? >> we do not. there's no license needed because we're repurposing sticks, and there's no markings for the nhl teams. >> i'm stepping in. nice job. you guys hockey fans? >> a little bit. >> sure. >> growing up in arkansas, you don't see a lot of hockey. >> you asked one question. do you have any more just to get more information? >> i'm curious, who is your target consumer? >> strangely enough, we found that mostly women buy our products. they're buying them for men as gifts. so father's day, christmas, valentine's day. >> great. >> all right. you got your first glimpse at it. a quick one-minute elevator pitch, which i think is what you get normally. so you two decide. does he get an invitation? >> so love the sustainability story. i think that's fantastic. you took a problem that a lot of people don't know as a problem, turned it spoointo a solution. i think overall for sam's club,

it doesn't quite fit our member profile. it's a little too niche for us at the moment, but i think it's such a cool idea. i just commend you for what you've done. so best of luck to you. i hope that in the future, we see your product on the shelves in a lot of places. >> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. great to see you. >> thank you, john. nice to meet you . >> and thank you. no sam's club, but it doesn't mean there's not a market, as you've already proven. thanks for coming on. from smartphones to social media, the business marketing landscape has changed dramatically as we all know over the last 15 years. here are five marketing trends to think about as you hammer out your plans for 2018. one, optimize for voice enabled devices. the rise of digital assistants like siri, google home, and alexa mean more people are talking to their devices. research how to optimize your content. two, linkedin becomes a social

butterfly. linkedin isn't just a resume posting, job searching site anymore. it's a go-to digital gathering place for professionals to network, get credible content, and engage with some of the most influential leaders. three, don't stress out over snapchat. most popular among millennials and generation z, snapchat was supposed to be the hottest marketing tool of 2017. however, as of october, snapchat usage among some top influencers was down by about 33%. four, consider artificial intelligence. from chat bots to automated messages to augmented reality, think of ways you can use machine learning to inform and engage your potential clients in 2018. and five, make your brand's personal story a star. people still don't love the hard sell. they're tired of a one size fits all message. instead, bring your customers behind the scenes of your company. allow them to get to know your

staff and put your mission out front and center. if you like the conversations we have here on the show, then you are going to love our brand new podcast. "been there, built that." this week we're releasing two more episodes, one with neil blumenthal, the founder and ceo of warby parker. and one with makeup maven bobby brown, the founder of bobby brown cosmetics, who just launched a new lifestyle brand. in spite of their enormous success, both neil and bobby are incredibly approachable and honest. i had a really fun and interesting chat with each of them. my goal with this podcast is that you and i both come away inspired and come away with real lessons we can apply to our careers, our businesses, and our lives. so please check it out. it's called "your business: been there, built that." speaking of expert advice, when wie come back, words of wisdom from some of the great business minds we've spoken with this past year, including tory

birch and jim purdue. and will the owners of this delicious pound cake get the opportunity to get on the shelves at sam's club? we'll find out. 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.

currently we use proprietary software to help find the best locations that fit into our demographics. is there anything else we should be doing outside of strong broker relationships and our proprietary software to help find the best sites for our brand? >> so the one additional thing that i would do is to constantly engage with the bigger landlords in the area that you are looking for locations. so in my experience, landlords have done a lot of research into the demographics of the area before they've purchased a property, and i think that would be useful. in my experience, also, a lot of the time brokers want to see deals get done, but they're not always working in the best interest of the client. a landlord wants to keep a great tenant there for a long period of time. so that is the one thing that i would say that you should do, which is to constantly engage with the landlords in the area where you want to open your locations. this has been a fantastic

year for us here at "your business." we've had the honor of picking the brains of some world class business leaders who created or have run some of the most iconic brand names in america. we thought we'd look back iconic businesses in america. we decided to take a look back at some of the wisdom they shared with us. >> think of negativity as noise. you know, really believe in yourself. there were so many times people said, oh, i don't like your logo. why are you launching online? never buy online. we launched with one store and an he commerce site. i think if you have conviction and you go with your gut and you really believe you're answering a need, that's when it works. >> don't enter it just because you want to exit it. do it because you really want to be in it.

if you're not doing it for the right reasons and you're not passionate about it, think twice. and we thought, okay, we can definitely check boxes before we raised the first round and turned it into a company, we said we truly enjoy doing it. it's fun. creating an industry for something that was not there. the reason was never let's do it, flip it, and sell it. exactly the opposite. we felt, oh, my goodness, is that a job? it's so much fun. >> i like having contact with people. i like having conversations. that seems to come up over and over in my life. nothing frustrates people more than when you call someplace up and you get automated service and you wait and there's a problem with some component. i called the company and kept

getting voice mail. i said if you can't hire a person to answer the phone, you are probably going out of business. so i got a call right back. >> everyone that came in here, someone brought them in. someone brought them in. i don't do that. advertising doesn't work. for me, marketing is any effort to improve the bottom line that isn't directly improving the product or service. my recommendation to anyone is don't market. marketing happens naturally and effectively. that is when the end users won't shut the [ bleep ] up about what they're getting. that's your marketing. as a business person, if you have additional energy in the form of money or time or ideas, put it into improving the product or service so your customer can do their marketing job.

>> we have 21,000 people, there are a lot of decisions to be made 6th day. somebody has a can of solvent. at an expense, he can make sure he gets the proper way. or goes in the back woods and dumps it. i want to make sure he understands the value of the company before he makes that decision. i can't be there when he makes the decision. i want him to be thinking about those values. the decisions every day are what make us a successful company or not. >> like a lot of other companies in our category, we don't think about developing a product, launching it, and then that's it, we're done. let's sit back and relax. we viewed that we need a great product to launch with but we can always make it better. we know as soon as we launched the product, we are on the next version is to improve it. we like the temporary nature of

pop-ups. it allows us to learn, allows us to tweak the experience for customers. we continue to learn and evolve how we interact with customers in the off line world just like we do with a website that's constantly learning and changing. >> it's not a one-time thing. you've got to ask yourself what's the next level. because what you do today can be easily copied. so you have to constantly think of new ways to improve. i love the saying from bezos. he said it's always day one. i love that saying. that is the innovative culture that we aspire to achieve. when it's always day one, there is always the great excitement, the can-do attitude. and everything is from scratch. there's nothing to inhibit you to try something. so i love that.

>> i'm jj ramberg. >> very nice to meet stkphru yo >> so nice to meet you too. >> these pound cakes look delicious. >> they are. >> where does the recipe come from. >> my husband's big mama emily mag knolleo mcclone. >> i love what you call your husband. >> cake daddy. >> i love that. you will be preach to go two buyers today. >> all right. and i can't wait to see what they think. >> me too. let's get it. hi. i'm april mcclone with emily's pound cakes. our business started as a fund-raiser. we raised over $14,000 with this beauty right here to send a

child to china and one to europe for a student ambassadorship. we produce hundreds of cakes monthly. the package slice sits in 28 walgreen's in birmingham and tuscaloosa areas. we are in grocery stores. we are on amazon and restaurants. >> mind if we give it a try? >> please. please. we have our original round. lemon blueberry loaf. >> i'm going to butt in while they're driving. i know that selling food products. it's all about packaging and so much. but on the taste, which is the one part i can judge, amazing. >> thank you. >> it's so good. i'm going to give you a minute to talk. i tried blueberry. it is so, so good. all right. this is your world, steven. what does she need to think about in the pitch? >> i think it's very good. it's moist. i love it. it's heavy. it tastes like the pound cake

that i grew up with. >> any questions for her? >> where did these recipes come from? what inspired you? >> all right. so the original was my husband's big mama's recipe. my husband had been making her product since he was a teenager. we had been married 17 years. we got the opportunity to send one child to china and the other to europe. we prayed how to come up with this money. $14,000. spirit said what about the pound cake. in nine months we raised over $14,000 with one pound cake. >> what is your favorite tphraeflavor? >> original. and i have a pumpkin that's to die for. >> the moment of truth. >> sounds good. >> does she get a ticket or an invitation. >> i would love to have you come to bentonville. i would love to put you in clubs in the alabama area and do some live sampling. i think it would be great.

>> that's delicious. >> great story. great quality product. >> thank you. >> i love this week's your biz selfie from luke schneider who owns and makes fire department coffee in rockford, illinois. he developed his love while deployed with the navy. and as you can see, he is a firefighter and he's created great tasting fighter for first responders like himself who work long hours. also part of every sell goes back to firefighter and military charities. thank you for all you do, luke. why don't you pick up your smartphone, take a selfie of you and your business and accepted it to your business at msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbc your biz. include your name, the location, and use the hashtag yourbizselfie. thank you, everyone, for joining us. we love hearing from you. if you have any questions for comments or just want to say hi, anything about today's show,

e-mail us at your busines business @msnbc.com. go to openforum.com/yourbusiness. we posted all of the selling isments from today's show, plus a whole lot more for you. we're on social. you can connect with us on all digital and social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you until next time, i'm jj 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. morning glory, america. i'm hugh hewitt. it is christmas eve eve and you have to do christmas shopping today. i'm here to help you with two magnificent books that will make any recipient happy. i read them both. robert kenny, a raging spirit by our own "hardball" host chris matthews. and "playing with fire." the 1968 election transformation of our ownby our own lawrence you o'donnell. i'm read both of these