coming up on "your business" the musical group the jonas brothers has stopped touring. the dad used his musical skills to open a hometown restaurant. and what the owner of this camera store did to pivot from a product based to service based model order to survive. and trying to lock up our judges approval with an elevator pitch. that's all coming up next on "your business".

hi, everyone. i'm j.j. welcome to "your business" the show dedicated to helping your growing business. kevin, joe, and nick jonas. their names, their faces and their music are known around the world. you what might not know about these star system that they can trace some of their roots back to north carolina where their father and former manager was born, raised, and has now returned along with their mother. and there's a very good chance you might see one of those famous brothers enjoying a bite at their parents latest venture, a local restaurant named after their great grandmother. >> this is the first time my dad's ever done anything in the restaurant business. it made sense, but it definitely felt a little crazy. he pulled it off. >> kevin jonas will never be an ordinary customer at nellie's

southern kitchen. it's not because he's a celebrity. >> anytime you come here, you'll get a taste of how my family grew up. >> it's because the owners are his parents. >> i love and respect the fact that they went back to their hometown. this makes sense for them. >> after a successful run managing kevin, joe, and nick's career, kevin and his wife decided it was time to go back home. kevin hadn't lived in belmont for more than 30 years. >> you start to feel a need to not just pass through. >> they wanted to contribute to a community that meant so much to kevin as well as pay tribute to his past there. >> eventually my wife said why don't we do a restaurant and if we're going to do a restaurant in belmont it should be devoted to your grandmother, a great lady. worked hard every day of her life in the cotton mills, then would come home and make the most amazing southern comfort food. >> not only did kevin want to share many of his grandmother's

recipes at the restaurant, he was also trying to find a way to help relatives who had been affected by the closure of local cotton mills. >> a lot of my family went through transition having worked in cotton mills. we had musicians in the family that were out of work. we had music here and i wanted to provide an outlet. it was a desire to do something good, almost a side project. >> in spite of the global recognition of the jonas brothers name, when they opened nellie's, they made an effort not to market it zas a jonas brother's restaurant. >> i think part of the problem is the name will bring people initially but if the experience is bad it backfires right away. >> they knew in order for this to work the jonas brothers celebrity had to take a back seat to this new local identity. >> if you walked in this restaurant, had dinner, and left, you'd never really know it had anything to do with the jonas family unless you went to

the bathroom and hit the wall, i call it the wall of shame, but the wall of fame back there. >> kevin and denise wanted to build something that would stand on its own. >> we like to say we had temporary insanity. >> right after we bought the building, i was standing in the corner and i said to my sister i think this is going to be a lot of work. just as i said it, the ceiling caved in. so we knew it was going to be a challenge. >> that was just the start. kevin thought after being in the music industry for so long the transition to a restaurant would be easy. but he was wrong. >> i was ill prepared. when you're managing talent, you're working with budgets, you're working with tours, you're constantly thinking about the end result. i knew what good business looked like. really it took opening the doors and failing to realize where the needs were. >> so much new to him.

he was dealing with near constant employee turnover and small margins while simultaneously trying to make sure that customers walked away talking about their great chicken and dump lings and col la collard greens. >> it requires that the food is cooked well, it comes out on time, it's warm and hot, that the service is what it should be. >> the improvements took time. >> the name recognition probably lasted three months. if in that three months we weren't making changes, we're losing customers. >> the evolution included studying diners, asking what they liked and what they didn't as well as figuring out a better work flow. >> we really had to concentrate for almost a year, year and a half on making sure every little thing has thought. that nothing leaves the kitchen without a purpose. that what happens in the kitchen has a purpose. that the people we hire really are a specific group of people. >> where kevin and denise have

always excelled is hospitality. they greet as many diners as possible. >> when we were on the road with the boys, we were really interactive, trying to get to know their fans. we kind of do that with the restaurant. i want to make sure our guest are fans and continue to stay fans. >> the brand is so strong that few customers realize there's even a jonas brothers connection. and kevin says that's a good thing. >> they come in because they've heard about us, they've heard about the food, they've heard about the environment. that now is the change. what i hear more than anything else is people are coming to nellie's because they've heard it's excellent and that makes me happy. >> despite their sometimes crazy schedule, kevin and denise are grateful for the constant support of their children. >> they have been so wonderful the entire journey. they will come here every time they can. they actually love to be here. they love to have influence.

they have input. nick's probably come here more than anybody and joe is an investor in other restaurants. kevin helped us build this building out. >> kevin junior was happy to help his parents start this latest chapter in their lives. he's inspired by the positive impact that it's having on the community. >> as a father, i totally understand what it would be like to leave a legacy for your kids and put your mark on something. he's definitely done that here in this town. >>. we're here on the floor of the consumer electronic show in las vegas for our elevator pitch this week. mitch, so good to meet you. this is your product. >> the iq pro smart stave. >> you were an investment bank sner. >>. >> for 25 years. >> how do you feel about going into this pitch? >> looking forward to it. i have a great team behind me. >> let's start heading over. you're going to be pitching to

two investors. first one is lisa. she's from scout ventures. then susie who is from adam factory and cross culture ventures. >> let's go meet them. >> i'm mitch. i'm here to introduce you to the patented iq pro smart safe. it's the only one of its kind wi-fi enabled to safely secure items. we use internet connected smart home technology. we are positioned for growth being at the intersection of both the national opioid epidemic and the smart home market. it is so easy to set up. it takes about three minutes. once connected you get real time security alerts that tells you anyone tampered with or accessed your safe. it is so smart it can automatically update itself and you can remotely open the safe from anywhere in the world by an authorized user or customer service. during the first six months we have over $100,000 in sales and exceptional user feedback. we are seeking $1 million for

marketing and operations in exchange for 15% equity. thank you. >> thanks, mitch. you did it. now you get to hear what they thought about it. all right. let's start with you. >> great job. you told me all the information that i needed to know. the only thing you didn't tell me about is whether there's other competitive products on the market which i'd love to know. but it's hard to get everything in one pitch. the pitch i gave you an eight and on the product i also gave you an eight. >> for me i'll give an eight on the pitch. i think you missed the price point on sharing what that was. i believe it's $149. so pretty competitively priced, accessible number. and on the product i will give you an eight as well. >> what do you hope to get out of ces while you're here? >> recognition. it's the first of its kind.

the hardest thing is to get people to know it. we want people to come up, touch it, feel it, play with it, understand what it is and what it's for. it's not your safe in the basement that you go once or twice a year. it's for efr veryday items. >> you're saying there's no other -- >> there's no other wi-fi enabled safe on the market. >> i'm also curious about the opioid epidemic you're inspired by. >> translator: origin . >> the original con secept was fit in a bedside drawer. with the epidemic, we want people to lock up their drugs and keep it safe from diversion, from kids getting into. that's why we started and it's grown into so much more. >> you don't necessarily need it for passports. you need it for stuff you do not want your kids to get into. >> you're targeting parents. >> parents, roommates, college kid, assisted living.

>> well, fantastic job. great scores. good luck with everything. and thank you both so much for everything. that was great. as was so incredibly clear at ces, the world is changing quickly. your business needs to keep up to stay competitive. one of the last men standing in an industry that's been decimated by the internet. brick and mortar camera stores. despite the insane levels of competition, he found a way to keep his customers coming back. >> john is going to be so jealous. >> this is a kind of light painting they called it. >> when these amateur photographers get together, they have one thing on their mine. who took the best photos, where, and how they did it. >> i've never done that before.

it's so exciting. >> for mark, the owner of california based paul's photo, gathering like these have been the secret weapon that have kept his small camera shop in business while so many others have had to shut down. >> is everybody having fun? >> i'm having fun. >> we're like the cheers of camera stores where everybody knows your name. and we really have a good time with it. that's the secret. >> paul's photo isn't run by paul anymore. mark, his son, is now calling the shot. and pulling in the customers and keeping up with the times. if you listen to mark, it's not even a new ball game. it's a completely new business model. >> so when my dad started, the camera store business was all about consumables, film, processing, developing. we would see customers on a regular basis. that was the cash flow. that went away with digital. then in 2008, 2009, here comes the internet and retail is struggling. >> without the predictable cash flow of film and processing or

the vast product range of the internet, industry analysts say most of the local camera shops like paul's simply closed up and disappeared. >> we have 17 camera stores. we sold them in 1990. today not a single location that we were in has a photographic application. all of them have become something else. >> bill is a business adviser to what he now calls the imaging industry. he's watched this painful process of extinction play out in large and small towns across the country. >> ten years ago ritz camera had 1,200 cam stores. today there's 11. today you will not survive selling cameras. you need other things. >> other things for mark begins with this army of camera buffs who have been inspired by his high energy classroom style. >> how many rookie night hawkers do we have here?

raise your hands. >> tonight 45 night hawk students have gathered in the dark. not just to shoot pictures of the christmas lights but to share the excitement of learning from each other as well as getting amazing pictures. >> look at that. great. i love that. >> it's marketing at its best. mark gathers people together, shows them how to have a great time taking pictures, takes them out for drinks afterwards, and they respond by keeping his business in the black. >> i came into it to take a quick class to learn how to use a camera and in eight weeks ended up buying a whole new camera. and so i kind of went to the classes, took a back corner seat and just got pulled into it. >> what makes this work is that mark's enthusiasm is genuine. and contagious.

and it builds a community strong enough to compete with the internet. >> we'll generate $1,000 worth of revenue which is okay, but what we'll do is we'll get 40 people to have a great experience. they're going to tell their friends. they're going to post it on facebook. they're going to tell all their neighbors, man, i had a great time last night and paul's photo was the place to go. >> mark takes the classes to an olympic sport level. good retailer will create an experience every time you buy something. the ups man can't create that experience. >> paul's photo is not alone. you can see this ecosystem approach in other industries as well. >> my friend whose have running stores and bike stores, they offer runs and bike rides. how many nurseries offer the free planting class, right? and what are they doing? they're doing the same thing we are. if i can get every customer

within ten miles to buy their camera ra and take a photo class with me, that's enough for me. i like what i do and i like knowing my customers. >> in business just as in life, when we do things is just as important as how to do something. timing affects everything from when to hold the meeting to giving a presentation or even taking a break from your to do list. our guest explains how business leaders can master the art of timing. daniel is a sales guru and also the author of six books. his latest one. great to see you, daniel. this is so true that timing is everything. . you have so many great tips. let's go through a few of them. one you talk about that i thought was interesting is organize the day based on timing. how do you do that? >> you're right that timing

sefr is everything. there's this rich body of science telling us how to make better decisions in our life and it starts at the unit of the day. what we know from some fascinating research is our day proceeds in three chunks. the peak, the trough and recovery. str adm administrative stuff, what we tend to think in business is all times are created equal and what we're -- the mistake that we're making is we're focusing on what people do, who they do it with, how they do it, but we're leaving aside this question wof when they do it. it makes a difference in performance. there is evidence that time of day explains about 20% of the difference in performance. timing in this case isn't

everything but it's a big thing. >> tell me about this one. manage projects using the uh-oh idea. >> yes indeed. there's a researcher at yale that has done fascinating research on how project teams work. we tend to think when a team has a project they work in a steady linear way. most teams at the beginning of a project do nothing. they tend to start getting going at the exact midpoint of a project. so if a team that has 34 days to do something, they don't really do anything the first 16 days. on day 17 they say uh-oh, we squandered half of our time, we've got to get going. instead of the linear process, you have something punk -- punctuated. what bosses can do is raise the prominence of midpoint. the other thing we can do at

midpoint, we can pretend we're a little bit behind. there's research from the national basketball association, the nba, that shows that in general teams ahead at halftime are more likely to win the game with one exception. teams that are down by one point at halftime are actually more likely to win a game than teams that are up by one point. >> let's talk about working with your employees on their reviews. bad news first. you end on a good note. is that right? >> how many times have you said or heard i've got some good news and some bad news? and when we deliver that combo, we often give the good news first. why? it's uncomfortable giving bad news. you don't want to seem like you're a jerk. what the evidence tells us clearly from the science of timing is that four to five people prefer getting the bad news first. not the good news first. they want the bad news first. and the good news next. why? because given a choice, human beings prefer endings that

elevate. we prefer rising sequences to declining sequences. this piece of evidence has changed how i do things. i was mr. good news, bad news. now i'm the king of beginning with really, now i am the king beginning of really, really bad news. i love distributing bad news out of the gate. that intuitively makes sense. it goes to our next point of an ar interaction and customers, always end positive. even though if they have a worse discussion, as long as they end positively, they feel good about the company. >> there is something about this j.j., how any kind of experience ends dramatic shape your memory. you can see in yelp review s of restaurants. hey, they gave me a free

dessert. hey, they left my key and they went after me. focus very much on the endings. this is true not only in retail where you know some companies walk out from behind the counter and head it to you. it is true in service businesses as well. when you are ending a project, do something to commemorate it. your client is going to remember the entirety of the project with greater appreciation. >> we can only go through a few. ea everyone should go out and get your book. >> so good to see you. >> thank you, j.j. even if your business is doing well, poor money management can drive it to the ground. here are five ways to improve your cash flow fast. >> one, increase your prices.

if your cost of operations have not increase, raising your prices will have an immediate impact on your bottom dine. make sure to prep your clients in advance of the changes. two, encourage your employees to up sale and cross sale. restaurant businesses are great getting customers to spend more on side dishes and value meals. work with your team to develop special bundles for your best customers. three, re-examine your inventory. for most businesses, 80% of their profits come from 20% of their products. >> take a look at your best and good sellers and develop a plan. four, try a crowdfunding campaign. if you have a project or a product that you want to start. go to site check starter or go

fund me, so you can receive a huge amount of money in a short amount of time. number, go through your credit card statements. . when we come back what you need to do to keep your market consistent and how to target bigger and higher paying clients. so that's the idea. what do you think? i don't like it. oh. nuh uh. yeah. ahhhhh. mm-mm. oh. yeah. ah. agh. d-d-d... no. hmmm. uh... huh. yeah. uh... huh. in business, 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. we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how

to get business done. american express open. how do you manage consistent marketing economy? >> it is all about finding partners to share your long-term view of your brand. there is a lot of global partners out there that really want short term growth. they may not want the same message that you have and they may think a lot of short term like you want to. have realistic growth and expectations for yourself and making sure everything you put out there is consistent across the world. we have the top few tips you need to know to help grow your business. lets sblintroduce our panel to

their advice, tonya and steve strauss. good to see both of you. >> all right, tonya, you are coming off a big keynote speech to a whole bunch of businesses. tell us one thing here. >> my focus is to focus being the only rather than the best. being the best can be incredibly subjective and it can change overtime. doubling down on those capabilities or technology or services that just your company can provide. as long along as it is importan for your customers, that means they'll do business with you. >> how do you become the only company? a broad scope only or i do this one particular thing within the broad business that i have. >> i will give you an example. we do a ton of things, we track

every business in the world having stohistorical of five ye. all the other things are really important but it comes down to two things or three things that it is just two. >> what if somebody copies out? >> you need to think ahead. as a business owner you need to think where your pockets are going, you cannot just sit and congratulate yourself. you have to think what's next. >> steve, what are you writing about these days. >> here is what i think. if you want to grow your business, target bigger and better clients, customers. my small business brothers and sisters target individuals and small businesses, what's great about corporations are they have greater needs.

you establish yourself as you can go out and get government contracts and procurements. >> what do you do to get that? what's keeping them from getting up? >> there is two ways to do it, you can do outreach, do your research and find companies that's mostly needed and look at your competitors and maybe they have similar companies and you want to look at procurement officers, vps in your industry. that industry that kind of thing. let me give you an example. i have a friend who sells real estate in los angeles. for many years, he sells single family home and made a ton of money until it did not work. he went to his mentor, look at what you need to do is look at commercial real estate for the same amount of time putting in selling a single family home,

you can sell a six-unit house and making a lot of money. the lightbulb went off, he starts to marking himseet himse starts to work for him. >> look at the broader horizon. >> and a bigger client base. >> great to see you both as always. thank you. this week's your biz selfie comes from kenneth beache. they are environmental consulting firm that helps firms minimize the impact of their businesses. why don't you pick up your smart phone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness @msnbc.com.

use the #yourbizselfie. thank you for joining us, we love to hear from you. you can go to our website, we posted everything from the show today, plus a whole lot more for you. we put out new things every single day on our digital and social media platform as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i am j.j.ramberg, remember make your business our business. sponsored by american express open, helping you turn your idea into reality with money know how so you can get your business done. 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! we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how to get business done. american express open. welcome to politics nation, this morning the drama continues as president trump is spending the weekend in washington, not as originally planned, of course. democrats and republicans continue the blame game on day two of the government shutdown. even if you don't think it affects you, it is affecting thousands across the country. the children's health insurance program which c