the good morni good morning everyone. houston clothing store turns into a relief operation during hurricane harvey and pivots to e-commerce to survive the storm. houston trash hauling company takes the contrarian position the customer is not always right. and a new generation of entrepreneurs find fame on youtube. that's coming up next on "your business." >> your business is sponsored by american express open, helping you get business done. >> hi, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to

"your business" the show dedicated to helping your growing business. heavy rain, strong winds and flooding. the city of houston is still building after the destruction left behind by hurricane harvey. the damage forced houston to shut down which was a major blow for area businesses. one owner had a gut feeling that there were going to be tough times ahead. he changed up his sales strategy to make sure his business didn't become a victim, too. >> the store was absolutely shut down. there was an immediate decision to be proactive and think outside of the box and not be a statistic. >> reporter: it's hard to shake the images of the devastation left behind by hurricane harvey in houston. >> the whole surrounding area was absolutely flooded. we were kind of on our own little island thankfully. >> reporter: travis weaver knew the situation was dire and he

feared for the future of his store. >> i knew that if we didn't do the right things that this business would absolutely close its doors, no if, ands or buts about it. >> reporter: the owner of manready mercantile selling products mainly for men had to come to grips with a harsh reality. his customers wouldn't think about shopping for a long time. >> when harvey happened my thought was i needed to act quick because i didn't know if people in houston would be spending again. our storefront is the bulk of our business so i knew things were going to change immediately. >> reporter: time wasn't on manready's side. foot traffic declined fast and even though the store didn't flood, travis was forced to make a decision. should he risk it and keep the store open or shut it down, hoping he had enough money to survive the sales slump. >> an immediate change had to happen to offset who wat was go on. we needed to open up other doors. >> reporter: his first thought

was for his fellow houstonians. it became a donation center for people wanting to help harvey victims. as clothing and toiletries were coming in the front door the back of the house was buzzing about manready's next move. >> travis said guys it's scary there's no one up in the store. they said don't worry. >> my focus was lots of other areas besides just on how to generate revenue through the brick and mortar. we wanted to sink our teeth in, do it right and make a dramatic impact on the wholesale and online. >> reporter: the company's online store got a needed boost with help from everyone who could safely get to work. >> i think it was so unreal of the situation that we didn't have to say a lot to each other. when it happened, we just showed up to work, the people that could get here, and we kind of just assumed that role immediately. >> reporter: the group took a hard look at manready's website and social channels. each platform was quickly and carefully updated to ensure more views. >> i started working on new products we could add to the

website and we were taking time to revamp existing products and put better photography up, work on coding and seo and metatags and the back-end data that so encourage people to shop small. >> reporter: in the short term, incentives helped encourage sales of things like clothing, soy candles and leather goods, some made right there at the store. >> we were able to go online and offer a couple of flash sales, a couple of just online only offers. >> reporter: employees figured out which orders needed their attention and prioritized them based on what was on the shelves. >> hey, we're going to focus on what we've got, the materials in house, what we could make. we focused on where we could still ship, how we are going to get our shipments out and from there, we kind of worked backwards and we saw what available product can we fulfill. >> reporter: the plan wasn't perfect. it was anybody's guess how long the operation could sustain itself with very few supplies coming in. >> if there's a thrill in any of

it, it was looking arounding my to macgyver what we had. we tried to figure out if we have one week, maybe two weeks we're not able to have the supplies needed. >> reporter: there was plenty of juggling going on but no one was giving up. manready needed to be prepared when saelles went back up again. >> almost like a survival instinct, on the front line waiting for the resupplies, reinforcements and trying to make do. instead of us being backlogged because we weren't able to produce we overproduced in other areas. >> reporter: all along travis was paying his employees. he pledged to support them, knowing that they were facing hardships themselves. >> we have a lot of staff here, and a lot of responsibility, and as an owner, i just couldn't set back and be idle, and i made a deal with my staff, i told them that i'll continue to pay them even if they're not working. they do what's right by us on a daily basis and it was my turn to do what's right by them. >> reporter: once it was safe to

travel, travis relied on pop-up shops to offset some of his lost revenue. unfortunately during one of his trips out of town, manready suffered a major schettback. the store was burglarized. >> they came up, broke the window in, ran in, stole all the computers and all the electro c electronics that run everything and you know, just take them and make a quick buck and for no care in the world for anybody else or anything. >> reporter: travis was stunned by the crime, but he wouldn't dwell on it. he had to stay focused on keeping manready alive as the equipment was gradually replaced. >> i'm like okay, we're going to survive. we haven't lost everything. let's make the best of it. i don't want to think about it anymore. i want to move forward and be done with it. >> reporter: months later the store's open and what was a slightly unorthodox work flow has paid off. >> at first we didn't see a dramatic increase. we were getting more sales because we were marketing more through our social media, but i think now that the internet has

had time to catch one what we were doing, we're now seeing tremendous increase in online sales. >> reporter: travis will never really know how much harvey cost him, and he doesn't want to think about it too much. he's incredibly grateful that some creative thinking and a dedicated team helped manready stay open while so many other businesses failed. >> what do you do in times of desperation? you set back and do nothing or do you fight and overcome and persevere? it really is a reality check. there's a lot of other people a lot worse off than us. more things will come our way, they'll happen and we'll do it over again and not give up. >> there's the saying in business that the customer is always right. but what if they're not? the owner of a houston area garbage company believes if someone has an actual problem, it should of course be corrected immediately, but he doesn't always assume there's an issue. unlike many of his fellow business owners he is a firm

believer that the customer is not always right. >> it's nasty, it's smelly, it's dirty. if i can get people to not think about what i do then i'm doing my job. >> reporter: people hate their garbage, to kevin atkinson every trash can, recycling bin is an opportunity. >> i knew all along owning my own garbage collection company was something i truly wanted to do. >> reporter: as the owner of texas pride disposal, kevin says his brand, like so many other garbage companies, has an image problem. >> it's very tough to garner respect for what we do. this is an industry where people as long as it goes away, people don't think about it. >> reporter: kevin needed a strategy to fight this negative perception, and so he and his staff focused on their clients. >> the service we deliver and the customer experience behind that, that's all i have to offer. without a happy customer i have nothing. >> there's one part of the texas

ride service philosophy that may leave some small business owners scratching their heads. >> the customers are not always right. they are right most of the time but certain instances where they push the boundary. >> this approach came to life after years of interacting with clients. >> they're not always 100% honest with us. they're just really trying to take advantage of the system, and it's garbage. people just want it to go away and they will sometimes do whatever they need to, to make sure that it goes away. we'll get somebody out there. we'll get it cleaned up for you today. >> reporter: so every time a call or an email comes in, kevin is curious about the nature of the complaint and who is making it. here's just one example. >> when you get that customer that calls and says your guys didn't pick up my garbage. all right, well, you know, that's what we do. we do this day in and day out. i can't see why they would have just missed yours. are you sure it was out on time, are you sure it was something we're supposed to pick up or something maybe hazardous? are you sure it's not 100 bags

and not one bag? >> reporter: the truth is that most calls aren't bad ones. >> yes, ma'am, how can i help you today? nine times out of ten it's a misedding on the customer's part, you know, about what they can and can't put out for trash. >> reporter: when more serious complaints come in, kevin has to take a more pragmatic view. he won't assume the customer is right, and that's for the sake of his team. kevin has a unique perspective on the work his crews do. he knows them and he troousts them. texas pride balances its customer service approach by setting a high bar. kevin doesn't want his clients to have a single reason to complain. >> i hold my guys to probably a higher standard than anyone in this market, than most in the industry, i would think. we do our best to be as customer oriented as possible to go above and beyond. >> everyone is serious about these guidelines. field crews abide by rules of the road, they're reviewed constantly. the teams also function as the first line of defense. if there's a problem with the

trash being picked up, customers are notified. >> we've got a yellow tag and it's got ten different reasons why we didn't pick your trash up and it's everything from you haven't paid your bill to the container is overweight, so those yellow tags are a big deflector. >> reporter: random quality checks are a reminder of what's expected. >> we go out and do what we call route observations on the crew, to make sure that drivers and helpers are doing the property things so they understand the importance of customer service so we never lose that. >> reporter: pictures are a key component to the service model. no matter the issue, the photos speak for themselves. employee also submit pictures to the office if they see a potential problem. clients are encouraged to send in pictures, too. >> if you really feel justified in your complaint and you're not willing to send me a picture, i'm going to be a little skeptical. >> reporter: not every day is perfect. the company does make mistakes, and the team tries to resolve them quickly. >> when it's our mistake we go back and get it.

i can text the supervisor right away and he gets on the driver and they turn around and go back so we correct our mistakes in less than a day. >> the procedures in place are working. the regional provider has 32,000 customers and that number continues to climb. complaints are at a minimum. there are no reoccurring issues and the staff is happy, too. >> we've literally had no turnover. it's a great service. it's a great product. it will speak for itself. be responsive, be attentive. make the customer your priority but at the end of the day, know that that customer is not always right. if you are not paying attention to the opportunities provided by youtube, you should be. entrepreneurs are using the site and the fame it can bring to make millions. nbc's jo ling kent tells us how they're doing it. from rachael ray. >> it's so beautiful. i love it. >> reporter: to ellen degeneres. >> they're so soft. >> reporter: celebrities have

long used their fame to hawk their own line of products. now, the next generation is taking a page from the same playbook. youtube stars cashing in. >> finally we arrived at this formula. >> it smells clean and smart and funny. >> reporter: over a billion hours of video are watched on youtube every day, according to "forbes" the top ten youtube stars earned a combined $127 million this year from ad revenue alone, on top of the list, daniel middleton, evan fong and dude perfect. and now some influencers are leveraging their fame in the real world branding their own merchandise to sell to millions of followers. >> the smartest influencers know that their fame has an expiration date and if they want to have a career out of this, they can't just be an influencer. they have to be bigger than that. they have to be a brand. >> homecoming makeup.

>> reporter: between homecoming and gymnastics classes, brooke and bailey mcknight document their every move and song on the youtube channel. they are putting their own line of products branded with a double b in front of their 4 million subscribers. >> i would call it like an everyday line, like we've got t-shirts, wallets, pencils, notebooks. >> reporter: they recently launched their own mascara, too. was merchandise something that your followers were asking for? >> we're seeing any time we post a t.d. the girls want the outfit we're hearing. >> outfit of the day. >> otd ss. we decided to create something of our own so they can feel more connected. >> brooke and bailey did not say how much they're pulling in other than the line is doing well. we're saving the money they make for college tuition. >> on a weekday we go to school, we have math homework, too, but at the same time we have this totally different life, going to business meetings. >> reporter: another youtube

star cooking up a success story. >> it's ro, withal come to another nerdy nummies. >> reporter: rosanna has more than 9 million youtube subscr e subscrib subscriber. we caught up with her on her road trip across america promoting her new line of kitchen tools. >> it feels surreal. it was the only word i can think to describe it. >> reporter: fans waiting in line to get their hands on aprons, mixing bowls, cookie cutters and sprinkles. >> this is the first time i've done a baking line. there's so much work that goes into it. >> reporter: you built a physical business out of a virtual business. >> i knew it was possible to have a career online and make a living creating content full time, but i didn't know that that was going to happen for me. >> she's amazing. >> reporter: why? >> she's like the coolest person in the world. >> just so fun to watch her.

>> reporter: the next generation of stars turning their virtual fame into a real world fortune. no matter what industry you're in, it is changing, and it's going to continue to change rapidly, as consumer tastes evolve and new innovations prove their value. no matter whayour industry heree five skills you need for continued success in 2018 and beyond. one, digital literacy. even if you're not doing the work yourself, you should be able to direct someone in how to tell your story. try learning today's digital basics at the a community college or on a platform like youtube for free. two, good manners. if the rise of online bullying is any indication of the state of manners today, then it's worth mentioning that good social graces are a huge asset for all leaders, from client dinners to employee disagreements, managers should be able to navigate even the

stickiest situations tactfully. three, an appreciation for innovation. if you are not innovating, you're failing. practice being able to spot new, more efficient ways of operating business as usual. four, analytical skills. we live in a data-driven society. do some research about which data is most important to your bottom line, and then keep track of it. and five, cultural awareness. it may not always be appropriate for you or your company to take a public stand on the most controversial issues. however, you need to make staying aware of the cultural hot topics a priority so you can make that decision fully educated. we've seen reports about this year's very active flu season and its effects across the u.s. however, what is not talked about a lot are the challenges business owners face with employees living with a chronic health condition all year long. so how do you manage those employees' conditions and if they take it, missed time from

work? eric peacock is co-founder and ceo of my help teams which serves more than 1.2 million people with chronic conditions. great to see you.. >> good to see you, j.j. >> this is something, i said it before, it's not talked about a lot, and if you manage people, you are likely managing someone that either has a condition or is helping someone with one. >> that's right, one in two americans have a chronic condition right now. we're talking about diabetes, and depression and migraine. it's not just retired people who have these conditions. so if you're managing, the stats basically say if you're managing more than ten people you're definitely going to have people with chronic conditions or as you pointed out you're going to have people who are taking care of maybe an older parent with a chronic condition. >> so how do you think about this, because companies have sick policies, right? you get this many days off and you have to let us know by this amount of time, and do you have to create a separate policy for this group of people and how do you then make it seem like it's fair for everyone? how do you deal with it?

>> i think there are four things probably every company of any size can do. basically no matter what your fallacy is, if somebody is sick or taking care of their mother they have to deal with that and unfortunately the health care system pretty much works from 9:00 to 5:00 monday through friday, exactly when you want to be at work. so things you can do that prevent what they call absenteeism, which is like a $790 billion productivity problem in the united states, or another aspect is presenteeism, when people come to work but maybe they shouldn't. maybe they're not at their best because they have a migraine or suffering from depression or something like that. you just need to address it head-on. and the first thing you can do is be flexible. if you have a business where, look, i know you can get your job done in eight hours a day, i don't really care when do you it, then if i can let you work in the morning or in the evening, and just focus on the output of your job, that can be hugely helpful to that person. >> but do you have to do that then for the whole staff or

everyone in that department or everyone who has that same job title, or can you carve out okay, you have this illness, and so we're going to do something special for you? >> it's okay to accommodate for somebody with a to accommodate r someone with a chronic condition and not make it even across the board. the most important thing is just communicate it. you have to take cues from your employees too. i can't say, jj, tell me all your diseases. but they want to share that with you, you can follow their lead and go what can we do to make this workplace work for you. it may not always be a time flexibility thing. maybe it's where you work. i don't know if you have seen somebody with psoriasis. it is is painful. they look like big scabs. it is hard to be at work in person, but maybe they can work at home. you have to ask the person and take the leave. >> what do you do when someone comes to you, i have this condition, i can still do my

job, i can just work from homes. or mondays, i need to work this time to this time but don't tell anyone else. you want to came date them, you want to be fair to everyone else but you don't want to say, hey, i'm helping out eric because blah, blah, blah. >> i think you have to work it out with that employee and say we have to explain something to our team. you don't have to go into details. for the next six months, if the person is okay saying like so-and-so is dealing with a health issue. >> or for personal reasons. >> yeah. whatever. you can do that. you don't have to get into detail. if you're building the right kind of culture people will support and understand that. i think the flexibility is there. a lot of people with chronic conditions absolutely can come to work. so presenteeism, the issue that people come to their work but not at their best, what can you do to accommodate that. stay we're talking about diabetes. 35 million americans have diabetes.

you have company with diabetes. if they're standing on their feet all day, they probably need a rest. it can impact the extremities. or keeping insulin in the fridge. >> i'm glad we have taken the time to talk about it. i don't think it's talked about enough. >> true. >> thanks. we have an exciting announcement to make. we're offering five people a chance to come on the program and give an elevator pitch to two buyers from hsn. they will judge the pitches and invite them to pitch their product live on "american dreams" on hsn. send us an he mail or a video of your pitch to your business @msnbc.com. include a short summary and why you think it is a good pitch for hsn. we look forward to seeing those

pitches. when we come back, what you need to do to provide a consistently great customer experience. and why you should trust your instinct when looking for funding. 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! we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how to get business done. american express open.

i'm curious to know what steps companies take to ensure everyone on their team is focused on providing the best customer experience throughout the entire lifecycle. >> you need to verticalize your team. so what i mean by that is you don't want to have a bunch of people who are generalists when it comes to customer support. you want to have people really focused on different parts of the lifecycle of the customer. people who are focused on lead generation. people who focus just on sales. people focused on onboarding. and people focused on customer support and they are focused just on customer support. if you do that, everyone becomes a strong expert in their area and nobody drops the ball. the other key thing here is to really track that customer throughout the lifecycle. it means a lot of note taking at each stage from when we are first introduced to the sales team. you have detailed notes that even if somebody never talked to

them before will know what to do and what to say. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help you grow your business. let's get our panel in here and get their advice. the co-creator and chief creative officer of fashion accessories stella and dot. and a maker of cashmere sweaters. so good to have you. >> thanks for having us. >> thanks for having us, jj. >> i want to start with you, matt. you were in private equity. you left that. and you started this company out of nothing, which has been growing very is significantly. and you have a fund on the side. you see growing businesses from all sides. >> yeah. >> what's the biggest piece of advice you have for people? >> trust your gut. i have been posed with a lot of tough decisions. that's going to be a theme as we continue to grow. when something doesn't feel right, don't do it. you have to trust your instincts. there's different types of founders.

i'm an instinct founder. so every decision i make i have to bounce it against how do i really feel about this. if someone rubs me the wrong way, if they're not a right partner for me, they have to make a decision. staoeufpls it is is a tough decision. >> blythe, congratulations on all the success stella and dot has had. it is truly amazing. you have seen this from the very early stages to being where you are. what's one piece of advice you have? >> so my top piece of advice is to really cultivate creativity. it's so easy to just get focused on execution when you're in a really high-growth environment. but you need to realize competition is fierce. things are moving so fast. so if you don't carve out that time for creativity and build that muscle of creativity within your organization, it's really easy to just get left behind. >> you know, i love the idea of hack-a-thons. not just for engineers but for anyone. we would do them at our company.

and our design team came up with this amazing mural that made our office so much nicer. and someone came up with a fund birthday hat you would hang over people when it was their birthday, which helped with culture. i think that is a good way to do it. what do you think, blythe? >> yeah. i think you're touching on two really key things that you can do to cultivate creativity. one is around time management. so it's really important to just carve out some white space like a hack-a-thon so your team has the ability to sort of switch out of their executive functioning brain into their real imagination network. it is very hard to toggle back and forth between the two. so what we like to do is cluster all of our executive meetings sort of back-to-back, but then really try to carve out half a day for our version of a hack-a-thon, which is not only focused on design but branding, concepting and really creating the space to just dip into your

imagination. >> many, many times over. thank you both so much. great to be able to puck your brains because you have both seen so much success. we appreciate it. >> thank you. this week's your biz selfie say fun one from melanie, the owner of melanie's meadow in burnsville, north carolina. melanie, along with her mom sandy the sander, create and design ornaments and jewelry from reclaimed wood and recycled materials. now, why don't you pick up your you smartphone and take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at your biz at msnbc.com or #yourbiz. do not forget to tell us where you are and use the #yourbizis self where. thank you for joining us today. we would love to hear from you. end us an e-mail to your business at msnbc.com. we would love to hear from you.

head over to openforum.com/yourbusiness where we posted all of today's segments from our show, plus a lot more. and connect with us on our social and digital media platforms as well. and we have one more thing. we now have a podcast. take a listen and let us know what you think. been there. built that. until next time, i'm jj ramberg. and remember we make your business our business. 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. ♪ morning glory, america. i'm hugh hewitt. joined this morning by an old friend, reince priebus, former white house chief of staff. maybe the most successful republican national committee chair the last 30 years. welcome back. good to see you. >> i'm glad to be here, hugh. thank you. let me begin with the breaking news and then we will dive into the trump presidency. in friday's "new york times", incident was alleged you had talked to the president and urged him to fire john kelly. did that happen? >> that wasn't what was in the article. the article simply said we talked about it. and we didn't. >> oh, you did not? >> no. >> the president has