that's a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," this company doesn't care if you buy anything at their retail stores because they're not selling product. they're selling data on your shopping habits. we have actionable advice on how to better promote youtube to promote your business. and this woman created high-tech backings for earrings so you won't lose them. will the exec stills at hsn back her and let her sell them on their network? when it comes to making decisions, we have your back. so let's work and grow smart. that's all coming up next on "your business."

>> msnbc "your business" is sponsored by american express, don't do business without it. >> "your business" is sponsored by american express. don't do business without it. hi, everyone. i'm jj ramberg. and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to help your growing business. does the rise of online shopping business mean the death of brick and mortar? one pair of entrepreneurs isn't waiting to find out. they have developed a new brick and mortar business model that doesn't depend on making sales or stocking inventory. and they still make a profit. how are they doing it? and will they succeed? we went to silicon valley to find out. when you walk into this san

francisco store, every move you make is turned into data. >> here you can see that the customer just kind of walks by, not stopping at the product. but once he enters the zone of the product, it turns green. >> this is beta. according to the founders, it may be the new face of brick and mortar retail. >> our model is not built on sales. it doesn't matter to us if you buy now or somewhere else. >> what did he just say? >> it doesn't matter to us if you buy now or somewhere else. >> beta doesn't make any money from selling the products on display. and its customers are not the people shopping in the aisles. the money beta makes comes from the brands displaying the products in the store. >> the brands pay a monthly subscription fee and it covers essentially the products. >> as we have heard, the retail center is not doing well as consumers shift to online shopping. >> the problem is the way people

like to shop now doesn't agree with business model that we're constructed around. >> how often do you see people now that are even purchasing something in the store? >> increasingly, people don't love to buy things there. so they wondered, would they find a way to make money from the foot traffic instead of the sales? >> we have hundreds of thousands of people that walk through the store every month. and this is an opportunity for the products to get discovered in this, they have trained staffers available to answer the questions. >> we love that the customers can come here to experience the brands. if they buy here, great. if they go somewhere else and buy it, that's terrific, too. he gets something extremely

valuable. >> we have a lot of data here that makes us feel great with the end customers. >> the beta stores have been turned into a research laboratory where manufacturers get realtime feedback on customers reaction. >> everything from traffic, impressions, customer engagement, demos, to sales data. >> the typical store about 3,000 feet has cameras on it. and they are being shown here. as you browse the products, we are able to stop and measure your intention for product and the ones you're ignoring walking by. >> i have no problem with the business model. i think it is very clever. that's not what bothers me. it's the collection of video without our knowledge at all.

>> bob is a former advertising agency owner and industry critic. he worries about privacy around the so-called surveillance marketing. >> i don't think they are doing anything nefarious, honestly. i don't. but when i walked in, i should have been notified i was being videotaped and wasn't. >> most people know if you walk into a store, you're going to be monitored. there's no difference. >> the difference is intent. you don't know how it's going to be disposed of over time. >> in light of the recent disclosures about facebook's disregard for customer protection, bob suggests it may be time for b8ta to ignore this. >> if they said, by the way, we use cameras to watch the customers shop and want you to know that we're transparent about that, we don't identify

who you are. and we have discovered it. >> they are open on how the stores operate and don't want to hide anything. when it comes to provecy -- >> we are transparent and have no problem speaking to it. and we are open about what we're doing. at the same time, i don't believe there's any postings. >> after the interview, he got back to us to say the contact is anonymous and the data is encrypted a encrypted. while retail stores collect data about their customers for decade, full lynn and bebo. >> this is a marketing platform at the end of the day. that's how we think about it. we're catching up with the

business model that the internet has enabled. we are just a first, but we are not going to be enabling this last. there will be a long line of customers like this. and long gone are the days when using video to market your company is just for businesses with deep pockets. today with not that much work or expense, anyone can put together a nice looking video. according to our video, you should. they just launched a new product called youtube director on site. you can advertise on the platform. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> video is a great way to get the message out. >> exactly. we know the small businesses have so many stories to tell, everything from why they got the idea, why their customers love this. you have sight, sound and motion to bring the story to life.

but it is also increasingly where your customers are. more and more people turn to video on-demand, youtube, and you mentioned the customers there where our business is. >> let's watch the few minutes or few seconds of the first one. >> island creek oysters, what did they do well there? >> first, what they did great in the ad is clearly right at the top of the video mentioning the name of the business and a number of chefs they provide, to give a lot of authenticity and credibility to them as a business. >> in case someone spills the

rest of the ad. >> our menu keeps an eye on culinary trends while still serving the classic bar food. >> so here we're going for authenticity. >> exactly. i love this one because so many small businesses think if you get into video business, you have to use expensive actors, when you use your business, it will come to sense. it looks fun and engaging to check it out. >> and it is fun for the employees to become a part of this and share with their friends, also. you don't have that much time. people's attention span is short. focus on the one key thing that differentiates your business. why your customers should care about you. one great example of this is a

company called hey chesterfield. an upholstery company based in san francisco. in their ads, they do a great job explaining first why you want to buy vintage furniture versus new, and showing how the business will run. >> why not have a bill for how you play? >> what did they do that was so great. >> close the video with a call to action. the viewer needs to know what to do next if they want to engage with you. so in the last website, they ended with that so you know how to engage with their business. >> thank you so much, kate, for

stopping by. >> sure. for several weeks now we have been doing our elevator pitch from here at hsn, the original tv network. we have made some dreams come true and we have had a few disappointments. but today we're going to find out again if our elevator pitcher makes the cut. we are going to see if they get the chance to sell their product live here in a studio just like this one to 91 million households. we wish them, i wish them, the best of luck. myomi. >> hi! so excited to see you. >> and i'm so excited to hear your pitch. this is a big deal. >> it is. >> tell me the name of your product again. >> it is earring backings. >> four years in the making for you? you're going to be pitching to two people.

these two people are going to decide if you get a chance to be on hsn. how do you feel about this? >> oh, god. >> nervous? >> yes, a little. >> you're going to do great i'm quite sure. dara trujillo and matt demurs. the makeup looks great. let's go see them. >> hi, i'm from chrysmela. this is the best earring back. at least 86% of us have lost the earring back once, but not more. chrysmela has been in five countries. it uses precision technology.

inside the tiny devices are three things that attach to the back. it stays long until you unlock it. i am so thrilled so their this fantastic innovation with millions of people in the states. thank you. >> perfect timing. >> thank you. >> not perfect timing for me. i just lost a gorgeous earring that my husband bought me, which now he knows, which i had not told anyone yet. so i need this. what do you guys think? good job, by the way. >> well, i love it. quite honestly, i'm wearing clip-ones because of the fact that i lose earrings all the time. my earring backs fall off. so real quick question, does it help to hold it in place in the front as well? >> yes. great question. we help so many customers

requesting the lift function. so we developed a sister product called chrysmela extra that comes to give you extra lift and support. >> what do you think, matt, how dud she do? >> good. one of the things you want to think about is you have a lot of other potential competitors in the market for earring backs. really play out to, what are the true technologies and benefits of chrysmela, including flexibility from the multiple post widths. >> you just stopped shaking. this is such a big chance for you. >> it is. >> now we'll find out what the answer is. is miami going to get the chance to pitch live to millions of hsn customers? are you ready for this? now you're shaking again, all

right, this could happen. all right. let's hear. check to see the on air if it goes. is she going to get the chance to pitch live? oh, yay! >> thank you so much! >> i will be your first customer. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> miami, oh, my god, four years. >> four years, wow. we love making dreams come true, girl. >> thank you. >> all right. what does this mean to you? >> oh, i don't know. i'm speechless. i'm just so happy. i'm so thrilled. i fell in love with this product when i first saw it in japan on one of my business trips. and i fell in love and knew it yesterday. and i knew there was a huge market in the states. >> did you think you were going to get the yes on air? >> i wasn't sure.

>> we are tough cookies. >> thank you. >> we wish you the best of luck. >> thank you for the opportunity. thank you. >> i'm taking these. we love our pets. americans spent nearly $70 billion on them last year. inspired by the rescue dogs, marie is here with two thumbs-up from pooches everywhere. >> i always loved animals. when i started this, i didn't know it would look like this. >> marie moody founded stella & ch chewy's in 2003. the idea came to her after receiving devastating news from her vet. >> chewy was one of the once-in-a-lifetime dogs. when i first got chewy, i was working with the fashion industry and he was sick.

and the vet said, this dog is not going to make it. and i sort of had this epiphany and started doing research on pet food. because even though we've domesticated them, the dna was 99% wolf. it made a lot of sense to go back to how they ate in the wild. >> she fed him meat, fish and vegetables. how did chewy respond? >> he got 100% better. not even slightly but 100% better and lived to be almost 17. >> when did you realize, okay, this is something that other people want? >> i think i started to think the most important thing you can do is feed it a high-quality diet. >> she spent six months drafting a business plan and drained her savings account. what will the early days like? >> i had industrial freezers in my living room for, like, four

years. in the beginning it delivered by taxi. i did get a used minivan to turn that into a political move. >> this was a smart business move. sales took off and soon the kitch kitchen-run business needed a new base. she moved to her hometown of milwaukee where 300 employees now work. and where bring your best friend to work day is every day. >> this makes it a pretty fun place to work. >> yes. you can see, these dogs are amazing. it's the food. >> the pet food is made from raw food. this is where all the stella & chewy magic happens. in 2010, she stepped down as the

chairwoman. >> i think a lot of people have a difficult time giving up titles or delegating and that is not an issue for me. >> so part of it was to spend more time with your son. >> by the time i was able to step back, he was going into second graude, third grade. >> do you have advice for other women wanting to stair their companies? >> for me, i didn't have a choice. i wanted to do this. >> her determination paid off. today stilly & chewy's is sold in 5,000 stores nationwide and now a multibillion dollar industry. people love their dogs. >> what do you think it takes to be a good boss? >> i think if i had to say, certainly, some degree of

compassion and everyowill be on team. >> this week we're talking to s ceo of shop runner but is best known for creating ok cupid and match.com. sam tells us about starting a small company, what it's like to making the transition to being acquired, running a large company and why he moved from online dating to online shopping. i hope you all get a chance to listen to it, it's really interesting. if you do, give us some feedback. the podcast is still pretty new and we love to hear what you think. so go listen for free. it's called "been there, built that." you can find it on tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. still to come, how to properly compensate your sales force and why you need to keep a close eye on employee engagement.

♪ ♪ (baby crying) ♪ ♪ don't juggle your home life and work life without it. ♪ ♪ and don't forget who you're really working for without it. ♪ ♪ funding to help grow your business... ♪ ♪ another way we have your back. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. as part of our growth, we are building our sales organization. i'm interested in knowing what suggestions or advice you have

in structuring our compensation plan for our sales force. >> so i would say that compensation plans are not a game of perfect and it's really just about getting something done and established. a couple of years ago our sales team had requested that their compensation package really be more based on objective measures as opposed to subjective measures. so we definitely took that employee feedback and implemented a new plan. as we developed that plan, we got most of the leg work done in a relatively short period of time but there were some things that we were trying to perfect and ultimately realized that no matter what, there were going to be some flaws in the program. ultimately we really just decided let's get a new plan in place. let's take that employee feedback in stride. knowing that the plan wasn't going to be perfect, we also committed to making changes and really to adjusting that plan year after year. we now have the top two tips you need to know to help you grow your business. let's introduce our panel and get their advice. stephanie was the ceo of ross

organic, which she recently sold and entrepreneur and investor scott gurfane is the co-founder of socket and you also just sold a business of the congratulations to both of you. we're getting advice from two very successful people today. let's start with you, scott. >> the top tip is what i call the zero marketing strategy. it's kind of just saying no to save your business and get what you really want. if you think about yourself, you've got principles and values, things that are like a moral compass that you don't go against. you build the same attributes into your business. so as you're building your business and things start to unfold and your plan starts to unfold and you go into the market, you encounter all sorts of different situations, right? the retailer you wanted to go into wants to take your brand in but all of a sudden the margin structure doesn't allow you to do it profitably. an investor wants to come in but the valuation is way too low. it's at that moment that you have to stop and say, no, this is against my plan. if i go forward, my entire plan

will fall apart and there will be irreparable damage. what happens often is if you're building something of value in the market, at that point of saying no, you get to go out and exercise the business the way you need to do it. what you often find is that those partners end up coming back to the table and you get exactly what you want and you're much stronger for it. >> but what you also might find is a drop in revenue or something happens along the way, right? you make it sound so easy. you say no and everything turns out great. really what happens is you say no, you lose an opportunity and it shows up in the bottom line. >> you may suffer in the short term but you'll prosper in the long term. very often you see businesses making short-term decisions that don't benefit them in the long run. >> okay. stephanie. >> my top tip is all about communication, transparency and team building. it's regarding surveying employees. every year we would take an annual survey of our employees and get a feel for what they felt the real issues were. >> how many employees did you

have? >> 32 employees. >> how did you get them to tell the truth? because there's no way to be anonymous with 32 employees. >> well, number one, we did do an anonymous survey. >> but no one feels like it's anonymous with 32 people. >> what we told people originally was we're going to put this out for all of you guys to see the results so i had no idea what the results would be when i took over the business. so it was a little bit being vulnerable and saying, hey, guys, let's see what's going on, see where we are and get a baseline. we were just putting forth a five-year plan at that time so it gave us a feel for what the hot spots were and what people felt. people were very, very open. they knew i'd be looking right at it and they had no problem saying exactly how they felt. >> i think also what you need to manage in that situation, though, is one person being very fired up about one issue. >> right. >> and then not getting it addressed, right, in a way that makes them feel better. so you've opened up the doors, you've asked me to hear what i

say, i've told you and now you're not changing it. >> so what we ended up doing was showing the results to the entire company in an all company, kind of all hands meeting. yeah, we would go right through it. it would be very, very obvious what the problems were, what the hot spots were, we call them. yes, it was very obvious. it was like a bar graph. so many people selected 1 or 2 here but most people were 9s or 10s. but in a company of 32 people, one or two people absolutely matter and you don't know who they are. so we would get in teams after the survey. instead of looking at me, hey, steph, how are you going to fix this? let's fix this together. i think it gave people a better understanding of these things aren't always easy to solve and we needed to get behind it as a team and accept it and understand it. >> and it also gives you a chance as the owner or team leader to say, look, we're not going to fix this. it doesn't fit in with what we're doing. now it's up to you, do you want

to stay here or not? great advice. congratulations to both of you on sales of your companies. well, our business is based on traffic, and so a great app that i use religiously is called quickalytics. it ties into google analytics and gives me up-to-the-minute information about where our traffic is, our audience and so forth. that's been very, very helpful, especially with my traveling. >> one of the apps i like is called downcast. i spent a lot of time on the road. if i'm not making calls i like listening to podcasts and learn from other leaders who have done interesting or similar things in their businesses. what's neat about downcast is not only does it constantly refresh the latest episode of the podcast i like but it makes suggestions. >> aw watermark is a great tool. it's tree afree and allows you t

pictures with your actual logo or website on it. so no matter how far it goes, you have a presence wherever it goes. this week's your biz selfie comes from trevor bayack from new york city. they pick up, deliver and store luggage equipment and packages. it's for people who don't want to schlep their luggage to and from the airport. now, why don't you do what trevor did. take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. include your name, the name of your business, the location and don't forget to use the hash tag. thank you all so much for joining us. we love hearing from you. if you have any questions, comments, just want to say hi, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. also when you get a sec, please check out our website, it's

msnbc.com/yourbusiness. we put up all of the segments from today's show plus a whole lot more for you. and do not forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms too. finally, remember to check out the podcast, "been there, built that." download it from apple or wherever you get your podcast for free. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business, our business. don't juggle your home life and work life without it. ♪ ♪ don't skip that office meeting for a board meeting without it. don't keep it real... keep it going... or simply keep it in the family without it. and don't turn that business trip,

into an overdue family trip without it. ♪ ♪ the more you live between life and business, the more you need someone at your back. the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. welcome to "politics nation." it took one day for president trump to praise a white teacher from indiana who this week bravely ran toward a gunman who came into a school as students sought cover and by that saving their lives. but how long did it take him to praise james shaw, the black tennessee man who saved lives when he wrestled a gun from an active shooter