in this tough economy many archoogsing to telecommute. is it a cost shooifing greenay to work or untushgtive? do y kw what aar tattoo is? find outext on "your business. " it's not just any business. it's "your business." that's why ameran express open is proud to present "your business" on msn.

hi, there. welcome to "your busine" where we give you tips andadvice. with t econom downturn affecting balance sheets, everyone is looking for ways cuback. although not everyone is in vor it, a dver company shed its office space and sad money by turning all of its employees into telecommuters. >> a year ago mickey clark had no time to eny her colorado horse ranch. she wasoo busy commuting 60 miles to the denv office her family-owned mpany, a high-ened real estate and marketg firm. >>e had 10,000 square feet and roughly 30mployees at corporate and we had seven fie

offices. xhur the comny and the rest of theeal estate industry, the mortge meltdown wasn'tust a tremorn thrt, it was a tsunami. >> what we decided w had to do was immediatel start cutting unnecessary costs. we had a $16,000 a month rent. it was huge. i srted kind of dng some research on telecommuting an on telework association. >> mickedaughter contacted donna dley a work coordinator for theity of denver for sistance. >> we want to alleviated traffic congesti and pollution. we edge courage them to plement a program so employees can work from home. one day a week or up to ve days a week, but the's lots and lots of statistics that n show there's tremendous benefits for having a telecommute. >>he meant with the management team, but mickeyas resistt to the idea. after months of kking and screamg, though, she realized that in order for her busiss

to survive, she wouldave to ta cal steps. >>he finally came around to it, i think, out of financial cessity, out ofaking agood financiadecisionor the busine rher than the her pen fitse've come to realize like incrsed productivity and eating a sults-only work enronment. >> wn people are home, they're working harder and there's no interruptions and mo time to concentrate. it's ae inten environment so productivy usually increasing dramatically. >> the people you want in yir busiss are those thawould be there anyway. they'll be dedicateand interested and inventive and they do this inour office >> the key to making it work is solid communication and i.t. support. from videoconferencing to new voice-over i.t. phones, eryone needs to beomfortable with t technology. let me put you through to t conference room. one ment, please. >> we commied a l of time to

training and coaching. go to these users' homes and making sure they're -- they have theirach and their wospes figured out is one thing. after about two weeks evebody was comfortablewith videoconferencing and they wer mfore with document shing and soon and so forth online. they took toit a lot faster and soon than i aicipated. >> allof which leads another g benefit, happy employees. >> what's happening as a result of telecommuting is i'm saving a whole day's work byot aveling back and forth. that extra five to eight hours i savextra every week i get to work on a novel that'v been working on for quite a long time >> a yar ago i had a 70-mle comme. i spent 30 years doinghe 70-mile commute. still, this is great opportuny. i love it. >> eve couple of weeks the staff t ther at a local panera bread to catch up and brainstorm about up cming

project. >> i foun this anera bread thing really made us feel mo social and talk about thing going on in our lies. don't know. it jt felt like a ve different organizatn. we need to have an employee/employerelationship, but more a we're on is work team andwe like t get these things done. >> rightext to the panera ead is office olus, it hacoerence rooms and cubicles forhe occasional meetingsith clients or colleagues. >> sometimes if we hav something want to talk about as a buss that is more pri prive and we don't want it in public we will rent a confence room. we can break up into small groups. the accounting group wl break up and meet. >> even this tough economy, she says telerkin has lower overhead, raid produivity and made both her and the emoyees happy. for the teathere's no going

back. >>e're still ambitus and xwe p entrreneurial and aot of energy for business. what i don't have energy r anymore isun around and check up on ople, commute an hour a day. just would rather n do that any longer. we have far re time to talk abt our dreams for the business than we did before. we're veryleas with this. i don't think we're gog back. telecommutg has been a onfor some companies and employees. what are the negates? jeff zabar is a home office expert mting with small businesses othe most effective ways to telecommute joins me on the set is kimberly wizell. she'the editor ofusiness week small biz.

thanks for joining me, yone. >>y pleasure. >> s jef it looked all and we good in the piecewe saw. telecommuting great and everyone is motivated sp get more done it can't be that way for everyone. >> therere times that it is that way, and then therere timeyou have to work through situations. so that exale has great camaraderie and chemiry among e organition it'smportant you foster that and have that ging on, because people don'tlike teleworking and people who don't want to move away from thehive. people want to be in a that corporate envinment. teleworking should be a voluntary tuation. they're a great ample of a company that made telerking work for them. >> someone who is not -- pple may do now for cost reasons or he their workers telecommute. if you have a worker who lis an ideof a community a likes to go to work, what do you do

>>t's going to be tough to get them out of t fice. they want be there a couple ys aweek. at the least have weekly meetings for that persn. as manager you're no longer able tdo the management walking aroun you kno you he to be much re proactive with people uncomfortable who ybe you never had isss with before and make sure they're comfortablein the new eironment. >> what about is idea of half an half? >> you're trying to rike a balance no matr what. in either scenario you have to able to have metrics and clear objective criteria toake it possibl that irrpective where you are, tecommuting or he offic there's a clear derstanding of what constitutesuccess for that employee. >> i think aot of managers out ere like this because of cost reasons and one wker wants to work for home a couple days a week butre afrd to do it. >> a number of peoplewant to

telework. theeason not to do it is because of day care and you have young kids. it not a day care alternative, but pele need balce. micki didn't want toive 60 miles one way any longer. if u're driving 10,15, 20 mile in rushour traffic is loss time. ople start their day earlier and work later. you get more producti time out them. if ty take tim during the middle of the day to get rsonal things done, as long as they're getting their delivebles done, i have not seen problem with hat. a loof manags are understanding. >> y guys did a piece on this. what did you find people thought abouit? >> for the vt maty of company ats we spoke to, it worked o very well. what they did is toobaby steps. they didn't do somhing as radical asmki c did right away. one companytarted off and said you get six telewkdays week. you can pick them and give u 24 hours notice.

we have to make sure you ve all the rightaterials because they had sample libries where people neded to bring things me with them. they're not saving a lot of money from that for quite a whil as they broaden their program,hich they consid. unlessveone gets comrtable with it and it let uses management work out h do we know if this person is productive from ome? >> thi aut doing this as st-cutting measure. >> thanks much for jining us. >> thank you f having me. it's bn a pleasure. >> time to answer your business estions. the first e comes from the owneof a pography and stationery service. >> when hiring independent contractors for talent such as frfrs and graphic designers, how do i impart my business practices and trade secrets s they fction as employees while protecnghose trade secrets as well? >> this is very common.

get a nondisclosure agreeme. essional services firms typically will kw exactly what's needed a make sure that you re that. >> you could probablyust downad o off theweb. >> there's a goodne on thescore website. if you disclose something -- if yoren the receiving end and you learn sething from anoth source, it's no longer considered confidential. if you should look at things like that as well. >> right. weerelking abouthe ide of she said treat these contractors as employees, whh could be a prlem. >> if you want an employee, hire an loyee. the risk she's protecting is n any different wh an employee. an employee could lee a company with trade secrets as well. she needs to think aout that, too. >> it's a red flag to say i want to treat this person as a employee and notactually have them beco one. shwould be aware of that. >> there are spefi things make someone a contractor and specific things to make them an employee. this comes from th owner of a company that designs parentg products.

>> we deal with retailers a the retail world is having a difficult ti right now. we have toeal often with reilers in bankruptcyr apprching bankrupt. we want to find the most appropriate an lowest risk way of doing busiss with them. y advi on at would be helpful to us. >> that's from the choice in new yorkity. a lotf people h the same exact question. >> the strongestthing to do is cash on delivery. we're not going to give you goods if you don't give us cash. thers other ways to tighten your terms a littlebit. if youive them 90 days to pay, say 60 days a pay. once a companis in bankruptcy, you have a beter chance of getting id than ifthey go into bankruptcy once they already owe you oney. it's a little bit tricky that way. >> is not oneize fits all. yokn your customers, particularly long term customers and customers who might be a major customer for you. you're interested to e that company stays in business. you would treat that company a

little differently th a smaller or shr term customer. >> that's a good idea. makeure you get your money. >> yo alnate people you say payme cash. there's no doubabout it. >> do at that sometimes. moving o to the e-mas, the first one is from leonard. he says i know this is a good time to hire good people cheaply. >> it iso easy to say putyour otns aside. 's hard. they're like family. how do you c the cord? leonard.ieved i don't work for thco of hiring is more than wages and benefi. the costf hiring is investing in that personover time, trng that person. so all the things th you would need to do to hav a succes employee should be part of the calculation. evenif you can be completely andmotily detached and

rational, thing about all of those ftors. >> i would also a -- wat you is true. somebo else is great baudz you don't have to manage them. also, do his employees who a ote-ote fine, do they know they're only fine? if they'reperforming a level good enough for a long time, it's not fair to pullthe rug out from under them. u need to tell people they're not performing, tell them what they need to do, give them he and a deadline to get there. if they can't do i it doesn't matter what the economy is. >> i'm a litt harsher than u guys which is w this is such an interesting questions. there e so many great peole out there looking for jobs, and this is your job to gab them and grab them at a great price. it's hard to fire someone. >> you he to ask the question, what is the gap beten where you are an the sill setsou want to apply? >> tt's true. >> that may or may not be a

question of finding the right talent, but am hiring for t right things and a my employees in line with my business. >> am i doing igoo job managin and maybe get these people in >> let's move on to the next e-mail. she says -- >> she's in a hole, but i think what she needs to realize ths ways make pple thk and believe ey're gettg something extra without doing work for free with no stris attached. shcould go on a triaperiod with someonend say, if you don't like, i'll give youour money back. this is my standard contract. i'll give you something extra on top of that. she's czy to do work for free with no expectation of income ever. >>hat's right. she needs to sucre whatever

contractshe goesinto it such that if the tal converts to a longer term customer, she gets paid back. she wod ink about of the free work i' doing which customeras the potential to be the most profitable. it doesn't seem like she has much marg error on this position. >> great answers. all of those questions cme from our website. so if you have question for our experts, you, too, can head to our website at yo yourbusiness@msnbcom. clicon tontact us link. ile on the site, vew this segment and other portions of our show. you'll find web-excsive content and vide all the information and advice to help y run your small busiss is at yourbusiness.msnbc.com. now that we've heard from the experts,et's learnbout survival tactic from small siness owners just likyou. >> my advice to other entrepreneurs is to begin

inking all. when i say small, i mean sll produconruns. you don't haveto go overseas and order a millionnits or 100,000 units. >> i would be very carel before youake out a loan, re all the fine int and phaps haveour attorney even read the fine print before you get into a situation where you can't pay back the loan. >> the advice was to hold onto the ball with both nds until it pops my advice for small businesses is hd on your ca with both hands at all times. more ways t help your small business flourish in this tough economy. we'll get advice on how you and yo employees c conduct more oductive meetings. and our elevator pitchers going to show our experts how to pimp their ride. i'm katrina rkoff, owner of voss haut chocolates.

we combinehocolate with exotiroots, flowers and spices to crea tastes that tell ltural stories. but in today's economy, how do you run a business at's about indulgence, - yet intain scalesponsibility? ( cash register bell din ) selling prospective clients can require more than trfles withungarian paprika toeal the deal. so to makevery dollar we s do the most for us, we useur american express open charge card. it's thcard that understands at my business needs. we use membership rds points to visit clients and vdors all over the wld. and we relon open's concrge service to get our clients into theop hotels and restrants. which keus look pret sweet. when you're selling exotic cholates,

having a card you can count on isn't a luxury. 's a necessity. announce today how you run your buses is anything t typical. so use the card that is't your typicalredit card. the erican express openharge card. to seehat pen charge cd n do for yourusiness, visit open.com/yrbiz or call 888-550-open. there's doubt company meetings a a good thing, unless there long, boring, uninspiring and unproductive which happens much, much too often. so our next guest isere to give usips on how to have etings that actuallyesult in action.

m zoeller is sxrez founder of image kim, it's so grt to see you. >> i love this topic, because as everyoneere knows, nothing drives me more crazy than a long meeting that dsn't result anhing. >>right. >> i want to get rht to your ideas. the first thing you say to do is prepare an agenda? >>bsutely. peopleome with their own agendas, own things onap and then the meeting ge out of control, youaste an hour, 30 minus, wver it may be wi all these agenda items with no end s ifyou have a poi to your meeting, and you send it out d youget eople's feedback before the meeting, what they want, thenourrive there, everyone has a plan and has an action of what it's about. >> and then you talk about having a purpose f each item on the agenda. wouldn't each ite already have a purpose? >> youave to tie it back int your purpose r your agenda. if you're there to, at the

budgeting meeting d sayhis is each point that everyehas to prepare for, you know, if everyone ces knowing what they have to do, they can do prep work befoe, everne'sdy to go. they get it done, say what they need to say and then you move on. >> should ther be aask master? i thinkyou call it aime keeper. >> absolutely. one of the things we notice in meetings, it's easy t getoff onifrent tangents. if you have someone saying we have three minutes t discuss this, you stay on task and the other thing is yo can cree what w call a parking lot wher if something com up that isn't part of this agenda and isn't part of this pot, then the time keeper says we're putting ita list for the nex meeting >> shoul you be strict abo thatime or if you' having livelyiscussion do you let it go? >> ink yore pretty strict otherwise u end up with meings where you waste time d people who don't take the meeting seiously.

me is mone s gettg to the point, gting people in and out of meetingso they can get to work is crucially iortant. >> and cing up with an outcome so youon't just talk about thgs. you say thiss what you have to do. >> that's the key. if you leae things and erne goes off and ds their own thing, no one does what they are suosed to do in the meetg so you end up with wasted time ain. e outcomes of who is doing what, en they're doing it, when you get tohe next meeting, wt has been don that comes back to the ft meeting, is so important. >> do you suggest that wrap-up and that, okay, kim,his is your assignment, co in per form or do you spend a cole of minutes at the end of e meeting going over at? >> someone suld be doing minutes that is writing down every point and then what they do is, once they have done that, you wra. it up at thend veally and that peon, really with a couple of days should take that, write it all out, type it out,

send it to everyone and say let's keep on track, tis is what everye's role is, this is what evryone's responsibility is. >> this is an important point. it seems obvious b there are so many pple who d't do this andeeti get out o control. >> that's the point. meetingsecome a waste and ople go from one meeti to the nextith no outcome. >> kim zollor, thanks so much. >> thanks r having me. >>before you go and break the bank onan accountant financial aiser check out our website of theweek. outright.comis aew service that provides free bookkeeping to small businesses. you can track expenses, taxes and invoices thugh a secure web-sed program. where you can keep up with the late software updates. ♪ we've talked befe on th show how putting signs on a company's fet of vehicles can help marvegt your business. today's elevator picture has capitalized with a unique w to

personalize the mobilearketing approach. >> hi, my name is se marie. i'm with car tech car techs are graphics at you put on your car to decorate it or to adverse your busine. i own a pr firm, a when one, i learned from oneof my clients who kes vehicle wraps that the material useds so easy to u and that it's removable. i said wow, anyby can do this. ey're different from buer stickers becau they're easy to remove. they're better than magnets. they will damage t paint jo and co a fraction of what it would be to int your car. tattoojohnny, nuer one body artigner and ireball tim who desis cars for the mies. in the two years 'veeen in business jt from our pr forts alee have hundreds of orders week but because is is such a new idea, we need

money to advertise. one's looking for this product. so w also neto build up our art database. we need $1 million and we can guarantee a 450% to 50% return on investmt. >> i love to hear y talk about tattoo johnnys and fireball ji let's move to the pitch. is there anything you misse >> ihink it was great. my conce washt at the beginninwhere she said this is so easy anyone can do it. so what's t prent someone elsem doing it. not necessarily thaw want to go into the technical details but trying to set yourself apart om a would-becopycat would help. david? >> i thought the same. it was a compelling pitch, connted to your proct, great idea. in addition to being to say what'sour competive advante, if you could tell us alittle bit about why you can pull it off, i think as an investor, that would help make

sion a lot easier. >> all rig, now bsed on his, woulyou take another meeting? >> iou want to hear more about it, want to hear more about the potential corpate us as well. this seems consumer driven b want to arn more. >> david? >> i'm rea to tattoo my car. >> tnks so much for coming on the program. good luck withverything and you guyshanks so much for everything today. we appreciateit. if any of you would like your chance like rosemarie to pitch our expert in the elevator, send u an e-mail, our address yourbusinesssnbc.com. include a short mmary of what your company es, much mone y're trying t raise and what you intend to do with the money. somebody out there watching the show might be terested in helpinyou. tax deadnes are rapidly approaching, so here are five surpsing deductions u may t know about courtesy of businessweek.com. nsult your accountant or tax

praper for detai advice on how to apply these t you. number one domestic production costs. two, cleing services. the cosncurred to keep your workspace clean can be deducted under the office expenses category. three,oftware. e prof expensive software can be dpreeepreciated over three-year peods. number fou buss cards. the cos incurred with creating cards for you and your staff can be filed under office expense and number five, cell phones. if the phone is used 50% to conducbusiness the monthly fees can be deducted. to lrn more about today's show click on our webte. it's yourbusiness.msnbc.com. you'll find all of today's segments plu web exclusive content with more infoation on to help you grow your business. >> as a small busiss owner you have tbe the one to mmunicate that when alls

said and done ur cny, your servic a your products are good enough to do well in a tough economy. > also, we're interested in hearing about what'soing on with your sml business so click on the newsline icon to take part iniscussions about today's topics. next meet, two restaurant owners who it their customers for getting thei business back on tra. >> my ego got the best of me and i pushed it forward, pushed it forward, had to give it a chance and people are saying we don't like it. we don't like it, and i was no, i didn't lst and now, lking back, i wish i did. >> find out how a 0,000 vestment left restaurant seats pty hadustomers promising not to cme back. until then, i'm j.j. raurg. remember, we makyour business our siness. i'm katrina markoff, owner of vosges haut chocolates.

we combine chocolate with exotic roots, flowers d spices to create tastes that tell cultural stori. but in today's ecom how do you r a business that's out indulgence, - yet maintain fiscal responsibility? - ( cash registebell dings ) selling prpective clients can reire more than truffles with hungarian papka to seal the deal. so to make every dollar we spend do the mostor us, we use our american press open charge rd. it's the card that unrstands what my busine needs. we use membership rewards points to vit clients and vendors all over the world. and we rely on on' concierge serve get our clies into the top hotels and restaurants. which makes us look pretty sweet. when you're selling exotic chocolate having a card you can count on isn't a luxury it's a nessity. announcer: today how yorun your business anything but typical. so usehe card that isn' your typical credit ca. the american express open charge card. to see what an open charge card can do for your business,