the presidential election season is under way. figure out what issues should interest you most as small business sounds off an decision 2012. and why many small businesses are pulling manufacturing out of china, and bringing it back here to the u.s. we'll have that and more coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy, and american express open is here to

help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. hi there, everyone, i'm j.j. ramberg, and welcome to a brand-new year of "your business." where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. in this presidential election year, there is a lot of talk about issues like the outsourcing of jobs and overseas manufacturing. if you're in the business of making a product, you may have heard that it's cheaper to manufacture it in a place like china. but we wanted to know if that was really true. today, we meet a business owner who says she couldn't afford to make her candles overseas anymore. and so she opened a factory right here in the usa. >> i started going to china in

the late 1980s, and the buzz word in the '80s and the '90s was outsourcing. but i think now, it's about right-sourcing. finding which countries are right for your supply chain. >> that's dale williams, chief operating officer of chesapeake bay candle company. >> you actually can't import candles from china cost effectively any longer, because there's a tremendous anti-dumping duty applied to chinese candles. >> anti-dumping, as you know, is a way when country feel the product coming from another country is selling lower than the cost of what this country is producing. >> the result is it almost doubles the cost of your product when you're bringing it in. >> smells good. how many are we making today? >> that's mei shi, cheese a chinese-born american citizen. she's the owner of chesapeake bay candles and this brand-new

multimillion dollar factory in maryland which can produce up to 2400 candles an hour. >> this new word is now popping up called reshoring. reshoring refers to the fact that offshoring in the past, of jobs to china, jobs to india, is coming back. >> reporter: the american anti-dumping trade policy is a significant reason why mei xu is reshoring her production to the usa. but it's not the only reason. >> shipping costs have increased more than 30% every year due to fuel costs. >> and actually shipping those candles is quite expensive. and as freight costs went up we started looking. >> and we quickly realized that the economy of shipping oils back to china, and then shipping back to the u.s. with glass components, it's not really making a lot of financial sense. >> reporter: in addition to

cutting shipping costs, moving production to the u.s. has shortened production lead times and produced large inventory costs. >> we have a lot of large, national retailers that require very quick service cycles. >> reporter: instead of waiting 12 weeks for delivery on orders, williams can now produce a new product, or tweak what's in production, and deliver it in just one or two weeks, tops. >> we can take a look at what's selling, and what our customers want, what the u.s. consumer wants, and change fragrances, change styles, change colors, much more rapidly from the u.s. >> the number one factor is the labor cost increase in china. these workers have graduated to the next level. the young generation do not want to work in low-paying jobs where the environment is not nice. they may not be living in five-star hotels, but they want their grandchildren to do that. >> reporter: while opening a u.s. factory makes long-term sense for her company, it's a very difficult undertaking.

>> i'm not saying that it's impossible. it's kind of improbable if you are an entrepreneur without a very strong financial background. and don't have customers lining up yet. >> you have to have an iron will, and rhinoceros hide to get through the process of establishing a new manufacturing facility. >> reporter: looking at this place now, you'd never guess that 17 years ago, mei started out pouring the wax herself and making the sales calls from her own home just a few miles from here. >> it took off right away. we were partnering with bloomingdale's, and nordstrom's, because of the strong fashion colors. >> reporter: it wasn't just fashionable colors and sophisticated fragrances that made her business a success. and in order to deliver, she's traveled the world to find the best manufacturing sources available. >> we went to guatemala, we went to mexico, we went to manila, we went to thailand.

and it was always something off. >> reporter: to set things up properly, she's brought chinese engineers and chemists to instruct her american staff. and, she says, the learning curve has been steep. >> this is okay right now. >> but that's not okay. that sooting is excessive. >> reporter: for decades the americans have been teaching the chinese to use our production techniques in order to take advantage of their offshore factories. today, china may no longer be the default solution for everyone. could it be that china's over? >> i don't think china's over. but china is an enormously capable country with huge resources. but china is different. >> so, are a lot of companies starting to reshore? and does that make sense? splet's turn to this week's board of directors. hal sirkin is senior partner and managing director at the boston

consulting group and an expert in competing globally. les mckeown is the president and ceo of the company predictable success, and also author of the new book "the synergist," how to lead your team to predictable success. and marketing guru jeffrey hayzlett is the head of the leslet group, a business consulting company and author of the new book "running the gauntlet: essential business lessons to lead, drive change and grow profits." great to see all of you. so, hal, do you find a lot of companies reshoring? do you find that you are giving that advice to a lot of companies you work with? >> well, the world has changed pretty rapidly. wages have risen in china by 20% to 30% a year for awhile and companies are beginning to realize that the advantages of going to china, particularly on products that don't have a large labor content, are going down. so we're starting to see just the beginnings of a wave of companies who are beginning to reshore to the u.s. we don't think this will start in a major way until around 2015, but we're surprised by how

many have begun now, companies like faruk systems that make hair dryers or sleek audio that make audio equipment or coleman that makes coolers are now bringing their products back to the united states. and that is a rapid change. >> why bring them to the u.s. instead of another low-wage country? >> well, there's several factors that are involved. first is the quality of the products that could be produced in the u.s. they are very high. and most importantly, though, is the transportation cost, that if you go to another country, you won't have the same kind of productivity as china gives you or as the u.s. gives you, and the transportation costs are quite high for a lot of these products. so bringing them back to the u.s. makes it very economic. >> you know what else i was thinking about, they said, we talk about in the piece, right now there's a two-week turnaround versus i think it was six weeks. and with fads coming and going so quickly, and the internet, and you're able to see something and like it, it seems like that's really important. >> absolutely. it takes two or three weeks just

to ship it across the ocean you have to think about that. you might miss that window that you need to have. a lot of companies, especially the bigger companies are looking at right-sourcing the products in the region. if you're in north america, you have some ability to ship it around north america. if you're in europe, build your products there and ship them around europe or vice versa in other parts of the world. makes a lot more sense. >> we just did another piece a couple weeks ago of a factory that used to produce stuff overseas and now they produce it here. she was saying personally it's a lot easier because she's not traveling back and forth anymore. >> i think there's also an imperative to want to do something to help the local economy as well. i think people's minds are shifting at least to be open to the possibility. but somebody someone said the plural of anecdote is not data and i'm not 100% convinced we're seeing anything more than one or two great stories for this. for them, for the candle company, it's obviously the right thing to do. my concern would be like giving something a name like resourcing that we've got a trend here yet. the jury is still out.

>> is this something people need to start thinking about doing now? a lot of small businesses don't have their own factories but at least moving their manufacturing here to the u.s. at another factory help? >> yeah, i believe they have to start doing this right now, because it takes awhile to build a factory. this is one place where small businesses have an advantage. because they are small they can move a lot quicker than a lot of the major businesses that have lots of processes and other things to get things done. putting up a relatively small plant, hiring a few workers, is something that small business can do very quickly. >> hal sirkin, thank you so much for your expertise. you guys, thank you, but you still around. are you wondering what 2012 has in store for your business? here are the top five small business trends for the new year, courtesy of "usa today's" small business columnist. number five, internet video. video increases sales so consider aing instruction ago videos, a tour of your store, or

video nuz letters to your marketing plan. four, social media. social media is growing exponentially and should be a key element of your business model going forward. three, the death of nine to five. the internet, laptop, smartphones and apps have made it possible to work anywhere, any time. two, are happy days back? consumer confidence continues to rise, and unemployment claims continue to fall. if this trend continues, it will shape your business significantly in 2012. for the better. and number one, mobile mania. more than 20% of all searches are done on a mobile device. so, consider geotargeting mobile marketing offers and make your website mobile friendly. from now until the final vote is cast on november 6th, you can pretty much guarantee that the candidates are going to court small business owners. >> folks on wall street played by different rules than businesses on main street.

>> one is to make america once again the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, and innovators and pioneers and businesses of all kinds. >> we will work diligently to make the cost of doing business here in america, for people who make things, the job creators, that the wealth creators, the great multiplier effect in the economy, and the engine of growth for small-town america. >> the reason it's really important is small businesses are the primary job creators of the country. >> but, look, let's be honest, so many of us get so caught up in the day-to-day of running our business, that we don't take the time to really see how what goes on in washington affects us. but guess what? it does. and each of the candidates have their own views on what they think will help small business owners get or stay on track. sometimes these ideas resonate, and sometimes they don't. so as caucus and primary season begins, we've brought together a group of 25 small business owners from around the country

to ask them what they think about the upcoming election, and the issues they believe are critical in 2012. in the months ahead, we'll send questions to this panel, and ask them to give us a reality check on what they think is important. we'll also post these questions on our facebook page and our twitter feed to see what you think. so please be sure to chime in. in this first installment of small biz sounds off we have three entrepreneurs with us. gene marks is the president of the marks group and a small biz columnist for "the new york times" who is based in philadelphia. he voted for president obama in the last election. paul saginaw is the co-founder of the zingerman's community of business. he also cost his vote for obama four years ago and steve schmidt is the owner of the enchanted springs ranch in texas. he supported john mccain in the last election. thank you all for coming and joining in in the first of this series which i'm so excited about. i want to start with you, gene, because i do think in talking to

small business owners, a lot is happening. we don't exactly know how it's going to affect us. so when you look at the issues that the candidates are talking about, or should be talking about, what are -- what are the two things that you think we as small business owners most need to pay attention to the vws from the candidates? >> there's really two big important things that i see. and by the way, when you say that i voted for president obama, just to be clear, i'm a registered republican, as well, who voted for george bush twice. and then voted for obama. and so i've kind of, you know, been on both sides of the table there. two things i think are really important for businesses looking forward. number one is the tax environment. overall, taxes represent, to most small businesses, the largest percentage of money that we're paying. our biggest cost. for many of us it's 25%, 30, 35% of our income goes to the federal government for taxes. number one, if the rates are too high, it's less money we have to spend on people and on capital and growing our business, it's a big issue.

the second issue that i see, which has really been the most disappointing thing i've seen in the past four years is the overall business environment. all right, j.j. so you know, when i look at other business owners like myself, we have felt over the past four years, putting aside regulatory issues, putting aside oh, there's too much, you know, regulations are laws or things against small business, it's more just like a tone that comes out of washington. is it business friendly? is it not business friendly? and over the past four years, as a business owner myself and from the many people i interview and i speak to, i just get the sense that business owners are holding back from investing, because they don't feel like it's a business friendly environment to invest. which is why business investment has been so low. >> and gene, is there a candidate who particularly speaks to you on these issues? >> funnily enough, yeah. as a registered republican, i, of all the candidates i've seen right now on the republican side, i favor mitt romney. and my biggest reason why, j.j., is i think he has business and management experience that would

create a business friendly tax friendly environment for me to take a few risks and to expand my business and maybe put a few bucks away for college. >> paul, i want to ask you what you thought about the past four years, and what you'd like to see changed in the next four years if you could speak to the candidates. >> well, for me the question is, not so much who is friendly to small business, but who is -- who is looking out for the middle class. because, the middle class is the entrepreneurial class, and so, i would like to see who -- the candidate for me is the one who is going to least aggressively continue to shift the tax burden onto the middle class. >> steve, is there any candidate so far, at least in the republican side, obviously, that is speaking to you as somebody who is going to help small business from your perspective? >> there's a lot of taxes that

are -- that my business struggles with. there's a lot of regulations, and licensing, and there's new things coming up all the time. and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to handle that. we are a small business, and we're struggling to stay alive. and i don't know that washington is hearing our pleas for help now. and i'm looking for someone who's willing to help us now. to balance the budget, and be pr pro-business. i don't personally believe governments can exist anywhere without business. and people doesn't have jobs without business. and so, that's what i'm looking for. >> is there something, paul, specific to business, you talked about the middle class, but is there anything that anyone has said or could say to you about business in particular, you know, a tax cut for business, et cetera, that could get you interested, or do you just think the problems that business have are just a problem that the economy or structure have? >> well, i'll tell you what i'm very excited about is, there's a

bill that's just been passed in the house and it's in the senate now, it's the entrepreneur access to capital act, and i'm very excited about that. surprisingly, that was an emerging coalition between some leaders of the tea party, in the obama administration, and i think that -- that that's a very good move, essentially it's a crowd funding act and it's going to allow entrepreneurs to go out to many, many people who are not credited investors and ask them for money. and i think that this is going to spur a lot of business, and will help drive the economy. >> gene, i just want to end this with you. what key words should we be looking for as we watch for the next ten months, what do we need to pay attention to you? >> you know, it's funny as a small business owner and somebody writes about small

business, i don't buy in to the whole rhetoric that it's small business that's the backbone of this economy. i look at my company and we do a lot of work for a lot of big companies, as well. it's not just small business, j.j., it's big business. you know, it's business in general. so the keywords that i'm looking for in the fall is i'm looking for business friendly. i am looking for people that are going to stop calling wall street bankers, and financial people fat cats because they're taking too much money, and they're the ones that are all the problem in the economy. when, in fact, those are the people that are financing the economy and loaning a lot of money to businesses like mine that want to grow. >> all right. great, well, gene, paul, steve, we will be contacting you many times throughout the next year with questions, saying one of the candidates said this, does it resonate to you or not. give us a reality check. so thank you for kicking this off with us. >> thanks, j.j. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. still to come, we answer some of your business questions that we received over the holidays. including one about incentivizing your employees. and things are looking up for this elevator pitcher who

created shoes with heels that go from high to low. sam: i'm sam chernin. owner of sammy's fish box. i opened the first sammy's back in 1966. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business.

wouldn't it be great if you could go from a day at the office to a nighttime event without ever changing your shoes? today's elevator pitcher hopes to pump up her new product. >> i am candice kaine, and these heals are patten pending. these are 50 million women that wear high heel shoes every day, and they usually have to carry extra shoes with them in their bag everywhere they go when is a pain, so with the convert to heals, you press a button, and the wheel comes off. there are five different heel heights. we have privilegen the market by presailing over 500 pairs on our website, convertibleheels.com, and we are ready to ramp up production and need investment

money. we are looking for $250,000 for 25% equity, which will provide a ten times return in five years, and the money will go towards sales, marketing and inventory. we have a 75% blended gross margin, not only on our shoes but also replacement heels. >> nice job. this happens a lot when you are pitching a female product to males, because so many investors are males, so you might get the product, so how did she do in the pitch? >> you got my attention. that's a real important thing. the key thing is i will go and find out my own research, and the first person i will ask is my wife and shoes, and of course i do buy a lot of them -- >> at least your credit card does. >> exactly right. will they really wear it? i want to see or see pictures or

hear things from other people that this is really something that they want to get, because i know it doesn't have to be comfortable orphan chau null, but just has to be good looking. >> how did the pitch do? >> the pitch was great. i get it. i get the product immediately. my concern is i think it suffers from the omg illusion, which is n everybody you show this to will say oh, my god, and that doesn't mean this is a good business. it's a good product. i am not convinced it's a good business. what i would like you to do is license this, and surf the infomercials for two or three nights, and find somebody who has a infrastructure behind them, rather than going into very, very expensive marketing for just one product. >> we are talking three of the top five -- >> i want to hear about

distribution and scale. if i am going to give it $250,000, which i might say, i want to see the ten times earnings on that, i want to know that you have the key contacts or met them or they are somewhat interested in the product. >> well, congratulations with the product and selling so many already, and good luck with everything, as i teeter on my high heels right now. and thank you for all of your advice right now. if any of you have a product or service and you want feedback on your elevator pitches, send us an e-mail. the address is yo yourbusiness@msnbc.com. you never know, somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. time now to answer some of your business questions. les and jeff are with us.

one asks when hiring and providing incentives for employees how can we achieve brand buying? you got that? >> the first thing i would advice joseph to do is to speak plain english. this sounds like something out of a textbook, so talk english. it's not at all difficult to over pay people as long as you find a metric that gives you a return. we found two metrics that had a way to pay them more, and so we were able to pay them 150% of what the market rate was, which

kept them longer and we got twice from them, so find a metric that justifies paying them more. >> in the interview process be honest about what your company does, and so people know what they are getting into. >> and be transparent. communicate. that's one of the key things with the employees. show them if they do this, and you get to this level, you can provide those kinds of benefits or incentives. you find sometimes employees are not motivated by the money, but they are motivated by feeling good. it's really about being more transparent to your employees. >> moving on to the next one, it's a question from larry that wrote, i have a sales script writing business with clients all overt world. is there a way i can find an agents that can book sales script writing work, and then i can do what i like best, write

skrips. >> i never heard of anybody with that skill set, but my thought is a really good intern or entry level employee that should be able to do the work readily. it's not like the old days where you needed an agent to unlock the secret doors. >> don't forget, you have to drive sales. in the end, you are the ones that is responsible for your company. trust me, no matter who you are, you always have to be selling your business, especially when you are the owner. a great way to go out and look is social media. use lincoln and twitter, and pretty soon you will work up a great network of people. >> if you can be specific about what you are looking for and send it out to all of your friends and etc., you will find

something. this is something where you will not find somebody in the industry, because it doesn't exist in that way, but you may find somebody with those skills. >> and it will take time. >> thank you very much for all the advice. if any of you out there have a question for our experts, go to our website, openforum.com/yourbusiness. you can submit a question for our panel. or you can e-mail questions and comments, the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. do you wish working from anywhere anytime was a little easier? check out the website of the week. it's an online meeting platform that combines text top sharing with phone line and video. the service is available on your mobile device so you can take your web meetings on the road.

joining a meeting doesn't require a membership, but to host meetings a subscription is required. i said, let's see if we can take elements with special forces training and mix it up into a run and make it about teamwork and challenge people. >> how a harvard grad turned his idea of a obstacle course into a multimillion-dollar business. shazi: seven years ago, i had this idea. to make baby food the way moms would. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections.