a biker chick takes to the highway to bring business to her customers. and small business customers say what they are looking for in a presidential candidate. all that and more coming up on "your business."

hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business," where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. with empty store fronts littering the landscape, one arizona business shows how to shut it down and go mobile. now, she goes directly to the customer. in an uncertain post recession market, her simple market resolution has been a boom to her business. julia hutton is enjoying the great outdoors, selling her

motorcycle gear at events across the country. but three years ago she was stuck in a failing brick and motor store, depressed and wondering what she could do to fix her business. >> we literally had days when nobody would walk in the store because there was no foot traffic. board with retirement, she decided to open her dream store in cottonwood, arizona. she soon found the store was in a fluctuating state of feast or famine. the weather and an uncertain economy made the over head associated with the store an anchor around her neck. >> we were there for 2 1/2 years. it was a lot of fun. i really enjoyed it. i loved the people that came in and loved their response to the store, but still i was missing so much. >> when it became clear the store was not profitable enough to stay open, julia came up with

a solution to her fluctuating foot traffic, she decided she would bring the store to her customers. >> i said okay, with this kind of over head, we need to close the store and get mobile. i thought wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a trailer that was all cute and-themed out inside, and then all you have to do when the event is over is close the doors and drive it to the next place and open the doors. >> julia's idea was simple, with a store on wheels she could set up shop at motorcycle rallies and festivals and fairs, and bringing her merchandise to hundreds and thousands at a time. >> you don't have to sit in a store and wait for them to come to you. and that is -- it's brilliant. it's a brilliant idea, and it works. >> in its first weekend, julia's mobile store brought in twice

the revenue that her brick and motar star brought in in a week. this simple approach helped her failing business succeed. she expanded her business from one mobile trailer to four. her trailer started to get notice by other vendors who were setting up and spending hours, and her ability to pull up and open the trailer and be ready to go in a few minutes was hard to ignore. and then she found another business, extreme retailers was born. >> we can help other people who

want to become mobile, they can take advantage of all that we have learned, and boy, have we learned a lot. >> one vendor was letha smith. >> i actually decided i wanted one immediately. >> extreme retailers does everything from top to bottom and delivers a ready-to-go store. >> i love it. this is beyond what i expected. she just hit it right on the head. you know, she just knew exactly what i wanted and what would fit with what i do. >> with a $15,000 investment in her trailer, letha believes she will make her money back quickly. >> i give it six months. i did well with a tent. can you imagine how well i will do with this? >> in lake havasu, julia showed

her the ropes her first time out. >> they come and they buy. >> we bought a balloon, of course. >> in a post-recession market, the novel solution to her retail dilemma turned out to be a boom to her apparel business, and a lucrative second business. not bad for a woman looking to do during retirement. >> it's so innovative and new, and i said to myself, you know the old adage, no guts no glory, and it makes sense and the customer feedback has been excellent, so let's give it a shot. we hear a lot about small businesses that are now going from their stores directly to their customers, be it at industry events or at their homes. let's talk more about that trend

with two of our guests. the author of the best-seller ", the lean startup." great to see both of you. >> thank you for having us. >> lean start up. nothing leaner than ditching your store and putting it in a trailer? >> it's incredible. it allows the speed with which the concept can be tested and changed is faster. that's something we think of being high-tech, but the same techniques and technologies being applied even in a retail environment is cool. >> do you think a retail store doesn't make sense? everybody should go get a trailer? >> what is important, j.j., she took action. hope is not a strategy. and actually taking your trailer to a customer is not anything new. i guess whatever is old is new

again. many years ago people used to have horse-drawn carts that would bring the merchandise to the folks. and these days, people want it anywhere and when. burger king told us we could have it our way, and guess what? we still do. >> a lot of restaurants are creating food trucks and taking it to people, so a lot of people are doing this to your point. and then she created a whole separate business. how do you deal with that? she has a good idea. and it's hard to turn that into a business. >> you have to be careful. i am caution when intrapreneurs have two businesses at one time. you have to be great at doing one thing, and you have a side business and you have to make sure it doesn't interfere with what you are doing originally. >> it's a change in strategy but

still staying true to your accomplishments. take the concepts that worked in one truck and making them available for many to use. >> i think of this, and you develop software for your own company and then you realize, oh, actually, there's another revenue by licensing the software. she did something with her trucks, the same thing, which many would not think of doing. >> when you are using your software and then licensing the software to other people, and that's a different business and there's customer support that comes with it. >> as long as you understand what you are getting into, i think that's smart. and those that tried to create the platform for other people, if you start with the platform it almost fails, because you don't understand the application well enough to help other people, so it's good to start

with your own truck. >> thank you. extreme retailers may be booming but its profit margin like that of so many small businesses is being eaten into by rising gas prices. gas prices are expected to skyrocket this summer. >> it's an unwelcome sound heard around this time. grumble around the gas pump as prices start migrating north. this year, possibly the most expensive gas ever. >> the national average stands about 40 cents higher than one year ago. gas prices increasing across the board. >> reporter: after spiking almost 20 cents a gallon in the last four weeks, gas prices are now poised to skyrocket a further 60 cents a gallon by late may. this year, possibly the most expensive gas ever. by then, predictions are for a national average of $3.95, but

with many cities far higher and reaching all-time highs. $4.35 predicted in boston, and 4.60 in atlanta by memorial day, and 4.70 in los angeles, and 4.85 in san francisco, and the highest in the lower 48, $4.95 a gallon in chicago by memorial day. dr. soda offers soft drinks and snacks in the los angeles area, and gas takes a 15% bite out of the company's bottom line. >> every single day we get price increases from our suppliers. we cannot keep raising prices day in and day out so we are absorbing the hits we are taking. >> and the sky high prices may be here to say, as consumers cringe every time they pull up to the pump. kevin tibbles, chicago.

>> concerned about rising gas prices is just one issue on the minds of small business owners this presidential election year, so we went to anaheim, california, recently, and asked intrapreneurs to sound off on the issues they think are important for the candidates to address. >> as a small business person, i am really concerned with the tax base and not getting taxed so much that i can't operate my business, and i am looking for a candidate that understands business and comes from a business background. i am really interested in what mitt romney has to say and i am really looking at his campaign right now because i think he might be the man that understands where somebody like me is coming from. >> i think the top two issues that affects small business, is the regulations thrusts into the small business sector by the government and the reduced

capital available in the marketplace because of the economic assert teas that have gone on in the last 20 years. >> it's the economy, stupid. we have to create jobs out there and get capital out back in the marketplace, and small business drives america and consumer spending drives small business. we have to find a way to get the process rolling. >> right now i feel something as a small business owner and a citizen of the country, one of the main things is our national debt. we have a great need to find a leader that will understand that we have to lower our national debt. we cannot continue to spend more than what we make. we need to take care of the country and our national debt, our spending, is way out of control. >> with the question of whether the current administration is answering any of these questions of small business manufacturing,

i don't feel that it is. the concern the republican nominee, mitt romney, also is not addressing these issues. the only politician that i have seen talking about manufacturing in the united states is ron paul. >> whether you are putting in the effort on facebook and twitter or if you should start, the way they can reach online influence is klout with a "k." what is klout all about? denise is here to explain. she is founder of a agency for advertising and a media company. people are talking about it, but a lot of people don't know what it is. explain what klout is in a sentence or two?

>> yeah, it's a tool and it tells you how effective you are being in your social media out reach. >> the first thing you have to do is go on and sign up with facebook and twitter? >> yeah, you go to klout.com, and you don't need both accounts, you can choose one, and if you have two, that's great, and you can attach other accounts for other social media you are using. >> your score, 1 to 100. what is your score? >> 51. >> is that good or no? >> it's fine. it's a good score. but what i am much more concerned about is the areas of influence that i have. so when i look at my score, what i am looking at is what does klout say i am being influential in. dogs is not what i want to be known as influential in, and i

tweeted recently about the super bowl, and that rose to the top. >> so that was re-tweeted a lot. >> yeah, and that's not what i want people to think i am about. i can turn it off. and it's a good thing to go in there and see what you are being effective about, and then turn it off if it's wrong. >> how do you use that information? you will stop talking about dogs? >> no, if i want to be influenti influential, if i have a green roofing company, then i want to make sure i am tweeting heavily about things that are helpful in that industry, where people will see me as an expert. if i am tweeting effectively and doing facebook about that, when you look at my klout score, it will say i am green or something like that, and if something erroneous comes up, like pizza, i can turn it off.

can you go and see what anybody is influential about. if i go into green homes and click on that, then i can see who are the top tweeters and social media people in that area as well. >> which is great if you are marketing your own company, right? so you go in and say you sell dog ware, and then you can go in and say who is influential in dogs and connect with that person so they talk about you? >> you can do that, and you can see the kinds of things they are tweeting about or facebooking about, and you can give them credit or be inspired with ideas that you want to create original content for. >> and setting a goal, and this is to your point before, if you want to be a green roofer, set a way where you can get that area of influence where you are a big person in it. >> exactly. >> this is very interesting. is there anything you can get? klout perks? >> yeah, larger companies are

using influence to identify people, where you can go out there and create a social buzz. they will look through areas of influence and take the score, and people highly influential in certain areas, they will reach out and make a perk available to them and you have to click and say you want it, and then you can get new hair spray, or things you can talk about if you like it. >> what is a good score? >> well, justin bieber has 100. i don't think the score is as important, but you want to have something going on and you are at least maintaining activity and if you are growing, that's great. >> thank you so much for explaining this to us. >> thank you, j.j. coming up, a physician asks how to get other doctors interested in her franchise concept. >> we test barry's knowledge as

they square off on the biz quiz. 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. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. vo: get the card built for business spending. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. it's time to answer some of your business questions. eric and barry are with us once

again. the first is about protecting your business. >> how does a small company that doesn't have a big legal staff protect its ideas and trade marks? >> should they be because reall is only as secure as the amount of money you have to defend it. if a large corporation wants to come in and swoop down and take your i.p. to base their product on it will be tough to defend it. i want to put that aside. businesses are not really about ideas. right? they are about the execution of those ideas. the entrepreneurs successful, ones that get out of their office, stop running the business plan and go out and take action, if you want to be successful in business, you have a dedicated sales channel and loyal customers, loyal employees. and maybe it is probably a good idea to have a lure on the side. >> that's what i mean. even if you get a patent for something you have to be prepared to defend that patent. >> absolutely. >> sit worth getting a patnent the first place if you are not going to have deep enough pockets? >> in a very rare case, our

patent is broken as a matter of public policy. what entrepreneurs need to know getting your idea stole sennott as easy as it sounds. i often recommend to entrepreneur this exercise. take one of your lesser ideas, idea number three on the list, tray to get someone to steal it. go ahead and find the relevant manager at the relevant big company and send him your business plan, memo, try to get them to steal your idea. i predict that you will be cured of this fear forever. >> that's a fun idea. we should try that on this show. let's move to the next question. she wrote us -- i'm a physician who created a company to handle administrative and other office functions for doctors. i'm attempting to franchise the concept but ran into financing obstacles. are there government grants? she needs funding and she needs to prove her concept. >> really, the key is going to be in that second question. what can she do to create a

repeatable process of getting other physicians to innovate? we need people resist change. getting people to change their practices, especially when they think of themselves as a professional, that's a challenge. that will take time. understanding what does it take to get them to change their behavior. i predict if she can answer that question the funding will follow. >> physicians are very difficult group to sell to. all you have to do is ask the pharmaceutical companies. what you have to do is get referrals from physician dlipts see if they set up demonstrations for her and there are some successful medical franchises out there like health source and joint and i would talk to those folks to see how they become successful. >> it is interesting, you have to get the concept, make sure that there are customers out there before you start worrying brgs money. you can bootstrap it for now. let's go to the next one. question about growing your business. zplo how do you balance between aim for very high growth but running the great risk of

running well ahead of yourself and trashing and burning versus going for more controlled growth and running the risk of losing momentum or dull and boring? >> i love that. all three of us are going yes. it is the question every entrepreneur struggles with. >> one of the things i call is growing yourself broke. what you have to balance as you grow, you have to keep your fixed costs as low as possible and as your costs grow you have to try to keep them variable. i have to tell you, j.j. in this post recession economy, i think that a profitable dull and boring business doesn't seem so bad. >> that's something i call the law of sustainable growth. which is when new customers come from the actions of past customers. and that can be because we take the revenue from past customers and reinvest in acquiring new customers and could be because in a viral business for -- past customers act as referrals or sticky business customers come back and they are the new customers and if you follow one of those three patterns, you can always grow sustainable.

you don't have to worry about growing too fast. >> yeah. i shall sue when you see an opportunity out there, right, just -- reach for it, assuming, hoping, guessing that customers are going to come with -- you can't always say no to, you might be missing out if you don't do it. it is a hard balance to know when to go after and when not to. >> i believe every new kind of business, no matter how big your company is, you can test in micro scale and figure out okay, before we get a million customers to try this product, let's get 100 or 10 and figure out if on a per customer basis we are on to something. >> let's get a handful much customers to pay for. that's also key. >> thank you, guys, so much for all the advice. this is great. >> thank you. >> and if any of you out there have a question for our experts, all you have to do is go to our website. the address is -- openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there take the ask the show link and submit a question for our panel. website is openforum/yourbusiness. you can e-mail us your questions and we love to hear your comments, too. address there is -- yourbusiness@msnbc.com.

at the small business owner one thing you no doubt wish had you more of is time. so here now are five ways to turbocharge efficiency so you can make most of the time you have courtesy of ink.com. delegate tasks you don't need to do yourself. this frees you up for things that need your attention. two, let your phones ring and your e-mails go unanswered. at least for a while. constant interruptions keep you from focusing on the task at hand. designate a specific time of the day to return all calls and answer all of your e-mails. three, close the door. consider having employees come to speak with you during set office hours instead of as they wish throughout the day. four, limit your time on facebook, twitter, and instant messaging. they can be secret time killers. and number five, prioritize your day. schedule your roles based on when you are most productive. if you are a morning person

tackle the details tasks when you first get in. it is time now for another exciting edition of our favorite game show the your business small biz quiz. today the consultant versus the entrepreneur. as we put barry and eric's small business knowledge to the test. ready? >> all set. okay. >> okay. first question, according to a recent constant contact survey, what's the number one social media platform small businesses play? i didn't even get to get through it. >> can i answer the question before? >> you can, yeah. i may give you two points if you get it right. >> b, facebook. >> does that mean get to do two minus points? >> eric? >> i'm going with d, pintinterest. >> no, linkedin. second question. according to a new survey what's the number one action small

businesses will take to achieve growth in the coming year? a, increase marketing to attract new business. b, introduce new products or services. c, obtain better polices from supplier, vendors and/or -- >> i'm going to say a. increased marketing. >> that's what i was going to say. smaller. >> yeah. well, you know. too fast the first time and too slowing the second time. next question, what percentage of small businesses use mobile applications? 20%, 5%? the answer? >> i'm going to go with 72%. >> all right. 1-1. barry, you redeemed yourself. for the win, the question is -- what is the most common type of web videos small businesses use to promote their business? is it executive -- and the answer is? >> i would say product demonstration. >> you are the proud winner of

the your business biz quiz. thank you so much for joining us. if you are looking to hire a new employee and want the process to be as smooth and efficient as possible, then check out our website of the week. recruiter box helps you organize all of your hiring represented information in one central location. after adding your job posting you can manually upload resumes or applicants can apply directly using the provided link. the site also streamlines recruiting process for you by detecting duplicate candidates automatically and tracking what stage each applicant is in. posting one opening through the site is free. p plans that allow to you post more job openings start at $50 a month. to learn more about today's show all you have to do is click on our website. it is openforum.com/yourbusiness. you will find all of today's segments plus web exclusive content with more information to help you grow your business. and don't forget to become a pan of the show on facebook. we love getting your feedback. and you can followous twitter.

@msnbc.biz. next week the frontlines of the big business hollywood glamour machine. >> we do everything. i take tickets most of the time. i clean the theaters. work the candy stand. whatever has to get done. >> find out what it takes to survive as an independent movie theater in today's mass media market. remember, we make your business our business. 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.