she opened her first store here in los angeles, and her second store here in new york. how one woman manages her staff, services and brand from 3,000 miles away. that's coming up next on "your business".

♪ >> hi, there, everyone. i am j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. it's hard to manage a staff and brand when you are all in the same city, but what if you were trying to manage everything from 3,000 miles away. today we meet a woman whose kids publishing business is doing just that. when anna barber opened up her first press in 2008, she had a plan for the second. >> the smartest thing you can do as a retailer is to open a star close to your existing store so they can help each other, and take advantage of having the staff go back and forth between one store and the other store. >> this strategy made perfect sense. this is a place where kids or anybody for that matter can go to turn art and writing into

books. to prove the idea had legs anna found a spot in the brentwood area of los angeles to open her store. once that was successful, it was time to open location number two. >> i had a friend who is also an investor and said you need to try this in new york. >> new york? that wasn't the plan. >> i sort of thought to myself, going 3,000 miles away for the second location is exactly what they say you should not the do in retail, and there are examples of companies that have done that and have not succeeded because they tried to expand too fast too far away. >> inspite of the hesitations, anna went for it. it was a big change for the little company. >> we went from very informal, let's all meet at the store and we'll talk it over to every tuesday morning there's a marketing meeting and every thursday there's a store manager phone call, the structure you

see at bigger companies. we had to put that in place because it was the only way to manage communication 3,000 miles apart. >> the distance has brought up challenges. >> it is hard that stuff is going on there, and you can't be there to see it? you can't make sure it has your stamp on it? >> it has been difficult. i think as the company grows, you have to go through the process of letting go. for me it was a sudden process. i had to do a lot of accepting that i was not going to be able to be there, and trust the people there on the ground doing it. >> a lot of business happens now via the phone and skype. david gilbert is the head of operations for scribble press. while he travels between coasts quite often, he, like anna, is based in los angeles >> i am charlie to all of the angels in new york. >> good morning, angels.

>> that's the hurdle, just being a voice in a box on a desk. you have to have people you can trust that can work from a distance, and, you know, have the responsibility and the atonomy. >> but they have a secret weapon that made it all work. the investors. ultimately the reason scribble press has been able to grow is because of a group of women based in new york who have done more than just put in their money. >> my most favorite job was going to ikea and buying the stuff to set up the store. that was the most horrendous experience. >> the plan was for elizabeth to be involved a bit in operations at the very beginning, and the

reality is she's involved a lot. >> i'm here every day, and if not here, i am at home in my office. >> and annetta is another investor, and she too did not know what she was getting into when she put her capital in the business, now she dedicates a significant amount of her time. >> it's exciting to sit around the table with all the girls that work in the store and the men, and coming up with ideas. we're building something every day. >> it's having all of these people on the ground all of the time. the investors who have a stake in seeing the company take off, which has really helped anna make it a success. >> we are really passionate about the success, and we're willing to get in there and roll up sleeves. >> in the end, anna and her team are ultimately in charge, and that makes for a large of

frequent flyer miles. last week we learned about the challenges of managing two locations when they are pretty close to each other, and as you can see from the scribble press story, having two stores 3,000 miles apart has its own unique issues. the host of small business chat, and the ceo where she develops audio and video with content to support small businesses, and scott gerber is the cofounder of an investment company that invests in young intrapreneurs. when i went and talked to anna, she said i knew -- i have read a different books and seen a million stories, you should not open a store so far away. her plan was to open it in a

different neighborhood, and then these investors came along and she did it, and it seems to be working because of the investors. >> absolutely. i think that she has the luxury of investors. i think a lot of people who want to expand a business have to do it out of their right or left pocket. i think that she's very fortunate. the fact that her investors were willing to roll up their sleeves, and i think that, you know, she has a very rare opportunity and it looks like she is taking great advantage of it. >> we use that funny piece for the one woman said, i went to ikea and it was awful, and she is laughing because she has been so important to really caring about the company. >> i think this is a play of love. investors are not looking necessarily to create a concept that has never been tested in the market before, when it's only number two, and they really care about that. and don't just take money, but

look for the strategic value and what is going to be the mentality of the investors, throw money and forget it, or roll up my sleeves and make it work. >> she said i had to treat it as a big company. we used to be informal, and now we have to have formal staff meetings because i needed to know what was going on. >> you manage money and people and your brand, and you also manage and you look at your business practice, and it's your operations and your banking, and it's your signature processes. what happened to her, she had to get her arms around having real structure and processes to her business, and no longer could they wing it, because they had to be able to set it up and duplicate it without her standing there and telling them what to do. you will never be able to sell your business or take a vacation if you do not have structured processes in your business so that other people can come in and help you. >> this just shows how accessible, you know, you have

literally the two hardest jobs, you have to communicate with teams and make both teams effective, and the fact that you can use technology to instantly communicate and officiate the entire process from one location to the other, a huge advantage that even a couple years ago you couldn't do as easily or inexpensively. >> yeah, they were showing the office with ipads, and she in essence was there and got to see what was happening. they started an app, and one of the reasons why the investors turned out to be so involved is because they came up with an idea to do something online, and she could not spend as much time. she thought she would be spending more time in new york, and they as a group made the decision of anna stay here, and that comes to the point of making the processes that people can work with. >> create a scaleable business, and it allows you to take on other opportunities. it's a great concept, where if

it doesn't have incredible online opportunities now or in the future, i would be shocked. this has credible expansion opportunities, and they still have the tight home base, and that's a huge home run. >> thanks, guys. exit polls showed that rising price of gas continues to be a huge thing with voters. nbc's kristen dahlgren has more. >> reporter: 1:00 a.m. in orange county, california. an early-morning fill up that jimmy the milk man has been doing for more than 30 years, but these days every day brings shock. >> four more cents than on friday. >> reporter: he has no choice. >> i don't have a horse and carriage. >> reporter: jimmy says he can't pass his costs along, so he absorbed the increase and laid

off two workers. >> things were going good until three or four weeks ago, and then all heck has broken loose here. >> the 11 dollars, taxes and tip, and -- >> the fuel surcharge does not put us at even. >> back at the milk truck, jimmy is not sure how much more he can pay. >> i pray, i pray that something happens and something changes. >> reporter: worried the milk man can soon be the thing of the past. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, los angeles >> as a small business owner, you are bound to run into some upset customers at some point, so how do you handle them? here are five ways to salvage the relationship. one time is valuable. upset customers won't be happier when they are put on hold and

transferred three times. employees should solve problems quickly and efficiently. two, use twitter. monitor your business accounts and address problems immediately. it can be an instant anger defuser. three, go above and beyond. once you made a customer upset, you need to fix the relationship. offer incentives or a small discount on the next transaction to show you care. four, don't just file a support ticket. live e-mail chat and twitter support move faster and give the customer confidence you understand the urgency of the situation. number five, actually care. your customer service staff should express they understand the situation and will do everything possible to make it better. still ahead, are you hungry for more advice on running your small business? the ceo of family owned goya foods learns about teamwork. and then get exercise while

eating the goya products. 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. stphaoeufpt more than 75 years ago goya

foods started up, and since then they emerged with operations spanning the globe. the family legacy continues under the leadership of the founder. we sat down at the headquarters in new jersey to talk about working from the ground up, and the need to be authentic in this learning from the pros. ♪ >> when i was 10 years old, i used to tag along with my dad. every year, every summer, every break, i would work doing different things, loading trucks, working in different departments. i have six children. one in spain and one in california and one here. there's other members of the fourth generation that are working in the company.

they have to have an education, and they have to get into a field where they can contribute, but work under other people, and work the ground up. ♪ we work together as a team. we're not just shipping department or a sales department, we're all goya. we try to involve everybody. whatever task you are doing, whatever is your expertise, to go into other areas, because it's not about just one particular expertise. everybody takes pride in participating and contributing to making goya a success. we have a slogan, and we have parties in the summer and we celebrate memorial day and the

fourth of july and labor day, and any excuse we have i guess is to party. we take the opportunities to say thank you to the group and to the family, and i think it goes a long way towards pride. people see the company as a building or machine, but no a company is a living and breathing thing. from the very beginning, my grandfather believes in the brand, the reputation and the name, and he came up with the slogan, if it's goya it has to be good. when people come to the country without anything, food is one of the things -- it's a tie to homeland and to traditions. so what he did through food was give that tie to the immigrants, and made them feel welcome in this country. if we bring in a product that

doesn't fit that is not relevant or authentic, it will be rejected. there's no substitute for participating in events and getting to know people. as the company grows, and as the hispanic population grows, we're more and more involved as much as we can, and being in the community and knowing the community so we can be relevant and authentic. >> how many times you have said to yourself, i need to put down my knife and fork and start exercising? well, today's elevator pitcher came up with you to eat and workout at the same time. >> i am tom and i am the inventor of these, the knife and forklift. they are dumb bells, 1.5 points. i call them training wheels for over eaters. americans are eating too rapidly. we have to do something about

it. this is a weapon that will combat this problem. i am looking for $160,000 to $200,000, and what that will do is bring it up many floors. i have many other products using this concept. i have sold 1,000 of these with no marketing, all word of mouth. so i know it's doing something. i can reduce the price point significantly or raise the margin where retailers were going to jump on this, and this could soar. now what floor am i on? >> well, first and foremost, i think -- >> before you get in there, i have to feel this thing. >> you can get buff, j.j. >> yeah, this is like a weapon. >> well, okay, fantastic -- >> sorry. >> great energy. i want to think, how did he do in his pitch? did he give you everything he needed? >> you already sold 1,000 of these, i would say go get a retail deal somewhere to show

prove of concept in the marketplace, if i can see that somebody will buy into it, it makes it more interesting to invest in it as an info commercial product. >> i want to know what you are doing with the $160,000. you told me you can lower your price point but you did not tell me how you were going to do it, and that's critical if i will consider investing in. and kudos to you. >> it's interesting, i can tell you that. >> yeah, it's very unique. >> would you take another meeting? >> to advice, but not to invest. >> i would, because i think weight loss is a big concern in this country. maybe a partnership or somebody selling weight loss products in the marketplace, and i think

it's a viable business model. >> yeah, this would you down. sure. that would slow down. all right. congratulations on the product. thank you for bringing it on the show. thank you, guys for all of your help and advice. if any of you out there have a product or service and you want our feedback from our elevator pitch panel and chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an e-mail. address is -- include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you are trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money. you never know. somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. time to answer some of your business questions. melinda and szott with are us once again. first one from carl. he writes what do you do when you have a client that you have been working with for years and they suddenly drop you? how does one keep loyal customers? why are you laughing? has this happened? >> no such thing as a customer just dropping you without a reason. that reason could be they simply don't need your service anymore

in which case loyalty doesn't matter. you have to look at why they dropped you. lack of customer service? did you not practice what you preach when it comes to your business model? figure out what was wrong with you before you figure out what was wrong with them and keep loyalty as a result. >> how do you do that before it happens? should you check in with them? >> communicate. i believe if you have a long standing customer or long term contract you need to physically talk to your customer and once a quarter. just to make sure everything is okay. take their temperature. make sure everything is all right. you also need to make sure that you constantly are adding value. figure out what their biggest problem is and how you can be an even better solution to it. that's how you keep customers and repeat business. the other thing, too, no one customer should be more than 20% of your portfolio. >> also, you know, build personal relationship was people because then you will never be surprised. if you are friends -- friendly with someone, they will come and say something is wrong, we are looking around. at least you know you have a chance to fix it or you are

warned. >> absolutely. you always want to have an internal advocate if can you get one. >> let's move to next one. from tear write who writes -- are there companies out there that help with coordinating internet needs like marketing visibility, blogs, facebook, twitter, web design and hosting? >> yes, there are. in the big story is, yes. i think you don't want one company doing all that stuff. i think that the companies that do all of those things are very expensive and typically small business owners don't that that kind of money. what they should look at is someone to build their website, and that shouldn't really cause more than $1,500 to $1800 depending how many bells and whistles they have. they need a seasonal virtual assistant that has social media skills and can do their website and blog maintenance. >> where do you find that person? >> they are all over twitter and internet. there is a wonderful company i work with called your job, my office. i think that what they need to look at is what kind of monthly maintenance their site -- if n my business, succeed as your own

boss. my website one of the most important things in my business. i have someone dedicate had just manages my website. trite myself like thetalnent my business. they keep up with the latest versions. you don't know wouldn't deal with. make sure your business is -- website is your front door, it is selling for you. in terms of your social media marketing, your social media virtual assistant can also assistant you. >> what do you suggest. >> there are a couple of tools you can consider. some can't handle expensive services. other than just your website you have to look at other things like e-mail marketing and such. you can connect with your loyal fans and followers through a variety of different tools. infusion soft. more price point specific program but great for getting out there and spreading the word about your business. through a variety of different immediate ims. one i learned about called local vox. smaller priced point than other multichannel programs out there. it allows to you publish

different kinds of content and update your website and so on and so forthwith the click of one button. >> yeah. i guess the interesting thing is are you looking for someone to create content for you or just simply do it for you. >> sending your e-mails. there are a lot of tools. >> let's move to the next one. this is a question about building buzz for your product. >> how do i interest a large corporation in my product? >> got something to sell. hard to make that first connection. how do you do it? >> well, first and foremost big companies love to be the person that finds you but also want to know that you exist and you can deliver on your promise. so it is -- a very much a slippery slope of how you sell. there are longer -- longer sales process. that's for sure. so you want to make sure you first focus on your low hanging pruitt and use that traction and that case study and that delivery mechanism to say look what we have done for these customers and look what we have done for you. also, whoever your first corporate customer is, juan to give them a great deal. but juan to make sure that deal

is ultimately something just for them so you can then use, you know, anything that takes to close that client and use them to sell a lot of other corporate clients. >> i had to take a different approach. listen, there's not a fortune 500 company out there looking for another small business owner to do business with. when you are looking to sell your business, your product or service to a large company, you have to have something that they need. what is that? are you a hub zone business? are you a woman owned business? minority owned business? if they are a corporation that sells things to the government, there are certain requirements they have to do business with smaller companies. you have to make sure that not only do you have a great product or service there is some other value add that makes you valuable to that company doing business with you because nobody is looking for more vendors. >> get known. sounds funny but in the age of social media, publicity stunts, creative things you can do to get the word out you want to so how many ways you can get press mentions and you can build up your own credibility and visibility because it is always better to be found than seek out.

that's another way you can -- >> we did a story abouting a company that went into -- got into their local whole foods. they did well there. they were in the regional ones. got known nationally. local ones they were able to build a one-on-one relationship. >> absolutely. i think you have to know -- i don't know what this man sells. it is hard for us to give specific advice. i think that trade shows are a gray way to meet corporate, you know, splir diversity or people looking for, you know, trade organizations to where you can meet somebody that can become your internal advocate to give thaw good nugget so you can figure out how to get your foot in the door. >> great advice. both of you. thank you so much for all of this. and if any of you out there have a question for our experts, all you have to do is go to our website.

melinda and scott have wentful advice how to improve your business. let's get great ideas from small business owners like you. >> my tip to entrepreneurs is to be careful as you invest your capital. obviously there's reduced capital in the market so you want to make sure you invest it in the elements that will do the most return to your business. this is obviously generated from your business plan. if you have a real working business plan, any purchases that you choose to make or capital expenditures are mirrored against the business plans objectives of how it helps you grow your business. >> my tip to everybody out there have your elevator pitch ready. you never know if it is somebody you eat in the elevator or in the lobby of a hotel or that you are sharing taxi cab with. that could be a potential partner. be ready and prepared to have the one-minimum pitch to be ready to go. be clear, concise and ready about what you do. >> want to make your small business seem big to the outside

world? check out our website of the week. grasshopper.com is a virtual phone system that helps entrepreneurs sound more professional and stay connected from anywhere. after picking a number for your business, you can customize extensions to forward to your home, cell, another employee. record the greeting yourself or pick from a range of voice talents. you can also opt to have a transcript of all of your voice mail sent to your e-mail. to learn more about today's show just 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 your business grow. don't forget to become a pan of the show on facebook. we love getting your feedback. you can also follow us on twitter. next week, high-priced products sold at high-end retailers. that may be an entrepreneurial dream for some but it is not for everyone. >> we do not focus on the high end at all. we really have an amazing quality product and that we want

accessible to as many people as possible. >> find out why one small business owner has made it her mission to market her company to customers in the middle. until th 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. 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.