she opened her first store here in los angeles and her second store here in new york. how one woman manages her staff, her services, and her brand from 3,000 miles away. that's coming up next on "your business." >> small businesses are revitalizing the economy. 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 "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. it's hard enough to manage a staff and a brand when you're all in the same city. 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 her first scribble press store in 2008, she already had a plan for the second. >> the smartest thing you can do as a retailer is to open a store very close to your existing store so they can help each other, so you can market the stores together, so you can take advantage of having the staff go back and forth between one store and the other store. >> this strategy made perfect sense. scribble press was a new concept. it's a place where kids, or anyone for that matter, can go to turn their art and writing into books. to prove the idea had legs anna found a spot in the brentwood

neighborhood of los angeles to open hare her first store. once that was successful it was time to open location number two. >> i had a friend who is also an investor who said, you really need to try this in new york. ♪ new york >> new york? that wasn't the plan. >> i sort of thought to myself, hm. only 3,000 miles a way for your second location is exactly what they say you shouldn't do in retail. and there are examples of companies that have done that and haven't succeeded because they tried to expand too fast, too far away. >> in spite of these hesitations anna went for it, opening this scribble press on the upper east side of new york city. 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, every thursday morning there's a manager phone call. the kind of structure you see at much bigger companies. we had to put that in place because it was the only way to

manage communication 3,000 highs apart. >> the distance has posed a lot of challenges. ♪ so far away from me >> hard to know stuff is going on there and you're not there to see it? you can't make sure the quality is up to snuff? you can't make sure it has your stamp on it? >> it has been difficult. as a company grows you have to let go. for me it was a sudden process. i had to do a lot of accepting i wasn't going to be there and i had to trust the people on the ground doing it. >> a lot of business happens via phone and skype. >> how's it going? >> it's going great. >> david gilbert is head of operations for scribble press. he's the guy who has to manage two staffs across the country from each other. while he travels between coasts quite often he, like anna, is based in los angeles. >> i'm charlie. to all the angels in new york. >> good morning, angels. >> that's the hurdle is just being a voice in a box on the

desk. you have to have people that you can trust. they can work from a distance. and, you know -- and have the responsibility and the autonomy to make things happen when all they're hearing is a voice in a box. >> they have a secret weapon that's made all this work, the investors. ultimately the reason scribble press has been able to grow somewhat seamlessly with so many miles between the stores is because of the group of women based in new york who have done much more than just put in their money. >> my most favorite job was going to ikea and buying all the things that scribble needed to set up the store. so it was just the most horrendous experience. >> elizabeth chandler is the person who originally suggested the new york store. the plan was for elizabeth to be involved a bit in operations at the very beginning. the reality is, she's involved a

lot. >> i'm here every day. if not here, then i'm at home in my office. >> anita mahoney is another investor. she too didn't know quite what she was getting into when she put her capital into the business. now she dedicates a significant part of her time to marketing and pr for scribble press. >> i like coming in and being collaborative. it's very exciting to sit around the table with all the girls that work in the store and the boys, the men, and coming up with ideas. it's, you know -- 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 to make it a success. >> we found people that were really passionate about the concept and once they committed as financial investors really wanted to see it succeed and were willing to get in there and roll up their sleeve. >> in the end anna and her team are ultimately in charge and that makes for a lot of frequent flyer miles.

last week we learned about the challenges of managing two locations when they're 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. let's turn to this week's board of directors. melinda emerson is the host of "small biz chat." she develops audio, video, and written consent to support small businesses. scott gerber is the founder of the young entrepreneur council, co-founder of gen-y capital partners which invests in young entrepreneurs. great to see both of you guys. this story was funny. anna said, i knew, i've read a million books, seen a million stories, you should not open your second store so far away. her plan was to open in a different neighborhood because it's so neighborhood-based. then these investors came along and she just did it.

and it seems to be working because of these investors. >> absolutely. i think she's got 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. so i think that, you know, she's very fortunate. and the fact that her investors were willing to roll up their sleeves and actually work in the business to help her, they were that invested in making the business a success. i think that, you know, she's got a very rare opportunity and looks like she's taking great advantage of it. >> it's funny. we use that funny piece for the one woman said, i went to ikea and it was awful. really, she was laughing because she's been so involved and so important to finding the locations, negotiating the lease, caring about this company. >> i think this is a play of love. investors are not looking necessarily to create a concept that's never been tested in a certain market before when it's only number two unless they really care about that. that's a great less seven for business owners. don't just take money, also look for strategic value and what is really going to be the mentality for investors.

is it going to be throw money and forget it? or is it roll up my sleeves, make this work no matter what it takes. >> very early on anna said, i had to treat this as a big company. we used to be informal, now i had to have formal staff meetings because i needed to know what was going on. >> when you think about your business, you manage people, you manage money, you manage your brand. you also manage -- you look at your business practice, if you will. it's your operations. it's your banking. it's your signature processes. what happened to her is she had to get her arms around having real structure and processes to her business. no longer could they wing it. because they had to be able so set it up so that people could duplicate it without her standing there telling them what to do. that's an important thing for any business to do because you'll 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. communicate with teams and make

both teams effective. the fact that you can use technology to instantly communicate and also basically officiate the entire process from one location or the other, huge advantage that even a couple of years ago you couldn't do as easily or inexpensively. >> they were walking around with i hoof pads showing the office in new york, showing to it anna, look what we put up here. she in essence was there, she got to see everything that was happening. they started an app. one of the reasons why the investors turned out to be so involved is because they came up with this other idea to do something online, the scribble press app. she couldn't spend as much time. she thought she would be spending more time in new york than she's able to because they as a group have made a decision, anna, stay here. that comes to your point of making these processes people can work with. >> i think this is also another reason why you want to create a scaleable business. it allows you to focus on your business, not in your business. allows you to take on other opportunities. this is a great concept that if it doesn't have incredible online opportunity either now or in the future i would be

shocked. i think this has incredible expansion opportunity. the fact that they've scaled their processes to allow for this to happen, still have that tight home base, huge home run. >> thanks so much, guise. exit polls from super tuesday showed that rising gas prices continue to be a major issue on minds of voters. for small business owners the steady increase in energy costs is cutting into their bottom lines as they struggle to avoid passing high fees on to their customers. nbc's kristin dalgren has more. >> reporter: 1:00 a.m. in orange county, california. an early morning fill-up that jimmy the milkman has been doing for more than 30 years. these days every day brings shock. >> four more cents than it was on friday. >> reporter: with a truck full of milk to deliver he has no choice. >> i don't have a horse and carriage. >> reporter: and jimmy says he can't pass his costs along. customers would go elsewhere. so he absorbs the increase and has already laid off two workers. >> things were going good up to three or talking about weeks

ago. then all heck has broken loose. >> reporter: at the oscars, all those limos lined up. chauffeurs were adding up costs. $1,100, including taxes and tip. fuel surcharge, $68. >> unfortunately the fuel surcharge does not put us at even. we're not making money out. >> reporter: jimmy isn't sure how much more he can pay. >> i pray. i pray that something happens and something changes. >> reporter: worried the milkman could soon be a thing of the past. >> you have a good day at school today. >> you, too thank you. >> reporter: kristin dalgren, nbc news, los angeles. as a small business owner you're bound to run into some upset customers at some point. how do you handle them? here are five ways to salvage the relationship courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, time is valuable. upset customers won't be any happier when they're put on hold and transferred three times. employees should solve problems quickly and efficiently.

two, use twitter. monitor your business's account and address problems immediately. it can be an instant anger defuser. three, go above and beyond. once you've made a customer upset you need to fix the relationship. offer incentives or a small discount on their next transaction to show you care. four, don't just file a support ticket, they don't work for emergencies. live e-mail chat and twitter support move faster and give the customer confidence that you understand the urgency of the situation. and number five, actually care. your customer service staff should express that they really 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 talks about the importance of teamwork in this week's "learning from the pros." get exercise while eating goya products. today's elevator pitcher wants to pump you up with his unique

workout utensils. 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. more than 75 years ago, goya foods started in a small storefront in new york city. since then goya has emerged as a

leader in the latin american food industry with operations spanning the globe. it is the largest hispanic good go in the united states and it continues. we sat down with bob at goya food headquarters in new jersey to talk about working from the ground up and the need to be authentic in this "learning from the pros." ♪ let's get loud ♪ you got to do it >> 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. i have one in spain, one in california, one here. there's other members of the fourth generation that are working in the company. but 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. ♪ let's stick together we work together as a team. we're not just shipping the product, we're not just a sales department, we're all goya. we say here we believe goya blue. we try to involve everybody. whatever tasks you're doing, whatever is your expertise. to go into other areas. because it's not about just one particular expertise. and everybody takes pride in participating and contributing to making goya a success. ♪ it's a family affair we have a slow ga, the great goya family. we have parties. in the summer we celebrate memorial day, fourth of july, labor day. any excuse we have i guess as

latins to party. but we have these activities to really say thank you to the group and to our family. and i think it goes a long way towards pride. people see our company as a building or a machine or something. no, a company is a living and breathing thing with people. ♪ it's got to be real from the very beginning, my grandfather believed in the brand. a reputation, a name that means quality. he came up with the slogan, if it's goya, it has to be good. when people come to this country, without anything, food is one of the first things. it's a tie to homeland, 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's not relevant or authentic, then it's going to

be rejected. there's no substitute for participating in events and getting to know the people. as the company grows but as the hispanic population grows, we're mormon mor involved every day as much as we can. in being in the community and knowing the community. so we can be relevant and authentic. how many times have you said to yourself, i need to put down my knife and fork and start exercising? today's "elevator pitch" came up with a way for you to eat and work out at the same time. >> hi, scott, melinda. i'm tom madden and i'm the inventor of these, the knife and forklift. they're dumbbells, 1 1/2 pounds. you cannot eat fast with these. i call them training wheels for overeaters. americans are eating too rapidly. and that's the problem. we're not getting the message that we're full and we overeat. we've got to do something about it. this is a weapon that will combat this problem.

i'm looking for $160 that you to $200,000. what that will do is bring this up many floors. i've got many other products using this concept and i know it struck a chord in americans. i've sold 1,000 of these with no markets. all word of mouth. so i know it's doing something. now, i could reduce the price point significantly, i could race the margin where retailers were going to jump on this. and this could soar. now, what floor am i on? >> first and foremost, i think it's -- >> before you get in there, i've got to feel this thing. >> you can get buff, j.j. >> this is like a weapon, yeah. all right. well, okay. fantastic. great energy. i want to hear how you thing. how did he do in your pitch? >> he gave everything we needed except changing it, you've sold 1,000 of these. before you're pitching us, get a retail deal to show proof of concept in the marketplace. if i can see linens and things

or spencer's is going to buy in it makes it more interesting to invest in an infomercial or something i can expand rather than giving your more money for retail or inventory. >> i want to know what you're going to do with $160,000. you told me you can lower your price point but didn't tell me how. that's critical if i'm going to consider investing in your company. kudos to you. in the era of michelle obama, anything that can increase my arms here, i'm all for it. >> these are heavy. you guys like the products? >> it is interesting, i'll tell you that. >> it is. >> it's very unique. all right. so would you take another meeting? >> i would take a meeting to advise, not to invest. >> i would take another meeting. weight loss is a humongous industry in this country. if this product could be packaged with other weight loss products that are on the market, maybe a partnership with someone that is selling a lot of weight loss products in the marketplace, i think this is a viable business model. >> i just want to see. yeah, this would slow you down.

for sure. >> that's the point. >> that would slow you down. congratulations on the product. thank you for bringing it on the show. thank you for all of your help and advice. and if any of you out there have a product or service and you want our feedback and your chance in getting interested investors send us an e-mail. yourbusiness@msnbc.com. include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise, and what you intend to do with that money. somebody watching the show may be interested in helping you. time to answer some of your business questions. melinda and scott are with us once again. the first from karl. what do you do when you have a client you've been working with for years and they suddenly drop you? how does one keep loyal customers? why are you laughing? >> there's no such thing as a customer just dropping you without a reason. that reason could be they don't need your service anymore, in which case loyalty wouldn't have mattered. look at why.

lack of customer 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. >> how do you do that before it happened that they drop you? >> you've got to communicate. i believe if you have a long-term customer you need to go talk to your customer once a quarter to make sure everything's okay, take their temperature. you need to make sure that you constantly are adding value. figuring 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 is no one customer should be more than 20% of your portfolio of customers. you don't want your customer getting a layoff to mean you get laid off. >> build personal relationships with people because then you'll never be surprised. if your friend's friendly with someone they'll say, something's wrong, we're looking around. at least you'll have a chance to

fix it or you're warned. >> absolutely. you want an internal advocate if you can get one. >> the next one from terry writes, are there companies that help with coordinating all your internet needs like marketing, visibility, blogs, facebook, twitter, web design and hosing? there are. >> yes. there are. the big story is yes. i think you don't want one company doing all that stuff. i think the companies that do all those things are very expensive. typically small business owners don't have that kind of money. what i think they should look at is someone to build their website, a company to build their website. that shouldn't cost more than $1,500 to $1,800, depending how many bells and whistles. what they need is a season virtual assistant that has social media skills, that can do their website and blog maintenance. >> where do you find that approximate they're all over twitter, all over the internet. there's a company that i work with called your job, my office. i think what they need to look at is what kind of monthly maintenance their site -- in my business, succeed as your own

boss, my website, i have somebody who manages my website. i treat myself like the talent, they keep up with the plug-ins, all that stuff. you don't want to deal with that. make sure your business is your website is your front door, that it's elselling for you. social media marketing, your social media virtual assistant can assist you with social media marketing. >> what do you suggest people do? >> there are tools you can consider. some budgets can't handle expensive services. other than your website look at e-mail marketing and such. great services like eye contact, connect with loyal fans and followers did a variety of tools. infusion soft, a bit more price point but great for getting out there and spreading the word about your business to a variety of different mediums and constantly marketing to them. one i learned about, local vox, a smaller price point than some of the other multi-channel programs that are out there. basically it allows you to publish all different kinds of consent, update your website,

with the click of a button, great service. >> the interesting thin is are you looking for someone to create a consent for you or do it for you? >> push it. >> places like hoot sweet, sending e-mails, there are tools out there. >> absolutely. >> 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, it's hard to make that first connection, how do you do it? >> first and foremost, big companies love to be the person that finds you. they us a want to know that you exist and can cliff on your promise. it's a slippery slope of how you sell. it's a longer sales process that's for sure. you want to make sure that you focus on low-hanging fruit. use that fraction and case study and delivery mechanism to say, look what we've done for these customers, look what we can do for you. whoever your first corporate customer is, give them a great deal but make sure that deal is ultimately something that is just for them so that you can

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

got in whole foods, did well, and then got nationally, the local one they were able to build a one on one relationship with that person. >> absolutely. you have to know -- i don't know what this mansells but i also think trade shows are a great way to meet corporate supplier diversity executives or people looking for trade organizations where you can meet somebody that can become your advocate to give you that nugget so you can figure out how to get your foot in the door. >> great advice, thank you so much for all of this. >> 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 openfor openforum.com/yourbusiness. hit the ask the show link to submit a question for our panel. openforum.com/yourbusiness. if you'd rather, e-mail your questions and comments. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc. melinda and scott had really

helpful advicebout how to improve your business. now let's get some great ideas from small business openers like you. >> my tip to entrepreneurs is be careful as you invest capital. there's reduced capital in the market so 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 working business plan, any purchases that you choose to make or capital expenditures are mirrored against the business plan's objectives of how it helps you grow your business. >> my tip to everybody out there is have your elevator pitch ready. you never know if it's somebody you meet in the elevator or the lobby of a hotel or that you're sharing a cab with that could be a potential partner. be ready, be prepared, have that one-minute pitch ready to go so you can be clear and concise about what you do. want to make your small business seem pig to the outside world? check out our website over 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 customize extensions to forward to your home, cell or another employee. record the greeting yourself or pick from a range of voice talents. you can 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's openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus web-exclusive content with more information to help your business grow. don't forget to become a fan of the show on facebook. we'd love getting your feedback. follow us on twitte twitter @msnbcyourbiz. high-priced products sold at high-end retailers? that might be an entrepreneurial dream for some but it's not for everyone. >> we do not focus on the high end at all. we really have an amazing quality product 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. till then, i'm j.j. ramberg. 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. 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.