it's a make or break year for two brothers who started a bridal design company. we have our team together because it's time for a "your business" makeover. 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 "your

business." where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. a few months ago, we came across a small bridal design company right here in new york. it was an interesting company with what i thought were some really fabulous designs. but something on the business side seemed to be missing and we found out that the company was in trouble. and that's why we decided to step in and give the owners a "your business" makeover. ♪ when brothers steven and gregory started their bridal dress company, fancy new york in 2008, they couldn't believe the initial reaction. at their very first trade show, while their peers snickered, the bridal editors noticed. >> this tall, elegant woman walked over to us, i love the sleeves and collars. tell me the story. >> i knew there was something

about the business that was going to work. >> reporter: fancy new york was doing something different. nowhere in the collection would you find the commonplace long strapless dresses. their look was vintage inspired, comfortable, t-length dresses. >> the mood of our brand was to have a nostalgic approach to dressing on your wedding day. >> reporter: the business was a dream come true for the two brothers. both laid off during the recession, steven handled the business end while gregory did the designing. but fancy new york turned out to be a roller coaster of highs and lows. highs included emotional thank yous from happy brides and a feature in "martha stewart weddings." the lows, pretty much everything else. >> i always have water at my throat for bill payments. i'm constantly worried about who's next person to call me up and say something is overdue or my check bounced. >> reporter: though their designs have struck a cord, their sales have not been robust

enough to sustain the business or pay themselves a salary. the brothers have given themselves a six-month deadline to turn things around. if they can't, they'll have to shut down the business. >> gregory will lose his retirement fund. it's gone. i will be in debt for the next 30 years. >> i'm going to do everything in my power to make sure we don't get there. >> i had, i'm jen. >> i'm gregory. >> thank you for doing this so last minute. >> reporter: time for a "your business" makeover. in order to get a sense of the fancy experience, i went undercover as a bride. under the guise of doing a story of last-minute weddings, our cameras were there to capture an appointment. >> i'm not getting married. >> oh. >> i'm not even engaged. my name is j.j. ramberg and i work with "your business" on msnbc. we are here to give your company a makeover. to begin the overhaul of fancy

new york, we assembled a rescue team. ♪ we first brought in business strategist mike mccalowitz who had been pouring through their business over the past several weeks. when the company started in 2008, steven's wife got a job in turkey. when he and his family made the international move, they also decided to handle all of the dress manufacturing there. >> i would have loved to have opened a shop where i could have hired two seamstresses and done all of the production here in new york and it was cost prohibitive. >> it's problem-free. you're getting the dresses no problems. >> i wish. >> that's why you did it? >> when you have to ship anything anywhere in the world you open yourself to a whole gamut of issues that can happen. >> reporter: with the manufacturing happening overseas, steven spends six months of the year in turkey while gregory works alone in new

york. between shipping, customs headaches and time differences, the distance is a real issue. >> i've seen this in a lot of businesses. i call it backfilling with logic. and a lot of the decisions in small businesses and big businesses, too, are made based upon situations. then the logic comes in why that makes sense to do it and all the arguments. often a decision backfills a project is a mistake. >> reporter: mike dove into the sales strategy. they currently work with about 20 retailers across the country. in addition to their own shop which they man themselves in new york, only four stores are selling their dresses in significant numbers. >> what we need to do is look what new business has been working. patterns of success you pursue. every 90 days in your business, sit down and say what's working and what is not working? whatever is not working you have to quickly as possible get rid of that. what's working, expand on it. >> reporter: mike summed up the meeting with a couple of final thoughts. >> we have a lot of fixes coming your way.

the good news is it's actually about doing less. a lot of the stuff you're currently doing you have to have the courage to stop doing. we'll show you what to focus in on and your business will turn. i promise you. >> reporter: next we brought in branding expert, denise. we snuck into their offices a couple weeks before and held a focus group. what do you think of the name fancy as it relates to these dresses? >> i didn't know it was a bridal -- i didn't know it was related to brides. >> when i went online it was kind of hard for me to find it because there's so many things called fancy. >> reporter: what we learned about how brides perceived the fancy brand was eye opening and she shared it with gregory and steven. >> the thought was the name fancy ironically is too plain or generic or misleading for the really forward-thinking dresses that you have here. so we came up with a few different name ideas.

one was house of nato and one was nato new york. the first one, again, evolving the script look. >> look at that face. >> wow. that's really great. >> the second option is very funky. retroinspired. and this has very strong lettering that you then -- the web could have fun with looking through the windows at your different dresses and things on your website. very different. >> it is. it goes to a completely different direction. it's really bold and it's actually kind of fantastic. >> reporter: denise also strongly recommended getting the brothers set up on the visual pinboard site pintrest. >> it's addictive, women love it, men are starting to love it. >> reporter: a perfect fit for brides collecting images and themes for their weddings. she offered to have someone on her team get them set up so

brides could start pinning their unique dresses on their boards. the next person on our makeover team is a designer with her own successful line. she was in the same spot as the fancy brothers not long ago. she was here to prove to them that things could be made economically in new york. >> so here are two dresses. this one is one of yours, a fancy dress made in turkey. >> yes. >> this one is made right here in new york about ten blocks from here. >> i see the face of relief. >> what do you think? >> i would not be able to tell the difference. >> can i tell you something? >> this one is $46 less than what you're paying for that dress coming from turkey. >> 46 bucks less? >> no shipping, no headache, no e-mail, nothing. >> how many? >> you can get one made, 10 made, 20 made, they'll work with you. >> reporter: at the end of day one, gregory and steven had a lot to think about. they had a new name to consider, analysis on their sales strategy to do and photos to get for

pinterest. >> the fourth thing, you have to have more job-on time, more face time. steven, it's time to come back to the u.s. >> that's your home work. we'll meet again and i want to hear answers to all of these things. we have one more surprise for tonight. in the meantime, go home, get a little rest and look your best for when we meet again. >> will they change the company name and will steven move to new york? to find out those answers as well as what else we had in store, make sure you hang around for the second part of our makeover, coming up. like it or not, facebook's new time line format is almost here. on march 0th of the new platform will be rolled out across the super popular social media site. the changes to the overall look and feel of the site are significant and will impact how brands talk to customers and leverage content. so what does this mean for your

small business facebook page? jason keith is the founder and ceo of social media education company social-fresh. he is here to give us a primer on the changes and customize your page in advance of the launch. great to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> the last thing you want to do is go on to facebook march 30th and see, what happened to my page? >> you have no idea, like your website went down. >> this is great. everyone should know it's not that hard to change, at least some little changes. >> it will look different right away but there are easy steps to take to get you where you need to be. >> i've gone and looked at people who have changed their sites. and photos, there's a big photo across the top. >> it's much more close to a real website and the biggest change most people will notice is the huge photo the full width of the page. some businesses might have trouble finding an image that large to look nice. >> what do you do if you're scrambling between now and march

30th? >> i think the big twoft tips i would give is use an iphone or some type of smartphone. those photos are super high quality. take photos of customers, products, staff, find the personality of your business and use that. go to shutterstock.com or istock.com. if you can spend money, $50 to $100, you can find a high quality image to use there. >> if you don't put something in right away, will it be blank? >> it will be blank. you can use photos that exist on your page. most of them probably won't be high enough quality. toy around with it. login a couple days before the switch happens and test it and see if you can find something that works. >> great. you can use photos throughout the site more as well. >> if facebook wants you to remember one thing. use more photos. they are the most reshared piece of content on facebook, twitter, across the web. people react to them quickly because they're easy to consume, it's a low-guilt factor, they

pass them on quickly. facebook wants use to use more photos. because of that, it's a much more beautiful page with the images all over the place than a bunch of text. >> it's fun for a brand. it allows you to tell your story more through the photos. >> it does. >> and also you have a place to tell your history. >> i think it's exciting that facebook is giving small businesses a place to tell their story very easily. so the time line now has its name because it has date links on the side. you can add what they call a milestone, put a photo with it. it will stretch full width of the page, say we were founded on this date. ford has an example where they have the first model t rolling off the line. old spice has made up moments where they say they influenced the baby boom. have fun with it and tell an interesting story that will keep people on your page more. >> that's a nice way. we're all trying to tell our story. frankly for people who don't know it yet, this is a nice way to start thinking about it,

organizing yourself. messages, not as many messages? >> messages is a new feature they're rolling out. it will be available in the admin which people should look at. allows fans to message you privately. it's important because it can potentially take complaints off of the wall of the page and give you more control over what shows up on the page and take the complaints in the private conversations which is where they belong. >> okay. for the admin section what's different? >> so not everything shows up on your facebook page anymore. you have more control. not all of your fan page messages and not all of your fan messages will be on the wall. in order to manage that, there's an activity log. login there, you can edit things, delete them, feature them, have all kinds of control, sort through stuff. it makes sense of what is going to be complicated for some people. login your admin, it will give you a lot of control over what shows up on your time line.

>> this is great. thanks so much. go to facebook right now. check this out, get ready for march 30th. thank you. >> thank you for having me. social media can be a way to market your small business. one, get more marketing mileage out of blog comments using disqus. two, buffer is a great way to schedule social media activity. add posts and tweets to the system and have them automatically distributed throughout the day. three, postling allows you to schedule posts in advance. four, mull tifeedia.

you can track messages from one dashboard. and number five, monitor what's being said online using sprout social. the site will track your social media efforts. so did steven and gregory take our makeover advice? stick around as we bring in one of the biggest names in fashion to propose how this bridal dress company can change its ways. ♪ it's a nice day for a white wedding ♪ 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. as we saw earlier in the show, steven and greg, the owners of fancy new york, a bridal design company, need some help. when we left their offices that first day we left them with a lot to think about. a new name, a new manufacturing strategy, new marketing ideas, but we also had one more big surprise for them. take a look. ♪ >> hi, you guys. >> hi. >> you both look great. >> thank you. you do, too. >> thank you very much. you talked about how you go to a lot of events but you're always on the outside. tonight you're about to be on the inside. when gregory and steven started their bridal business four years ago they had few contacts inside

the fashion industry to help guide them. we decided to change all that by asking top designer nanette lepore who manufactures almost all of her clothing in the famed garment city in new york. i want you to meet nanette lepore. >> nice to meet you. >> gregory and steven got down to business, starting the morning off with a tour of nanette's headquarters and sitting down with a one-on-one conversation with her to start their mentor relationship. >> you have to learn how to get in touch with the warning signs that go off. you see something that looks like a potential mistake and you bury in the back of your mind and it comes back. you're like, oh, my god, i had that sixth sense about that. >> after getting some much-needed encouragement and advice, they left the meeting with a rolodex of new contacts and optimistic about the future. >> you're going to do a great business manufacturing here in

new york city. i know it. >> thank you. >> the facilities are here. you'll have more control. you'll be so happy and everyone in the garment center is willing, ready and able to help you. >> we'll contact them next. >> good. >> thank you. thank you. >> the next stop was the much-anticipated meeting with aisha saeed. >> i met some designers to meet you. >> hello. >> this is where their best-selling linda dress was made in the heart of new york city's garment district for $46 less than it was made at their factory in turkey. the brothers brought two more dresses for her to look at, evaluate and price for manufacturing in new york. >> we also do stuff like this. >> okay. >> the brothers then rushed back to their office to meet jamie hamill, a social media expert from denise's s-3 agency. he gave them pointers and tips on how to set up and use pinterest to help spread their unique brand through the power

of pictures. >> i'll show you pinterest. it's the new hot quote, unquote social network. traffic alone, it's outtrafficked google plus, linked in and youtube since january, which is amazing. >> wow. >> the last stop on the "your business" makeover express was meeting with me, one last time to talk through their home work assignment and get some answers to the big picture questions the team asked them earlier in the week. first, the name. denise suggested they changed from fancy new york to nato new york or how of nato. >> we decided not to change. our name would have been irrelevant to have been to put in the logo. not to say we shouldn't tweak the name. it will be changing from fancy new york to fancy bridal. >> we broke it down to who are the best-selling stores 22 stor

are five of them that do the best work that do the best business dharks we pay no attention to, and they're going to be our focus. >> how did it go? >> amazing. amazing. the sample that we saw the other day, we brought two additional samples to the manufacturer. and immediately, right off the bat she was like, hmm, that's funny, why are they doing it this way? if they stitch it underneath, it will roll better. so it was always looking for someone to impart a little bit of their knowledge. we're so excited about working here and just being able to run up and go -- pop in and say, hey, how is it going. >> and the big question about steven moving back to the u.s. from turkey? >> it's in the plans. so that october date that i have been talking about as our cut-off point is probably the date we'll be moving back.

>> suddenly the october deadline didn't feel as overwhelming as before. >> you guys, good luck on everything that you're doing and i'm going to be back here in october. >> october. >> you're going to still be around. >> yes, we are indeed. >> certainly will. gregory and steven have a lot to do over the next few months, we'll check back with them in october to see how things are going. in the meantime, mike is here with us now. he is the author of the upcoming book, "the pumpkin plan." and colleen is the director of special projects at entrepreneur.com. mike for thank you for all of your help with that. >> may i say one thing? a little bit of froth came out of my own mouth when i saw myself wearing a dress. i haven't done that before, since college. >> i'm so glad you're not wearing it today. >> it's like a brilo pad of disgustingness, uyk.

>> this is a lot of times when you go into a company like this, the problems are not that big. they're big in terms that they need to be changed and they will make big changes for your business. but having you come in and denise, it was clear if an outsider's perspective, it was clear, you need to do this. so i think the lesson in part is, entrepreneurs need to take a step back and see, as you said, what's working, what's not working. really analyze it. >> almost take a scientific approach. i think that's what you're saying. these challenges aren't insurmountable. if you break it down like that and come up with an analytical way of dealing with them. >> if you take off in an airplane from new york to california, and you're off by only one degree, you end up in canada. so they do need to make small corrections to get back there. sooner rather than later. >> the one we were harping on is four out of their 20 retailers

were working for them. yet, they were spending all of their time on the other retailers. it's hard, but you've got to cut those customers out. >> you do. can i plug my book? in the "pumpkin plan" i talk about pumpkin vines, if you want to grow a giant pumpkin, it's the rotting diseased pumpkins you have to get rid of to allow the nutrients to go to the good pumpkin. >> ask them why things aren't working out. the same thing when you have an unhappy customer, sometimes they can be a great source of information, find out what they're not liking, so that can help you fix the problem. >> and contacts were so important. they were manufacturing in turkey in part because one of them moved there but they couldn't find a way to do it, a cost-efficient way in new york city. then when we introduced them to people, suddenly we found it is cost-efficient, it gets rid of all of those headaches and that was just about meeting people and networking. incredibly important. >> sometimes i think a lot of

business owners have their head down in the business, that they don't step out and do the networking that they should be doing and they're not thinking the big picture. they're just so focused on getting through the day. this is a great example of how, once you step out, you can just see it more clearly. >> they were making a mistake i see every business owner make. when it's not working, they try to fix it. when it's not working, there's a reason. >> i want to throw one thing out to the audience which is the name. we had denise come in and try to suggest a new name and a new logo. these guys decided to go from nancy new york to fancy bridal. the suggestion from denise was -- i would love for you guys to weigh in you can write to us at twitter @msnbcyourbiz and let us know what you think. i know you had opinions on this. >> i think it's a terrible name. i can't say it any other way. and for the same reasons that

the focus group members mentioned. one, if you go to search online, all sorts of fancy listings will come up. probably none of them are the bridal salon. and it doesn't say anything about these dresses. fancy, is not a word i would use to describe them. maybe nostalgic or vintage or jackie o. >> i think the name is okay. they are guys, so they don't see what the consumer sees. but let me give you the counterpoint. i am the king of bad names. toilet paper entrepreneur is the worst name you could come up with. it's memorable. i think their job is if they love that name and they believe in it. they have to find out why is it memorable and tell that story to the community. >> own it, if you're going to keep it, own it. >> this was so much fun to do. we will check in with them in october, i can't wait to see it. time to answer some of your business questions. mike and colleen are with us once again. the first one is an email from

robin. i have a unique business idea that i would like to collaborate with existing businesses who might be interested in becoming a supplier or a wholesaler. how would you go about choosing the vendors to participate? i guess one of the things she has to do is get people interested in whatever her idea is. >> yeah, she mentions a unique business idea. i wonder if she's tested it out. for any business owner or potential business owner. i would recommend you know really before you spend a lot of time, energy and money, jumping into this, test out this unique business idea. it might not be something that flies. you might think it's great. but have a focus group, see if it's going to work before you invest a lot in this. >> when she goes to try to find these partners, how does she find them? >> you got to start small. if you try to go for big vendors and say i want to collaborate with you. i want you to help, they'll say, who are you. but the smaller companies are willing to take a risk. i would look for the smallest vendors, the ones willing to

take a risk. propose my idea and be flexible. >> i think that's something that she wants to do if she wants to work with existing businesses and i think that's a great idea to partner up with maybe an existing business that already has those relationships with the vendors and suppliers. you know, partner up. get your own track record and then once you have that, maybe those vendors and suppliers will work with you. >> great advice, thank you guys for everything today. 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. there hit the ask the show link to submit a question. the website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. or you can email your questions to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. if you have a new idea or initiative that needs vetting, but you don't have have the time to wait weeks or months for answers then check out our website of the week.

gutcheckit.com gets new touch with your target market through online chats. after specifying the kind of consumer you're looking for, gut check connects you with qualified people for one-on-one chat room interviews. if you'd like feedback, files can be shared with the interviewee through gut check's fact engine. each interview will cost you $40. 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. you can also follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. don't forget to become a fan of the show on facebook. next week, you might think there's no room for the small business entrepreneur in the world of cable television. but you'd be wrong. >> i can't own a great big company. all right. but i have the same entrepreneurial spirit. and i own it, i control it.

>> meet one of the hundreds of small business owners who own and operate small-scale cable tv systems and hear how they found a way to survive in the world of giant corporations. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. and remember, we make your business our 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. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards po 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.