the supreme court hears arguments on at fordable health care act. is it helping or hurting small businesses? a mom and pop cable operator competes against the media giants and how google plus can help your brand. that and more coming up next on "your business." >> small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to help. that's why we're 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. think it's tough to be a small guy in an industry dominated by giants in the cable business? think how tougher it is dealing with the regulations as well. it takes determination and shrewdness to stay plugged in. ♪ i'm a television man >> when people talk about mom and pop businesses, they're usually thinking about places like candy stores and restaurants, not cable tv systems. >> it's all glass picture tube gives you a full 245 inch picture. >> why? because everyone knows the cable tv industry is dominated by gigantic corporations such as time warner and msnbc parent company comcast. each serving many millions of subscribers. >> what is comcast, 20 some

million. that's big. >> what most of us don't know about cable tv is that there are well over 800 microcable companies across the country. like buford media group, here in tyler, texas. it's owned and operated by one man, ben hooks. >> david, you've gone through about every evolution in buford. >> like many small business owners, ben takes great pride in his small-scale east texas-based business. >> i can't own a great big company but i have the same entrepreneurial spirit. i own it, i control it. >> while the revenues for mom and pops like his are a small fraction of the billions earned by the companies everyone's heard of, the direct connection between his subscribers and his staff is often much more personal. >> we principally have served smaller. smaller systems. we've been in this market for years and years and years. it's our expertise. >> customers depend on the service we give them.

>> greg is ben's area manager. he knows many of the system subscribers in towns like cooper, texas and overseas the work of each service technician. >> he shows up at their house and they get to know him, some of them even feed him. so he's part of the community, yes. >> buford media, which is known to its customers as alliance communications, serves say tiny set of just over 7,000 subscribers. and that's after adding together 38 separate systems, spread across 6 different states. how does he manage? how does ben and others like him compete with the big guys who have the clout to offer better rates and more services? >> the smaller guy has more trouble because we don't have the customer base to negotiate as favorable rates as the larger company. >> the answer may surprise you. because it turns out those bdon worry him at all.

his equipment is mostly leftovers which the bigger companies cast off in the first place. >> a lot of the systems that we currently own, prior to our ownership at one point came from a cox or a time warner, those kind of large companies. a small town cooper, i mean, is not profitable for them. >> roughly four years ago time warner sold off its system in cooper with its tiny customer base of 200 subscribers. >> he had more trouble getting the local broadcast signals out in the rural systems. it's not fit within their business plan and they typically have been spinning these off. >> two years later, ben bought the cooper system for a song and so far, he strung together dozens of other leftover systems like it, planning to upgrade them to broadband in order to boost his profits. >> i bought them inexpensively. i said, wow, this is an opportunity to add what does make money, internet, telephone. >> he's improved the systems largely by using refurbished

equipment with customeroffs also from the big players. it, works like this. >> the major operator needed more bandwidth, upgraded their plant. that equipment then comes back into the market and we buy that at a considerably lower price and it meets all our needs. >> while ben's not concerned about being crushed by the competition, he is certainly concerned about being crushed by government regulations. which tend to favor big city systems and telcos at the expense of small rural operations like his. >> the government stepped in and set up those rules for the larger companies but it is really causing havoc with the small operators. they are paying a higher price for the program. >> from retransmission rates to digital mandates and government subsidies, ben says the rules made in washington tend to work better for the big guys than the little ones. >> recent ruling out of the fcc is to extend grant money and money to telephone companies to come in and overbuild me.

now, how am i going to compete with the government. >> as far back as 1992, ben and his fellow small-scale cable operators recognized the need for their part of the industry to be heard. back then, ben often travelled to washington himself to make his case. >> i tirelessly went to washington and most of the folks are very polite and courteous. all of a sudden we found ourselves, all these rules are getting passed, coming do unto us and no one is representing us. >> that was the start of a lobbying effort on behalf of small-scale operators. today it's known as the american cable association. >> washington doesn't mean it but they never take quite the time to fully understand here's where the problem is and they're focusing on the big company. >> while the little guys still have big issues, through their lobbyists, they're starting to level the playing field. >> but we have a voice, we're highly respected now. it's not so much what you get, it's what happens to you if you don't have the representation. ♪ i got cable tv

♪ cable tv whether it's a cable company or hardware store, standing up to major corporations is a unique challenge for any small business owner. let's turn to this week's board of directors. matt polka is the president and ceo of the american cable association. alfred edmond is here with us and gene marks is here as well. >> thanks for having me. >> matt, you work with a lot of small cable companies but surely you don't have the deep pockets, even combined, of the big guys that are out there, time warners and our parent company, comcast. how, even combine, do you get a voice in washington? >> well, it's been a process since 1993. we came together, i've been in the cable business since actually 1986. i've known this business

intimately. we realized in 1992 when congress reregulated the cable industry that we as small independent companies didn't have a voice. what we said is we have to come together as smaller companies to tell our story. who better but us as small businesses to tell our stories where we live in small markets in rural areas. >> i want to turn to something else in the piece. a lot of times you think the big companies move in and there's no room for small business. what was interesting about this piece, actually these businesses were created because the big guys weren't interested. these were castoffs. the reason the small company can exist is because they're getting things cheap. does that happen in a lot of industries? >> it does. it's funny in the cable industries. one of my clients was called herron communications. i don't know if you remember or not -- but it's a fixed cost and they have the revenues coming in and it's a good part. for most of the years they were ignored by the bigger companies

because they serve a local market and they can do it more effectively than a big company can. >> in this particular case we're talking about geographical, there's a geographical niche. >> this is another classic example of the long impact of a company, this idea as big companies serve large groups, there's always small, teeny niches that remain unserved. if you can reach them, you can make good money. it's not just geography. i was reading an article about a cable company that reached rural areas. he build it to programming that is geographically undesirable by larger companies but culturally undesirable by larger companies. >> i thought that was a fascinating piece. as we said in the beginning, you

don't think of cable companies as being small but there are a lot of them out there. >> matt, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate having you on the show. >> my pleasure. >> and thank you guys, of course. are you looking for expansion opportunities beyond u.s. borders? here are five export markets to consider. number one, brazil. the country is one of the largest i.t. markets in the world and also has the biggest population in south america. number two, india. india has a big appetite for u.s. goods and services but high tariffs and multiple languages can be limiting factors. three, south africa. its stable banking systems and business friendly environment makes it an attractive market. transportation consulting and franchises are doing well there. number four, turkey. turkey is both politically and financially stable. tourism related products and services and consumer products are in demand.

and number five, vietnam. the country's economy grew an estimated 5.8% last year. there's room for growth in the waste water treatment and plastics equipment and machinery industries. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. alfred and gene are with us once again. before we get to our viewer questions, i want to ask you about a question about something that's been in the news a lot this week. this whole idea as a small employer, asking perspective employees for their facebook pass word. i want your opinion on it. >> i have three kids in high school. they're on facebook all the time. >> right. >> i don't follow what they're doing on facebook because you follow any high school kids on facebook, your brain starts to melt. i try not to pay that much attention to it. guys, whatever trash talking is beginning on on facebook or whatever, employers will see that someday. college applications -- >> is it okay for you, though? you run a small business.

is it okay for you to ask somebody who's applying for a job for their facebook pass word. >> it's negotiable. whether it's okay is irrelevant. if i'm going for a job that pays 20,000 a year, maybe i say heck no. if i'm going for a job that pays $20 million a year, i might have to say, okay. >> i want to take it from the view of the small business owner. >> what you're doing on facebook or twitter could have an impact on your company down the road depending on the position. >> i have ten people. i want to know everything i can possibly know about some guy before i bring him into my company which will affect everybody else in there. >> if i own -- run a child care related business and i'm hiring someone that will be around children, i don't think it's unreasonable for me to be able to have -- there should be protections but i don't think it's unreasonable for me to know who am i bringing around, promising the parents is around my children on a day-to-day

basis. >> both of you feel -- this is interesting. i thought somebody around this table would say it's not okay. >> i'm not comfortable with it. >> that's it's an invasion of privacy. >> you know me, i'm a social media junky. >> right. >> i understand that. >> but you think it's okay? >> the lesson here is that social media is not privacy. >> correct. >> it's not private, no matter what settings you set up or no matter what you do is not private. >> except that it is. stuff that's public, your perspective employer can see. stuff behind your pass word is private and you as an employer is saying give me access to something that is private. >> a potential employer and you can say no. >> that's right. >> saying no is in essence saying don't hire me. >> that's not necessarily true. >> come on. >> you asked -- >> is the job that important to you? you have to decide that. >> as an employer, if somebody refuses to give me their pass word, maybe depending on the job, fair enough, i don't need it. but if it's somebody at a higher level or somebody who will

impact my company and my people in my company, i think i have a right to know that. >> i think i have a right to ask. you don't have to answer. but depending on the position, i have a right to ask. >> fair enough. >> i think you guys -- you are lying through your teeth. if somebody says no, okay, no problem. >> it depends on the job. >> why ask for the jobs you don't care about. >> we'll care to some extent. maybe you're right. maybe it does have an impact on our decision. >> i think it will have some impact on your decision. there's no way to avoid that. >> right. >> it's part of the give and take of your negotiations. >> we just want to see what you're doing on facebook, j.j. >> i'll just hire a hacker and get it over with. let's move on to questions that do not come from me. i have a medical product that's patented and on the market. sales are very weak. doctors and clinicians love it but they're not interested in pushing products. it appears that we need to target patients directly. we already have a website.

how do you get a medical product to the end users not going through doctors. >> this is kind of a trick question. advertising if there's proven demand for a product is not an expense. it's an investment. and you have to kind of get past this idea, especially now the way medical devices and medicine in general is marketed, if you're trying to create demand from the patient because they're saying they can't get the doctors to push it, i don't see how you get around the advertising. >> right. >> so don't get around advertising. i understand trying to be cost effective about it. that said, i would really spend a lot of time with other medical device marketers who are marketing products. who are the media companies they're using and the marketing company they're using and the marketing techniques to reach their patients to demand the product. i would share some intellectual capital with other people in my same position. >> i don't think you have any choice. especially if you're selling to consumers as well. it's a giant market. for anybody selling to the consumer market you have to spend money to get there.

if you don't have the money to spend, i think really you have to partner with people who do have the money or at the very least, start out on a small scale and try to build word of mouth. >> thank you guys so much four all that advice. very helpful and interesting and surprising. and now, if any of you have a question for our experts, go to our website. openforum.com/your embassy business. hit the ask the show link to submit a economy for our panel. again, the website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. or if you'd rather, e-mail your questions and comments to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. still ahead, the scoop on google plus. we'll find out how we can help you expand your brand. and our elevator pitcher helps to get wealthy have an ipad app to help you manage your wealth.

you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. in recent years social networking has completely changed the way businesses are increasing their visibility to get new customers and at the same time, strengthen interaction with existing customers. even if you already have a slew of twitter and facebook

followers, here are some reasons why creating a google plus page for your business will help maximize your engagement online. daniel sieberg works with google marketing and media outreach across google plus. he's author of the digital diet. just a quick primer, what is it. >> google plus is a new way that anyone can engage with an audience or followers on google plus for small businesses, businesses of any size. it's a way you can post photos and video, engage with customers. you can do a video chat through something called a hangout, which we can get into in a little bit. it's a new way to leverage all of what google offers in one place through your google plus page. >> if i'm on facebook, why should i be on google plus as well. >> there are differentiating factors that are part of google plus that i think stand out. we talked about this idea of a hangout or a video chat. you can bring in up to ten people and engage with those

customers in realtime. they can be anywhere and you can have that kind of relationship with them. you can do it internally for your business as well. you can work from home. there are circles, which people may have heard from, that's the idea of separating out your customers. let's say you have vip customers, you want to treat them with something special. offer them something only they see through their google plus stream. those are a few ways it stands out a little. >> got it. i'm segmenting people. i don't have to send one message out to everybody. >> i think people respect and like that. they don't necessarily want to be lumped in with all the customers. go to plus.google.com and you can get started. if you have a gmail or google account you pretty much already have a google plus account. you may want to talk about your company, and make it feel like a lived in space so when people come in to

it, they can feel comfortable and start to engage. >> is there any particular advice to get people active on my page? >> it comes back to a lot of things. there are certain things you can do to make it stand out. posting on a regular basis can drive a lot of trachlkt ta-- traffic. tailoring it. ad words. people are familiar with ad words that come up through google search. the plus one button that you can see, if you went to your favorite shoe page and plus-oned it. if your friend is searching for shoes, you see your friend was doing it. seeing that social engagement is another way to drive people to your product and to your company. >> wow. so getting plus one is really important, right? so if somebody plus ones my shoe

company, then all of their friends see it. >> and are you a cyclist and -- >> my husband. >> well, i'm a cyclist and i know when i go into a bike store, it can be extremely intimidating. the people can be a little bit -- not snobby necessarily but they know their stuff. so they want to stand out and say we love our bikes, and they've done a great job of carrying that message through google+. they're based in new york. they've had a lot of engagements from people who will say, hey, i saw you on google+. get a sense of what that store is like. >> daniel, thank you so much for giving us that introduction. this women the supreme court spend three days reviewing oral arguments. a decision is expected by the end of june. since there's a lot at stake for small businesses, today we turn

to our guests to lay out presizely what the high court will consider and how it can affect a small business owner's bottom line. jim is the co-chair of the main street alliance of oregon, brian hamilton joins me here. he's the co-founder and kr eo of sageworks. good to see both of you guys. >> good to be here. thank you. >> you're in favor of the law. why dwroi think it will help your small business and those you work with. >> well, i can tell you we have had nine full-time employees, 13 employees altogether. our health care premiums from 2001 to 2009 doubled. we now spend $100,000 a year for our employees and their families' health care. a 20% payroll. the advantages we have seen is in the advantages our premiums went down 3%, plus we qualify

for the small business health insurance tax credit which provided us $12,903 in credit to help pay for those -- help pay those premiums. >> and this is a story we hear over and over again from small companies, you know, a little ore half. small companies provide health care and they're saying if i was providing health care it was incredibly expensive and now i'm getting a bit of a break. you on the other hand, brian, have some problems with the law. >> jim's point is well taken. if you have fewer than 25 employees, you get a tax credit and that's fine. where our rub is, if you have 49 and you want to go over 50, your costs will increase a lot. so really if you -- >> talk to me about how your costs increase a lot. because most firms, more than 90% of firms who have 50 or many are already providing health

insurance. >> go ahead. >> no, you go. >> 90% do but we're talking the 7%. we rely on them for job creation, and when you get to 50 employees, you're going to pay $2,000 per employee if dwroinlts provide it. >> let me ask you, jim. do you find this that any of the companies you work with would not go from 49 to 50 because suddenly they have this big expense? >> j.j., i don't think so. we just went from nine full-time employees to ten. our most recent full-time hire happens to be an afghanistan war vet, but that could -- because we also have part-time employees could compromise, jeopardize some of our tax credits next year. >> and that goes to what you're saying brian. it's not only the 50 level but in this case for credits, it's've at a ten person level. so are you stopping people from move ahead. >> jim's point is well taken

again. if you've got fewer than 25 employees, you get tax credited and they help you. remember they're phased in but they go away in a couple of years. there are positive and there are skparngs. the jury's out. we just don't know. so the one foul ball in all of it -- there's 2,000 pages of all these docs. it's that 50-person provision i have a problem with. >> or the 7% that don't provide health insurance. >> and it represents 93% of the people employed. it's a ton of people. >> got it. thanks so much for shedding light on it. we appreciate it there. as i said, a lot of opinions about this. finance kwhal planning for college or retirement can be a daunting ask. today's elevator pitcher has come up with a app that says can help you achieve your dreams with the touch of a screen. >> hi, i'm francis and i'm the

ceo of fly fluff. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> after working in wealth management we realize people need help on getting on their pakt of fun chal well being. people go through changes like graduating through college, getting married or having a child. we want to help those with their important events in their lives. we've spoken to over 300 investors and realize mappaging their finances are difficult. with life wealth you can define your goals, understand your financial situation today and what it needs to be for your the future and then receive personalized suggestions on how to achieve your goals. we launched our ipad lap in october which you can dial in for free on our website. we're looking to raise 750 and a return. >> francisco, thank you. i almost tripped coming onto

here. i'm going to start with you alfred. how do you thing his pitch went? did he miss anything or -- >> no doubt there's a need for this. everybody needs the ability to get the information they need to make financial decisions. i just are have two questions. what's the revenue model for this app? i know you're giving the app away for free. where's the revenue going to come from? >> baisley we get some referral fees from some of our partners that we help people to get to. >> that would be an important thing so people know where the money's coming from. and what about you, gene? >> i think it's fine. i have three people getting ared for college and i wish i had this a hundred years ago. the biggest question is there are a lot of applications online to help you with financial planning so what makes this so special? >> there needs to be something like that. i'm going to let you finish talking to them afterward but

this is good advice when you're pitching to get them enthusiastic. guys, moment of truth, would you take another meeting? >> i would take another meeting. >> i absolutely would help. as lock as it is easy to use i would always be interested in investing in something like that. >> francisco thanks for coming on the program and thanks for coming on the show. to learn more about our show, click on our website. it's open for rforum.com/yourbu and follow us on twitte twitter @msnbcyourbiz. next week as gas prices go up. they're doing their best to keep the expenses down. >> this part of our business is so uncontrollable, so you've got to look at things that maybe you didn't look at last year and

say, is it possible to gain a percentage here or half a percentage there? >> we'll tell you how these entrepreneurs are trying to ease their pain at the pump. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. they have names like idle time books and smash records and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. d we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express.