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tv   Your Business  MSNBC  June 9, 2012 5:30am-6:00am EDT

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hi, there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome the "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. when you go to a place like the gap or walmart, you know what to expect, but when you go to one store in new york's chelsea neighborhood, you have to idea what you will find. you think that is confusing? well, it is exactly what the owner wants. when rachel shackman talks about her new york retail store she named story, the last word she uses to describe it is store. >> it has the point of view of a magazine and changes four to six weeks like a gallery and sells things like a store. >> if this is sounding confuseding to you you are not
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alone, but it is clear when you walk through the door. it has a feel like a magazine, and every eight weeks rachel changes everything, and that means changes everything. ♪ change will do you good >> the focus and the products and the look and everything but the location. >> i think that having a physical space that changes adds a level of content and community and entertainment to the experience. >> rachel is pioneering a new concept in retail, and rather than knowing exactly what to expect as you do in most stores, you would visit story precisely because you don't know what to expect. >> i feel like it can be so, especially if you shop a lot like i do, it can be very routine like doing the same kind of shopping all of the time. and it is nice to be able to get excited about something changing. >> in may the story was color and everything arranged by blue, red, brown and you get the picture. ♪ i see your true colors shining
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through ♪ >> it is really about using color and merchandising the store all around color. we are in the blue moment right now, and using color as the backdrop and the product as kind of the focal content. >> the products are jewelry to scarves to headphones and the thing that tied them altogether is that they were colorful. >> one thing that is important in creating this model is having something that a 9-year-old or 70-year-old would buy or something for $5 or $500. >> and in february, the theme was love. >> no accident that we were a love story, but it was not necessarily about pink and red and valentine's day. it was a broader conversation about love. >> the conversation she is talking about is one of the tenets of the model. she is adamant about her store being more than a place to buy things, which is why story frequently hosts the events. >> the events are important, because retail should not be about buying things in
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consumption but content and commu community and learning and having fun. >> she has planned wine tastings to author read togs a day when you can get free mother's day portraits. >> i came in to check out color and i wanted to bring walker back for the portrait. >> by now you are probably wondering, how does this work? how can a small retail store completely revampp the product line every eight weeks and still have it work for the bottom line? well, that is where story is even more creative than the themes. ♪ color of success >> first the majority of the products come from online retailers who are given the chance to test out what is it like to sell the stuff in the online world. danielle started the online store bauble.com. >> to have brick and more tar space on a fun corner in new york city and see how we could really get the brand out there and the word out there about who we are has been fun and exciting for us. >> and christine is the found
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founder of chromatic gallery which is the creator of these shoes. >> it is a funb to get it up and going. >> you can say, i like these shoes, but i have never tried this brand before and you come in and experience it in real f life and go back home and when it is not here next month, you can buy it online. >> and rachel's second source of revenue is retail. >> i think that retail is a frontier for advertising. >> so just as the magazines have ads in the page, rachel sells ads in the store. ray gomez is the director of color marketing at benjamin moo moore, and he decided to sponsor color story. >> we buy traditional magazines and we knew it would generate a lot off buzz. >> sponsorships go from $75,000 to $150,000, but for rachel, they bring more than money. >> it also gives us authority and it is not just about a transaction, you know, that you
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would not see color story brought to you by taco bell. >> she would not divulge what the next theme is, because she said that the reveal is all part of the fun. >> it is a surprise. you to sign up to find out. >> now it is likely that most of you watching are not going the change around the whole store every eight weeks burk what can you incorporate from story to your own business. this week's board of directors, jennifer haley, and carol roth who is a business strategist that you can find at carolroth.com. and one thing that rachel said that was edgy and repeated ate coup -- repeated ate co eed it a co times edgy and retail. does it make sense? >> yes, because we are trying to
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connect the offline world and the online world, there a need for the that in the real world and people are looking for ways to connect and having it in the retail space is different. the idea of hosting events and book readings and things for people to have an excuse to get together is nice. people make connections they wouldn't make and discover things in a new and different way. >> and you can buy anything online, really, and there is no reason to go to the store if you don't have time, and this is giving someone a reason to go to the store. >> it does give someone a reason to go to the store, and the events and the community aspect will get them there once and twice and maybe a third time. and the question is if you don't have a very clear brand promise about what you are delivering, what are they coming back for the fourth and the fifth time after that novelty wears off? so that the challenge here is how do you incorporate the community aspect, but still have whether it is customer service or, you know, some other aspect that you have the brand promise, because if you are not coming back for the same product over and over again, there has to be
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something consistent for you to keep going back to the same store or story over and over again. >> and that brings me to the comparison online and a lot of what people talk about online is cure ratiasia -- curatoration,a to see what store is cool this week? >> and the thing about it is that arguably every store does it, but there are brands and taste makers that you do follow and people are looking for new and interesting things and if you are giving them some reason to trust you as a taste maker whether it is the concept of the store is interesting or you as person are interesting, that may be enough. we all know how to get the basic day to day things that we need offline or online and this is for things that we don't probably need or needs that we have not yet discovered so what is interesting about this is that it is creating a community and innovative way to find
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things that we didn't know we needed to buy. >> and everybody can be a taste maker, without changing everything around every eight weeks. >> well, it is the scale. it is interesting in the context and how do you roll this out? it flies well in new york city, and the question is, is it portable to kansas city, and i don't know if it is, j.j. >> well, the other thing we were talking about in the idea of advertising and she says that retail is the untapped market for advertising and it is fascinating to see that somebody spent all of this money to advertise in the store. >> brilliant strategy and i have to think that she had fantastic relationship relationships to leverage, because not everybody out of the gates is going to convince somebody to come in for a $75,000 sponsorship or more, and it is all about the eyeballs online and print and traffic. how did they know she would get that traffic in the store to sustain that level of advertisi advertising? if you can do it, definitely do
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it. she is incredibly creative so a lot of things to pull here. >> it works in the major cities and new york has the 7 million or 10 million people, and you have a focused market and major cities like l.a. and london or paris, you can do that, too, but one thing about places that are not as highly pop you iu not as highly pop you ilistpopu there ways to help sponsor a event or co-host an event, and lessons to take and apply to a smaller scale for things that fit in the business and the community. >> and also, she had next to no cost of inventory, right, because she has all of the d different retailers coming in to bring the inven toishgs and in terms of the capital she is required the bring in, have savvy on that front as well. >> this is a fun story to do, because it was innovative on so many levels. good conversation. thank you, guys. >> what to buy and where to eat and when to travel and how to get it done. mobile apps are more and more influential as they spread to mi millions of smartphone users and as the app market growing, it is time for the small business owners to jump in and create one
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and for the most part the guests say they don't have to be a technical genius to be one. and we are joined by the founder of new apps and create apps, and the author of the book i'm pyre, make money, have a life and let technology work for you." i feel like i said app 20 times in the intro. and for people who have not jumped into the business right now, do you need an app to reach people going forward? >> yes, yes. the old way of doing business is changing. it is evolving and business owners need to evolve with the changes. they need to understand that the consumers, their customers are actually carrying around these smartphones, and they need to understand that and bring the products and the services to them. >> you know what i found, too, is that as i look in the app store and we have a example of the taxi magic that the designs are so simple and you can learn
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a lot by looking at other people's designs and it is s simpler than a web page. >> exactly. go ahead. >> it is copying apple and makes it intuitive and easy to understand, and yeah, it is not that difficult. you don't have to create the whole thing, but emulate and learn from the tuck s.e.c.ful companies who made it easy for the customers to grab. >> and what do you need to look for when you are looking at the apps? what are the little things that i might miss, because i am not well versed in this space? >> i would look at first of all the reviews and make sure that people really like the app. make shire that, you know, find out the reasons why they like the app, and then find out what the functionality is, and what is the value of this app? if i'm buying something or using the app as a customer, what are the, you know, one or two things that i can get out of the app that makes my life easier or makes me able to connect with the business more. >> and i got it, icons and the titles, and are there particular
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things to pay attention there? >> yes, make sure that the icon pops and make sure that the screen shot or the title that it intrigues the person and tells them exactly what it is so they don't have to guess, and people move on so quickly right now and they want to see it immediately and understand it. >> and people who are watching the show right now are not skilled enough to make their own apps and so when you go out to hire the app developer go out to find the questions. >> and you have to find out what they know, because the industry is new and you want apps similar to ones that you are looking for and download the apps and test them out. you want to make sure they, you know, first of all that they can do what you want to do and also that you can talk to maybe a couple of people that have developed for. that is important. >> and are these people involved in market iing the app as well usually or just develop it? >> they just develop it and hand's off and dwoipt aevelop i give it to you to develop the marketing. >> yes, they want to develop
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something great and it may not exist as well. and you gave us an example of the say translate, and if you look at the analytics they shot up and somebody like that, what do they do from okay to great. >> well, a good question, and companies like that, what they do is to have the components down to the whole process making the icon good and making the screen shots good and stuff like that. a lot of people what they are doing is having a network of other apps and free app, and no barrier to user and when i am a cu customer i look at the free app and download it and if it is really, really good and if it is, they push me on to the versions and the app. >> i know this is the start of the conversation and it is a great reminder to go and look at what the business does and translate to the app and that is the first step. >> definitely. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, chad. >> when we come back, we asked small business owners if they are hiring and ask about the
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fastest way to get credit and today's feature has a diabolic idea and it is called evil genius beer and also the crew's favorite pitch. >> strange brew, do what is inside of you. 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.
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it is good news/bad news on the small business hiring front and a new survey from into it shows that small businesses added 40,000 jobs in may and that is down from 60,000 in the month before and the ongoing efforts in washington help small businesses hire will have any impact and we recently went down to the floor of the new york expo and asked the small business attendees if they planned to increase the small business workforce this year. >> i was originally going the hire 100 people this year, but the business is not there. i am still trying to get the business off of the ground. i will not be able to hire any great numbers until the business gets off of the ground. >> we are in a war for talent and looking for the best and the brightest people always. if we come across the people that we can't say no to, we are going to look to bring them on board and as true here in the u.s. as in asia, and the problem
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is that on the budget restraints like any other small business, taxes, high health benefits, and it is increasingly difficult to allocate fund ifs to hire people. do i expect to hire in the next six months, no, but i am confident to be hiring. >> and if we do plan on hiring some new employees both full and part-time in the next six months, it is on the as-needed basis and i find that a lot of the employees right now look for that as an accommodation to the schedule. >> in the business model, we have learned that growth is really important. so we plan on hiring a few salesmen over the next three months that are going to help promote our business, grow our business and drive more profitable results to the bottom line. >> what we are planning to doing instead of adding employees, we want to add more independent contractors and that way, they are more responsible for taking responsible for the insurances and those kinds of thingsb bau that is what i found with the
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employees before that the workers comp and those kinds of things took a lot of money out of the corporation. >> i have complete faith in the marketplace and in the economy right now, and i do have a small staff and totally intend on adding additional staff by the end of the year. the market is turning around and economy is getting better and i encourage the entrepreneurs to consider adding additional employees by the end of of the year, because things are getting better. your website is often the first place that potential customers top to get information about the business. if you are looking to build a well designed and easy website, check out our website of the week. the company one pager that you can find at the one pager app.com offers a free do it yourself platform for creating an maintaining web sites, and you can customize one of the predesigned themes for your needs or design one from scra h
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scratch, and the designs are considered to work well on mobile devices. it is time now to answer some of your business questions and general fer and carol are was again, and the first question is from anthony, and he asks, what is the easiest and the fastest way to obtain business credit? jen? >> well, there is no easy answer to this. first, establish credit with people like vendors and suppliers and try to get 30, 60-day dating and pay it on time, and in the retail industry, you are dependent on the factors and keep paying on time. and use your own personal credit card and establish guarantees, and establishing it for businesses is the same as yourself and you have to go through steps of providing financial information and limited credit lines and proving that you can work your way up. >> no secret trips? >> no. pay in full and pay quickly. >> okay. moving on, this is from ronique,
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what is the difference of marketing services an tangible products. carol, you marketed services. >> well, it is about the wiiifm, what is in it for me. you want to leverage the relationships, and if it is a pair of shoes or cookies, it is easier to get someone to do that and also sample, and even if you are a service company, have a free assessment or offer to give a few hours of consulting away, and it is a great way to kind of get over the risk hump and get people to check out what you do without having to worry about if i am taking on too much risk here. >> interesting idea. >> some of the other things that you can do is to establish yourself as an expert and are you writing or speaking at events and certain ways of expertise or thinking that you are known for or that you can
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create a hook for and make that easy for a potential clients to understand, and for example put up a website or tweeting or quote in the press and use a network to build the relationships and attempt to go to the customers to say, this is what i can do to you and if you see a problem, identify a need long before they can. >> and talk about the relationships, too, because word of mouth may be more important. >> referrals and testimonials and the people who know you can make ta recommendation and especially for a service prov e provider and that is the reason you hire. not going to hire a lawyer or banker, because you did a google search, because somebody says this is a quality person who provides quality service. >> and what is used to package for investors? >> well, whether it is a friend or family or angel investor is
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you need an executive summary, and that is a one to two-page summary about what is the business model and the proposition and how you are different and the compilation of the team and the something to leave in a paper or electronic form, and enough of a taster to have a second meeting with the conversation, but not giving away the keys. >> and that is the most important thing, because it is hooking them in. >> yes, and it is like a resume to get you in the door and interested and then you get the opportunity to sell yourself, because no matter what you have in the packet or the piecef of paper, the investor is going to invest in you. do they have confidence in you to execute on the business model? yes, you have to have all of the things put down, but the packet does not attract the investors and you and the opportunity does. >> and you need the create a whole 50-page business plan. and it depends upon the industry and the technology absolutely not, but there are certain industries that certainly not 50 pages anymore, but a 20-page plan in something like consumer
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depending upon who the audience is may be required. you have to know that the friends and the family and the angels and everybody is incredibly different and know who the customer is and know what what is customary at this time. >> have a creation of a business plan or powerpoint is for you as the entrepreneur and rare that the investor will sit there and read it, but have it there in case you need it, but you won't pull it out at the cocktail party when you go. >> but you need an investor subscription packet, because if you are fund-raising, they want to see the paperwork and the less sophisticated of the investor is, the more they will want to see it. and if they are more sophisticated, that i will go with less information. >> and you have to know the information, because if somebody does not read it all, they may ask you, and it is good research for you whether the investor asks or not. >> yes, good to be prepared. >> this e-mail is from spencer.
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he wants to know what is a good at-home business that i may start. >> spencer, this is the wrong question to start with. it is like building a house and then worrying about the carpeting before you build the foundation. a great business happens when you see an opportunity and you are the best person to execute on that opportunity. so start with a that and bring the model at home. if working at home is the criteria, get a job and don't start a business. >> i agree completely. do you want to start a business or work at home? those are two things that are very different. you have to be honest of the work style. do you want to be in front of the computer eight hours a day or be out in front of the clients or travel, and you need a list of the criteria and the skills and the financial needs and see if you should be starting a business or trying to get a job where you are working remotely. >> exactly. you can work at home for a lot
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of things, and the book is about this, the entrepreneurial equation and figuring out whether you should be an entrepreneur or not. read carol's book. >> yes, thank you for the plug, j.j. >> and jen and carol, thank you for the great advice, and we will see you later on in the show for the elevator pitch. if any of you have a question for the experts, all you have to do is the go to the website at openforum.com/your business, and then look for the link for the questions. business is booming in the cracked beer sector, and the pitcher today had an idea to come up at a keg party, and came up with a beer with a sinister name. i'm from ingenious beer, and
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how are you? all you have to do is to walk into the local bar to see the craft segment is increasing and people are embracing the local brew movement, and that is what we are trying to capture here at my business. our business was developed by a group of grad students at the villanova school of business. people who were trading up for the macromarkets were not ready for the big beers with the high avvs and here a evil genius we have full session craft beers that appeal to both the craft connoisseurs and the craft beer dr drinker simultaneously. we are seeking $2.5 million capital to construct a brewhouse. 75% of the capital goes to assets and ingredients and packaging and the investors should expect two to three times of their invest. to learn more you can go to the website at evil genius.com. >> and my favorite line is the
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entry level craft beer drinker. that is fantastic. i think that you did an amazing job and i think that you did a great job, but i don't count. did he get everything, carol? >> well sh, no, but he came acr as confident as a story teller, but what is missing is distribution and marketing. anybody can start a craft beer company, and the way you grow is through distribution, and i wanted to know more about distribution. >> i love the passion and it is clear that you love this product and that is critical for the entrepreneur and especially pitching to tin ves or the. i want to know about the customer and you told me about the segment and do you have customers already and you can asking me money for production and if you have customers, i don't know that and maybe it is possible that you have something set up already and you are teaming to produce more beer and tell me about the hard numbers of the company and the customer base and that number will make sense to me. >> that is one thing we talk
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about a lot is traction. you have done this a lot on the show and one of the most well spoken pitchers we have had. >> absolutely. >> okay. thank you so much, and good luck with the business and the beer. and guys, thank you so much for everything today as always. if any of you have a product or service out there and you want feedback from the elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interest interested investors send us an e-mail at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. tell us what your business is and how much money you are intending to raise and what you plan to do with that money. somebody out there may be interested in helping you. you never know. >> for more information go to yourbusiness.com. you can follow us on twitter @msnbcyourbiz.
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next week, an owner of a minnesota brewery trying to change the laws to expand his company. >> there are a lot of people who didn't want to see that change happen. just that is the way that politics works and that is usually when the laws are there, there is somebody there who wants to keep it that way. >> we will tell you how the brew master took the fight to the state capital and won and despite facing some influential opposition. 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. d main street found its fight again.
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and 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. in politics culture war is a term of art. it means americans finding the enemy here in our country among other americans. it means finding where differences between us as americans produce fear and resentment and then stoking that fear and resentment to maximum effect. in politics, this is how you get wedge issues, using culture war to scare up other folks. for some, culture war is not a metaphor or a term of art. they will kill for it. the americans defined as the enemy in this war are seen as targets of violence, even an

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