e oba admistrion opos exndin tuts onl r theakin und $25000 ye. whhnclus the vast majority, 97%, they say, of small business owners. republicans say that not extending the tauts t everne wl hper sma sine and slo jgrow. so wt ishe uth? toda we' gngoignto e detls t fd out h thes picie affect you with a small business reality check. john arensmeyer is the founder and ceo of smallines majority. a tion sma busess advocy grou and an cd ihe vic present mia a counicionst thnf. grt toee bh o you gu. >> gd to b he, j. ank u. >>oo be here so jean, i want to start with you. the nfib was one of the parties that brought suit against the affoableare t. so expino me as sma sineowne hows thi ing aerse afft me ll,t's allyhat you were sayg eaier,s cost sue. and that was a big concern of

ours from the very beginning when this bill was being debated. and unfortunately, weiduen thindidual maate. we d'think thaurembe shld b fced to purase oducthathe mayotant ored, but ovall- >> jus wto stoou f e send. sure. >> most small businesses are under 50 people. most small businesses over 25 people already provide health insurance. sot's tak away t parhat suenlyi, a amall sine, amoingo borce touy hlth ca. becae foheost pt'm t gng to. d mtlrea doyhow besides that it's going to be required. so, let's just say i have a business. i'm 25pele. w ishisoing t aerse fecte? >>yeah youe rit. youon'tave me th 50 ploys yodon'haveo pride forhem. hower, t cos ireal hh rit w, a it's only going to get higher. there's going to be a tax that hits the types of pla that all businesses purchase, the typeof iuran pls. th's t tha won go on eacks o bigr biness.

on sma busess. the rulatns a gng tbe ettyurdeome. and sma business owner, you know, they don'tave an hr department where they can say, hey, figure this out for me. whh aig busines s, o urse theyeed furet o themlves that manours. oraybeheyeedoire soone igur oll tse les d rulatns a requemen. >>ohn,o wenowight nf you' uer0eopl you're not going to be required to do anything. do you agree that costs are going to go up? for me, w is providing health care rhtw, a i suenly gog toave t snd mo? the'sally nhing in th bilthat- in thi la th is ing rai you cost unfounaty, wreal nd to get beyond the politics on this. there's been way too much heat rather than light shown on this law. when you real dig i you s thatherere a nber o vy impoant st ntaient ovisns f smabuness ana loof ireas oprtuny. rangg fr oortutieshat arevaille n tet tax credits, to have greater

scrutiny of the insurance companies and require that they pay 80% of wha the takn t acal mical re. and en i t fure,hen the laisully ilemeed i 14,e'reoingo hav the portity hav exchges in al50 stat,hichreally marketplaces where, for the first time, small businesses will be able tolose the cost gap with big businessyavin onoms ofsce, low adnisttive cost and grter notiang por, and grearhoic to guy auch widerangof pructs >> sjean rig now,mall busisses are already paying so much more for health care than large businesses. you think that that discrepancy is going to g en grear? i do d yoow, somhinge han'talkebout y is t mandory nimu befits d th's a rulaty pie thatill meutfealt and humanrvic. wee veonceed aut th. caus bically the government will say, that every insurance policy must have a minimum level of benefits. this is like telling pplhat u catuy aorolanore. u ha to y a dill. don kw h hh is ing go. t wee vyonceed tt

smalbusissowrs, se-empyed,ho mhtant a very basic sort of bare bones, inexpensive healthare plan, won't be abl to purchase that anymore. they'll have to buy sething that's morexpenvehan wha theyantr ne. >> andohn youe shang you ad tre. u dot agr wit th? >>well i fa, tre's gng to ba wi ran of oiceof pls onhe excnges and the minimum coverage that jean refers to, that's actually what the deptment of health an humanervis haone is givethe stas we litud toet tho stanrds, ann factthostandds a goi toe pegd t the ctf the- t befit thare in exisng polies rig no so while there may be a few outlyer plans that really don't provide the kind of preventive care tt's nessa to bri cos do or rely d't cov allyasic seices in fa, e sndar areoing to b peed t ectlyhat is i mo platoy. d tre'soing to bepo th steso detmine whas right for their state. >> yeah, right now, the big question, at least for me is, are costs going to go up or

wn. d it- hav neen abl toigur ou becse i hea argunts bot des, whas gog toppen cou talk authis f an ur. t i ed t- i ed t chan rig nowo extding the bush tax cuts. and so, john, you've been waiting patieny over there. tell me lite b abo you feingsboutexndinhem on fhose pple who ear $2,000rless whatffec ds thi hav on all busiss? >>we, 97% of all small business owners have personal income tax of under 50,0 for fami. , weppla the appent bipaisanesir to exnd ose t cditsor tse maki under $250,000. which is going to cover, as i said, 97% of small businesses. so the questn is, i a situion ere hav a decit,and,ou kn, dlars are scar, y knowhat i e be dloymtf t sours weave? and ave to b ver tarted

wi theax ts. anquit frankly, not only do only 3% of small businesses fall in the category of the so-called bushax cuts orhe wlthy bun fa, my stues he shn th thependg tt's ne b pple or $25000s y -asay les impact on the economy than thepending that happens of the vast majority of people making under that. and what we really need is we need more doarsn t ecomy so tt -hat a ciulatg, sohat oplean bhe prodts a sercesfmall buness. we be ch bter f usg thisort tax cuts that might be available to us to do targeted tax cuts such as those that the president has recently prosednd a bng dated theenat rig w. ok. an, wt to giv you a chce, causyou el ver diffentlabouth. at acallyhere wil bn adrseffec o sma buness that% is actually quite meaningful. >> oh, absolutely. i mean, this is really aebate about job creation. and if you look at the businesseshat e affeed, are tse -- tpper

acke velsheyreob crtors theyrodu mor ofhe job th theest ofhe sma sine counit so it' ver impafulhent comes to jobs. and again, i think i said it before, anything in the current economic envirment that diouras jo catio iust aad id. itlso sen a terble messe. i me, sll busesswner y test thndivual te. d a t o pple don undetandth. sohener the's a date abouindidual rates, and making them higher, the small business community, that makes them very nervous. because today it's $25000. t wh is it goio b nex year and evenallyt'soing t h ur busiss,ndhat' -- that youbusiss vestnt ney. 's n jusyourncom tt go intyour pock. it whaou use to hir peop, toan, t buy new equipment, et cetera. so there -- there are a lot of threats. and a lot of them are frankly, ychogicaand optism o la theof tt wenow so portt tohe enomy a righ jo, je, thk yoso muc fo comg onnd sheing se lit onwo credly mplited sues real appciatit. >> thanks, j.j.

landing large clients for your biness is a very big de. th're exting theye go for yr btom ne. d th can hel youet oth rgeprojts. bureheseigainslway oughor you to tnown smaller customers? one entrepreneur says the answer to that is a resounding no. >> iaveo tl you,t w m biggt stak willeverakehat stak ain. d i han't. d ias ashad omylf. i have to be honest with you. >> interior designer pamela bayer does not sugarcoat anytng when it comes to talkg abt hoshe use t ruherbusiss. i lked ahis and i oughtoself thi i o thetupist this y've er de. >>hereas a tehen her compy, pela ber inteerp yores was boomin >> i was huge. i could have said easily my two years i was gold. >> back then,pala, whoplit her me bweenhuds, io, and e nework tyrea,ad

me vy lae clnts. >> wou say onheastoast ur, d he one and the one here was the biggest. it was like we were having a partyvery day at work, because everody s ppy. i me, dounutsfled. weere so ctentith it. d wh i tlou erybo owedp eay, erybo wou aylate >> becse sad the coorat customers who were lining up, and willing to p up, pamela started telling some of her smaller clients she was no longer available. >> iad t te a sp bknd asse myjobs my js welarg takgo l ofme. didn thi ias goio b le t tak themallobs andohe corct - the job for my client. >> earnest and his wife tried to work with pamela during that time, but she turned them down. >> she ca, sas li, o yoneed hel but i d't he me. goto my oerhing goi on i kn rht awhe w o of our ague she'oing all tse oer ings so i -- when she left i told my wife, i said, she won't be

calling back. >> even though pamela was saying no, she wasn't leavinghese tentl clntsighnd dr she d irodu theo oer ople iould fdther ierio desiers,nd iouldryo ho theup wh th, ma su thatheyere fling at least that they weren't left in the dark. >> t decision to focus on larger jobs ended up coming back to haunt pamela. afr resing sanymall cuomer her pn t tnk b wentst. >> whin simont peri, w we deain t wate >>ome ofhe larobs pamela was banking on were cut back. or just cut altogether. >> that was terrifying. i have to be honest with you. i wa realrrifd. tak yr brth ay. itealldoes an you thif ery hribl situion at c hapn. >> chae need toappe anhapp fas pamela decided it was time to redesign her business plan. instead of just thinking big, she knew she need t divsify byhinkg bi andmall i thi pbabl witn 24 hour itart clingy oth

clnts,he sller ient i ally hopd off my pedestal and reassessed it and really decided to mak amends to those people. >> through a series of phone calls and face-to-facemeings, pala srtedo reir t dage. >> wenacko thelien an hbly alogid to th. i fts if iad take ends in aittlbit rgerashi. i always make a phone call. i say, i'd like to just talk to you. and the nice part about it, they wereery en to it d ilway broht flors o a card a aays handrite them >> pama mat car tt s waed bkner stoms' live despe thfacthat sad said no not that long before. >> i hoped i did not hurt their elin. because it's vy peon. m inheirhome ern rembershe d he d hiwifeothe call >>tasn' mehanhree mont andhe got bk inouch withs andaid she h cved out me tend wble t maket ppen she sery honest. she said she had some bigger clients and some things didn't work out. >> ernie say pamela's honesty

made it easy forhem to decid to wk tother he kne any disio was strily buness >> undetood it mplely whenheaid that andidn' tak i pernal o bit. d shgave -hink the thing that struck me was she came on this job and treated as if it was one of her major corporate bs. >> gy wouree. ays pela wim oveith her p noh ctomervic >> t proctse wer ging her nerayere ratr sll ones pamela was always very accessible to us. she wasn't here all theme, t sh kt h mmitnts en needo be herer w need he >> par of pame's misons toakeure tt eveustor kns th areust as vuabl ashe next. >> i want to take every client's job and make it so important, because each client really wants to feel likeumber one. itreal doe't matr to m ift's allrrge. pamaays s and heream on los autweekorth wor but e exrien taut he

thvalu ofmallient >> i tught ias almost wasting my time a little bit on the smaller ones. d upon reflection i realized that was really not the case. i think they are your bread and butt. ihinkhey' you sppin ste. >>t al rnford f her the portce o bei ope a host wh he cuomer a tang rponsilitfor ur tion >> lrn byour miakes apologize when you make a mistake. make amends. don't point the finger. making that one mistake, that's all you ve sometimes. and y donakmendnd doit,on'to ithe rht y, y don havwork >> a big client can sustain a small business but what happens when they go away? t's rno ts ek's brd ofdireors. llee daise is t scial projts decto a enepreur.c andaul wi isial erepreur bunessumbefiverigh i feel like every time you're here there's another business. but we've been on five for a little while. >> little bit, yes. >> so this piece is ieresng caus in me ws it

ntracts lot hat w ta abo onhis showhich ttverylienisn'the me. d acally yhoul tre opleffertly. what she found is, you know, she got rid of some of the small clients, put the big clients on a pedestal, and then suenly uine her bines almo. how you dlith th? >> thi wha hapnedere i the g clits ce iickl but t engh othemo suain e buness so, u dot wt tutll yo egg in one basket. you need to diversify and don't forget about the bread and butter clients thatou he >>malles, donorget thathemall cent tay can bemorr's, youkn, blkbusr suess. you knowhen tnk abt, say,ike an instagram, you know, what if you were the company that turned instagram down, you know, whenay were only, you ow,, 20 ploys, tn, yknow a araterhey' wth a lliodolls. - >> ght. sot ishard but y haveoukn, ts

much, a fite amount of time to spend and you have these big clients you knowre huge coming at you, how doou say to urse, ok, wo o at. ta aittlimend go cou thisersoo, you know i her se h a smaaptmen >> ah, so it' tempng, ght? causeverodnts e b clie. th's wre a theigoney going to be. but it looks like she was looking at top-line revenue as where she's going to make the decision if it's a goodlient or not. , sma clit me a goo ientbutheyightot have th aunt ofvenu she y b actuly ming mor moneon se of the sller clies. bui thk a od iicat wod be who's referring business to her? so if you've got a client that's referring business in, that's a great client that you want to ep. >> yeah. and i think,oo,'mfhe opinn th the pla can be dierenfor sller clit than larclie. i ju, yknow i unrsta thathe's busesswner who nts be a pfectnistnd ve tm all this time and attention. but i think you can only give the time and attention that they deserve you know, nor what theye pang. sooulday mbe a mor bar

nes pcingckagor a alle clnt. it'allbout sting dn an tnkinabouwher is yr neyoingo go >> yes. >> or where is your money coming from and what are your contingency plans. >> yes. >> then what. i think it's a great piece. ankso ch, u gu. >>ou'rwelce. enou'rtraving, a sl of unpect isss ca pop alo theay her are fe ts t make your next business trip less stressful. courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, leave early. give yourlf meime thaou thk isecesry tget yo desnati. u ca useonusimeoork somhing se, butou w't sesse if youun io a obleen rte. o, me sure to have all of your travel inrmation on your smart phone. do not underestimate the value of having easy aesso coirmaonumbend you iterar the, iest inirli meersh proam. u caearn accs t the clu ar sohataitiorour flig wilbe morcomfortable, and you'll get special perks the more you fly.

four, carry cash. you may get to a place tt esn'take edit so kp se mon o hd fo anunexctedxpens le ca fareor lch. d ve, plaour meatis. om tirpo to yr destination, to the journey home, you have to eat. arrange where and what you're going to eat before you even leavyour house. stl ead, how ds a busess constantonvie centshat sh shod baid forer te d vice d, alevar pchith stris tach. th creator of a folding travel guitar looks for business partners to do it with. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for , i's ally abt buding

th extordiry cmuni. amicanxpree abouthe me tng. th' onef the paners th i wld ro whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. wh me,hat's thme togethe mymberip eect.pn.y partners, > traling micia are alysuggi the insumen ound csing probms. today's elevator pitch came up with a unique idea for those guitarists on the road. ♪ hi, i'm jeff cohen and this is mark, professional guitarist.

he's pying vageir gtar whh is t fir highuali guit tt fds a fit in a bapack sevel ouraten hav already issued. i already raised $3 million. we sold 3,000 guitars for more than $1 million. but here's thexcitg rt, ere' 6illiuitaold evy sinear. now, if w canustenette 3 of tt maet, ad ge us 75,000 guitars and with a $350 average wholesale price, that generates a $26 million sine. th's aeal buness no why i'mhereeed anotr $3 llioto bld o largscalmanucturg to meetlobadendnd mee o sale and marketing initiatives. my executives can expect a 20% return and you can get more formion yagecom. >>yoo ubt,re a exriendlevar piher.

d faasti wasot expecting that. beautiful playing. now, to you, colleen, how do you think he did? >> i think that is grea i lovow thi fdsup. i wus on an extded mpintripnd a m nhews brght guirsalon i tnk it is a great concept. >> did he get everything in the pitch? >> yes, iould have liko ha hed, i you hadny big-me musianssing th, woulhaveoved to hea at. efinelyf you cet soone endset or someone's name behind it. the idea of a folding guitar, it must haveen pente 0 ars o, t facthatou veaten peing. >>noth etin >>or sure >> i wouefinely ke othe meeting. >> fantastic, thank you so much. thank you so much for the musical part of this, of this evator pitch, ourirsto fa

anthanyou gso mhor all youadvi. ifny o you herodu or aervind you wt evato pih feedback, all you have to do is send us an e-mail, yourbusiness@msnbc.com. in that mail inclehort mmarof wt yrompa doeshow ch mon y're tryi to ise d whou innd t d wit tha moy. u ner ow, seoneut the wchin thesh, might be interested in helping you. time now to answer some of your busess questions. collnnd pl a whus onceagai workg as acoulta and ttinpa. >>owo yeven pple taki advtage a fro y giving away your time and your knowledge wouithout the awkwardness, you have to p m fothisnfortionndhis ti? >> lot o nsulntsave thisssueecautighte a frie or frid o frnd, tt's yr bines t ge vice w doou do it without being

awkward? >> this is where it falls on you as the business owner to become mfortable th the ses procs anhat cou be diiculforpeop. iindfuess fm h and h esked tha qstio tt shs no mforbleithhis yet. so i wou sgest to her to develop this kind of procedure or policy of how she always handles these conversations wh people and, yeah, sure, have th inial coersaon,ut on theeall srt to ask r me inrmatn, y kno what, l's set u a etin i catellou wha i c do for yoand tel y what my rates are and then just use that as her normal way of handling it. >> i would loveo answer this questi but i nd to b reined fit. th's wt yoshou sethat exctatn ear and youe a pressial a y're gngo t pa for yr seices set it up from the initial service that they're going to have to pay for the service. >> i like the idea, too, why don't you come into mofce. t' lik a trigr. itrame i as, ay, w,

th is a essial convsati. >>nste o a casl discsion >> y wano have the casual discussion, it's part of networking. you want to get to know person and make them trust you. >> let me o to t nex e. pele areo useosing goog, th pne bk andther tradionaorms of advertising. my company sells ads on the back of fortune cookie strips. ems m le hsotoo toheight peoe fst. thehinghaton'tike abt ts queson, h doee geteoplto tst h syst? ou'r asking that question, you have to go back and look at your system and see why inrnally you have to ask that qution. >> if he' ting toigh o clnts d ge the t tru th stragy. thbest thi y c he is testonia fmrevis ient so fe doesn't have those

clients yet, then what i would suggest is maybe trying trying to sn onome peoe b ofringscouedatend ce hignseoplen a the lo itndt'sorki for em,he he cou sn on me clnts d stto adjt h rate >> the last question from brian. he writes, i have been asking customers to post reviews o yelpnd oerimil ges. i he eit reews yelp a th filred sev o them ty tryo filter those that are spam. >> this is frustrating for business owners not just yelp but other sites do th, as well , fo th,an i thi whatyelpoes and it' vy puicn this. how established the reviewer is. if it's people who areust writing reviews for the first ti, it mig not show up hat' theecre sauc the dot wa youo kn howhey filt revis, but tyo

lterhe revis anou'r ght,hey' tryg to eliminate people who are just pounding a company or you get your friends together to write positive reviews and get real, alitreews. the tng ior h h shld jt trto g mor reewsndromeoplwhore ed treviin a lf sis. i wld sayhat d al t not just to forget to focus on customer service rather than getting frustrated about online reew sis. you fus on wt's e exessi, ifou bui , th wilco. youff a reay grt seice d grt oduc, th goodrevislco. >> testreew is an unsolicited review. >> you guys, thank you so much. we appciat all yrdvic andhe serade gotearlr. thks, guys d if af you ohere have qstio f ourexpes, alyouaveo doso to our website. the address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there, hit the ask

the show link and y c subt a qstio forurpal. ain, openrum.m/yobusiss. if u'drath,-mai yr qutionnd yrcoentswe ke hringthose, too. yourbusiness@msnbc.com. if you are lookingoet formion omsers tough urmall busessbsit th cck o o wsitef thweek gravyfors.co hel you bud wod press forums that you can add to your site. notification e-mails are easy to crea usi theuiltn tos proved a cusmize evythi to et yr eds. > t lea mebout day' showall you hav to i clk on obsit openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus web exclive contenwithore infmati t helpourusins grow youan aoollo u on twitr. d, plse,on't foet to comean of t shoon

cebo. we'd love getting your feedback. next week, the naked truth behind the newest trend in fitness. >> aone w belve tha pe fitns, pe i theclubype thinis w behihe eht ballt'solve it a fnesshenonon ght w. >> we take a look atow pole fitness studios across the country are tming up to chae peeptis, sre reurce a even lbyino g pol llth, i'j. rberg and, remember, we make your business, our business. theyave mes ke ie ti bos ansmasrecos and sma busess turd ey rind a nation of the benefits of shoppingmall. on just one da 100 million of us joined a movement...

and in seet undits ght ain. on just one da 100 million of and in seet undits ght ain. anwe, e lols, undsdeght ain. th'the wer allf us on just one da 100 million of and in seet undits ght ain. that's the poweof all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. od morning from new york, i'm ris haye hiary into heaosrae todaafteeeti in cai wi fiersha head o ejip mitar cncil whe eress the mitaro work with newly elected mohammad morsi toransr toull le. 'll hav econed, apartr at ba unt 200 ler o todatoortut romney's

record there. first, my story of the week, the voting rights act and how it may determine the outcome of this year's predentl race in csing argents thi fray,ttorys f thetate tas argd thetatehoul bereasednce dor all fromhe dartmt of i voting business which was clearly authorized the case is widely expected to wind up beforeheupre cou where fin the fe appoteeseclangt's n longstifd. thportn of t a at iue versine stesnd coties andownspsnd seven others rgely in the south that have a history of erecting barriers. in year pa, ts too vaety orumnd andfherastehat stoed neyormelave fm ving d litacy tes or simple poll taxes that forced people to pay to vote f they could afford it. after one of the most powerful douraous cial memen in