for beautiful rugs we're selling but revenues were flat. the steps she took to grow including turning down clients may amaze you. let's help your small business grow coming up next on "your business." 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," the show dedicated to giving you tips, advice and a dose of inspiration to help your business grow. i found out about malaney when i was doing research for another story online. she seemed like a fascinating woman and her company seemed to be doing well. so i called her to find out the secret to her growth. turns out, the secret was simply taking time to focus on it. ♪ >> by many accounts, four years after she started her custom carpet design company, she was very successful. >> these are malaney b. custom. >> she designed carpets inspired by her travels around the world and had them handmade in nepal,

india, china, and mexico. soon after launching, she landed her first clients. she gave her one of her early jobs. >> i was actually looking for brooklyn designers and i happened to come across her on linkedin. and i took a look at her website and fell in love with everything she does. >> and she got press, lots of it. she had a goal, to get people to buy her carpets. and she went after it with gusto. >> i attended every event related to my industry. whether it was a cocktail for an opening of a product, anything related to a designer. whether the magazines were giving it, i was there. and then i exhibited in trade shows because that's how i was able to connect with the design community. >> like many, her work became her life. she operated on one premise. every moment was a sales opportunity. >> it was about survival. basically it was, okay, i need

to get a sale. i need to meet this person, i need to be at this event. it was a constant in, in, . pop in some ice... i have production, i have the talent, i feel i have the personality to connect with people. i have the media. so why isn't everyone flocking? you know. and so i felt the foundation was there but there was something missing. and that's where i said, okay, i need to take a step back. >> she forced herself to take a breath and with the help of a program called 10,000 small businesses, she got into the weeds of her company to figure out what she could do to turn things around. the result of her research, this 42-page document. the malene b. custom handmade

carpets business growth plan. >> it's funny, in the beginning survival you couldn't think, now the growth plan is keeping me thinking. >> it has sections on aspirations, financials, leadership style, the industry as a whole. >> this is a section which i really love and it's really talking about the competitors. i talked about earlier. i actually listed the different competitors, what they're known for, what type of product categories they have. where they're selling. you know, what their websites look like, things like that. >> had you spent much time looking at your competitors before? >> not like this. >> and it's a road map of where the opportunities lie and how to take advantage of them. >> and so you take all of your potential growth strategies, put them through the feasibility checklist, pick the one that looks rosiest? >> exactly. there has to be a match, a fit to where you are and where you want to go. now i'm more focused on the different areas where i want to focus on growing.

my two focuses right now are developing my licensing business as well as focusing on the luxury residential and commercial interior projects. that's how i'm going to really grow. and, again, create a brand that's long lasting. >> now she's doing something that she would've never done before the plan. she's saying no to people. >> when i hear someone saying, no, i want a custom carpet and it's a small carpet, i would know now, that's just not really going to help my business grow. it's a project, but, again, i have to be discerning like, i have to turn down certain projects. >> which is giving her time to concentrate on clients who fit into the growth plan. owner of licensing company product lounge had been following malene for a few years. and while he liked her work, he wasn't interested in doing a deal. they recently met again. >> and she started showing me some new ways in which she was growing her company. and i said, malene, you're there.

you're really showing a diversification. you're showing a whole business maturity that we can work with. >> malene's focus on the kinds of people that can bring her growth landed her at an interior design firm that focuses on high-end hotels and homes. >> i met them at my last trade show and met them there specifically hoping to connect with more designers of themselves. once i learned more about their business, i said, oh, they are right in sync and on target with who i'm targeting right now. >> i think it's a good exposure for her with the kinds of projects we do all over the world. >> malene's business is on the rise again and with her new focus, she's able to have a life. >> i actually cut my day at 7:00 now. i used to work as i said, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, but i shut it down now. i am working differently. >> differently and definitely better.

devising a growth plan is an essential tool for any small business owner. but being disciplined enough to keep it is the tricky part. let's turn to this week's board of directors. gene marks owns and operates the marks group. he is also a "new york times" columnist. and bill rancic is an entrepreneur, author, talk show host and a reality show star. great to see both of you guys. >> hey, j.j. >> thanks for having us. >> i love when she talks about how she's turning people down. i think that's the hardest when you start a business. she said every opportunity is a sales moment. all you want to do is get people interested. how do you get to the point where you can say no to people? >> well, i think you've got to start working smarter rather than working harder. and i think in the beginning, you take everything you can get and figure it out. the first, you know, year or two, you're feeling your way in the dark and you don't know what's what, at least when i started many first business. i don't know about you. and you start realizing, hmm,

this isn't going to fit in with where i want to go. it's hard, but you have to do it in order to survive and stay profitable. >> what bill's saying is exactly right. it's kind of not something you can teach somebody, is it? you've got to learn. those customers and projects and jobs you want to take on. she was doing this for a couple of years and started turning down work. she probably knew, you know, even subconsciously, that's not going to be a job for me because that's not something -- i didn't do very well on it before. it's tough to teach somebody how to do that. >> sounded like she got good advice and i think that was the critical turning point for her. a lot of entrepreneurs get so invested in it, so emotionally connected to it, they can't say, wait a minute, in my mind, i think my business is going one direction, but in reality, it's much different. >> this idea that she did basically of saying here are all the directions my company could go in. >> right. >> which one is going to drive the most revenue? >> right.

>> and then let's stick with that and cross off all of these other ones. >> it's a really, really hard thing to do. what i found in my company. i looked at my people, i have ten employees. we have the same issue, if you're in the technology business, there's a whole bunch of different things to be involved in. what do we do best? this guy is underutilized and really good in that area, let me try to find more work for him and i'll profit off of that. i think focusing on what you do really well and trying to keep shutters on for everything else is a great way to do it. >> i'd love to see where she is in a year. it sounds like she's got a clear vision and knows what she needs to do and it's not just executing her plan. >> and she just did a deal with product lounge. and so this focus put her in exactly the right position she wanted to be in. >> her biggest problem is going to be finding good people to get the work done. that'll be her biggest problem. >> well, thanks, you guys. and she is so incredibly busy as she talked about in the piece.

we were talking about how busy you are and i'm sure a lot of you are busy too. your calendar is one thing you heavily depend on. to have your calendar do more, check out our app of the week. helps you find everything you need to be prepared for each day based on your schedule, the app will pull up relevant information like e-mails, documents, or linkedin profiles that are related to your particular meeting or call. you can get directions, estimate driving time or keep track of flights using the app, as well. tempo simplifies dialing into conference calls by handling the pass code. are the number of e-mails you get daily getting the best of you? here now are five ways to control your e-mail inbox courtesy of entrepreneur.com. one, disable notifications. unless your job depends on replies within minutes, check your inbox two to three times a day, preferably for fixed amounts of time. two, unsubscribe from news letters you don't care about. it may seem easy to delete them

as they come in, but with important e-mails mixed in with unimportant ones you may lose track of the ones that require attention. three, learn how to search e-mail. instead of using folders, familiarize yourself with common search terms to get to your urgent e-mails quicker. four, adopt an archive mentality. move messages you no longer have an immediate need for to another folder. and five, clean out older messages. after you have a system in place to effectively handle new e-mails, clean up the e-mails that were in your inbox before you started. if you've been on facebook or twitter lately, you probably have seen a lot of hashtags. by definition, it's a phrase or specific keyword with a pound sign placed in front of it. smart business owners are using hashtags on all of their social media platforms to reach customers in ways that are fast, easy effective and personal. plus, it's marketing that

doesn't cost a dime. barry sloan is the president, chairman and ceo of new tech business services. great to see you, barry. >> great to be here, j.j. >> thank you so much for talking about this. when you talk about a business owner using a hashtag. do you mean using it for themselves? so my company good search, i would have #goodsearch or using ones that already exist? >> they could use either. it's a great opportunity to use the internet and use social media to attract a very large but narrow universe of customers using the right hash tag to be able to communicate with an appropriate audience. >> i'm going to back it up one step before for people who haven't used them before. basically a hashtag is something i would search for. and anyone who has used that hash tag, it would come up what they've written. hashtag red wine. >> that's correct. so business owners that want to get that universe of people that

would search for that and interested in that kind of topic would click on #redwine and see the submissions. >> you would use a hash tag to target people? >> absolutely. we're very interested in targeting customers. for example, if it was a new york city bagel store and they wanted to attract customers and were interested in bagels in their community, they don't want people coming from los angeles, they want new york city. you put #newyorkcitybagels. someone would be able to find a universe of bagel stores. >> i write something, you know, we're making sesame bagels today, #newyorkbagels. >> absolutely. >> when you talk about hash tags to promote, do you mean deals or marketing what you have normally? >> it could be deals, it could be a special. we have a company we finance peanut butter and company. and has #freejarfriday. if you go to free jar friday and tweet free jar friday to other participants, you actually get a

free jar of peanut butter. >> you're saying to use it as an actual promotion itself? >> that's right. >> and that gets the word out because then suddenly everyone is talking about the peanut butter company. >> that's right. and if you do tweet free jar friday, you might get peanut butter, you might get pickles, a bunch of other things you're interested in. so it's a very interesting way to see different promotions from different providers. >> right. and also the idea for you as a business owner, you want people to be retweeting things. if you give them some incentive, you're going to get more retweets. >> if you retweet free jar friday, you get a free jar of peanut butter. >> i'll be tweeting it on friday. finally, use it as a part of a conversation in what way? >> we have a lot of business owners that we deal with, over 100,000 in our portfolio, let's say they're interested in the affordable health care act how to act, what they need to do to be aware of the issues with the exchanges, tax credits, thicngs of that nature.

they might tweet obama care, obama care or affordable health care act. they'll all of a sudden get into a conversation with other participants what do i do in exchanging information? and a great way to get involved in a conversation by using hash tags. >> you can use it as research. so you can search #obamacare just to see what people are thinking about. >> absolutely. it's a great way to find a collection of information. you could put that in google. put #obamacare in google and come up with a bunch of articles on obama care. >> it's really simple. it takes sitting down for a few minutes and figuring out what makes the most sense for your company. >> learning how to use the tools and it's free. >> absolutely. thanks, barry, appreciate you coming on the show. >> thanks for having me. when we come back, bill rancic and gene marks answer your questions in managing brands online and when a small business should retain legal counsel. and today's elevator pitcher has a message of love she's

conveying through her product line of apparel and handbags. ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪ small businesses get up earlier and stay later. and to help all that hard work pay off, membership brings out millions of us on small business saturday and every day to make shopping small huge. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. it's time now to answer some

of your business questions. gene and bill are with us once again. the first one is about protecting your personal brand. >> what tools or strategies do you have or can you recommend to help people to manage their brands online? >> all right. brands meaning your company's brand and your personal brand. and yours are kind of mixed. i'll start with you. >> for me, it's having the right people on the team. and i think that's where a lot of people get into trouble. they have two or three layers and the wrong message is being communicated and comes back to bite you later on from a personal perspective. you could probably answer -- >> yeah, i can. and just by coincidence, i have a couple of clients with the same issue. it's like clout that tells you how well you're doing on the social media sites. there's a website called socialcrawllittics.com. and that monitors the content that's being shared on your competitors' websites. it's a good way to look at what they're doing. and then if your brand is keeping up with what your

competition is doing online. >> i think you need to spend some time thinking about it. who am i personally? and who is my company? and what are those messages i want to put out. >> you're running around. do you use people on the outside to help you do that stuff? >> we do. and we own some restaurants in chicago. and we have a team who monitors yelp. and i think the key is if someone may not have had the best experience, you've got to follow up and make it right. right. >> and i think that goes a long way. so every morning, they're checking those sites. and if someone wasn't happy, we make sure they're going to be happy the next time they come in. >> in the end, it takes time. if you don't have the time, you probably got to use somebody to help you out with this. >> let's move on to the next one. here's a question about whether or not your small business needs an attorney. >> as a small business, when is the appropriate time for me to bring on legal counsel on retainer? i'm never quite sure when i should do that.

should it be a project basis or have somebody already on retainer on standby? >> you laughed at this question. >> i play like softball every sunday with a bunch of attorneys. they argue over balls and strikes. in slow-pitch softball. you want to stay away from attorneys as much as you possibly can. >> you need them sometimes. >> i've been in business 20 years and i've never used an attorney. and if i -- at the very beginning when i was setting up my business. i only have ten employees, it's not that big of a business. i don't have anybody on retainer. if i need an attorney, i'll find an attorney on a project basis. >> for me, they come in handy. you certainly need them, not on retainer, i like a project by project basis and i want a cap. i want to know exactly where it's going and not just give them an open checkbook to run up the hours. i think that's important. >> and, you know, i have found that there are a lot of attorneys who sort of left their jobs and are willing to work things on a project basis for a fixed fee. >> right. >> things are changing a bit more and you can ask around to

other businesses and see if they know anyone like that. >> if you're starting up a company and do have legal issues because of intellectual properties and things like that. a lot of attorneys are looking for a little piece of equity in your business and will provide the services in return. it's an option to consider and i do see some clients doing that. >> okay. let's move on to the next question. it's about using facebook for your business. >> i would like to know how important is it to utilize facebook with my business. and more importantly, how often would i need to go on to facebook and speak to my customer base to be effective? >> that's a great question. it's a great question. i think it's critical. i think facebook, linked in, twitter, it's an amazing way to connect with your customers, with your fan base, whatever the case may be. and it's all about content. i think you've got to use it wisely. if you go on and you're always just promoting your products and yourself, you're going to turn people off. but if you're providing them content, giving them information, things they can use

in their life and make their lives better, you win people over. >> what do you do with your time? are you on your facebook page yourself? do you have a personal facebook page and corporate one? >> i have a personal facebook page and a twitter account. i do a lot more tweeting than i do facebooking. for me, it's great. we promote our shows and able to connect with people who are our customers and go a long way. people will tweet me for reservations at our restaurants. i'll get them in if they can't get a reservation and that goes a long way. >> you realize you just gave an invitation for your restaurants. >> i know. >> i think it's important to know, though, where your customers are, right. they may be on facebook, may be on instagram. depends on what kind of company you have. >> i spoke a few weeks ago to the association of corrugated box containers. these guys, their customers are not on facebook. >> wild crowd. >> it was a crazy night. you have to know where your customers are. if you're in the restaurant business or media business or landscaping or something in a

craft, if your customers are there, that's where you've got to go. >> and before i let you get up from this table, we have the elevator pitch later on. bill, you're here and you're doing something interesting with into it, which i know a lot of small business owners would want to hear about. >> we're actually giving an opportunity of a lifetime. as far as i know, it's never been done before. i've partnered with the makers of quick books, we've got something called small business, big game. we're looking for all small businesses. at the end of the road, we are giving someone a fully paid, fully produced commercial that's going to run in the largest football game of the year. it's an opportunity of a lifetime and we think it's going to have a massive impact on that small business and probably the generations within that family to come. >> that's amazing. >> wow. so go to the website, small -- >> small business big game.com. tell us about your business, your story, we'll whittle those down to 20, all the employees

will vote, it'll come down to the final four and then america votes. >> and then a commercial in the super bowl. you could not ask for more than that. >> it's as big as it gets. >> thank you for letting us know about that. stick around, we need you for the elevator pitch. >> great. >> and if you have a question for our experts, all you have to do is go to our website, the address is openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there, hit the ask the show link to submit a question for our panel. again that website is openforum.com/yourbusiness. or if you'd rather, yo uh can e-mail us your questions and comments to that address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we like to check out twitter from time to time to see what's trending about small business. here are some of the latest tweets. next street tweets, how much does credit matter for small biz? a lot. loans increase chance of survival. usa today columnist rhonda abraham says nothing is as frustrating as clients who want

to stand over your shoulder. keep perspective and communicate with them often. and frequent your business panelists, some good advice. it's important to not fear mistakes because they will bring you a wealth of lessons. and now that we've heard from bill, gene and twitter, let's get great ideas from small business owners like you. in this arena of entrepreneurship, there's what i call a five-pillar concept. and a five-pillar concept is what the infrastructure of your business is. and that's leadership, management, marketing, sales and finance. and i always suggest to my clients or colleagues that you don't have to know everything about each one of those pillars. but you do have to know something about them. >> the advice i would give is to surround yourself with individuals that have strengths where you have weaknesses. building a strong team is extremely important when starting a company.

>> since i'm all about outcomes, my tip is that which gets measured gets managed. and as business owners, we have limited time, limited resources and so it's really important that we measure. >> social entrepreneurship is booming with more and more small business owners wanting to help both their bottom lines and their communities. today's elevator pitcher is doing just that with her line of products that combine function with a positive message. >> hello, i'm the owner of to live to love. we are a fashion accessory brand offering messages of love, self-expression and positivity. our messages can be found on shirts, hats, purses and greeting cards and have been delivered throughout the united states and all over the world reaching as far south as africa and canada. on a personal mission to promote positivity. to live to love is very unique because all of our designs are

original and meaningful. we also donate a portion of our proceeds to support social change and we operate a youth program. to live to love is affordably priced and can be found on to livetolove.com and opensky.com. i'm seeking a $150,000 investment to take the brand to new levels with new designs and more apparel variationvariation. helping to establish as a mainstream apparel brand. investors will be offered 20 percent ownership in the company in return. >> you can take a deep breath now. >> that's a lot of information in a short amount of time. >> i love how you're throwing it around like it's a football. >> this is really cool. >> gene, let's start with you. did she get everything in there? >> you really did. i thought the pitch was really good. it was a little fast. but you were trying to remember. i think any investor if they're looking to invest, i hear the money part of it first so that's kind of what raises my flag. what you need to be prepared about, if you're asking for

$150,000 for 20% of the company, i'm not a very good accountant, i think that's the value of your company about $750,000, right? that means an investor is going to say, wow, that sounds like a pretty high value for a company that just kind of started up. be prepared to back that number up. what assets do you have there? and what future your revenues you have coming down the line that would make me want to sink $150,000 into your business, right? >> do you think she hit all the points? >> no, i thought you did a great job. slow it down a little bit. maybe just engage and not so rehearsed. but i thought it was great and you've got to quantify the numbers. again, if you're asking for $150,000, give us some more specifics. we want a little bit more teeth into it. what are you doing in annual sales? what's your profit margin? >> most important thing, have some kind of a track record. so you just started this company up recently. you've got to brace yourself. you might be doing this for another year or two or three.

so an investor can see profits coming in before they take that risk. >> well, good luck. thank you for coming in and sharing your pitch with us. thank you both for everything today. really appreciate it. >> yep. >> and if any of you out there have a product or service and you want feedback on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an e-mail. the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. include a short summary of what your company does, how much money you're trying to raise and what you intend to do with that money. i'm looking forward to reading through your pitches and seeing some of you here on the show. thanks so much for joining me today. i hope you learned a thing or two. if you missed anything, just click on our website, it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments plus web content with more information on how to make your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter @msnbcyourbiz. next time, when pitching

investors for cash, how do you determine what you'll do with the money? >> we said let's raise enough money to be able to really test these things we think are going to work to really grow the business and scale it. but not have enough money that the mistakes are going to be really expensive. we'll tell you how two entrepreneurs are funding their business and why they know the capital is being well spent. till then, i'm j.j. ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. is like hammering. riding against the wind. uphill. every day. we make money on saddles and tubes. but not on bikes. my margins are thinner than these tires. anything that gives me some breathing room makes a difference. membership helps make the most of your cashflow.