people, planet, and prof it. that's what motivates these business owners who grow mushrooms out of ground coffee beans, and a restaurant owner who locally sources everything. these sustainable businesses are all part of martha stewart's american made awards. she talks about that effort and gives advice to small business owners coming up next on "your business."

. small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to help. that's why we present "your business" on msnbc. ♪ hi, there, everyone, i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to giving you tips and advice to help your small business grow. this week makers, doers, and creative entrepreneurs from across the country are gathering at grand central station in new york city as a part of martha stewart's american made initiative. now in its second year, the event honors those sparking a change in the way business is done by pioneering and innovating in their selected fields. i'm hosting a panel at the event discussing the next generation of socially responsible companies, it's called "doing well by doing good." we met up with two of the

honorees, whose companies are doing just that, by leading a group of small businesses focused on stainability. >> if we can get more of that, i think we'd be on to something, carl. >> behind this cloud of dusty ashes is woodberry kitchen, one of the country's best new restaurants. >> if you make a commitment like we have to local sourcing, you start to look at everything through that lens. that means something as simple as the ash that comes out of our wood burning oven, we sift the ash, make charcoal we can cook with over a grill and the middle grade ash is a good soil amendment. >> this restaurant rose from the ashes of what was once a vacant and burned out compound of industrial buildings. >> our location is in one of baltimore's grand mill spaces. we took the space and had local artists and craftspeople, they

really built the space. >> they are tapping into a trend of companies that care about stainability, care about their local community, and care about the local economy. >> what sourcing locally does is it drivers the local food economy, and that's really what woodberry kitchen is all about, buying more food from farmers that we could then make into this beautiful product. >> but it doesn't just end at the food. using found materials from the area, they repurposed metal work for the stairs, salvaged wood for the bar and tabletops, and utilized the local glass blower to create the light fixtures. >> we knew that we weren't going to just drywall the heck out of it, and i think that from the very beginning is a very sustainable move, not using materi materials that are new. >> spikes' understanding of local sourcing formed after 15 years of working and owning traditional restaurants in and around baltimore.

>> it was a long, slow, steady learning curve both about local food system, which i'm very connected with now, but also how much it meant to me as a chef, and i didn't really feel like i'd found what i was meant to do until i started talking to farmers and going to markets and going out and visiting folks growing food. >> along the way, spike has met and formed relationships with like-minded people like denzel mitchell. denzel took a gamble to fulfill a more filling life as a farmer. >> the food in baltimore city is developing rapidly and absolutely ready for this kind of product and farming. we sell to about 12 restaurants, woodberry kitchen and the other fleet of smaller restaurants being our closest partners and allies and our biggest customers. >> our goal is to return the maximum value to our growers. that's a very simple equation when we think about how many dollars can we get back into

supporting sustainable agricultural in our region. >> across the country in oakland, california, another company with the same core values as woodberry found an opportunity growing mushrooms from used coffee grounds. >> the idea got started off in a pretty random way. we're sitting in a business ethics class and our professor said he could possibly grow gourmet mushrooms on entirely recycled coffee grounds and something about that stood out to the both of us. >> the two students were inspired by the idea of turning waste into fresh, local food. after a little research and a ton of youtube videos, they started experimenting with growing mushrooms in alex's fraternity kitchen. >> we both walked over to our local coffee shop, picked up coffee grinds, brought them back to my fraternity, planted two rows of five buckets and one bucket ended up growing. that one bucket is really the start of the company.

>> they started cultivating mushrooms in coffee grounds, selling to local supermarkets and restaurants, but the idea quickly morphed into something entirely different. >> people kept on expressing their interest, can i do it myself. >> that was when something beautiful clicked in our minds, that opportunity to get other people to see how food grew, and that's how the mushroom kit really got created. >> they soon realized the company's true mission, creating tools to make food personal again. like a small self-cleaning fish tank where you can grow herbs and the product that started it all, a grow at home mushroom kit that was simple, sustainable, and educational. >> i think we all have to learn how to do it to make our food better, and these young farmers, they are doing all kinds of innovative, creative things, so it's incredibly important and incredibly inspiring. and very, very entrepreneurial.

>> both woodberry kitchen and back to the roots are being honored by martha stewart living as part of its american made initiative, celebrating a new generation of creative american entrepreneurs. >> for us, this is entrepreneurship. >> it's nothing new per se, it's stuff our grandparents used to be doing. >> although it may seem like a throwback to depression-era values, for these entrepreneurs, it boils down to three things, people, planet, and prof it. >> not trying to be the best restaurant in the neighborhood, but best restaurant for the neighborhood. we employ a lot of people, butchers, bakers, we literally have a candlestick maker, as well, we make our own candles. >> in the last three or four years, how this movement has grown, yes, you can make money and do good at the same time. chances are, martha stewart has touched your life in some

way or another, whether that spatula in your kitchen bears her name or you've come to really rely on her recipe for blueberry pancakes, martha stewart has a talent for teaching, inspiring, and creating beautiful things. so how did she turn her passion for home making into the power house that is now martha stewart media? she shares her thoughts about being your own customer, learning every day, and having a business plan. ♪ >> when i wrote my book "the martha rules," i made a list of what i think are those golden rules for a good business. just like i have golden rules for how to make a pie and golden rules for cake making, i have golden rules for business. and if you stick by these golden rules, you'll probably do okay.

i have always said ever since i started working that i am my customer. i want to appeal to me. what's missing in my life? what void can i fill that will fill the voids for everybody that's like me? and my mother would always say, nobody's like you, martha, forget it. and i always said, mother, i am like everybody else. and, you know, i have chickens, i have a garden, i scrub the floors, i vacuum my house. i'm just like everybody else. so she finally got to understand what i was talking about, because i always want to please me with what we do. do i want to buy it, do i need it, so it's the need and the want. when i started the business, the martha stewart living media, our two words were inspire and inform. so you create the beautiful

picture. you create the lifestyle that you think everybody would aspire to, and then you have to tell them how to get it. so that's the teaching part. to be that inspiring, that inspiration, you have to know a lot. you can't fake it. so i learn every single day. one of my mottos is learn something new every day. and i do. so it's all about informing yourself so that you can be a good teacher. once you develop a large customer base, and we reach about 100 million people every month with all our various businesses, our books, our magazines, our television, and once you develop that kind of close rapport, they have already a feeling that i'm providing them with things they need and want. so it's very important. to engender trust with your

customer. if you disappoint them, if you make something that falls apart, forget it. you don't get that customer back again. and all i want to do is grow my customer base. i want to be where that customer needs and wants me with good stuff. when you develop your business plan, don't be afraid to write everything down. everything that comes into your mind, because ultimately, if you have a good business plan, well thought out, well designed, carried out for a year or two or three, you can start to follow that plan in an orderly fashion. doesn't always work. it doesn't always work. it doesn't always turn out the way you think it's going to turn out. you might stumble or trip or fall in a gully, but if you have the plan, you can get up and continue on your path.

mobile technology is changing the way that we connect with clients and how we market and sell to customers. here to talk about new trends for advertising efficiently and effectively is mark astrofsky, a serial entrepreneur and author of a new book, "word of mouse," how we buy, sell, live, work, and play. great to see you, mark. >> thanks for having me. >> there's so much great information in this book, i wish we could talk more about it, but i want to focus on some of the new advertising trends if we can today. one of the things you talk about is app vertizing. >> there's different ways to use apps, you can have an ad within your app, but more importantly, the thing of an app, get them to use a free version and up sell to a premium version and it works. a lot of small businesses are choosing to do that. >> exactly. it's easy. this just happened to me actually. i downloaded a free app for my

children, played two of the games with them, then -- >> you're hooked. >> to get the third one i had to pay, but they had me. >> it works, it's a sample. you're giving them a free sample. >> facial recognition software, how does that help most of us? >> it's understanding the technology so you know if it's good for you. in the billboard space, they have billboards with facial recognition, the billboard is looking back at you and playing the type of ads that you are going to look at. so you don't want to run women ads to men and ads for hockey for women, if i may say that. >> is this in a lot of places? >> they are testing it, yeah. madison square garden, they won't show you a male ad, they'll show you a female ad if you're the only one sustained standing in front of the one they are testing. >> another way of targeting your advertising. >> facebook has put in facial recognition so they are going to try to automatically identify who's in all your photos. >> a lot of people can do that

right now. okay, so now let's go to retargeting and relationship targeting. >> retargeting is when you're using g-mail and they can see you're talking about i'm going to go to italy, you might suddenly start seeing ads on the right-hand side of the page for italy car services. they know what you're talking about because you're using their service and that's part of the agreement, they are going to flip you ads retargeted towards you. >> because you can't learn everything with limited time, choose your medium, right? >> i tell people you have to know what you don't know. then you have to hire someone or bring someone in who knows what you don't know. so that if you don't know pinterest, you find someone when does. if you don't know linkedin or one of the others, you find someone so you know now i know enough, can i make a decision to get into that media. >> finally, mobile crm. >> mobile crm is managing customers through mobile. you know where they are, you can

know where they are and what they are looking at and the ads can be targeted to them and you can have a better relationship with a lot of your customers through mobile, whether it's mobile or social, it's a language. that's what they speak. so you got to find some that work in one, some that work in another. mobile crm is a big deal and you just need to look it up, understand it, and find out if it's good for you. >> the point of all of this is not like what happened with tv ads, you throw it on tv and maybe four people would be in your target and 20 people wouldn't. now here are all these ways to figure out who your target is and get right to them. >> it's drilling down. there's broadcast and there's narrow cast. we're broadcast. this is broadcast. but it's still narrow to small business. narrow casting is knowing exactly. you can run an ad on facebook just for people who belong to a certain association. that's narrow casting at its finest. >> you're not wasting money on people who might not be interested. >> no, you're not. >> so good to see you, thank you for coming on the show.

>> thank you for having me. do you have a packed day of meetings and need a ride to your next stop? if so, check out our app of the week. using uber, you can order and pay for black car service entirely on your mobile phone. simply request a car through the app and you'll be picked up within minutes. payments are handled automatically by using a credit card, and you can also share your location so that people you're meeting with can track your progress. when we come back, we'll answer your small business questions about what skills you should have when starting up a small business, and the value of going to a fremium model, and sunday on a sunday. they hope to get their just desserts with their natural ice cream product. ♪ brought to you by -- american express open. visit openforum.com for ideas to help you grow your business. has it's ups and downs.

seasonal... doesn't begin to describe it. my cashflow can literally change with the weather. anything that gives me some breathing room makes a big difference. the plum card from american express gives your business flexibility. get 1.5% discount for paying early, or up to 60 days to pay without interest, or both each month. i'm nelson gutierrez and i'm a member of the smarter money. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. it's time now to answer some of your business questions. let's get to this week's board of directors. brian cohen is the chairman of new york angels, which has invested more than $53 million in 70 early stage companies. he's also author of the book, "what every angel investor wants you to know," how to get smart

funding for your billion dollar idea. jen gruber is best known for creating butler bags and starting her lifestyle band. thanks for being here. let's start with the first question, it is about getting your business off the ground. >> i think a lot of people wish to have an awesome start-up and they kind of neglect what skills are required to launch the company. so i think if you could answer what kind of skills are important for a start-up founder to have? >> i know this is a passion of yours, brian, making sure that people are starting companies are actually doing it right, so what do you have to say to him? >> all starts with the customer, how well do you know the customer? how much do you know what they are thinking, are you inside their head, do you know the problems, challenges, issues they face? your business is based around solving their problems and being able to know what they are thinking is critical. >> are there any particular skills? you've done it multiple times successfully. >> i think your ability to be able to pitch and to connect

with people is critically important. i see so many people with great ideas, but they can't articulate their ideas, they can't pitch or stand in front of an audience. that holds them back considerably. also your ability to be agile. sometimes people think this is my customer, but in reality, a new form of customer comes into an unexpected area and people ignore that because they were so focused in this one direction and their true customer's being neglected. knowing your customer is a key part of it, but being able to be agile to attend to that. >> next one is about giving free stuff away. >> a lot of companies offer their services for free in hopes to get this exponential user growth, so what we were kind of wondering was how do you balance that need for this really growing user base, but also at the same time wanting to prove yourself as being able to be a profitable, successful venture? >> i love this question, and can you give stuff for free, is it

worth it in the beginning? how do you deal with that issue? >> i think the true question about this is experimental marketing, it's cosmetics or skin care. for me, when i launched the butler bag company, gave out a lot of bags for free. so that became a viral marketing strategy for me. now, if we're talking about a website and technology, then it might not have that same kind of conversion. you're giving experience for someone to use, but you need them to be talking about it and showing the brand to other people for it to be effective. >> the issue is also freenium with a premium capability. you want to add to the value of what you already gave them. >> look at facebook right now. now in order to just to to have the something and get it seen by all of your friends or your fans you have to boost your sales. in order to be seen.

so i feel like it has become a business model that people are starting to expect. people who have gotten too used to everything being free get a little bit frustrated by it. and won't participate in it. but if you see the value coming from those fans and followers seeing what you're posting, then you're going to pay for it as part of your marketing strategy. >> the next question, for michael. he writes, my website connects home owners and contractors. the site is still being developed, but it is nearly complete. what should i be doing if anything about promoting my website before it is completed. my concern is that i'll direct people to it and they'll be turned off because of typo, fufrp functionality issues, et cetera. i think he answered his own question, right? >> polish it up before you do anything. people see that as an example of your professional capability. and that's silly. why would you want to get out there and have all of that tarnish all over what it is as your best product. >> right. >> i think that he's -- we're struggling with the beta question. he probably wants feedback from

potential users. so if you're going to do a beta test, let people know this is in beta, and to keep it to a smaller demographic so that people understand that they're part of a test so there can be feedback and you won't stumble and use a lot of potential customers in the future. >> if you're going to do a beta, make sure simple stuff, typos are out of there, stuff that makes you look unprofessional. the beta should test the functionality. >> google was in beta for three years, right? >> exactly. >> the last one. this one comes from jeanne, she says, my husband is a high tech consultant and has a number of valid tech business startup ideas. are there any legitimate organizations who purchase new business ideas? i love this is being written by the wife basically saying i do not want my spouse starting up all these companies. if someone has a good idea but don't want to run it, is there a place to go, is there a market for an idea? >> i haven't seen any. i'm looking for the idea of an idea website, you can actually go to it and find -- it is

purchasable. i haven't seen anything like that. have you seen anything? >> there are a lot of corporations now who are really trying to tap into entrepreneurial resources. and they're creating competitions, pepsi did a big one this past year. so there say lot of -- and starbucks is doing one as well. if you can find those contests of big legitimate corporations, it is a smart strategy. and also, one of the biggest trends i'm seeing as entrepreneur and residence for different corporations. if you see a corporation who is looking for ip that is coming from the entrepreneur community, that might be a true test for you as well. keep in mind, though, you're going to be -- they're not going to sign a contract to say, okay, this is my idea. you're putting your ip out. you have to be comfortable with that. the ones that you see commercials for on tfbs, i don't know if i would necessarily be pitching my idea. >> and all of these, you're still working at it. you're still an entrepreneur. you have some backing of a big company, it is not like i have a good idea and give me a billion

dollars for it. >> there is a great line somebody said, you can have a great idea with terrible execution and it doesn't really go anywhere. so the idea unto itself isn't the value. ideas are a dime a dozen. it is hard to imagine that a big corporation is going to buy an idea. >> they may give you support. they're giving funding and they bring it into their consumer product incubation process. >> you get their support. okay. well, great. thank you so much. brian and jen, you stick around. we need you for the elevator pitch in a little bit. >> thanks. if any of you through the have a question for our experts, all you have to do is go to our website, 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 it is easier for you, send us an e-mail. that address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. going green isn't just the right thing to do. it can also save you and your company money. here now are five ways to make

your business go green courtesy of inc.com. one, make the switch. compact fluorescent lightbulbs used 75% less energy than incandescent lights. two, power down. ask employees to turn computers off at night and to set them to turn to sleep mode automatically after 30 minutes. according to the epa, this can save you anywhere from $50 to more than $150 annually per device. three, cut the cord. smart strip power cords sense when a device is turned off and will cut the power when not in use. four, efficient heating and cooling. consider installing a programmable thermostat to regulate temperature. also, ask service technicians to check for and repair air duct system leaks regularly. and, five, reduce, re-use, and recycle. look for ways to reduce unnecessary consumption and re-use and recycle materials.

everyone loves ice cream. but not necessarily the calories that come with it. today's elevator pitchers say they have a sweet solution to the diet dilemma with their all natural product. >> hi. i'm susan patrick with biaggia barone. we have ice cream sweetened with stevia. it is low in fat, no sugar added, gluten free and we average about 100 calories per serving. we have seven flavors in pints. we are co-branded with truvia. also a women's owned business and we currently have distribution in limited markets in the northeast. >> so we're looking for investment to go in about 2,000 stores coming this spring. we have about a million dollars worth of purchase orders sitting on the table and we need your investment to go into help with producing the product and also for marketing and making the product turn. you should see a return on your investment within fourth quarter of 2014. and the first quarter of 2015.

>> great job, you guys. before we ask about the pitch, i want to know, is the ice cream good? >> amazing. >> delicious. >> you got the first part. hooked them on that. you've eaten about half the pint over there. >> fabulous. >> did they get everything in the pitch or is there anything they missed? >> i need to know more about your profitability, how you're making money doing this, what kind of model do you have set up. what can you tell me about that? >> i can tell you gross profit margins between 40% and 50%. we have an exit strategy for a sale. >> are you reading my mind. >> a little bit, yeah. >> you wanted a little bit more of that in the pitch. what about you, jen? did they give you enough to pique your interest? >> as a marketing and branding person, i would like to hear more about the strategy, but this is a growing area. there is definitely going to be a need for really unique marketing strategy to really separate you from all the other brands on the shelf with similar claims of the gluten free or low fat, low calorie. what is that strategy going to be that really helps you

penetrate and jump off the shelf for people. >> as you notice on the packaging, we have flavors, these are real people, these are families, these are people that are health conscious. what we're going to be doing is a contest through facebook where people can submit pictures of their ice cream families, ice cream lifestyle, and we pick winners that are going to be part of the packaging going forward. >> i actually love that branding. unfortunately, i have to cut you off now. we'll get to the moment of truth, would you take another meeting. you would just to eat another pint. >> i want to trite chocolate. >> we'll let you try that. what about you, jen? >> i would, absolutely. >> thank you, guys, for your advice today and everything. you can go finish that, brian. thank you, guys. good luck with everything. >> thank you. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website, it is openforum.com/yourbusiness. you'll find all of today's segments, plus web exclusive content with a lot more information to help your business grow. you can also follow us on twitter. @msnbcyourbiz. please don't forget to become a

fan of the show on facebook. next week, we travel to the banks of the mississippi river to the town of natches to talk to small business owners on main street, usa. >> i've never been in this industry, i was nervous, but optimistic it would do well. i feel like we needed this. >> we put boots on the ground to learn how today's independents are keeping small town entrepreneurship alive. until then, i'm j.j. ramberg. remember, we make your business our business. building animatronics is all about getting things to work together. the timing, the actions, the reactions. everything has to synch up. my expenses are no different. receiptmatch on the business gold rewards card