Hi, there, everyone, im jj ramberg and welcome to your business, the show that gives you tips and advice to help your Small Business grow. In the past few months, we have taken you around the country to see what life is really like on main street usa, from galena, illinois, to alabama, ive been chatting with Small Business owners to find out whats working for them and whats not. Today, i want to tell you about a group of entrepreneurs who didnt like what they saw on their main street, and so they came together with a vision. With some help from their downtown manager, bedford, pennsylvania, has turned itself around. Today, were in bedford, pennsylvania, about halfway between pittsburgh and harrisburg, pennsylvania. This is a town thats been around since the mid 18th century. Were about two miles off the interstate, so bedford has always been a great place to stop, but about a decade ago, main street was in trouble. As one generation of Small Business owners retired or left, nobody was coming in to take their places. Now the result was a lot of empty storefronts, and that did nothing to bring in customers, so today we have a story of revival, a story of a group of Business Owners who came together with a vision to make main street once again a popular destination. My name is julie dul, ive been the main street manager 16 years for bedford incorporated, and this is my sign. What is the main Street Managers mission . Were here to revitalize downtown bedford, economically, socially. Why was it created . I actually was one of the retail merchants in our downtown, and we had some successful merchants, but we kind of all did our own thing. I felt we were disorganized as a town. What did main street look like a decade ago . It wasnt unsafe, but i think we were to the point we knew we had to do something before it got horse. Im elaine and ive been in business 29 years. You were one of the real pioneers in the revival of this community, why . About 15 years ago, we noticed a lot of the other shop owners were retiring and the next generation was not coming in to take over. Hi, im gloria, im the owner of eleanors shop and ive owned the business for nine months. You grew up here. Youve seen downtown. What was it like when you were a kid and then ten years ago and then now . When i was a kid, everybody came to town on friday night. When i was in high school, it was much different. There were a lot of empty storefro storefronts. Ten years ago, there were some stores, but not near to the extent, not near the variety. Was it hard in the beginning to get a lot of people onboard in the revitalization here . One of the very first meetings we had, someone brought a picture that a local elementary student drew of our downtown, and it was a picture of walmart with the walmart parking lot. We just said we have to do something now. So what turned this town from a place where people didnt really come, to the little town that could . Well, i think a lot had to do with getting a main street manager, somebody that their sole purpose was to make this downtown area thrive. The town needed a visionary, it needed a leader. People were okay to follow. I think we needed an organizer, which i love to organize, so that was fine with me. Hi, my names tammie wiley, ive owned bedford candies for three years. Whats changed . Everything, street scape, facade, people come in and say how nice the town is and they really enjoy coming here because of that. How did you figure it out . We talked to a lot of people who say we want more businesses to come and we dont know how to attract them. We started with the facade program. Im the owner of birds nest farm cafe and bakery, and ive been in business for three years. How have you used the money . The money was painted with a grant from that, my signs both on my windows and outside, that grant was available, that they would pay half for the signs. If youre going to spend 500 on a sign and its only going to cost you 250, that helps a lot. Hi, im the owner of hebrews coffee company, and weve been here for seven years. When i purchased the building, it was really an eyesore, unfortunately to say. We applied for facade grant. It was a matching grant. Would you have been able to do what you did if you didnt have that grant . Probably we did a little more because we had the grant, yes. Once those grants became available, more people were interested in opening businesses downtown. Then i started working on street scape projects. Im brian speck, the founder of bad boys bistro. Have you seen the Community Change since youve been here . Prior to things being done around here, friday nights one or two cars, now friday nights, the streets are full. What did the sidewalks look like before they were repaired . Terrible. Uneven . Uneven, cracks, disarray. I was literally in our Visitors Bureau and somebody came in and said, wheres downtown bedford . Oh, boy, this is not good. Weve gotten over 1. 3 million that weve put back into our downtown, sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, banners, sidewalks. Can it really change everything, do those Little Things really change everything . They do. Everything that happens in a Small Community like this definitely helps business in every way. We do a lot of marketing and promotion of bedford. We started a bedford app, which im really proud of. Running a Small Business is hard. People have small families, theres so much to do. How do you get them to take time to help the community, too . Its just what we do. Is that a good answer . Its just what people here do. You know that saying, if you build it, they will come . Once i did that, people started realizing, wow, i think i want to be part of downtown bedford. If you think we should visit main street in your town, please write us and tell us why. The email address is yourbusiness msnbc. Com. As of this week, title two of the jobs act goes into effect, making it possible for startups to start the process of raising funds through equitybased crowd funding. Here to share much more is sherwood nice, the cofounder for a firm looking for groups getting into the crowd funding space. Walter edmond is an entrepreneur himself, with his brand of bow ties. And slava ruben is the cofounder and ceo of one of the largest crowd funding platforms right now. Great to see you guys. Great to be here. Thanks for having us. Sherwood, weve been talking about this since you started lobbying for this in washington. Give us an update, what does this mean. I think this is the biggest change to the security laws in eight decades, so we havent been able to use general solicitation to reach out to investors since the law was crafted, but now for the first time were going to be able to use the mechanisms like the internet to go out there and go to accredited investors and say, hey, ive got a great business idea, youve got capital, help me fund this and grow a business. Put this in laymans terms. I, jj, have a great idea for a new pen company, right, i can put it online and say to everybody out there, hey, come give me money for my pen . You can put it out there to anyone, but the thing is, you can only take money from accredited investors. How do i know . Thats the thing, you have to verify. This is what changes. Before it was self certification. Investors would say, yes, i meet the creditation, a liquid net worth of 1 million. Now the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the entrepreneur and they have to verify and certify and make sure the investors are accredited. That will change. That will change as far as only being able to go to accredited investors. Only accredited investors with title two. But in the future . In the future under title three, you can do crowd funding for anyone. Slava, indie go go is one of the biggest, is this something that you guys will move into . Right now its a donationbased platform. I can put my company out there and say give me money and ill give you a pen. Its not just donations, its donations are perk based. Not every company is a nonprofit. Really anybody can start a campaign on indiegogo. Are we interested in this . Absolutely. When we came up for the idea of indiegogo in 2006 and launched in 2008, our idea was to go into equity crowd funding, along with the perks and other things, but then found out about the regulations from the 30s and thought we cant go there yet. In our wildest dreams, at some point in the next 20 years, this might change and well be able to have indiegogo support crowd funding, and within four years the act was signed by president obama. I have to believe a lot of the tips will be the same, so a lot of the things that people have done to have successful crowd funding campaigns on indiegogo will help with equity crowd funding, as well. Thats an interesting point, people are saying, wow, equity crowd funding is going to be in the near future, this is a whole new world. Really, to your point, were building a lot of the practices weve learned in the last four years and when were talking to the regulators, they are asking us about best practices to make sure we have the best possible evolution of the industry. Alfred, you are an entrepreneur yourself, is this something thats interesting to you as a way to raise money . Everyone is fascinated by this prospect, but one of the things were telling people at black enterprise is its very important for entrepreneurs to Pay Attention to the regulatory developments as this thing evolves. You already have existing players like indiegogo paying attention, theres a lot of new people poised to jump in. We did a piece on a Company Called prohatch. Com, bolster. Com, different crowd funding entities taking advantage of getting equity to Small Business owners, but you really have to Pay Attention to the regulatory developments so you can best position yourselves to work with the right people and accomplish your goals. How do i Pay Attention to this . Where do i go, how do i know im not doing something wrong . Theres education series out there, we did one, part of the dummiy ies guide, so its import you study before you go out and raise money from the crowd. Under title two, theres no requirement for disclosures, per se, so you would think its logical youve got a business plan. Thats the type of stuff investors need to have to make an informed decision. Its best practices. Thats the type of stuff we talk about in our series to help train entrepreneurs. Do you have any sense of a timeline . Is there a sense of timeline . You were saying you have to go to accredited investors right now. The next step, when will that happen . So we had a chance to meet with chair white in june and it seemed all the questions were answered that the s. E. C. Was looking for. We know that the draft rules are pretty much sitting there on their plate ready to be brought to the attention of everyone else, so its a matter of time. I think were sitting on the cusp of these rules coming out. I believe the s. E. C. Wants to see how this is going to play out with the accredited investors first, then theyll come out with proposed rules for hit l three and unaccredited investors. If you go into equity crowd funding, i expected your answer to be very different. Is there something thats worked really well on indiegogo . Sure, some advice . Yeah. I think you need to have a good pitch, be proactive, and find an audience that cares. Some of the data we see is having a video as part of your campaign, youll raise 114 more money than if you dont have a video. On average, campaigns hit their target on day 36 of a 40daylong campaign. We know email is one of your number one tools, twitter number two sorry, facebook number two, twitter number three. Things like this are really interesting. We have a series of data showing you how to optimize your raise on indiegogo. Great. Its great to see you and talk about this. Congratulations to you, sherwood, i know youve been working hard on this for a long time. Its great to see you. Stick around for a little bit longer. Customer service can make or break your company. Think of zappos. That whole business was build on exceptional customer service. Just the other day i called into a business i bought something from and the agent on the other end of the phone was so incredibly helpful, i told my friends about it. Here now are five tips on how to improve employee and customer communication, courtesy of yff magazine. Use practical examples, realistic scenarios and the best way to deal with this. Two, train employees with a model, start with a talking script, train with mock situations, and implement a Shadow Program where new hires are buddied with more experienced employees. Three, let employees develop personal connections. Host Community Events where you can introduce staff to your customers and they can bond with clients. Four, consider hiring a communications coach. A coach can work with your staff so that their voices are clear and easy to understand and also walk them through the different Communication Styles and how to respond to each. And five, train employees on customer profiles. Your staff will get a better understanding of how to provide good service if they have a good sense of who your customers are. Stick around, we have more to help you achieve your entrepreneurial excellence. Well take you to pennsylvania, where a booming shoe company is thriving after the longtime owner sold the business to his employees. And todays elevator pitcher hopes hes barking up the right tree with his unique line of coffee tables. Has its ups and downs. Seasonal. Doesnt 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. Im Nelson Gutierrez and im a member of the smarter money. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. Sharing ownership of your company with your employees is a great way to be able to reward them when times are good and not be beholden to an increased salary when they are not. Tracy davidson from wcau in philadelphia tells us about employeeowned businesses. It was really an easy decision for us. Peter is a happy man for someone who just sold his baby, his baby being the Footwear Company his and his wife started 21 years ago. They sold the company to their employees. It is about the community, and it is about how can we share the wealth that we create to build a community that is built on health, built on stainability, and built on opportunity for people to grow. Dansko is now a 100 employeeowned company through a type of demand growing in popularity called an esop, Employee Stock ownership plan. The last ten years, the number of 100 owned esops have grown significantly. Employees own shares in the company, so when theres profit, everyone shares, pretty motivating. Guys are running around here in the warehouse, a lot of people dont have that motivation right off the bat, but once they realize they have such a stake in the company, how well the company performs matters for them, it just gives you that extra boost of excitement to actually do your job and do it well. Ken baker, ceo of new age industries, which makes plastic and rubber tubing, his company has been in esop with 30 ownership since 2006. What it is is a way for shared capitalism, what i call it, and shared capitalism is when you have the company, management, and workers all working together, sharing in the wealth of the organization or the enterprise. Want numbers . The average value of an Employee Share account, which again is their share of the company here at new age, more than 64,000 and esop companies dont lay off people as readily as nonesop companies. They actually create jobs faster than nonesop companies. Back at dansko, peter and his wife are just happy to share the wealth. The pleasure and the value you get out of this is to be part of the community, not just to have a lot of money in your bank account. Time now to answer some of your business questions. Alfred and slava are with us once again. The first one is about the timing of a new hire. Were struggling with the concept of when is the right time to actually hire a new employee. You hear people say that the right time is actually when you can no longer move forward without that employee, on the other hand, we know that talented team is the biggest and strongest growth engine. So when is the right time . All right, slava, you built your company from what was it, three people to 75 . Yeah. So how do you make those decisions . My suggestion is keep the company as small as possible, as lean as possible, for as long as possible. That said, if you find an athlete, somebody youre not sure exactly which little thing they are going to be working on, but rather they can work across the board, id grab that athlete and get him part of the team. Questions. Why rowe losing sales because somebody is missing in some spot or are you missing the opportunity to grow sales because somebody is missing in some spot . So if you tie whatever you do with either a lost sales or an opportunity to gain sales that youre missing, i think it makes it easier to decide when to add bodies and what kind of brains and talent to add. Good way to look at it. Simplify it. Moving on. An entrepreneur wants to know about getting funding by building relationships. My real question is how to leverage key Strategic Partnerships in a particular industry in order to find the right investor. A good question. Thats exactly what you have to do. Yeah. Well, you say leverage, my question is always how much time are you spending talking to and listening to the partners . And i know people with strategic relationships. I say when is the last time you hung out with them, talked with them. We traded emails six months ago. I think if youre spending time, they will tell you who they talk to, who their investors are, they can tell you the stories about the right types of investing for that kind of industry, that kind of company, and whenever i hear a question like that, people say they have a strategic partnership. The first question i ask is how much are you talking to your partner, and more importantly how much are you listening to your partner . They will tell you the answers if youre spending your time around them. And also, maybe Start Talking about this before you need the money, right . Absolutely. Instead of thinking about how can i get a partner to help build my business, i would be thinking about how can i build my business to get the right partner . Because it is one of those things where the partner is not just going to want to come to you and you need to be careful where theyre going to keep on meeting, meeting, meeting, but nothing positive comes out of it, so you need to prove to them they want to join you so i would focus on the business. If you prove they want to join you, they will repay you by introducing you to people. Absolutely. Theyll see it from their perspective, it is worth it to participate in a partnership you as opposed to youre hoping they give you charity by joining you as a partnership. Lets move on to the next one. This is a question about tax breaks for your Small Business. I have a team of about five full time employees and expenses accrue as we all know and there is always that lovely thing called taxes. So where are tax breaks for Small Business owners . Where is that information . Thats a good question. It is complicated and we hear a lot, right, in whenever they talk about job growth in washington, tax breaks for Small Businesses, how can you figure out if any of them actually apply to you . Go to irs. Gov, and just search business deductions. They got a great, like, menu of things ranging from whether your deductions for being a homebased businesses, whether you get the deductions you get for hiring certain types of employees, it gives you im glad you say it is organized. When you say go to irs. Gov, i get a little bit nervous. Too much information. Okay. If you go to the site and wander, thats a rabbit hole. But if you search business deductions, i did it, so it works, youll get a specific page that lists specific deductions for different types of things. Because there are a number of deductions, just a couple of years ago i think with the Affordable Care act, there was a number of deductions that people didnt take just because they didnt know about it. They keep changing. So things expire and then new things start. It is the kind of thing you got to you or somebody in your Organization Needs to check on probably every six months anyway. I imagine you say go to your accountant. Go to your accountant is probably right. I dont know if you need to take my advice. But i like to check out the kauffman foundation. Theyre staying on top of entrepreneurial trends and keeping the content fresh. Besides that, if anybody else has good ideas, i would like to hear them too. Great. Thanks so much, you guys, for answering those questions and two really great resources to answer that last one. Appreciate all of your advice. If any of you out there have a question for our experts, like the ones we just answered, 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, openforum. Com yourbusiness. Or if it is easier for you, send us an email, yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Alfred and slava had helpful advice on how to improve your business. Now lets get great ideas from Small Business owners like you. My previous life before founding prolater i was a corporate attorney and were trained to lock ourselves in our office and work on problems around the clock. So for me, the best lessons ive learned and the best feedback ive gotten has just been to set aside whatever concerns you might have about the feedback youll get and just be out there and talk to people about the way they want to use their product. Basically keeping that monthly cash burn super, super low until revenue is coming in, and youre so overwhelmed that you have to start hiring people to help you. So we usually make this mistake where we anticipate that the product or service is going to sell, we start hiring, we start spending money on marketing, but then it doesnt actually work and now we cut costs, fire people, it is a classic cycle and big mistake we make all the time. As entrepreneurs. If you feel like you dont have an easy to use invoice Management System yet, check out our website of the week. Simple invoices is a free webbased system. Customize the wording, features and Payment Methods of your invoices for what works for your business. You can set up recurring statements and choose from multiple exporting cape bilabii like pdf, microsoft word or excel. Todays elevator picture has created one such company that capitalizes on the beauty of nature without hurting the environment. Hows it going . Chad dorsey. Hi there. Owner and ceo of tree unique. Com. We believe in thinking differently and creating one of a kind unique tree tables. We take pride and pleasure in creating something that was made from Mother Nature into a beautiful piece of furniture. These pieces are something you see every day, so make for great conversation pieces in your home or your business. Right now we currently get our customers from different art festivals, several stores in downtown baltimore carry our product and just through word of mouth. And actually right now i cant make them fast enough. The demand is too high. I would like to be able to meet my demand but i cant because of funding. Right now were currently seeking 100,000 to invest in our tree unique to fortify the company and therefore with the money, 30 to 40 of it will go to marketing and promotions, the rest into operating costs and supplies. The investor would then get back their investment plus interest and also i would like to add the fact that we dont cut down trees to create our product, but we go to lumberyards and cut from already cut down trees. I was waiting for you to get to that part. Sustainable part. You did a great job. This is beautiful. Thank you for coming on and pitching this to our panel. I want to see how you thought of the pitch. We know that the furniture is beautiful. But the pitch itself, did he get everything in there . I think it is a timely idea. I like it a lot. I would say it was a good pitch. Maybe focus more on the price point so i understand what that would be. And also if you want to have a lot more inventory, where are you going to store that, what are you going to do about logistics. I would like to know the price point and the markup. What is your base cost and then how high is the markup when it gets to retail so i can get an idea how much youre making per unit. Right. I want to know how much of the money is going to be used in terms of expanding your production capacity. You talked about marketing. Seems like your biggest challenge is being able to produce these tables and higher volumes as you get greater demand. Right. I like that you showed the demand, i wish i could make them faster because people want them. Thank you for bringing the table and showing your beautiful work and thank you, guys, for your advice on this. If any of you have a product or service and you want feedback from our elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, all you have to do is send us an email. Yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Please include a short summary of what your company does, how much money youre trying to raise, and then, of course, what you intend to do with that money. You never know, somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you missed anything, you can catch it on the web. Just go to openforum. Com yourbusiness. Youll find all of todays segments there, plus some web exclusive content with a lot more information to help your business grow. You can also follow us on twitter. msnbcyourbiz. Im 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