On october 29th, floodwaters were up to here at this bagel shop. The storm destroyed the property, but not the owners resolve. Were here to help them reopen with a your business makeover. Coming up next on your biz. Small businesses are revitalizing the economy. Thats why were proud to present your business on msnbc. Hi there, everybody, im j. J. Ramberg, welcome to your business. Today is a milestone for our program. Its our 300th episode, and so i want to thank all of you for welcoming us into your homes every single week. This has been a really amazing job for me. Ive gotten to meet so many incredible entrepreneurs and tell their story so all of us Small Business owners, including myself, can learn from and replicate their success this week, we have the opportunity to tell one of the most amazing and heart warming stories weve ever done on this special makeover show. Utt a comeback story. Scott edwards and tim keenan are two of new york citys bravest. Firefighter whos put their money into a seaside bagel shot to help support their families. They almost lost it all in Hurricane Sandy. How a little help from our Makeover Team and some generous others turned their luck around. A couple of years ago, Scott Edwards and tim keenan, two new york city firefighters, risked everything they had to open a bagel shop in rochaway beach. We thought it was a good spot. And tim really felt it would fill a void. Rochaway is a unique community. We love the beach. We have an old saying, that once you get the sand in your shoes, you can never get it out. Soon after opening, the economy took a nose dive and the business struggled as people dhra mat ukly changed spending habits. It affected people in the area and affected our business. But all in all, even through hard economic times, we were able to keep it going. Reporter after weathering the economic storm, things were looking up. But another storm on the horizon. On monday, october 29th, surfside bagels opened its doors to serve customers before Hurricane Sandy would hit the area. Sandy churning up the seas over the last several days. Sitting in the atlantic. Now instead of making northeastward move, it is turning northwest. A lot of people on the move. If the storm isnt that bad, well open up the next morning, things will be back to normal. Seaside barriers are set up, residents stock up on storm supplies. They closed early and expected some minor damage. But nothing prepared them for what would happen next. We had security cameras here in the bagel store. I turned them on and could see water in the store. And im like thats just bad. That night the Atlantic Ocean and jamaica bay met. Every car, home, and business on the rochaway peninsula was under several feet of water. Neither scott nor tim were able to get to the store when scott received an ominous text from a friend. It just said, i just passed your store. Im sorry. When the storm hit and things were washed out to sea, you were seeing your life savings go out there as well. Absolutely. When i came into the store, i couldnt believe what i saw. Everything was wrecked. Everything had water damage, the appliances and equipment thrown around the store. Looked like it was ransacked. The whole investment, all that time, money, energy, in an instant, was just gone. While scott and tim filled out paperwork and searched for a way to reopen, the news went from bad to worse. Their insurance wouldnt cover flood damage, and the sbas promise for a speedy disaster loan dragged on. So you had a struggling business that then was hit by a storm and you have to invest this money again on top of the money you invested. And it was already struggling. How do you make that decision . It wasnt easy. We felt the original investment was too large to walk away from. So we made the decision it would be better to try to reopen and work toward making the business better which we knew we could do, we needed help doing it. And help came from a totally unexpected place. You along island based facilities firm called front street was looking for a way to support a Small Business in this hardhit area, that would buoy not only the business, but the community it served as well. They took on the daunting task from rebuilding the space, from ripping out and replacing walls to rewiring electrical and installing a new floor, all for free. We really just they are firefighters, running into a burning building when everybody else is running out. What better way to give back to the community that supporting them. When your business learned about their struggle to rebuild, we assembled a rescue team to make recommendations to help shore up the business as they got ready to reopen. Scott and tim, you have had an incredibly tough year, but i think good things are ahead. Well introduce you to the your business Makeover Team. We have susan, mike business strategist extraordinaire. I will leave it to you. Mike and denise immediately sat down and started delving into details of the business. The first problem . Scott and tim werent taking a salary. We had to struggle week to week to cover our bills and times we were able to take a small salary, but other times, we had to forgo that to keep the lights on. One lesson i learned, you have to put on that protection before you go into a burning building. Business is the same way. Protect owners first. Companies go out, try to pay employees, pay everyone, worry about themselves last and the employee and entries go down and the whole business goes out. Issue number two, food deliv deliver. You guys were going out. How does that whole thing work . In an effort to cut costs, we chose to do the shopping ourselves. It was good, because we saved money, but we were out of store and wear and tear on us and the vehicles, even though it was cheaper, it wasnt cost effective. The two most important employees are right here. You take yourself away from interfacing with customers, and you spend time on the road is getting food. The most expensive employees should always be here. Well get the way to get the food here without anyone going out. The menu up there, its huge is that the old menu . Thats the old menu and not even complete. Analysis paralysis, not only does a big menu cost you more, it takes more energy for consumers to pick something. Sometimes they wont even buy something, they see so much, ill decide later and they leave. The less have you available as options, the more people buy. The next area needing attention . Marketing. With an outdated website and specials that were still being sent out via fax before the storm, scott and tim had little time to focus on their primary customer, the commuter. Denise presented a bunch of ideas to cater to the busy bus stop outside the door. Add a little bit to the branding. We created this stamp, surfside bagels home made with love. Take Something Like this. Not expensive. Its actually a stamp. Put it on things and then you can write on there what it is. You can identify that. Cheese bagel belongs to. Write their name on it. If starbucks can make their employees to do that, certainly a communityrun business that serves the community can do that. We talked about having printed backs, so expensive, we didnt do it. This is a great idea. Next up in the arsenal of marketing improvements . Loyalty cards. Consumers love Loyalty Programs, especially commuters coming every single day or five days a week to you. So lets give them a Loyalty Program where they can get punches or stamps so you are literally giving back to them. And there is something extremely cool you can do with Loyalty Cards. Studies have shown when there is prepunched out, consumers buy faster. Give them two punched out, people come out faster. Last big item on the marketing to do list, a revamp of the website and social media. Redoing your website in a word press template. Very easy for you to take over. Dont need to be a programmer or designer, pick up what we have done here, make changes as you need to. We have created this to a bagel rising on the sun rise. Every day, type in your specials are. And that will go right to your website, direct until here. Mike and denise had one last trick up their sleeve. Have selfserve coffee in the front of the store. Selling comfort and trust. With having a station up by the door that has an urn of coffee and cups. People put 2 in the box. You expect they will give you money back. Will everybody do it . No. Will a lot of people do it . We think so. This is the commuter special. People in and out fast, box here, get your 2 bucks slid in, and because there is a mirror behind it, people see themselves taking action, they always comply with the rules when they can see themselves. The last member of the Makeover Team is kevin burke from the food distributor j. Kings. Scott and ed had recently tested out food delivery service, but werent sure they could pay for it. Well extend terms to 21 days, help you get back on feet. And we worked on pricing. That was an issue. What ive done is take the contracted pricing we have for a large group of bagel stores and weve copied those contracts into your order. So you will enjoy their buying power in your own place here. Thats unbelievable. In preparation for the grand opening, kevin arranged for their first food delivery at the store that afternoon. Another benefit of consolidating their shopping order through j. Kings is the added value they offer to busy food service entrepreneurs. Instead of running to the store, scott and tim can order online, consult with their Culinary Team for food section and gain access to the independent university to learn about food service and hospitality. We understand that individual restaura restauranteurs have a little bit of a danger to compete with national chains. We have put this together, we have Community Leaders coming in, teaching independent guys. First day coming to an end. What are your thoughts . An unbelievable experience, and we have only just begun. Im a little overwhelmed honestly, but i like every idea that was pitched and every comment that was made, i think everybody was right on. Good. I dont want to add to the overwhelm. But i have three homework assignments. First is the menu. We need to cut it down to the bare bones. Second, we have identified commuters as the best person to sell to. One more idea for that market. And third thing, you need to protect yourself first. When you work on that menu, work on everything here, think about yourself first. How do we get more money to you . If we move prices up a little bit, thats okay too. Got it . Yeah. Gentlemen, ill see you in a few weeks. Since First Responders scott and tim have come to the rescue of so many new yorkers, we were thrilled to get their business back on its feet. Now the communitys turn. When we come back, well go behind the scenes at surfside bagels grand reopen and see if our advice helped bring back muchneeded customers. Weve all had those moments. When you lost the thing you cant believe you lost. When what you just bought, just broke. Or when you have a little trouble a long way from home. As an American Express cardmember you can expect some help. But what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. Spends like cash. Feels like membership. After many months of rebuilding, surside bagels finally ready to open their doors for the first breakfast since Hurricane Sandy. Would the neighborhood come out for the grand opening . We met one more time with scott and tim to see if they would be taking our advice. So today is the day. Its the grand reopening of surfside bagels. Denise snuck out earlier and put this sign out for free bagels and coffee. People have been in and out all morning long. The team is inside. Lets see how its going. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to surfside bagels after Hurricane Sandy. Somebody who lives in the area, every store that opens. Yay its such a wonderful thing. Gives everybody an uplift. Three months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the rockaways, surfside bagel has become a beacon of hope. I ran them, and i am like are you guys open . Were opening tomorrow. All excited. Feels like its getting back to normal and its been a while since weve had that. Bagles and cream cheese, yes mike, denise and i were on hand to help and got a chance to taste those famous bagels. Adding to the euphoria of the day . A grant check from the city of new york for 5,000 was personally delivered by commissioner robert watlsh to help pay for equipment lost during the storm. 5,000 check for you have to have. Thank you so much. Dont spend it all in one place. Mike and denise checked in. Had y you had three homework assignments. We have narrowed it down to a small, five or six different items. Sandwiches, salads, meat loaf, fish, comfort food that people down here really need and we are really excited about it. Fantastic. This is the grant opening. Tons of commuters coming in. One homework assignment what can we do for the community over the top. What did you come up with . We talked about having a Television Screen that used one of our cameras that are outside that shows the street, going up the block so that when the commuters are in getting breakfast, they can see the bus coming down the street, so we werent able to incorporate it in for today, but its in the works and well get it done. I love it takes the rush out of rush. And the third thing was pricing. What did you do with pricing . We held the pricing the same. With the new menu, we pushed forward with new pricing. Followed the same price point as our old menu. These items would have been cheaper, but we bumped them up a bit. We saw a need to try to bring in more money. You will take a salary for real . I hope so. Good, good. Tell me about the marketing. I saw the mirrors in place. Denise is back. How did the marketing go up to this point . Did you think more about putting the honesty box with 2 for coffee. We were very skeptical, but we purchased the mirror, installed it. Been good so far, and i think it will work out well. It will be something we have to watch. But i think it will work out okay. If anything else, a lot more coffee moving, because commuters can run, get coffee right there, run back out. With the Loyalty Cards in use, the new menu created and honor system coffee in place, our job was done. Emotionally where are you right now . From nervous to optimistic . I would say very optimistic. The nerve part of the is over. Its been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of months. For me, the nerves have subsided and more optimism than anything. We have just thankful for you and for your crew to helping us out. Good things happen to good people and you guys deserve it. Everything you have done for your employees and your neighborhood. When you cut the ribbon, i couldnt stop crying. I am surprised you had dry eyes. I need a hug, im sorry. Thank you very much. That grand opening was a great day for scott and tim and really for all of us there to share it with them. Here now with me are two members of the Makeover Team, mike mc w mccowitz and denise. You did a great job. Such a nice story. Im so happy i got to be part of it. It was great. An absolute blast and so good to see good people doing people doing well. We were there at the grand opening. Will they be successful . I think they will. We have 40 customer loads being dropped off and they are doing things right at the marketing front. It has been an excellent shot and everyone loves bagels. Whats need neat about that, the store was close and they racked up debt paying employees. They dug a hole for themselves and many would say you shouldnt. Theyre good hearted people. They were firefighters through and through and saving other people. Their employees were struggling. Absolutely. Its neat on a tactical part. Some of the psychological things you brought up which i love. Put up a mirror. When the mirror is up if you are watching this, go to the mirror. We never do a bad behavior in front of the mirror. We dont want to see ourselves in that light. When we were there, scott punched out two. The woman lit up and said thank you. That makes appreciation. They were having a hard time before. Have things changed enough for them to be smoother . I think they are fortunate to be a business coming back to life and Everybody Loves to hear that story and locally they support it. They will have a lost opportunity. They had 95 success, they were living, but this is the 5 difference. I just want to give one more set of kudos to front street and did all of that work. 100,000 worth of work for free. That was out standing and and i cooperate imagine a more worthwhile group. Thank you guys for all your help from me on behalf of them. Thank you. Its tax season again and you should know that receipts are your audit protection. Five ways to keep receipts organized for tax time. One, take notes. Write comments about their business purpose. Especially for dining and entertainment expenses. Two, scan receipts. The irs can audit you up to six years back in some cases. Keep an electronic version. Three, take a picture. Find an ap that can help you track expenses so no receipt is unaccounted for. Four, keep a business journal. Use outlook or google to keep a schedule of your Business Activities each day. If a deduction is questioned, you can look up the day. Number five, stay away from cash. Its easy to spend and nearly impossible to reconcile with receipts. Stick to debit and credit cars to track your expenses. Time now to answer your business questions. Our Makeover Team is here with us. The first one is about how to market your brand. I would like someone to explain the difference between marketing and Public Relations and how they are interconnected. Right up your alley. How do you answer . We get that question a lot. The best way to do it is watch tv. The message is getting through and going to be there no matter what. Public relations feeds the stories on the actual tv show or show like this. When you read articles and things like that. Marketing is guaranteed and Public Relations is kind of a crapshoot. When you get that coverage, the people who read it know it wasnt guaranteed. Its 30 party stuff. Very, very valuable and the mix is really the ideal thing. You want a budget where you have a lot going out and Public Relations where people go i will consider to try to. Public relgs are how the public relates to you. Its the communication going on around you behind the scenes. They can be managed and influenced, advertising can be direct. This is about scaling up your business. We had a lot of interest from Larger Companies and we didnt know the next step to take and wanted to know if we should look into hiring people for production. I heard a couple of these questions where people didnt expect their business to agree as quickly. You get people who are interested, but if its not definite, how did we know . If you ask years ago, i say sales and marketing. It is production. Production is the essence of a company that you wont keep delivering. More and more integrated with products and services. Its the experience people have that gets the word of mouth going and social media and everything points to production. You think its a good investment that even if the Big Companies dont pull through and some deals fall through. Better at making stuff more efficiently and making the end product better. It markets itself. Nothing worse than promising snag you cant deliver. This is about Building Bonds with your clients. Its important to establish an intimate customer skpekz experience and brand identity. As you grow, you ultimately distance yourself from that. How do we stay connected . We did a story about a guy who built a great Aquarium Company and his clients trusted him and he had trouble 50 growing. His clients wanted him and not the people working for him and a lot of companies dealing with it as they grow. How do you maintain that Small Business keeping in touchness as you grow . Thats the great thing about social media. You can have your entrepreneurial spirit going on, but if you always intend to be a oneperson shop, you should do everything, but if not you should hire in the beginning to set the stage. You want to make sure you have the internal spirit going on so people know culturally how to continue growing your company the way you would. Its not you, when you are starting out you have tons of time. All you want to do is talk to your clients. They call and you or someone who works for you as five minutes. I will steal from denises bag of tricks. She helped my company do this. People expect to talk to me, but i only have so much time. We made the Community Talk amongst themselves. Set up a flat form where customers can talk and takes relief leaf from you doing the work. Social media. Thank you so much for answering all the questions. If any of you have a question for experts, go to our website. Open forum. Com your business. Hit the ask the show link to submit a question. Its open