Hi there, everyone. Im j. J. Ramberg and welcome to your business. Now youve probably heard this a million times, do what you love and the money will follow. The fact is that is not true. No matter how much you love something, it also takes a lot of hard work to make it a success. Etsy the Online Ecommerce site for handmade crafts people has helped guide and support a lot of hobbyists as they turn their passions into money making businesses. Heres how etsy turned love affairs into Bank Accounts for some fledgling entrepreneurs. Etsy is an online marketplace where makers can open up a shop front online. Reporter kari chapin is author of the handmade marketplace and grow your handmade business. There is a big difference between having a hobby and all of your friends saying you should sell that. And then actually deciding to manufacture something, by hand that you want to sell and then selling it. She says that etsy is tailored to meet the special needs of crafters who seek to turn their talents into businesses. I think that for someone starting out doing etsy is a great way to start out. Anna joyce of portland oregon, began whats become a very successful etsy shop just over five years ago. Its called anna joyce designs. And she sells hand crafted clothing and accessories using her own fabric designs. I think when i started i saw myself as more of an artist wanting to be a businesswoman and now i think im equal parts of both. Paul is hoping for the same kind of success on etsy. I think im very much at the beginning of the selling part of the process. Paul is just beginning his portlandbased etsy craft business. He says that etsy has helped him organize his decorated Metal Products business called etched metal arts. I feel like that process made me realize, and really recognize and accept how serious of a commitment i was making. That it wasnt frivolous. I jumped ship approximately two years ago. I decided my time was better spent playing with my friend. Molly rae, also from portland, is a jewelry maker and designer. Were actually probably going to do an interesting ear wire. She says etsy is no longer Cost Effective for her but she credits it with helping her turn a hobby into a scalable business. She now has her own website, elizabethjewelry. Com. It helped me launch my career in directions that i never could have done before. They call themselves etsypreneurs. Or in holelyhollys case used to. When etsy started it opened up a whole new set of business options for hand crafters. I would say since starting my etsy business i have had to do more managerial tasks as my projects get larger and my client list grows. But i still consider myself an artist at heart. While many artisans love to hate the business side of things they sometimes act like theyre allergic to it. Kari says one of the most common pitfalls for this group is focusing too much on the making and too little on the marketing. Online shops arent magic. Its just not as simple as putting stuff out there and thinking that people will come. You need to be able to interact online. And you need to be able to sell your work online. And you need to be able to direct people to your online shop. Which is a whole other set of challenges. Sitting in her studio and sewing up her newest designs, anna agrees. You need to be comfortable with selfpromotion. Theres just really no way around it. And it can sometimes be difficult to put yourself out there. Yet, as valuable as it is for you to get customers to hear your message, anna says that shes discovered its equally important to hear the customers response. Ive got a lot of feedback saying these sizes are too small. They dont fit me. So i try to offer a wide range of sizes. I am starting to get my products posted on etsy. I have four items up there right now. If having only four items founds insufficient, kari says thats not true. In fact she points out that starting small is the most sensible way to test the waters. Somebody typically starts out by listing a few items that they have for sale in their etsy shop and then if they have some sales, and begin to feel really excited by that then they decide to pick up their game a little bit. The biggest milestone for me as far as was the shifting point in my business was when i had a professional photo shoot. Generally the next step after that is really researching how to promote their business more so they realize sort of right away that theres a need for marketing. And, within a few weeks of releasing those images i had requests from realsimple i was a finalist in the first Martha StewartAmerican Made awards. And my sales on etsy just went even further. Kari says that this kind of success can lead to additional business pathways. Then they look for other ways to supplement their etsy shop. Perhaps they begin selling from their own websites. Theyll approach local stores to wholesale their goods. Ironically the more successful annas etsy shop has become the less time shes had to hand craft products. She had to bring in extra help to make the products so that she can focus on marketing and logistics. About 40 of my time i spend with email correspondence approaching new stores paperwork and shop maintenance, adding items, photographing, editing photographs, preparing for photo shoots. Things like that. As mollys business grew from a one person shop she, too, hired helpers to meet demand. I definitely think that as your business matures youre going to find that theres going to be a different return on investment. Molly found her biggest profits came from selling large volume to the wholesale market. And so she shifted her business off of etsy to her own website. Lots of businesses outgrow their original business model. And that certainly does happen with etsy stores. Paul, on the other hand is at just the beginning of this process. Thanks to etsy he doesnt have to rent an actual shop location. He doesnt even need to design his own site. Instead, paul can totally concentrate on identifying his market. Ive spent months developing my manufacturing process, and the techniques and learning what works and what doesnt work. For paul its the his Customer Base doesnt respond to one kind of product he made he can just simply try again and make something new. I dont have an official business plan. I do have goals. Kari says that having no plan is also very typical. And she adds that writing one should be pauls very next step. I think that a lot of people are resistant to Business Plans because it can seem like Business Plans are for much bigger types of businesses. Or corporations, or banks. I think Business Plans are really imperative, even if you have one thats for your eyes only. One thats just for you. Because you really need to add some structure to your business. With the help of a business plan, the crafts people can make a transition from artist to entrepreneur. And if it works, the growth may follow. When youre ready to scale up youll definitely know. Your customers will be spending you signals that theyre looking for more from you, theyd like different products from you. While etsys changed the way people think about crafts tripadvisor has changed the way we think about travel. Since its start in 2000 the company has disrupted the way people plan and book their vacations. It has firsthand reviews and photos of locations from around the map. And tripadvisor is now the Worlds Largest travel site with 315 million unique visitors each month. Steve kaufer the companys president and ceo, tells us what values helped the company stay at the forefront of innovation. Innovation is doing something new that others hadnt done before. Its saying wow, great idea. Or great new thing. And its hard to invent. It evokes a, wow, as opposed to thats nice. If you think about what a traveler used to do they would go to a travel agent, because that was the source of the information. The travel agent would then convince them that this was a good place to go or that was a good place to stay. Along comes tripadvisor. And now, its not tripadvisor giving you advice its the 200 million reviews and opinions that our site has collected from millions and millions of travelers, all over the globe, that will tell you uptodate information about anywhere you want to go. Anywhere you want to stay. Speed wins is an informal motto of the company. We find it works really really well for us and a bunch of the stuff we try doesnt work. We put a new feature on the site and nobody clicks on it. Far better for me to learn that on the website right now, than in a focus group that may or may not reflect actual consumer behavior. One of the things that drives me nuts is person a says hey, im trying to launch my project. And im waiting for comments. Okay. How long have you been waiting . Its only been a couple of days. Well, how you going to get an answer . Dont send another email. Use this thing not the internet use the thing called sneaker net. Stand up walk over email while its very effective mechanism in my view for an fyi, its not a very effective mechanism for i need your thoughts. I need your approval. I need your comments. If it works, great. And when it doesnt, walk on over. If its worth doing, its worth measuring. While theres some amount of well we think its the right thing to do, we actually want to know based upon something we can measure, whether we should do more of it or less of it after the trial period. Every time something doesnt work, theres a valuable lesson in there that you can apply going forward. The company does not have a threeyear product road map. Because i dont know whats going to be important in three years. The business were in changes so quickly, and the opportunities come up in such interesting manners, that we feel we have to stay flexible. When tripadvisor was born we had this idea we went to a whole lot of Venture Capital firms who said yeah no that will never work. That will never work. One said yes. Well, one is all you kind of need and the company was born. Almost died but the company was born pivoted, and then got to where we are. So lots of different paths to a successful innovation and tons of innovative ideas in companies that havent quite made it the market wasnt ready, or whatever reason. You think you have an innovative idea, youve talked to somebody including me and i said yeah well, not sure push harder. Be the champion for that idea you believe in. And if you talk to everyone in the company, and nobody thinks its a good idea look yourself carefully in the mirror and make sure you still think its a good idea. But if you do, come back at it. Etsy and tripadvisor are both examples of how the internet and how social media is disrupting traditional businesses. Todays elevator pitcher wants to do the same for big events like weddings and concerts. So lets see if our panel thinks his idea is innovative enough to tweet about. Jennifer shaheen is the president of the Marketing Firm the Technology Therapy group and larry cheng is managing partner at volition capital. Hi im brian tice and im the ceo and cofounder of snapcastr. I want you to think back to the last event you went to whether it was a wedding or a music festival. What was everybody there doing . They were taking pictures with their phone. We want to take that and actually make it part of the event experience. Snapcastr is a simple webbased software that searches across social media for pictures and comments using your hashtag. Then it creates a live social immediate that can be displayed on a tv a projector, or even a jumbotron. That feed can be customized to the look and feel of your brand and it can be moderated from any mobile device using the swipe of a finger. Weve been around for about eight months. But we already have customers that include event planners across the country, and National Brands like alex and unany, live nation and wake forest university. Were seeking 500,000 for a 30 equity stake in our company to grow our sales and marketing effort and to take snapcastr to events around the world. You can read more at snapcastr. Com. Nice job. You know you answered my question right away which is the moderation, right . I was saying can you moderate it okay. While im talking to you, from one to ten, how did you feel the pitch went . Not how good is the product again, want to make that clear but how good was the pitch . All right, larry, you listen to pitches all day long. Every day. I gave him a 9. Nice job. Very nice job, brian. Its very hard to communicate in 60 seconds what your company does. And you just nailed it. Thank you. Why not 10 then . What was he missing . Well its only 60 seconds, so hes limited by the format. The one thing that he could have addressed is its very clear what the product does but what the problem it solves is is that really a big problem . Events have been happening for a long time. Is this a musthave sort of Technology Solution . You can answer that in a sentence probably. Same thing. I thought the same thing. And the reason i didnt give you a ten is because we always have room for improvement. Right. Well nice job. I think it was really great how you said those big names, the brand names. You have customers. You have you answered the question we all have moderation. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate it. You guys stick around because youre going to we need you more on the show but thank you for giving him this great advice. And if any of you out there watching the show are sitting there wishing you were the one here in the elevator getting feedback from our panel just send us your pitch. The address is yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Please describe what your company does how much money youre trying to raise, and what you intend to do with those funds. We look forward to reading your submissions and seeing some of you here on the show. When we come back linda today rottenberg, the ceo of endeavor talks to us about how to become a more effective leader. Plus five ways to create content that works for your business. If i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing ive learned is my philosophy is real simple American Express open forum is an online community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make Smart Business decisions. If you mess up, fess up. Be your partners best partner. We built it for our members, but its open for everyone. Theres not one way to do something. No details too small. American express open forum. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. All you Small Business owners out there, show us your stuff. We want to profile you in our new your biz selfie segment. Send a selfie of you and your business and add yourbizselfie. Tweet us to us msnbcyourbiz or email it to your business msnbc. Com. Tell us your name, your city and the name of your company. There is a huge difference between being an okay leader, and a great one. An okay leader is someone whos in charge of an organization that gets things done. A great leader though inspires people to be their best. Here to talk to us about some common traits of very successful leaders is linda rottenberg, she is the ceo and cofounder of endeavor, a group dedicated to supporting fastgrowing entrepreneurs around the globe, and she is also author of the new bestselling book crazy is a compliment, the power of zigging when everyone else zags. Its so great to see you. Great to be here. Lets go through some of these tips. You had to be agile. I imagine this is the way you are now. But, you had to learn it yes, okay. Let me start by saying i start off the leadership chapter by saying that i was fired by my assistant because i didnt make payroll on time and i thought someone else would do it. She said youre the ceo, youre the only one authorized. It was the first time i realize unless i become a leader im not going to have a team to manage. I think so many entrepreneurs are used to being this group effort and they realize at some point they have to step it up. But, you also need the promotional breadth. So i had this image of the caesars and the pattons and i had to let that go, too. Okay accessible. As you were talking about caesar, the old style of leadership is right behind the office, people are scared to go in. But that is i mean your desk is right there for everybody to see. Managing on high. One of the worst things i did when we grew up as an organization which was convene Senior Management meetings. It made everyone else feel disenfranchised. I started noticing on our intranet, inside chatter, they were going, whats going on in there and how does it affect my job . I gave that up and we now share every decision with all the employees, we use social media in internally not externally but use chatter and its made me realize whats happening on the ground. And, their ideas are often the best because theyre closest to the entrepreneurs. So i think youve got to stop being on high and youve got to be accessible to everyone. Now aware. Be aware of of what . All right. Well this the next two are really about what ive learned being a leader and especially a female one. So first i thought everyone has to be more awesome, right . And project strength. And my husband used to tell me too much superman, not enough clark kent. And i was like what do you mean . And what i realized is the leaders that understand the foibles of both themselves and their organizations, that understand they are flawsome not awesome, are the ones that do better. And i think this is true for your employees, and for your customers. And organizations that try to sweep under the rug any misstep are killed today. Whereas those that own up authentically apologize and tell people that theyre aware of their shortcomings but trying to do better. Those are the ones where the customers will never leave that brand. It is a great book. New york times best seller. Really appreciate you come on. Great to be here. Your customer has a lot of options when it comes to getting information and most of the time they dont care who creates the content, as long as its good content. Keep your customers coming back for more and get you some sales. One, dont think about conversion. If you concentrate on using content to drive revenue, youll come off as heavy handed. Focus on getting people to read. Theyll come to your site looking for more and may even purchase something along the way. Two, keep it short and sweet. Some stories deserve thousands of words, but most dont. Edit tighten and keep things digestible. Three, think about your list. There is nothing wrong with lists as long as you make them your own. Four create regular features this will give your readers something consistent to look forward to and establishing an editorial calendar you turn out the content you want to produce. Five, images can go a long way. People like pictures so give them some when you can. Great photos also to visual platforms like pinterest. Time now to answer some of your business questions. Larry and jennifer are back with us. The first one is about money to run your business. I know theres different ways of funding your business, you can booster up get a Small Business loan, you can get investors. What are the pros and cons of funding your business . You fund people businesses and boot strapped businesses. Thats right. Should be the boot strap. The benefit of boot strapping is you control your destiny and no one looking over your shoulders and you own the business. Some people need capital to start or grow and its hard to get a new strap company. On the lending side on the loan many different flavors of loans. I think the benefit of that is that you can get capital without giving up ownership. Thats a real positive. Banks will always have cov nns or metrics that you need to run your business by. You have to run it with a pretty kevative profile hard to grow aggressively under a bank loan. Investors. You get partnership and a network of your investor, but you have to give up ownership to that and answer to someone else as a partner at the table. When you talk about loans. All kinds of ways to get loans. Bank loans and loans from people you know and places like the lending club. Yep. I mean today, women actually do very well with crowd funding. Lots of businesses that look at crowd funding is because the consumer is actually interested in seeing your product come to market. That is also another opportunity nowadays besides as part of a boot strapping because two sides of the crowd funding. Theres, you know that youre giving loyalty into or theres the equity model. All right, lets move on to the next question. How customers can pay on your website. As were in fashion and technology and building a new kind of platform im wondering if you can recommend two or three apps or payment processors that we can integrate into the back end of our technology to help with the ecommerce platform. Well actually whats dangerous about answering this question jj, is that there is definitely missing pieces of the puzzle. When youre talking about technology and talking about integration, you really want to know, what are you integrating with . For me to throw out some apps, which i will give you. Difficult to say, this is going to be the right fit. One of the things i want to say is whatever apps youre looking at are going to integrate more effectively with what is in their back end. For example, quick books has their own payment processor. So, if youre going to run your whole business off your quick books, that might be ethethe better solution where you have square stripe. Stripe is great because it integrates with a lot of different systems. Open source. Theres also bean strap. Bean sprout. So a couple different things. If youre looking at fresh books or accounting you might want to start there before you ask which app to start with. At the higher end, it looks like a Company Called vantibe. Thats if youre doing a lot of volume and authorize. Net and some other ones are good at the Young Company level. Go find someone who is one step ahead of you, right . Yes. A Successful Company who is where you want to be in a couple years or next year maybe and ask them what theyre using and see how it works for them. Lets move on to the last question. Building relationships with large retailers. As a Small Business how do you get into the Big Box Stores . I would suggest dont necessarily go after the big box retailers out of the gate. The ones that have made it in i would look at some of the Ecommerce Company that shes in female apparel. I think you probably know. On the mens side bombfell. And they pair up their customers with stylealistists and they are growing so fast. Theyre great companies, actually. The other thing is i think if youre going to look at getting in a big box, you already have to act as if youre there. You have to have the right packaging and the website and all the infrastructure in place before you can make that phone call. Thats one of the things we get so excited about our products that we realize we have to have all the things the consumer will look for. If they do their Due Diligence and you have to look that up. Thanks so much you guys. Fantastic advice. So great to see both you. Thank you. If you have a question for our experts, you can send it on over to us just go to our website. The address is openforum. Com yourbusiness. Thats where you can put your question. Again, that website is openforum. Com yourbusiness or just drop us an email. The address is yourbusiness msnbc. Com. You guys are guinea pigs this week. A fun new series were starting. Were kicking it off today. It is called i jjs challenge. One thing they do that has helped them become so successful. Im challengeing myself and you and all of you guys to see if we can do what they do. Some are work related and some are personal. They should help us become more effective Small Business owners. Today we start with tony shea. At the age of 24 tony sold his First Company for 265 million. He then went on to run zappos and pretty much change the way we all shop online for shoes. Known for its unbelievable customer service, zappos had sales that topped 1 billion by the time he sold it to amazon. They built up a cult following of customers. He told me clear your inbox every day. All right. Weve got our instructions. This is going to be so hard for me. I checked before i did this. I have 600 emails in my inbox. I have 100. I started the new year with that already as a goal. So youre like that. But you have to keep it. Every single day. So im going to keep posting on twitter and on facebook and instagram and show you how im doing and all do the same so we can struggle through this together. Dont forget to use the jjchallenge. Thank you for joining us today. If you want to see any of our segments, again. Head over to our website, openforum. Com yourbusiness. We posted a bunch more content to help your company grow. Were also on twitter. msnbcyourbiz. Next week two Business Owners decide to go in different directions. What happens when only one partner wants to continue to grow your company. Make any adjustments for either of us that we are going to have to raise some money and i couldnt afford to do it by myself and wasnt prepared to do that by myself. Well tell you how the addition of new blood and restructured company are helping this brand expand. Until then im jj ramburg. Remember, we make your business, our business. Brought to you by American Express open. Visit openforum. Com. For ideas to help you grow your business. One thing ive learned is my philosophy is real simple American Express open forum is an online community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make Smart Business decisions. If you mess up, fess up. Be your partners best partner. We built it for our members, but its open for everyone. Theres not one way to do something. No details too small. American express open forum. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. A day of unity and defiance. Good morning, thanks for getting up with us this sunday morning. Lots of Politics News and news about politics. Get you later in the morning. But right now the final hour of preparation is under way as we speak as crowds gather in pairs for a unity rally with global support. Check out some of the live scenes here. Amazing pictures even more people are expected to take the streets than the 700,000 who did so across france yesterday. Were also going to talk about the first show down between the new congress and president obama little bit later in the show. Legisl