Hi, everyone, im jj ramberg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your Small Business grow. A lot of people start their own businesses in order to control their own schedules. But then, im sure this is going to resonate with a lot of you, they quickly find out theyre working even harder and longer hours and they start to get warn down by the grind. Coming up for air can be tough. Thats why one entrepreneur had to embrace the fact that he needed to charge his batteries and get his creative juices flowing. Skydiving is one way hes working on his business instead of in it. Being able to climb something and jump off of it, no safeties, no reserves, just you and your parachute. Theres a funny thing about adrenaline that opens your minds and gives you clarity. Michael is a thrill seeker. Nothing else matters once you step over the edge. It makes you focus on whats more important in the bigger picture, life, business. If theres a mountain to jump off of or a plane to jump out of, you can almost guarantee hes up for the adventure. Ads an incredible feeling. We caught up with michael in idaho, he was base jumping from this bridge. Michael is inspired. Youre very focused, very in tune with the surroundings, nature, just an extraordinary amount of focus at the task at hand. Michael is not only an adventurer, hes also an entrepreneur. When hes not on the road, youll find him in chicago, where his 2yearold company key smart is based. Its a unique pocket key organizizer. When he launched the company, michael knew it wouldnt work for him if he was suddenly tide down to one city. I wanted to focus on a business that wasnt geographically constrained. Not a brick and mortar store. Ecommerce seemed to be the best fit. He felt without travel, hed lose i had lot of his creativity. Its a win win for the company and myself. Within i travel, thats when we come up with the ideas, the best brainstorming. Where actually most of the stuff gets done. Having a ceo who spends much of his time on the road means you have to have a team thats bought into this. Michael created a culture at key smart that gives his employees the opportunity to lead while allowing him to get away. It really takes a special person to kind of work here. You have to be very, very selfdriven. My style is not micromanagement and absolutely cannot stand it. We definitely look for other entrepreneurtype people and just absolutely enable them as much as we can to kind of fulfill their own goals. Before anyones hired at the company, job applicants get a tryout to see how they feel about this environment. A lot of the people we hire will actually allow them to moonlight for the first four weeks and ill stay late, work till 10 00 p. M. , theyll come in at 4 00 after their other job, just to see if its a good fit. We usually know if a good fit after two weeks of moonlighting. Jade nash said it was clear very on that independence was an asset. The first interview, he said make it your own, whatever works for you. People i want to hire is up to me because theyll be working with me. Employees manage their own work flow while letting their peers know whats left to be done and whats been accomplished. Each party is responsible for updating their tasks. So everybody can see where the project is and if were falling behind on time lines. If something goes wrong, theyre empowered to try and fix it first themselves. Going to michael is a last resort. Everybody has very Good Initiative and if they cant solve something theyll find somebody who can help them and walk them through an issue without needing approval of him. We try to keep him out of the daytoday stuff as much as possible to free up his time for other stuff. Theres a lot of days hes back with designers working on stuff, no different than if hes out of the country necessarily for we. No matter where michael is in the world, he works the same hours as the team in chicago. Im the one that stays up all night and works with them. Its the same hours here. I mean, im more than happy to bite the bullet. I really dont sleep that much anyway. He answers calls, emails and text and can easily speak on skype. Hes very fast to answer your questions and concerns, yes. I sometimes feel like he doesnt sleep. Hes always on. Even when were not in constant communication with him, we are, you know, enough communication with him to stay on task. He feels it wouldnt be fair or good for the company if the employees didnt get the same perks as he does. So like the ceo, they get unlimited time off. I always encourage people to travel as much apossible because i really think that stepping outside your comfort zone really sparks all your creative receper its in your brain. Michaels met critics of his traveling ceo status. But as long as work is getting done and employees are happy, it doesnt matter where he is. Im not the bottle neck. I have to finish my obligations first, if im on the other side of world, before i do anything remotely recreational. Other entrepreneurs could probably take a page from his playbook, he says. A lot of entrepreneurs take their businesses too personally. When you have someone else to share the responsibility and control, they kind of take its is a personal threat. But you just have to trust people, build a great team and let people progress and push you as well. Theres no right or wrong to that. Its just a different way of doing it. In 1972, Evelyn Overton and her husband oscar opened the cheese cake factory bakery in los angeles. It was an immediate hit. Seeing how many people loved his mothers cheese cakes, her son david decided to open a stran in the Beverly Hills highlighting those yummy desserts. Today the cheese cake factory has nearly 200 locations around the world and counting. We sat down with david to talk to him about the importance of trying new things and why he never cooks for the critics in this learning from the pros. As we say, we kid but theres nothing america wants to eat that cant go on the menu. We did that on purpose. I did that because i wanted to make sure that i wouldnt ever get left behind and we could add anything that people wanted to eat. So when we created our skinnylicious menu, i could see the trend toward not really healthier eating but people were watching their weight and calories. We obviously had some of the most fattening things on any menu, which are great sellers and they still are. But i thought lets give them choices. Thats an example of something thats successful, keeps us in the game, uses all of our creativity and helps us so theres no veto votes. Thats the idea of the cheese cake menu. If a family or group want to come, no one is going to say, i cant find anything to eat there. Weve never close a cheese cake factory. So many people cook for critics and critics never like the cheese cake factory but the people do. And i always said, my taste buds are the taste buds of the common man, of regular people. And thats why were successful, because what i like and choose to go on the menu is what everybody else likes. But you have to say do you have that . Some of its internal and talent, the rest is deep thought of where you want to go and what you want to do. Why not change your menu . Why have the same menu all the time . I started 38 years ago, every six months, to change the menu and to put on five or six or ten things, take off things that werent selling as well. And ive just continued it now for 38 years. Every day, almost every day, we go down to the test kitchen and every day theyll make whatever, sometimes one thing, sometimes ten things, we say were on the right track. What are the trends . What do people want to eat . Because of that process were definitely a 2016 restaurant started in 1978. I think thats a mistake that many make, they end up at corporate and they sort of put themselves in an ivory tower. You have to go out to eat, you have to, again, be passionate, whether its going on food trips to different cities, which we do with our r d staff to get ideas, to constantly bring ideas back. Whenever we go to an opening were always going to new restaurants in that city. Im able to see what people like and whos popular in every city. You need to believe in them. Spend the money to do it. So the quality is there. Then its built. Our food is so intense, everybody has to know it. We teach the front of the house managers to manage the kitchen as well, to taste everything, to understand that they cant just look at a dish walking by and see if somethings missing. They can taste the sauce along with the kitchen people and tell you if the sauce is right or wrong. That took years and it took belief and it took that thats the training of cheese cake factory. Thats what youre supposed to do. Thats what we expect of you and thats the success of our company and everyone knows it. So it takes belief and building from the beginning and then every day you have to execute that. Working remotely can certainly have its advantages but when its not done right, you can end up alienating your customers. Sitepoint. Com gives us five ways to work outside the office and keep clients happy. One, get your time zone straight. Set up a visual display so you can keep track of the time in all the regions your clients are based. Two, seeing you face to face can go a long way in establishing trust. Jump on a siddio conference as early and as often as possible. Three, keep everything organized and accessible. Its important that your customers can access files whenever they need to. You can use a cloud based storage system like drop box or dropler and label folders clearly. Four, keep your clients in the loop throughout the project. Send an email each day with what youre working on or schedule a weekly checkin to give them updates. And five, identify which elements of your work flow can be automated. Set up templates that are prescheduled to go out to your customers so that even when youre swamped, your clients still feel taken care of. You have to think of choosing your Business Partner as a lifelong decision. Because if you choose wrong, you very well may spend years untangling yourselves from each other. Be deliberate about how you go about this. Some partnerships work great. My brother and i started a company together ten years ago and i could not ask for a better partner in crime. Every single week pretty much i hear situations where things are completely falling apart. Tom is president and founder of delphi group, a bostonbased think tank and advisory firm. Hes a columnist for ink. Com and coauthor of the gen z effect. So good to see you. I cannot tell you how often i hear about problems in partnerships. Me, too. Me, too. There are simple things that get in the way of a partnership. Whether its a Business Partnership or a personal partnership, it doesnt make any difference, the same fundmentals and corner stones apply, trust, openness, commitment, not keeping score or tabs on whos contributing what. These are the basics of any partnership at the end of the day, i love the line from a few good men. Where Jack Nicholson says, you cant handle the truth. The most important thing in a partnership is to think your partner can handle the truth. A partnership is based on accepting that that person is in 2 for the long term. Whatever weaknesses might come up, whatever difficulties they might struggle with, youre in it for the long term. That requires communication thats uncomfortable in many cases. We get this, you have to trust each other, be open, be committed what happens when you start to feel that your partner is not . Or you start to feel your own self pulling back for whatever reason . What do you do to fix it . One of the things you can do is look at three things, look at yourself, your partner and the relationship. What most folks talk about are the two people and not the relationship. What ive done when ive seen this happen with friends of mine, say, look, lets talk about the relationship. Lets not make that personal, not talk about each of you. Youre both trying to do the right thing in your mind. What do you want to do as a relationship . Is what youre doing contributing to that relationship . That relationship is the third party in the room. How do you have that conversation and keep it away from the personal . In some ways you need to. I dont think youre working as hard as i am. Why did you get into this to begin with. Thats the question. You started this because there was a reason, a passion, an objective. Think back to what that was. Answer the question, how is what were doing now supportive of the original goals. Have our goals changed . If they have, maybe the partnership isnt right anymore. Maybe we rejigger is somehow. Or you jigger it. One of the things people dont want to hear, you cant keep track of whos contributing what but you have to define boundaries about whos responsible for what. Dont overstep those boundaries. If your partner is making a decision, let them make it. If its a mistake, soon enough youll realize that and you pick up the paces and move forward. Do you think its important, going into the conversation thinking were both doing something that we think is right. Right . Its not absolutely. Im not better than you, youre not better than me. Maybe you are contributing less and not being honest with yourself but lets get that out of the way where im not accusing you. The thing is, in every effective partnership, its clear who makes the final decision, the final responsibility. I dont advocate 50 50 partnerships, do it 60 40. 55 45. That takes the pressure off of both of you. Youre both giving 100 to that business. Thats the perfect partnership. When the ship is sinking, someone has to do something. Someone has to do the decision to make a final decision. Come to an agreement on that and the Partnership Works smoother. Great advice. Thank you so much. Youre welcome. Thank you. As any trip to the laundromat will prove, men have to wash their clothes too, todays elevator pitcher is one of them. But he got tired of detergent products that he says are marketed to women. Hes come up with his own line geared towards men. Brian is founder and ceo of o2e brands and founder of 1800gotjunk. Im mike eaton, the founder and ceo of hero clean. Was in the Grocery Store buying cleaning products and find the least offensive smelling one. Why arent there cleaning products for guys . Nobody seemed willing to make it. I decided to build it myself. The product line is a laundry deternlg en, dish soap, allpurpose spray cleaner and odor eliminating spray. It features heavy duty formulations as well as a fresh, clean scent. Were u. S. Made and donate a percentage of our sales to veterans causes. We launched at target in the fall. Were in discussions with a number of national as well as regional retailers for fall and spring shipments. Our first year sales are probably going to come in around 400,000. Were looking for a 500,000 investment for 15 equity in the company to be used for key staffing as well as inventory. Nice job. Congratulations on all your success. Target being the first place. Yes, that was a lucky im sure its not all luck. I need two numbers. The first one from one to ten, what did you think of the product and the second one, one to ten, what do you think of the pitch . Product and pitch. You quit your job because of this . I did. I was moonlighting for a year and a half or so and then decided we got target. I was like, its time to do this full time. Brian looks like hes ready. I just changed my number. Go for it. I thought the product was a 9. I get to actually smell the product in the green room. It smells like juniper, its like gin. For a guy, pretty great stuff. For guys that want to do cleaning want to feel leak a hero. Huge market. Your pitch was awesome, great energy, great story telling in a short period of time. Fantastic. Melinda . Sorry, im busy smelling this. Dont drunk it. Im going to give you a resounding 10 for your product line. We havent seen a 10 here in a long time. Im going to give you a 10. I think the fact that men understand that their responsibility for cleaning and washing laundry, too, im all for it. Im only going to give you a 6 for the pitch. The pitch itself was great. You did a wonderful job explaining your product. Because your revenues are projected for the first year at 400,000 and youre asking for 500,000 and only offering 15 of equity, i think thats an unrealistic expectation. When you ask for 500,000 or more, you better be looking at 50 to 51 of your equity going to your investor. Even if you had been in business for two years, you could only get 10 of your Gross Revenue from a bank in a line of credit. Youre asking for a lot of money. If someone is going to uponny up for you, they will take a significant, probably controlling interest in your business. Very fair. Great advice. To get a 10 and a 9, always good. Always easier to fix t pitch than the product. Congratulations. Good luck. Thanks for having me on. If any of you have a product or service and you want feedback from aur elevator pitch panel on your chances of getting interested investors, please send us an email, yourbusiness msnbc. Com. In that email include a short summary of what your company does, how much money youre trying to raise and what youre going to do with that money. We look forward to reading all of those pitches and seeing some of you here in the elevator. Still to come, we answer your questions on how to determine your businesss valuation and melinda and brian return to talk about the business process and your vision. Will your business be ready when growth presents itself . Our new cocktail bitters were doing well, but after one tradeshow, we took off. All i could think about was our deadlines racing towards us. A loan would take too long. We needed money, now. My amex card helped me buy the ingredients to fill the orders. Opportunities dont wait around, so you have to be ready for them. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. Small business, single proprietor in an industry that is really starting to expand. So now theres interest from larger companies. How do i determine my valuation . Well, theres a number of ways to valuation. What i did, i went to some of my competitors and asked them what they thought their businesses were worth. The second thing is, that there might have been prior sales and you can get an idea from that. The important part is you want to get as much money as possible. If youre thinking of selling your business. We now have the top two tips you need to know to help your Small Business grow. Brian and melinda are back with you once again. So good to have you back. Its been too long. Thanks for having me, jj. One tip. I want you to make your business process dependent and not people dependent. When youre Walking Around with how your business runs in your head, its not written down, you cant hire anyone effectively to help you run your business. Its so true. You need to understand how someone else can stop into that job if someone leaves. As business owners, we carry so much information in our heads. If we dont write it down, nobody else will be able to effectively deliver the way we want them to. Brian, how many years . 27 years. A very successful company. We had you on as a pro. Now we are lucky to get to ask you a tip. My top tip would be have a vision. I call i a painted picture, a one sheet descriptive vision of what your future looks like. Whats the alice in wonderland quote . If you dont know where youre going, any road will take you there. You have to Document Systems with be take the vision from your head, put it in writing and share it with all your people, figure out if your people see what you see. Ive had conversation in so many Small Businesses where the founder or the ceo thought everyone understood the vision and was shocked at how when you go around the room and say where are we going, they get ten different answers. Youve got to be on the same page, literally. Take that page, write out a panted picture and tell people where it is you see them going. Dont tell them how to get there. Say this is where were going and i need you as a team to help me figure out how to get there. And repeat it over and over and over. Make even the interns read it. Make sure everybody in your Company Knows where youre going. Its very important. We make new recruits, people going through the interview process read our paintsed picture and see if its a place they want to work. Very important. Youre not just interviewing people. Theyre interviewing you you as well. Absolutely. I talk about this previously but ive had these situations where ive heard that you have someone whos doing a job and their manager thinks theyre doing a terrible job. When you dig in a little more, its because theyre trying to reach a different goal than the manager thinks theyre reaching. All the time. Its all about not having this painted picture, the same vision. Even at a tactical level, letting people know what you expect that quarter, heres the top three things and agree on them. Absolutely. Make sure youre aligned and discuss the mini vision an how it relates to the big picture. That goes back to having an effective job description. If the job has changed, change the job description. Sometimes people outgrow jobs, you outgrow some of your staff. Thank you so much to both of you. We all wish we could cross out just a couple more things from our unending list of to dos. There are many online tools that promise to help you accomplish just that. Which of those actually worked . We asked viewers to share the ones they find most useful. One great website we use for Business Travel is sky scanner, it basically scans all of the Different Airlines and gives you the best price on the airlines. It doesnt take extra money off the top like some of the other travel apps often do. It gives accurate depicks of what the flights are looking like so we can place the best flight within our budge zblet on the application we use for sales is handshake. Handshake is an application for order taking at a show. You sync your ipad with your computer at home before the show. You get to the show, and your catalog and customer list is in your ipad. When youre taking an order from a customer, the customer tells you what they want, you click a button, a send button and the order goes to the customer. Its seamless and paperless. We use net sweep. It allows us to run a business from one portal. Our website, marketing efforts, accounting, financing, even inventory. This weeks your biz selfie comes from eric wisham from testen, george jj. Hes pointing to his baby, wis h ham gel liz. Send your photo to yourbusiness msnbc. Com or tweet it to msnbcyourbiz. Heres something i want to share with you from this week. When you think of the word hackathon, you think of programmers and engineers sitting at their computers. In my company we invite everyone, designers, customer service, anyone can submit a project. Heres something we came up with in our last hackathon. One of our teams created a funny birthday hat that we carry around and it goes on top of the chair whose birthday that is that day or week. This is great. It helps company culture. It got everyone involved. Think of the hackathon that gets peoples creative juices doing. They done the have to be solving a tech problem. They have to be helping move your Company Forward in whatever way they can. Its tons of fun. Wed love to hear from you. If you have questions 0 are comments about todays show, email us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Also go to openforum. Com your business. Please dont forget to connect with us on our digital and social media platforms as well. Next time, a trail blazing entrepreneur who turns the hobby of building backyard ponds into a big business gets a reality check. For the first 16 years of my business, i had double digit growth. Everything i touched turn to gold. I thought, hey, i got the midas touch. 2008 changed everything. Well learn how this company survived not only the recession but also family infighting and a building collapse. Until then, im jj ramberg and 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. Or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. Two decades. Hello and welcome. To msnbc. More than 175,000 hours of television. The Supreme Court decision is reversed. There were parents who suddenly were afraid to send their children to school. They were just trying to stop the economy from going into a depression. History in the making. Change has come to america. The goal was to make music available to everyone. This is a total victory for the