Hi there everyone. Welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your Small Business grow. We have met some exuberant entrep na entre entrepreneu entrepreneurs. It is filled with drama and excess, Great Success and failure and then rebirth not to mention family fighting and reconciliation. The zigzag roller coaster ride is nothing short of epic. That crazy guy up there on the forklift is greg whitstock, the founder and ceo of aqua skap. This is called aqualand. It got its start 25 years ago. It is the kick off to a new season of water gardening and pond building. It is built and popularized why whitstock itself. A few years ago the business suffered a body blow that could have easily been the end. It could pull a Team Together or a team apart. It pulled our Team Together. I never looked at anybody back then. Without them i wouldnt have done it. It started at just 12 years old when he built his first pond in the backyard with his dad. Even my prize turtles my glatgla grated away. I would getting my own water systems. Innovating along the way and figuring out how to make the maintenance of a pond relatively simple. I thought there has to be a business here. I came up with the idea of bidding peoples pond. I remember telling people all i needed was a strong back, wheel barrel and a shovel and i could be in business. He went into business that summer. As a 21yearold kid i built 5 ponds and 11,000 in profit. The Second Season i had done five my first year and 12 my second and august 2nd of 1992 when chicago tremendoibune did article on me and my business went through the roof. My fun summertime gig became my career before i graduated college. It was catapulted with greg ramping up quickly to serve the tidal wave of new customers. I got my first patent and started to distribute them to other landscapers. Thats when the business really took off, when i was selling to other landscapers. Gregs dad, gary, was a big spo supporter. He is a conserve tifr 50 somethingyearold at the time and im a wild 20yearold entrepreneur. I was the gas pedal and he was the brake. I lost a lot of people. My father had a very different philosophy. He wanted a schematic plan. Either Business Needs both skill sets. It was a conflict that couldnt be resolved. It left lade to years of es strangement. He became my first competitor and said he was going to show me the way it should be done. It drove him to work harder. I wanted to prove to myself that we could do it and we did. Reporter it was enormously successf successful. It was the type of luxury people built. That easy money, the company sprawling 250,000 square food headquarterers. For the first 15 years everything i couched turned to gold. Then the company lost 12 million in just one year and they were forced to lay off nearly half of the plays. When everything went to held in a hand basket so di did aquaskadid aquaska did aquascape. She witnessed the friendly acquisition of pond sweep. She also witnessed the decline that hit the company bike a ton of s. 2006 was our first year. 2007 we saw the whi as they were limping along trying to survive another day the unthinkable happened. When the economy ldg collapse. When i saw the entiring i just the bisz si sbringedder everything i touched wrm. I learned way more lessons from the downside to the upside. It was collapsing under the weight of the. And just like the conflict with his father, the challenge of rebuilding for his remaining employees. This picture says it all. Live is 10 . We were standing on the edge of the photo team because those are the people i was sleeting the charge to rebuild this business. We made this Company Stronger than it was even though sales werent where they were. This was a stronger company. I dont know if we would have been able to do that if we didnt face the adversity that we faced. If you have been in las vegas you have probably seen the amazing phone town at the belagio. We learned that that the way their do it. Drive by the belagio and you cannot help but stop and stare. After working on open cot center water install police stations park fuller took that ntdened the oath earn feature their first was for Fountain Place in dallas, texas. The phone started ringing people saying who did that and we are building a Shopping Center could you do that for us . To them the days of simple statues are long over. It creates interactive worksover ard. The show at the Shopping Mall in california is one example of their innovative work. What does it mean . It means doing something new. To do something new you have to practice something you havent done before. Invasion equals learning. We work at creative. And every no matter if youre starting as a receptionist you rotate through every stage of twap many. It helps them understand the people and break down walls that some struggle with. I think i can pat others on the back and say we have on live rated. Are the song rest. If he gets the tons. It doesnt add at a impression program. Or taking a line on graphic design. This is all part of well you, a constantly classes of within. And teem it is 100 of the smafrtest people locked together. First of all it takes time away from meeting the constant substantiate it helped colliuate a culture where people are always looking for the rest of doing this. When we hire young people a large amount are gifted in doing things on the computer. Once you go to drawing by hand if you think the right thing to do is a computer illustration thats great but you do it it is nak, youre short chaking showers. It provides Clear Channels across the expects. Mark says the biggest on versatility is internal. The client benefits the most with delivering what each customer wants, a one of a kind experience for every visitor. Our opportunity is to give them innovative work as rapidly as possible. Anything and everything we can infuse to exhilarate that process is immediate pay back to the client. Thats what we are doing. Economists continue to gep an eye on theful the vote th has rocked global markets. Mi americans Small Business owners may fill the impact. Jonathan todd has wraarned of a possible drop off. We have university of professor and author of the book global vision, how companies can overcome the pitfalls of organization. Thanks for having me thank you. So i look at this of Small Companies that have global aspirations. For company i think it will make it much more complicated. Expanding overseas to europe most want to use for the european continue nanent. They have to have business in the u. K. And on the continent to do business continue th continent. And we wont know what time actually. So frg we dont ma and achecking accountly tart. So they wont know. Yes. That i are in limbo right now. Where do you think we fall on that scale . A lot of uncertainly has been brought there the brexit decision. You have seen a flight to safety among global capital. You have seen selloff of the pound. That is actually going to be good for u. S. Based Small Businesses. They will have lower cost of borrowing. If you combine that with Consumer Confidence and nonmanufacturing, those things together could create a very favor what about the uncertainty in the Global Committee . Right. It is difficult. It could be hard for a company to mover overseas because you have a lot with movement of labor. If youre going look at a focus of a u. S. Based maul baz it could be a good y nothing to h europe . You probably wont notice much of a difference or impact from berexit. Lets remember why Interest Rates are low. Interest rates are low because the economy is weak. It is hard for Small Businesses to grow. The second thing is that with this flight to safety the u. S. Dollar increased in value throughout currencies across the world. It makes goods more expensive for four buyers. For in the committee there wont be much of an we fkt unless theres a recession in the european continent and spills over to the u. S. Economy. So thats the worry people should be thinking about. Yes its better for a. I can provide a tail wind to u. S. Economic growth. And if you were a Small Business watching this, what would you be watching out for . We talk about spillover effects. They could be recession nar effects. So if youre a small taen company youll have aheart hard time. Lets keeping them from moving to new york where they will have a much bigger pool to work from. I would say see how jobs are going. See if demand is increasing. Be extra vigilant and aware. All right. Thank you both so much for shining light on this. Thank you. Thank you. Have you ever been watching tv and found yourself coveting an outflets see if our judges to buy. We have costar, quit your day job and organization of community co. Will i am the founder of founder and ceo tagget. Have you ever found yourself thinking wow, where i can get that dress or perhaps that clunch that is a cell phone, tablet and laptop where they are engaging in social to sell product to the millions of tv, loyal tv viewers. So tag it is now raising 250,000 from investors like you to help propel the momentum and growth that we have been experiencing. With your help we want to grow our operations and continue to build our platform so that we can license it to retailers and tv networks. So the next time that youre watching tv, if you remember anything today, that if you watch it, and you want it, all you have to do is tag it. Nice job. Nice tag line at the end. Thank you so much. I need two numbers from 1 to 10 and the first is the product and the second is the pitch. This is 3 years ago in october. 3 years when we published our app. Do you publish the number of users. No, we do not but it is investor privileged information. Got it. Good tie in. Im on television. That is confidential. Lets start with you. I did 8 and 8. Loved the pitch. Love you personally. Great energy. Things that would have made it a 10, how do you get users . I get the idea that this is a big market but how do you attack it, download the app, know to use it. And secondly whats the revenue model . How are you making money so i know how im making my money back. Thats why i gave you the 8 and 8. Lauren. So 8 and 8. Across the board. Great minds think alike here, anna. So i was really impressed with you. Youre polished, youre poised. Youre articulate about the business but you didnt tell us enough about the business but i know its hard to do in one minute but we dont know how the Technology Works and there must be some user friendly way even if its information to explain to us how does the technology work. And so i dont feel like we knew enough information if we knew nothing about the industry. Great. 8 across the boards. Nice jobs. Congratulations. Three years in, must be doing okay. Absolutely. Good luck going forward. Thank you for your advice. Its really great. Good luck. Any of you out there having product or service and you want feedback on your chances of getting interested investors please send us an email. The address is your business at msnbc. Com. In that email include a summary of what your company does and how much money youre trying to raise and what you want to do with that money. Somebody out there watching the show may be interested in helping you. Still to come, what to consider when adding manpower to your business. Plus analyzing your brand and building a community. 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. As you get larger as an organization how do you think about adding that managerial level that you need in order to actually take a business like ours to the next level . So, you have to realize that, first of all, going to the managerial level requires a different level of expertise. The biggest thing is they give them the higher title but theyre not prepared for it. So hire managers. Often look outside of your business to find these people and youre not looking for people with theal len to do the work. Youre looking for people with theal lenl the talents to work on the business and manage the work. You yourself may not be a manager. Certain entrepreneurs get their business to a certain level and try to convert over to a Managerial Position and hurt their business. So even consider yourself. Maybe you shouldnt be the manager. We have the top two tips you need to know to help your Small Business grow. Scott and lauren are back with us again. Scott, lets start with you. So community, every brand needs to build a community right now and theres a really important reason why. Sit the next generation of customer service. Right now brand versus to invest in things that they can own, control but at the same time be able to listen and let go a little bit and a community allows you to do many of those things. Connecting like minded people around your core brand philosophy. Things that matter to you. Where can you own the conversation and where can you be part of the conversation and leave the conversation and how do you extract value to your own community . And theres a lot of byproduct that comes out of that. Content marketing. The ability to strike content that can be used for other things. Transition your customers into a closed community and youll win. Lauren, youre up. I think its important that entrepreneurs are managing their own brands as much as theyre managing the brand of their company and its interesting to see now entrepreneurs that hunker down so much in building their business and their business goes on to have its own brand and its own reputation but then the person who is powering this company. The cofounder, the ceo, the president doesnt have their own brand consistent with that of the company so a lot to scotts point is not just around Building Community but also around building your voice because in this day and age, you are marketing your business. You are your best advocate for the company that youre building so make sure that whatever it is youre doing in social media, linkedin and your snapchat and any articles that youre writing whether they be User Generated Content for personal purposes or legitment content on behalf of the company that residenthat ise with the brand. What do you say to a founder that doesnt want to be out there. My product speaks for myself and it doesnt need to be about me. Im not outgoing, im not particularly i dont like being on tv, what do you say to someone like that. I say one of two things. Tell me how youre going to win then, because this is the game these days. You have to be the voice of your own product of your own service, of your own company. You have to believe it in enough if youre willing to be at the forefront of it if you want other peel not just to buy into your service but especially if you want to attract the best talent. If youre not willing to be at the forefront of your business how can you expect that someone else wants to go in front of this brand that youre creating. So i say tell me how youre going to win then because ill curious but i also say theres a slight chance that you can perhaps tackle that problem with the right press team around you and with maybe having a company evangelist that does that for you depending on what the product and service is. That plays into the community situation. If you can get a core group of influencers around you and be meaningful to them, the ultimate impact will come back in spades in the way they represen your brand and want to talk about it and bring their friends into the fold. So they become your evangelist. All right. Great. Thank you so much. This selfie comes from dana wright. He owns and operates two shine stands at several hotels in annapohis, maryland. Now get your cell phone and take a picture of you and your business and send it to us at msnbc. Com so we can feature it on the show and tweet it. Use the your business selfie. Wed love to hear from you. If you have questions or comments about the show, email us at your business msnbc. Com or head to our website, open forum. Com your business. We also posted all the segments from todays show. Please dont forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. Until next time, remember, we make your business our business. Will your business be ready when growth presents itself . American express open cards can help you take on a new job, 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. If you look at one of the big reasons that i chose mike and one of the reasons is party unity. I have to be honest. Never trump, never trump. They got crushed. Boy was that something. Did we show them something. I dominated with the evangelicals. A lot of people were surprised. I had so many great leaders up in my office. Religions voice has been taken away and were going to change that. Back to mike pence. I accept your invitation t