High everyone, im j. J. Ram sberg welcome to your business. The show dedicate today helping your growing business. What do you get when you combine a baseball game and a circus . You get the savannah bananas. An own erbreaking all the rules. Changing the game into a show that cannot be missed. Its a steamy thursday evening in savannah georgia. And that crazy guy in the yellow tuxedo is gearing up to entertain a soldout crowd of baseball fans. Were about the show. If im going to be on the field i need to look like a showman. I looked online found bright colored tuxedo. Com found the yellow one, now i have five of them. He didnt plan on sbefr taning, he planned on pitching in the major leagues. A shoulder injury ended that career. I took the internship is and had a lot of fun with it. At 23 i got offered the job of general manager in gas tone ya grizzlies. Thefrp one of the worst teams in the organization. They had no fans, the team was demoralized. I realized we have a serious problem here, what did i walk into . So i started trying to learn everything i could about baseball business but more about the entertainment business. I read every book i could and realized wow we cant be a Baseball Team anymore. He was most inspired by p. T. Bar numb, walt disney and bill vek. He decided the solution for the team was speeding up the game and making it more fun by providing nonstop entertainment. Baseball needs to change. If you look at all the top businesses theyre being disrupted every zba theyre being new and unique. Baseball has remained the same for over 100 years. It was a great game and it still is a great game, but it needs to change. Throughout the first few years we learned so much. But what happened is everyone started paying attention to the team and attendance skyrocketed. Then he and his new Business Partner and wife had an offer they couldnt refuse. The owner of the team wanted to sell. Everyone looked at me and said how do you buy Baseball Teams. You take on a lot of debt. It gave us this unbelievable feeling of ownership that we could do anything. The 2014, 2015, 2016, seasons were tremendously successful. Jesse and emily felt they had a formula to market baseball in a few way, and as luck would have it, they heard about an opportunity in the much bigger market of sa van nawhere the team sand gnats were leaving. What everyone was hearing in the public the team blamed the said yum, they needed a new ballpark. When they saw the beautiful historic stadium, they knew it would be the perfect home for starting a new team and resurrecting baseball in savannah. We want to bring life back to old things. We knew the potential was here. Savannah is an amazing city, yet you have this huge landmark thats empty. From that moment we were talking to the commissioner of the league and starting to get ideas and knew some day it could be something. The success they had in gas stone ya encouraged the commission to help them. Going to a minor league type atmosphere where people were hesitant about who we were and whether or not we would be successful. The support for the new team was lukewarm, at best. We put everything we had to start up the team. And for some reason the city didnt buy into us, it was like who are these guys, we dont understand this. And no one was buying tickets. There was no excitement or energy. We didnt have a name. So jessie put on his p. T. Barnumb had and remembered without anything happening nothing happened. We wanted to be something that people liked. They got thousands of responses but one stood out. We had one suggestions from this woman and it was the bananas. My wife and i talked to each other, looked at our president and said we can have fun with this. For the next couple weeks we started thinking about all the ideas but we also said the community could hate it. But we said we have to take chances. If its normal, do the opposite. Theres no team thats a bah na, no team named after fruit. So we went all in. Toby rice has been coming to baseball games since he was 4 years old. His response was echoed all over sa van na. I was not happy. I did not like it at first. I hated it. Channelling p. T. Barum again they pushed through the negative response clinging to the idea there is no such thing as bad pu police cli. Theyve done a tremendous job here. It was not without hurdles and nay sayers. So i comment them on not letting that tear them down. With the start of the season the community began to embrace the young team. Loving the fact that the ticket prices included food, giveaways and a show that rivals a threering circumstans. Theres interaction, life. You hear it when youre parking, getting out of the car walking in and you see it in the crowd. Everybody is having fun, the familyfriendly atmosphere being able to be cost affordable for a family of four to be able to escape reality for three hours or so and be able to come out and enjoy yourself without it hurting your wallet is fantastic. The job that they have done here really was what savannah needed. They got a fairy tail ending. They won the playoffs in their i nothing recall season. And they have a contingent of diehard fans now making it the hardest ticket to get in town. In massachusetts, a coach has a mission to help children with special needs thrive through playing sports like hockey, be baseball and lacrosse. If youre a kid in new england, you play hockey. 9yearold Patrick Sweeny is no different and that makes this one of the few cases thats the case. There was a point we didnt think skating would be possible. Patrick has autism but thanks to a new system, patrick is engaged. All ive done is found a way to communicate and sect with them. His system is smart light sports. Imagines projected onto the playing surface. Lets hit a puck in the net by having the light on the cue on the floor allows them to be in the right place at the right now. Liamo brian is liks lek sick, for him staying focus can be tough but at smart light he likes doing the work. Without the lights its really kind of harder but with the lights its easier. Joe didnt design it just for special needs kids. His system can help anyone, especially this tech savvy generation. Its something they can relate to quickly. They always come up and say, coach, whats the next drill. For patrick its as simple as chasing his favorite flamingos around the ice. This gives him the ability to break down some of the hockey skills. At the end of the lesson he has to be carried off the ice. Hes having so much fun playing hockey and reaching his goals. Its Lemonade Stand season which means its the perfect time of year to teach your kid the basics of running the business. As a mom of three kids, this year i took my lessons to a whole new level by writing a childrens book. They make sliming, bracelets and, of course, sell lemonade. Kids are turning their trade into cold hard cash across the country. But how many of them can tell you the difference between revenue and profit . Who knows what profit is . Like, like the thing you get like money. Or have really throughout through that pricing strategy. How many are you going to sell your bracelets for . 20. 20 . Those are very pricy. As an sberp neuro, and a mom of three, i realized this was a teaching moment too many parents are missing. So my sister and i wrote the startup club, an early reeder book to spark your child. We wanted to write something that could inspire kids when they start their own business. How many is the lemonade . 1. Studies show the earlier you teach Financial Literacy to kids, the better. If they had the startup club they could read this sbook learn about Financial Literacy and businesses and be comfortable when they do things on their own. So our characters do it all. From figuring out their finances to reworking their marketing to dealing with the competition. At the end of the book, kids should have learned how to start a basic business how to consider what is their cost going to be, what is their revenue going to be, how do i get a partner, make a sign. And if your Business Owner is ready to start their vennture, here are things to keep in mind. Go to the story together and have them pay in cash. This helps them understand the cost of supplies in a way they wont if you do it for them. Do the math in a way that your kids can understand. Explain their sign is their marketing to get them thinking creatively, ask them what store fronts they like in your neighborhood and why. And its never too early to teach Corporate Social Responsibility so work with them to choose a cause they care about where they can donate some of their profits. The more people know about you, the more customers you will potentially acquire so here are five ways to get the word out about your business. One, take your product to the streets. Do some research to find where your potential customers are and get to know when they may be there. Then enlist a team to get your products and offers into their heads. Two, get celebrities to use your product. It can seechl impossible to get to an a lister but its not. Ask the sales people at celebrity hot spots to cary your brand. Three, when it comes to social media, be strategic. Dont be cavalier about what you post. Tie your social updates to your marketing niche sfwif develop a plan to responding to your folers. Four have your taken by a professional. Youll be able to use your pictures on your Marketing Web site or materials written against you. It can be tempting to send out a press release before you launch, but dont do it. Its better to iron out the kicks before going to the news markets. Our next guest takes it to the next level bonnie st. John is the first African American to win metals in downhill skiing. Shes a leadership personnel and shes an author. Its so good to see you, bonnie. Thank you. Its great to be here. The reason youre here is because i saw you speak and i was so inspired by you that i called my team here and said book her. Shes fantastic. So im happy to share your wisdom with our audience. I have had my own company, too, for 20 years. I know. Lets talk about inclusion. Its one thing to get a diverse set of employees but inclusion is making sure they succeed. Most Big Companies thing of diversity and inclusion. So the inclusion is are they thriving . Are they coming to work and thinking they can make a contribution. Are they getting sponsors, mentors, promogs. Otherwise you have a mix of people but theyre not thriving. Theyre going to leave. So the companies have to think how do we not only have Diverse People but how do we capture their value. If youre a big company, you can have programs around this. For companies who are small and medium size, what are they doing wrong . What happens that makes that person want to leave or not thrive. Sometimes its informal relationships. We work with another multicultural women and sometimes they dont connect. If there are speed bumps in the road were not driving across them. So not building personal relationships and talking about holidays and what are you doing and getting closer to people so youre not mentoring and developing people. Its easier to gelt close to people who look like you and helping them thrive. Lets say im head of hr, ive done a fantastic job hiring a Diverse Group of people, what are the steps i need to take to make sure theyre a great environment for everyone. For Small Businesses i theres not the Hr Department so its important to bring in the right people. Why does a small and Medium Business do this . Its because of the markets you want to reach, too. You want to connect with different markets. One of the things thats come up, when you look at the patents given out in the u. S. , a huge portions are going out to southeast asians. So if youre selling b to b, can you build relationships in those communities. So im hiring, im going out and reaching out to different kinds of people, getting them in my team, what do i need to do in managing all these different people so i make sure they can succeed . Is really understanding how different people are hearing things as well is when you have a new strategy or a new plan, are you listening to the way the different kinds of people are hearing it. So are women hearing it the same way men are hearing it . Are they comfortable . Are they feel like they can grow and develop as well . How am i doing that . You want to be proactive but you dont want to single out different people for reasons that might make them feel uncomfortable. You do. You do want to be conscious. Some people think being colorblind or gender blind, i dont see thats a real virtue. What were realizing with inclusion is being conscious. One executive said, she said now i want to be color mindful. She said ive been mentoring women, but not women of color. So im more mindful of that, im going to Pay Attention to the differences. Im not going to think the differences dont exist. One thing you can do, think about the quiet people. If theyre more quiet in meetings, maybe you do want to approach them after and say, hey i didnt hear your ideas, can i hear more or before the meeting tell them im going to call on you about this subject so be prepared to say something. Because people can be quiet for Different Reasons it could be because theyre introverted. It could be theyre a woman from a sub serve culture. It could be theyre lgbt and they other covering it. So reaching out to the quiet people is a way to start reaching out and make sure everybody is contributing. Great to see you. Thanks so much for stopping by. Still to come, are you thinking of hiring an outside sales force well have advice on how to get started and our brain tell trust tells us the challenges they had to overcome when trying to form partnerships. So thats the idea. What do you think . Hate to play devils advocate but. I kind of feel like its a game changer. I wouldnt go that far. Are you there . Hes probably on mute. Yeah. Gary wont like it. Why . Because hes gary. phone ringing what . Keep going yeah. laughs voice on phone its not millennial enough. There are a lot of ways to say no. Thank you so much. Thank you so were doing it. Yes start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Let us help with money and knowhow, so you can get business done. American express open. Weve had real good luck with success in growth over the past ten years, but the struggle we have is what is the right time to hire an outside salesperson . Okay. So here is what i think you need to consider, one is the product ready to scale, so can you handle it if you start getting sales inbound from across the country. The second piece is do you have the back Office Support when you do start to hire salespeople, they will require assistance in the home office. You need to gut check those two things first. If you have taken it as far as you can as the founder of the company youve been the original salesperson and you know that its ready to spike, its time to hire your sales force. This is the brain trust, where i get to ask some of the smartest minds in business who are really going through challenges, who have overcome struggles some tricky questions about how they did it. Today in the brain trust we have tanya uki she is the founder and ceo of shareablee and jessica johnsoncope the president and principal at Johnson Security bureau. Good to see both of you. Hi. J. J. How are you doing . Immigrate. You both grew your companies through partnerships with bigger enterprises. I want to get the real story about how you get in there to a big company and sell your services when they dont know you. Im going to start with you, tanya. One of the biggest things up front is building any kind of credibility that you can latch on to and i think once you get in the door the thing to look out for is the flattery of working with that big Business Office encourages you to do stuff that are not good for your business, things like, for example, doing huge free pilots or anything where youve got to bend over backwards. I was laughing an saying i used to become a professional visitor, where you would meet, have a great meeting, they would go, great, we want you to meet this other team and you would show up and do the same thing. Being clear on what you want to do with that organization and trusting the value you bring early. I get that, it sounds good, im going to go in there and demand this, and this is the kind of partnership i want to have, but the reality is you are were, youre growing bigger, but a security bureau, you have the chance to get this big contract im sure you feel like i will do anything it takes to get that. You want to do whatever it takes, at the same time you have to make sure that the values of your company and that you have individually match the values of the other firms. Sometimes you have to walk away from opportunities regardless of how large they have and we have had to do that. Its stuff. You want to grow your business, you want to get that money and you want to work with a large enterprise, at the same time if they dont have the same values that you have its going to be very capital lengthing and you will hit your head up against the wall more often than being successful. Its understanding who is on the team, who you will be working with and getting introductions and referrals from other people in your network you can better identify whether or not you want to work with that works and whether or not their competitors might be a better fit. What were you going to say, tania . Youre right, i mean, you dont want to say yes to things you cant deliver, but, i mean, even now and were four and a half years out, we have over 250 clients, we bend over backwards, i will call personally, i will get on a plane and travel. You never ll know where a partnership is going to go and i think you do have to be really willing to be flexible and to really sort of bend and meet peoples needs. Where did you make mistakes in getting those first partnerships . Where did you make a mistake and thought i should have done this differently when i got that meeting . Initially we were approached by larger firms that wanted to leverage our certifications as a minority and womanowned business. It seemed like theyre coming to us, they must really want to work with us and appreciate what we bring to the table but that wasnt always the case. So its a hard lesson to learn that sometimes people want to use you and you want to make sure that you put yourself and your firm in a position where if you have to get used that its to your benefit and not to your detriment because sometimes they will eat you up and spit you out, thats just the realness of it. Interesting. One of the big mistakes weve made is there is this sparkle in the premise of the enterprise deal that folds in all the brands in a big company and you will often get encouraged to forego immediate revenue and immediate deal with one or two Innovative Brands because someone wants to, quote unquote, stitch together something larger for the enterprise that could take much longer. The reason that thats a bad idea and weve done it both ways and ive found that working with inn have a i testify partners early is much better, they are the brands that are going to succeed, it will spread naturally throughout the organization rather than it feeling like corporate is coming down and forcing a solution on people. You will get better adoption and better traction and you can move so much quicker. If you are in procurement before youve even built high excitement for your Company Inside a Large Company thats the place big deals go to die. Lets get actionable things. One, if someone is trying to make the deal bigger than what you think it needs to be to start, which is what i think youre saying here, just tell them, hey, i want to start with this. Yeah. Right . Start where you stand and grow from there. Number two, make sure that you understand that you guys can work together, dont be so starry eyed about the organization that youre going to work with. Correct. When you do find an organization that you work well with, use that to your advantage. We work with one Sports Organization here in new york city and they always say to us, what business have you gotten as a result of doing business with us . I mean, they so appreciate what we do and weve made it work for them that they wanted they want us to make it work for their other friends as well. Leverage your contacts to get more people. And then number three is dont be forced into a feel like youre force nood giving deals that you wouldnt give otherwise just because. You said dont give things for free necessarily, though sometimes you have to. You know, we really try to do not enough of it because the reality is when you have a Midsized Company you cant resource to service a huge enterprise if they dont have any skin in the game. You will find what happens when you do a free pilot is you are always on the phone trying to get someones attention because no one has had to get budget for it or get something approved. Youre out there going, excuse me, how is the pilot going, we really want to come in and its hard to get peoples attention. Thank you so much. It was great advice. Congratulations because i know both of you have made really successful deals with Big Enterprises from early on. Its great to be able to pick your brains. So the number one thing that helped us go in the last ten years from under a million to 30 million last year is mindset. Is really believing and seeing the future that you want to get to. I think for me its been strategic partnerships. The minute i reach out beyond myself and, you know, partner with Larger Companies and retailers, thats kind of the moment that my business really started to take off. As a Small Business and we sold internationally within the first two weeks when there were just two of us. So use those resources. Go to your incubators, your ptoc, sba, get on the Government Contracting sites. Everybody will help you do that for free and their only goal is your success, but you have to go take advantage of those resources. This weeks your biz selfie comes from ed oconnor the owner of drum flip in vista, california. He sells, you guess it had from that picture, drum sets. He also offers lessons, holds swap meets where drummers can sell their instruments and host the occasional jam session. Dont miss a beat and pick up your smart phone, take a selfie of you and your business and send it to yourbusiness msnbc. Com or tweet it to msnbcyourbiz. Dont forget to include your name, the name of the business and location and use t the yourbizselfie. Thank you for joining us. We love hearing from you. If you have any questions or comments or just want to say hi, email us at yourbusiness msnbc. Com. Please go over to our website its openforum. Com yourbusiness. We put up all of the segments from todays show plus a whole lot more we put together for you. Dont forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. We look forward to seeing you next time. Until then im j. J. Ramberg, and remember, we make your business our business. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye let us help with money and knowhow, remember, we make your business American Express open. Good morning and welcome to politics nation. Lots to talk about this morning on the state of our civil rights under President Trump as were just three weeks away from our march for justice in washington, d. C. Marking the 54th anniversary of dr. Martin luther kings i have a dream speech. This week the Trump Administration has taken more steps against immigration, affirmative action and police accountabi